A Cool Head in Hell: The Wartime Diaries of a British Doctor from Dunkirk to the Burma Railway - Hardcover
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of Singapore; they arrived just before the island fell to Japanese forces in 1942. Harry spent the rest of the war in the notorious Changi POW camp and upcountry at Hellfire Pass, where he tended to the wounded and dying men who were forced to labour on the Burma Railway.Throughout, Harry kept diaries - highly secret, illegal, and dangerous for a POW. He managed to write a detailed account of his harrowing experiences in the camps when he himself was weakened and exhausted, caring as best he could for hundreds of desperately ill men. Articulate, graphic, compassionate, and lit with good humour, this is Harry's war in his own words. His diaries, arguably one of the most comprehensive surviving contemporaneous accounts of this period of World War Two, have been edited with great care and illuminating commentary by his daughter, Jacqueline Passman.
A Cool Head in Hell: The Wartime Diaries of a British Doctor from Dunkirk to the Burma Railway - Hardcover
$21.95
Sale price
$21.95
Regular price
by Harry Silman (Author), Jacqueline Passman (Editor)
Harry Silman joined the British army in 1939. As a medicalofficer under bombardment on the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940, he was one of the last soldiers to be shipped out during the mass retreat.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, his division was assigned to assist in the defenceof Singapore; they arrived just before the island fell to Japanese forces in 1942. Harry spent the rest of the war in the notorious Changi POW camp and upcountry at Hellfire Pass, where he tended to the wounded and dying men who were forced to labour on the Burma Railway.Throughout, Harry kept diaries - highly secret, illegal, and dangerous for a POW. He managed to write a detailed account of his harrowing experiences in the camps when he himself was weakened and exhausted, caring as best he could for hundreds of desperately ill men. Articulate, graphic, compassionate, and lit with good humour, this is Harry's war in his own words. His diaries, arguably one of the most comprehensive surviving contemporaneous accounts of this period of World War Two, have been edited with great care and illuminating commentary by his daughter, Jacqueline Passman.
Author Biography
Jacqueline Passman taught in both mainstream and deaf education. She acted as an Independent Person in adjudication for children in care, and as an expert witness regarding deaf issues. The discovery of her father Harry Silman's wartime diary sparked her recent interest in the experiences of POWs in the Far East, and she gives regular illustrated talks on this subject.
Number of Pages: 208
Dimensions: 1 x 8.5 x 5.2 IN
Publication Date: April 21, 2026