In this recording, Wing Commander Clouston (presumably Wilfrid Greville Clouston) talks about his experiences of being a prisoner of war during World War II.
He talks about his time in the camp at Palembang, Sumatra, on the site of a big oil refinery. He spent three years in a working camp, where he was more able to look after the air force troops who were in captivity. He details how they sabotaged and looted equipment. The Japanese gave them radio equipment to repair and they removed valves and built radios to keep in touch with the war situation. They always got the BBC broadcasts.
He says the surrender was exciting. They had been building bunkers for the Japanese as they wanted to put the prisoners into them and eventually kill them, if Singapore fell. Fortunately the dropping of the atomic bomb meant events happened so fast this did not take place and a plane flown by a young New Zealander landed near the camp, which was the first of the invasion force they saw.