HELLFIRE PASS ครูจันทนา คำอนุกูล

The Konyu Cutting (Hellfire Pass) was one part of the Death Railway during World War II. It is 73 meters long and 25 meters high rock cutting done by hand from Australian and British POWs. They started in April 1943 and finished the cutting 3 months later.

The POWs were forced to work up to 18 hours a day to complete excavation of the 17 meters deep and 110 meters long cutting through solid limestone and quartz rock in only 12 weeks.

A few machines were available to help. Earth and rock were broken by shovels, picks and chuckles (hoes), and carried away in baskets or sacks.

Embankments of stone and earth were heaped up by human endeavor. Cuttings were driven through rock by hand; metal taps and sledgehammers being used to drill holes for explosives. They were forced to work at night; in July 1943 the cutting was completed.

Konyu Cutting was nickname “Hellfire Pass” because of the mixture of hammering noise, lighting from fires, oil fired bamboo torches and carbide lamps that created an eerie illumination that looked like the “Fires from Hell”. Konyu Cutting was nickname “Hellfire Pass” because of the mixture of hammering noise, lighting from fires, oil fired bamboo torches and carbide lamps that created an eerie illumination that looked like the “Fires from Hell”.

At least 63 men were beaten to death during the construction of the pass and many more died from starvation, dysentery and cholera. More than 70% of the POWs died while the construction of the Death Railway.