Tigers in Captivity records the events and movements of the men of the 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment during the Malaya Campaign of WWII and the subsequent 3½ years of captivity under the Japanese which followed the fall of Singapore in February 1942.
The book starts with the Battalion’s move from India to Malaya in early 1941 and continues with the defensive actions and withdrawal, from Jitra in the north to Singapore in the south, over a 55-day period following the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941. It describes the early encounters with the enemy, the chaotic withdrawal from Jitra and the amalgamation with the 2nd East Surrey Regiment to form the British Battalion. The subsequent defensive actions of the British Battalion at Kampar, Batang Berjuntai, Batu Pahat and on Singapore Island are addressed, leading to the eventual surrender of Singapore, the so-called ‘Impregnable Fortress’. Those who are known to have escaped the island around this time are identified and, where known, their ultimate fate addressed.
Nearly 700 men of the 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment became prisoners of war and Tigers in Captivity goes on to describe the movements of the captives as slave labourers around the Far East – the work parties in Singapore, the transfer of men to Japan and other Far East Asian countries, and the exodus from Singapore to Thailand to build the infamous ‘Death Railway’ between Thailand and Burma. Malnutrition, illness and disease, hard labour, brutality and allied offensives all took their toll. Even after the railway was completed the horrors continued with further hard labour in Thailand and ‘hellship’ voyages to Japan which often came under allied attack.
In August 1945, Japan’s surrender finally brought WWII to an end. The book addresses the liberation and repatriation of these now ex-POWs and the post war situation in which they found themselves. Sadly, many men were never to return home. Every man who was killed in action, or who died as a prisoner of war, is remembered by name at the appropriate point in the text and specific information on the circumstances of his death and grave location is given.