The Hard Way: Surviving Shamshuipo PoW Camp 1941-45

Major Vic Ebbage was a Colonel with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, serving in Hong Kong in 1941, when his garrison was attacked by the Japanese Army. He was captured and taken prisoner to the notorious Hong Kong death camp, Samshuipo, where he was held from 30th December 1941 to August 1945.

His story is an extraordinary one of survival against all the odds, but more than that it is a story of how a group of men worked together to improve conditions in the camp for their fellow prisoners. They were offered nothing by their captors, but their constant command of ‘improvise’, which they learned to do by recycling salvaged materials into everything from homemade nails, cooking pots and plates to surgical intruments, beds and nesting boxes. His diary demonstrates how individuals can work together in almost unimaginable adversity to improve life for their fellow man, and how imagination and innovation can flourish in even the worst conditions. This story is a model of care, humanity and inventiveness.

Andrew Robertshaw MA is a museum curator, military historian, author and broadcaster. He has written five books about aspects of military history. He is a subject matter expert for the army for whom he lectures, gives presentations at Staff College and runs battlefield studies. He has appeared as expert and presenter in a large number of television documentaries including The Trench Detectives, Time Team and Finding the Fallen. He is director of The Battlefield Partnerships and is working on a series of international media and archaeological projects - http://www.battlefieldpartnerships.co.uk.