http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/memorial-recalls-ambon-massacre/news-story/bf0ec0fae3aeab2ae5db8772ab1d3a22
Memorial recalls Ambon massacre Peter Hancock, PerthNow February 20, 2011 11:40pm AS modern Diggers face death in Afghanistan, a notorious World War II atrocity was recalled at a ceremony in Kings Park on the weekend. On Saturday morning, family and friends of 14 servicemen who died during the World Wars gathered at May Circle to dedicate memorial plaques to their lost loved ones, to be added to the 1350-odd memorial plaques that line King’s Park’s avenues as constant reminders of the human cost of warfare. After each plaque was presented to a family member by Highgate RSL chairman Norman Manners, the fallen serviceman’s life story – often painfully short – was read out. Each was tragic in its own way. For example there was the teenager who lied about his age to go to World War I and was then wounded in action twice, only to be sent back to the trenches, until he finally ran out of luck at the ripe old age of 18 years. Or the 40-year-old husband and father who had no sooner arrived at his post in Singapore than the island fell to the Japanese and he was taken away to be worked to death on the infamous Burma Railway. But the most poignant story – and the one that brought a lump to Highgate RSL secretary Ken Jones’s throat as he read it out – was that of 20-year-old World War II RAAF pilot Frank Meyer. Born on October 2, 1921, in South Guildford, Frank studied to be an engineer and enjoyed cycle racing and competition sailing. He also had a fascination for flying, becoming an expert at building rubber-band powered model aircraft. Frank was not quite 18 years old when war with Germany was declared, but on becoming eligible, he applied and was accepted into the Royal Australian Air Force as an Air Cadet on February 5, 1940, for pilot training and was commissioned as a pilot officer that June. He served as a staff pilot in various units in Victoria and WA until Japan entered the war, after which he was trained to fly Lockheed Hudson bombers and posted to 13 Squadron, as part of Gull Force, which was tasked to defend the tiny Indonesian island of Ambon, then part of the Dutch East Indies. Only 53km in length, Ambon’s sheltered deep-water harbour made it strategically important. At the same time its rugged jungle terrain made it a nightmare for the small Dutch garrison to defend, even when boosted by Gull Force. Despite constant air raids by Japanese bombers, Frank’s squadron provided air reconnaissance until January, 1942, when the aircraft which survived were evacuated shortly before the Japanese invasion began. As an armada of Japanese ships approached, Dutch authorities ordered the immediate destruction of all major installations on Ambon, including the airfield at Laha. Evacuation of Laha started on the evening of January 29. To allow for as many passengers as possible, the bombers were stripped of all unessential equipment and filled with just enough fuel for a one-way flight to Darwin – four and a half hours flying away. A survivor recalled: “We'd been told we could stay and fight with the Army, try to escape or surrender. I thought, ‘Blow that I'm not staying.’ I drew a map and prepared to sail the 600 odd miles to Darwin. I bought a small two-man native prahoe (fishing boat) for about fifteen pounds Australian. Late next day an officer told us to muster at the airfield in two groups. We were to be flown out that night. When we lined up at the Hudsons, we were told to get aboard just as we were, no gear of any sort was to be taken with us." The first two aircraft, which normally carried a crew of just four, took off with 23 and 25 men packed in like sardines all standing up. A third took off just after midnight with 17 aboard. The last machine had a fuel line break which was thought to be repairable. The rearguard party which was to destroy what was left of the place was to fly out in that machine, with Frank Meyer as one of the pilots. However, when the other planes had faded over the horizon, Frank and the rest of the rearguard discovered that their escape aircraft was in fact beyond repair. Left behind with Frank were Pilot Flight Lieutenant Bill White, Wing Commander Dallas Scott, and eight others, including a Corporal Eric Gaskin, who is believed to have swapped places on another plane with a younger man, saying that his life had been “a bit of a mess anyway”. On January 30, as Japanese aircraft pounded Ambon’s military facilities, Japanese soldiers, supported by tanks, landed on the island’s north and south coasts. The following day the Dutch garrison surrendered and Darwin received a last radio signal from Wing Commander Scott, saying: "All cyphers burned. Demolition completed. Japanese have reached Laha overland. Will call whenever possible." On February 2, the Japanese minesweeper W-9 struck a mine in the Bay of Ambon and sank. Although a mere side-note in the battle, this was to have awful consequences for Frank. A prearranged escape plan was set in motion by those left behind. They were to go by native boat to a small island off the coast of nearby Ceram, where an RAAF flying boat would rendezvous with them on February 12. However the main escape party, of which Frank was a part, was intercepted by a Japanese patrol vessel and taken prisoner. A couple of small groups made their way to Ceram, eventually sailing to the Arnhem Land coast. Now captives, Frank’s party were taken back to the airfield at Laha, where they were taken out one by one and beheaded on or around February 6. They were not the only ones. An exhumation of mass graves in Ambon after the war revealed that the Japanese summarily executed about 250 prisoners immediately after the occupation. Their remains were interred in the War Cemetery at Ambon. After the war, Japan blamed the executions on the practical difficulties of holding prisoners when Japanese troops were needed for other duties, and the problem controlling the Australians, who supposedly proved uncooperative and inclined to try to escape. In reality the massacre was largely carried out as revenge for Japanese servicemen killed on the minesweeper which sank on February 2. In 1946, incidents which followed the fall of Ambon became the subject of one of the largest ever war crimes trials and 93 Japanese personnel were tried by an Australian military tribunal at Ambon. Rear Admiral Koichiro Hatakeyama was found to have ordered the Laha massacres, however he died before he could be tried. Commander Kunito Hatakeyama, who was in direct command of the massacres, was sentenced to execution by hanging, while another officer, Lieutenant Kenichi Nakagawa, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Three other Japanese officers were executed for mistreatment of POWs and/or civilians on other occasions during 1942-45. The overall Japanese commander, General Takeo Itō, was sentenced to death that same year for war crimes committed in other parts of the Pacific. Frank Meyer’s body, like many others on Ambon, could not be indentified with any degree of certainty and, although interred in the War Cemetery at Ambon, he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing. For official purposes he still remains missing presumed dead. He was not even 21 years old. On Saturday, Frank’s relatives, including his younger brothers Jack and Tom, gathered at Kings Park to remember and pay tribute to Frank’s short life. They, along with the families of 13 other men who died in the service of Australia, now have permanent reminders of their lost loved ones not only in the brass plaques dedicated to them but in the living trees planted behind them, symbols of life and peace that will bear the message of sacrifice into the future for generations to come. Lest we forget.
