Recently the Royal Logistic Corps Museum came into possession of a United States Navy issued towel. Whilst at first glance this does not sound a particularly exciting object, its mundanity belies a fascinating and harrowing tale of a Royal Army Ordnance Corps soldier’s time as a Far East Prisoner of War, and the events which led to his eventual escape from captivity.

637212 Private Gordon H. Sizer RAOC (pictured in main image above) arrived in Singapore in late 1941. Serving as part of a Light Air Detachment (L.A.D.), he was present when the fortress colony surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. Becoming a Prisoner of War (POW), he and the rest of the L.A.D. found themselves put to work building the infamous Burma Railway. Working deep in the jungles of Thailand, conditions were horrific, with malaria, Beriberi, and dysentery plaguing the POWs, and during this time the L.A.D. lost three of its number, including their commander, Lt Edward Roebuck REME who is buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. In total more than 12,000 allied POW lives, along with 90,000 civilians, would be lost during the railway’s construction.

When at last the railway was completed, Sizer was sent to work in Japan, boarding a Japanese Hell Ship called the Hofoku Maru. Once onboard he volunteered as a stoker, a role that entitled him to breaks on the deck of the ship, unlike other POWs who were constantly kept in hellish conditions below.

This decision ultimately saved his life when on 21 September 1945 the Hofoku Maru, and the rest of its convoy, was attacked and sunk by US Naval Aircraft. Of the 1,289 British and Dutch POWs on board the ship only 242 would survive. This was a tragically common occurrence as the Japanese military made no effort to distinguish POW ships from other forms of merchant shipping, leading to many Hell Ships being sunk by allied forces, inadvertently killing thousands of their own.

On the outer deck at the time of the attack, Sizer and four other POWs were able to escape the sinking ship and evade the surviving Japanese guards. Swimming for 14 hours, they at last made land fall on Luzon, the main island of The Philippines. Here, local villagers rescued them, however one of the escapees sadly passed away shortly after reaching safety.

After two days regaining their strength, the villagers assisted them in fleeing into the mountains to evade their former Japanese captors. Here they joined something of a makeshift resistance unit under the command of an American colonel.

Eventually, word made it to US commanders that escaped allied POWs were in the area, and eventually Sizer and his surviving colleagues were rescued by a US Navy Motor Torpedo Boat. It was upon being brought aboard that he was given this simple US Navy Medical Department towel, a small piece of dignity and comfort after months of torture. After a period recuperating in military hospitals in Australia, Sizer and his comrades were returned to England, some of the first Far East POWs to be repatriated.

After Gordon Sizer’s eventual passing, his belongings, including his medals and the towel given to him by the Americans, were left to his daughter, Judith, who in turn decided to donate them to the RLC Museum so that her father’s story, along with those of his fellow Far East POWs, would not be forgotten.

Curator – Alex Crisp