Darkness Before the Dawn - A Diary of a Changi P.O.W 1941-1945 (Paperback)

Along with 80,000 Allied troops, Jack Farrow fell into the hands of the Japanese at the fall of Singapore in February 1942. He had started his diary in October 1941 and continued to do so as his unit made its way by troopship to Singapore. Inexperienced and ill equipped, with scanty air cover, his unit fought the Japanese invasion of Malaya, retreating southwards to Singapore. After the surrender on 15th February Jack Farrow kept up his diary and maintained a collection of papers from his many months in captivity which was only to be compiled into a book after his death in 1992.The diary entries are cleverly illustrated with Farrow's 'souvenir' documents of the time, and against some of the entry dates are notes of the other wartime events that were occurring at the time, often unknown to the prisoners until weeks later. While monsoon rains wash out some of the prisoners' tents at Changi, you find that on the other side of the world the Normandy landings are taking place, producing an eerie sense of contrast and adding a strange poignancy to Farrow's account of P.O.W. life. Farrow's sharp observation, together with his phlegmatic toughness and dispassionate commentary, make this a fascinating account of the kind of experience that later generations have been spared. You will feel proud of Jack Farrow, and find it very difficult to put his book down.