Oboe One, Tarakan, 1945

An Australian Tragedy

By Peter Stanley

Published by Big Sky Publishing

RRP $34.99 in paperback | ISBN 9781923300361

 

The dead of Tarakan epitomise its tragedy, writes Peter Stanley.

The Roll of Honour at the end of this book lists the 240 members of the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force and Australian Army who can be identified as having died on or near Tarakan in the period April-December 1945.

The youngest casualties were just nineteen years of age.

In 1945, Australian soldiers launched Operation Oboe One, a mission to capture Tarakan’s airstrip. What was meant to last three weeks stretched into months of bitter jungle warfare.

But peace when it came also produced new challenges. Overcoming Japanese occupation was one thing but what of the Dutch, the colonial masters who were seen as only marginally preferable to the Japanese.

The rise of Indonesian nationalism was to be a post-war legacy with Australia playing a notable role in advocating independence.

In some quarters the campaign was condemned as ‘a complete waste’.

There was, according to Stanley, cause for bitterness. Australian troops fought and died for an airstrip which, in the circumstances, could never have been repaired.

The tragedy of Tarakan was that by the time they had succeeded, they need never have begun.

This new book has its origins in an earlier book, Tarakan: An Australian Tragedy (Allen & Unwin, 1997). It is a fitting tribute to the determination and courage of the men who fought and died and a reminder of the ultimate futility of war.

I note the book has been widely praised in the reviews recorded on the publisher’s website. Check the details here.