Author(s): Fred Laslett

Military

The remarkable story of survival and the endurance of the Australian spirit in captivity during World War II. Fred Lasslett went down with the HMAS Perth off Indonesia, and was captured by the Japanese. He spent the remainder of the war in POW camps in Indonesia and Japan, but through it all, maintained a diary in the form of letters home to his 'elusive girl', written on cigarette paper and preserved to this day. Fred's diaries include amazing stories of escape and recapture, with him ultimately facing a Japanese firing squad and how he survived. These letters reveal a spirit unshaken in the face of long imprisonment, failed escape attempts and dreary conditions in the Japanese work camp.