Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW: My Life as a Teenage POW

Billy’s Story: My Life as a Teenage POW has been compiled from a personal chronicle penned by Billy Young throughout the 1970s, supplemented by hundreds of conversations that Lynette and Billy have shared in the course of their close friendship spanning more than two decades. It is the only first-hand published account by an ordinary soldier imprisoned by the Japanese at the infamous Sandakan POW Camp, and one of only three books by a survivor at the Kempeitai’s equally notorious Outram Road Gaol. Billy is now the only soldier left alive from Sandakan, and the only Australian prisoner still alive from Outram Road. Lynette Silver provides historical details gleaned from years of combing archival documents, and Billy gives his unique narrative immerse vibrancy and life as he takes the reader on a very personal journey. Through the eyes of a tearaway teenaged soldier, Billy shares his thoughts and experiences, some of which have never before been revealed – secrets that he has kept even from his closest family.

Table of Contents:
Prologue; In the Beginning: 19251941; Fending for Myself: 1934 July 1941; Youll Be Sorry: July November 1941; War Games: 8 December 1941 13 February 1942; Reluctant Guests of the Emperor: 13 February 7 July 1942; To Sandakan: 7 July November 1942; Camp Life: September 1942 February 1943; On Borrowed Time: 19 February Early April 1943; Out of the Frying Man : Mid-April 23 August 1943; And into the Fire: 23 August 1943 Early 1944; Riding a Receding Tide: Early 1944 Early 1945; Out of the Shadows: Early 1945 19 August 1945; Epilogue: Afterwards; The Australian Dead of Sandakan.

About the Author :
Keith William (Billy) Young was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1925. After joining the army in 1941 at the age of 15, he was sent to Malaya, only to become a prisoner of war when Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. One of the youngest Australians to be taken prisoner in WW2, Billy spent the remainder of his teenaged years at the notorious Sandakan Camp in Borneo, and the even more notorious Outram Road Gaol in Singapore, where he was imprisoned after an escape attempt. He was 19 when he was released from captivity. Now aged 90, Billy is the only soldier still alive who spent time in the Sandakan Camp, and the only surviving inmate of Outram Road Gaol. For many years Billy worked tirelessly to keep alive the story of Sandakan and the subsequent death marches, which took the lives of all but six of Sandakan's 2,500 POWs and, in 2004, was awarded an OAM in the Australia Day Honours for his efforts. Billy lives in quiet retirement in Sydney, where he spends his spare time indulging in his favourite hobby - painting. Some of the artwork depicting his wartime experiences has been used to illustrate Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW. Lynette Silver is a military historian, the author of a number of books on Australian history, including The Battle of Vinegar Hill, Fabulous Furphies, The Heroes of Rimau, Krait - the Fishing Boat that went to War, Sandakan - A Conspiracy of Silence, The Bridge at Parit Sulong, Blood Brothers, Deadly Secrets- The Singapore Raids 1942-45, a novel In The Mouth of the Tiger, Billy- My life as a teenage POW, At War with my Father: Fred Howe – Prisoner of war, Angels of Mercy: far west & far east. In 2003 Lynette received a Defence Forces Commendation and Medal from Special Operations Command Australia, for her work during the 60th Anniversary of Operation Jaywick, the first civilian ever to receive this prestigious award. In January 2004 she was awarded an OAM in the Australia Day Honours for her services to veterans and their families for her work on Sandakan. The Sabah Government recognised her research work and her contribution to Sabah’s war history with a Minister’s Special Award, an honour rarely conferred on a foreigner, which was presented to her in November 2009 by Datuk Masidi Manjun, Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Environment. In the Australia Day Honours 2019, in recognition of her on-going historical research since 2003, her efforts to keep alive the memory of thousands of POWs and her philanthropic projects to make life better for the people of Sabah, the Australian government upgraded Lynette’s OAM to a Member of the Order of Australia or AM, which takes precedence over both the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Member of the British Empire (MBE), under the previous Imperial system. The years of honorary work by her husband Neil, who takes care of all administrative and logistical matters connected with the various projects initiated by the Silvers, was also recognised with the receipt of a Medal of the Order of Australia or OAM, which takes precedence over the British Empire Medal or BEM, under the Imperial honours system. In October 2022, Lynette was made Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), an appointment made by Her Late Majesty The Queen, shortly before her death the previous month, in recognition of Lynette’s services to British personnel who died in WW2 and their families. Apart from being reported in various radio and TV news items, Lynette’s research work has been featured in scores of newspaper articles and journals, and she has been interviewed for the electronic media many times. She has also played a pivotal role as consultant on history programs and appeared on numerous current affairs’ programs and in TV documentaries. Website: lynettesilver.com