Escape from the Japanese: The Amazing Tale of a PoWs Journey From Hong Kong to Freedom, by Ralph Burton Goodwin OBE RNZVR

Commander of the ML10 (Motor Launch), Second ML Flotilla.

This is a book that I took my sweet time with, a southern summer read turned into finishing around the start of autumn.

Lieutenant Commander Ralph Burton Goodwin, or better thought to me as great, great uncle Ralph had nothing but the will to escape, which was deemed rare for allied prisoners to attempt - there was next to little of a chance of coming into contact with anti-guerrilla or underground organisations and no possibility of Europeans blending in with the local Asian populations.

With failure, and recapture simply meant execution. This is what he faced when he decided to make a runner from camp after three years of internment.

An unimaginable journey through time, bunked up in Shamsuipo Camp under the surveillance of the Imperial Japanese Army - Ralph miraculously escaped in July of 1944.. swam to the mainland, and 11 days later he got clear of the Japanese lines and met friendly Chinese folk who would go ahead and escort him to Waichow.

No maps, no knowledge of the country or the language, L.C Godwin set out across enemy territory and a war-torn China.

Because of the colour of his skin he had to travel during the still of the night for most of what became a 870 mile embarkment to reach mainland British India.

Not many, if few of his fellow prisoners gave him a blink of a chance of success, yet, little more than three months later, he was being transported to the safety of Calcutta.

For this intense and directionless mission, Ralph was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, more commonly known as the OBE, and was commended by the Commander-in-Chief British Pacific Fleet for his service in the rescue and care of prisoners of war in 1945.

Myself, having been to Kong Kong and mainland China at the end of 2010 without realising the depths of this operation, it is absolutely insane to think Ralph made this journey in the 40’s with next to nothing on him.

Hong Kong, through China, across the top of Burma and Bangladesh, to Calcutta, down to Colombo - Sri Lanka, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and then home to Herne Bay, Auckland, where he lived a long and fruitful life till September - 1994, where Ralph passed at the beautiful age of 92.

Rest his beautiful and courageous soul.