The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey & The Bridge on the River Kwai

Alec Guinness won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the dogmatic, but brittle commanding officer in David Lean's film "The Bridge on the River Kwai". While a brilliant performance, it owed more to fiction than fact, as the man who actually commanded the POWs ordered to build the infamous bridges - there were in fact two: one wooden, one concrete - was cut from very different cloth. Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey was the senior officer among the 2,000-odd Allied servicemen incarcerated in Tamarkan prison camp, and as such, had to comply with the Japanese orders to help construct their Thailand-Burma railway. With malnutrition, disease and brutality, their constant companions, it was a near-impossible task for soldiers who had already endured terrible privations - and one, which they knew would be in the service of their enemy.*Yellowed pages*