Escape from Siam

Postscript 1:
Vermont Christmas Re-Union

by Warrant Officer J. “Ramsay” Roe, (Ret’d)

In December 1993 my wife and I spent a holiday in the United States. We stayed for three days at the Holiday Inn, in White River Junction in Vermont. The hotel had arranged a full programme of outings, movies and other forms of entertainment for our amusement.

While studying the program for Christmas Day and deciding what we would do, we noticed that there would be a video presentation under the title “Glimpses of the Christmas Season in a Vermont Village” to be narrated by Chubb Condict. It then said if there were any Burma veterans staying in the hotel, Mr. Condict would enjoy meeting them. So we decided to go.

We arrived shortly before the show so that I could have a few words. We chatted about what had been happening in Burma and he was interested that I had been at Jessore when a Liberator had made a crash landing after being attacked by Japanese fighters. When I told him that I had been a member of the crew, he became very excited. Chubb Condict had been an OSS Officer attached to the 15th Indian (British) Corps during the final Burma Campaign. I think he said his mother was Burmese or part Burmese and he spent a lot of time in Burma prior to the war and spoke the language fluently.

Anyway he told us that it had been he who had organised Harry Smith and the OSS agents escape although he hadn’t actually participated in it. He knew all about it and what had happened to Harry afterwards. I think the meeting really made Chubb Condict’s Christmas that year. He was so thrilled that when the rest of the audience came in, he introduced me to them and told them all about the incidents.

It was some time before the video got underway. I still marvel at the remarkable coincidence that one of three remaining survivors of that crash should be at the same hotel out of all in the United States at the same time as one of the men engaged in the underground operations.

Escape from Siam RAF 358 Squadron, Burma 1945

More Siam 1945

RAF Memoirs of SE Asia: 358 Squadron Special Ops and P.O.W by William A. Pugh

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