I have recently visited part of the railway and have become very interested in the history. This was a very heartwarming story and it has been an honour to read.

I was given a free copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

The Death Railway is an accurate account of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kappe. He experienced the atrocities of the PsOW that the Japanese forced to build a railway through Western Thailand to Myanmar.

The terrain of this area was rugged, the temperature was hot, and the treatment of these men was abysmal. What these prisoners underwent was horrific and unimaginable.

I had the luxury of being able to ride on the Death Railway in Thailand and visit Kanchanaburi, where a lot of museums and history surround this railway. I think this book would have been more brutal to understand without supplementing what I was reading with what I was experiencing in the museums and my surroundings.

If you are interested in WWII history that is more obscure and less talked about, this is a great book to read! It was very educational but also truthfully graphic.

An interesting read on the horrifying treatment of POWs forced to work on the railroad in Burma in WW2. The story was good, but I also found the constant use of statistics on the number I’ll, etc, to detract from the story. What they had to endure and survived was inspirational, but I felt the narrative could have done better to tell the story, then just reciting numbers.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lt Col Charles Kappe was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) at Singapore in 1942. He an all of the men from both the Australian and British services were then transported to Northern Malaya. They were split into different groups that were taken into Burma to help build infrastructure (like the Bridge over the River Kwai) of roads and railways.

This book was produced from Kappe's notes about his time of captivity in 1942, that were never published. there are very detailed notes as to how the prisoners were mistreated, and how they received starvation rations and little or no medical care. Most prisoner's clothing and shoes eventually deteriorated so that they were mostly naked. During their time in Burma, over 60% of the British and 40% of the Australian troops died.

Though it's sometimes like reading an accounting ledger, it's very detailed as to the failings and the sadism of the IJA.