Gull Force

Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941–45

By Joan Beaumont

Published by New South
RRP $39.99 in paperback * ISBN 9781761170027 

A book with Joan Beaumont’s name on the spine immediately commands attention. With this book, she is revisiting the subject of an earlier book, published in 1988, Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941-1945 (Allen & Unwin).  In fact, chapters 1-11 are largely unchanged except for the incorporation of some new material. Part VI, the Aftermath, constitutes the new material.

Background: In February 1942, on the remote island of Ambon in Indonesia, 1131 Australian soldiers were preparing for invasion by Japanese forces. Outnumbered and ill-equipped, theirs was an impossible mission.

After their defeat, over 200 Australians were massacred. The survivors faced three-and-a-half years of harsh work, beatings, disease and starvation on Ambon and the Chinese island of Hainan.

After the war, an inquiry was held into allegations Australian officers had shown poor leadership in managing the camps, with the enquiry determining that some of the criticism was justified.

Only 302 were eventually to return home.

What Beaumont does best, of course, is offer deeper insights into the legacy of these events, both broadly and, personally for the men, many of whom struggled with the aftermath of their brutal experiences. They did, after all, endure some of the harshest prisoner-of-war conditions of any Australians during the Second World War.

VERDICT: A compelling account of the tragedy that is war and the terrible legacy it leaves.