A couple of cool and evocative finds here from a contact in Thailand. These are Thai 1940 dated railway spikes from the ruined railway line that ran over 415 km from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Ban Pong in Thailand. Many people know it only from it’s depiction in the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai” where it crosses the Mae Klong river. I visited the site and Hellfire Pass in 2014 and I cannot believe the misery under which the slave laborers, both civilian and Allied POW, must have worked and died. A digger over there walked sections of the rail line that were never reused after the war and retrieved these spikes.
Archive for Thailand
Burma Death Railway Spike
Posted in Odds & Ends with tags Australia, Burma, Empire of Japan, Fuck the Japanese, Netherlands, Thailand, United Kingdom on November 18, 2017 by The DudeJapanese Type-38 Infantry Rifle
Posted in Firearms with tags Arisaka, Empire of Japan, Rifles, Thailand, WW2 on January 12, 2014 by The DudeThis rifle is the standard Japanese infantry rifle issued from 1905 until the end of World War 2. It is chambered in 6.5 x 50 Arisaka calibre. This one has had a bit of a hard life with it’s stock being a bit beaten up from use but it still has its Imperial Chrysanthemum as well as its dust cover. The sling is also original and has kanji on it that would indicate it’s issue history if I could just find someone to translate it for me. The receiver has the concentric circle stamps over the chrysanthemum indicating that it was part of the shipment supplied to the Thailand government in 1940 as the Type 83 (แบบ ๘๓). I have the representative ammunition for this rifle here.