The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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222744 Sgt. Godefridus Antonius Theodorus Govaars Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Infantry from:Bandoeng, Indonesia (d.21st Sep 1944) My children wanted to know our family WW2 wartime background. It was not till three years ago, at age 75, that I was able to address our wartime history, firstly my own three and half years in Japanese concentration camps on Java and my father's 2 and a half years in captivity in Java and Thailand. My father was taken prisoner in Java, following capitulation of the KNIL (Royal Netherlands Indies Forces). After three months in camp on Java, he was transported to camps on the Thai-Burma rail project. In June 1944 he was transferred to Changi and subsequently was marched to the water front to board the Hellship "Hofuku Maru" with other British and Dutch POWs. This ship headed for Borneo and then travelled to the Philippines. Some 50 POWs died enroute and the numbers were replenished with additional POWs to a total of 1287. The freighter experienced engine troubles, which forced the POWs to remain on board ship for two months under atrocious conditions. More POWs lost their lives and some 50 were sent ashore to the Bilibil Hospital. The number of POWs was increased again to 1282, prior to the ship's departure for Japan on 20 September 1944. The following day approximately 10.30 am, the Hofuku Maru was torpedoed by US aircrafts operating from carriers nearby. The freighter took three torpedoes and sank within minutes. Most POWs too weak to move went down with the ship, locked in the holds. My father, as a medic, perished with them. The Hofuku Maru was not emblazoned with the Red Cross, to indicate prisoners were on board. Some prisoners made it to shore, only to be rounded up and sent to Japan by the next convoy. Lex Govaars Add to this record.  Related Content: Changi Prison Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.