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The Story of Billy Young is the true story of the suffering – and survival – of an underage prisoner-of-war during World War II. Bill Young, who is still alive, enlisted in the army in July 1941 aged only 15, though he said he was 19. He went to Singapore, was captured at the fall, and spent the rest of his teenage years in some of the most barbaric Japanese prisons.
From Changi he was sent to Sandakan in Borneo, from which he and a mate were lucky to escape before the infamous death marches. They were quickly caught, however, and Billy ended up in the notorious Outram Road prison in Singapore, where he spent much of the next two years in solitary confinement.
This is the story of how he survived that ordeal. Young Bill is an extraordinary testament to a young man’s remarkable courage in the face of some of the most horrific experiences of wartime. It is also the story of the tragic effects of war and its aftermath on the personal lives of those who fought.
Billy Young was a boy of 15 when he joined the AIF in 1941. He was an orphan – hungry, broke, with nowhere to sleep – and the army offered him a feed, a blanket and five shillings a day in his pocket. The trouble was, the army sent him off to Malaya where he became a POW when Singapore fell to the Japanese.
From Changi, ‘Billy the Kid’ went on to spend the rest of his teenage years in some of the most barbaric Japanese prisons: the notorious labour camp at Sandakan (from which he escaped), and solitary confinement in the horrific Outram Road prison. Billy survived by a combination of luck, larrikin humour and native cunning, learned as a market boy growing up in Sydney during the Depression. He has lasted into old age by virtue of his extraordinary spirit. In this powerful account of one of the youngest-ever prisoners of war, award-winning author Anthony Hill takes us into the hearts and minds of the POWs, who refused to ever wholly submit to their captors.
xv, 415 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm. First Edition. #060822 Includes bibliographical references (p. 407-408) and index.
Young, Bill, 1925- — Childhood and youth. | Australia. Army. Australian Imperial Force, 2nd (1939-1946) — Biography. | Sandakan (Concentration camp) — Biography. | World War, 1939-1945 — Prisoners and prisons, Japanese — Biography. | World War, 1939-1945 — Personal narratives, Australian. | World War, 1939-1945 — Australia — Participation, Juvenile. | Prisoners of war — Australia — Biography. | Soldiers — Australia — Biography. | Changi POW Camp (Changi, Singapore) — Biography | Outram Road (Singapore : Concentration camp) — Biography. | Australia — Biography. | Australian
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