Of the 8000 people who attempted to escape from the Japanese after Singapore had surrendered in February 1942, only one in four made it to safety. Of these latter, many in the services stayed on in India to fight again but most of the escape stories did not begin to emerge until the return of the Far East prisoners of war. For about ten days, and in some cases more, there was, over an area of some 400 square miles south of Singapore, a holocaust of individual tragedies. As well as telling the stories, this book describes the heroism of doctors, nurses, women and children, service personnel and civilians during the exodus.