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Ernest James Dare, known as 'Ernie' or 'Donc' was born on 09 January 1921 in Levendale, Tasmania. He was the son of Harold Norman Charles Dare, a WW1 Gallipoli veteran, and Amy Elizabeth Dare (nee Kingston). 

The eldest of 11 children he worked from a very young age at various labouring jobs prior to enlisting in Hobart on 10 July 1940. 

On his attestation papers it lists his date of birth as January 9th 1919. This is incorrect as he added two years to his age to allow his brother Edwin (Ted - TX2348) Dare to enlist at the same time as Ted was (in the early days of WW2) considered too young. This then made Ernie 21 and Ted 20 years old when Ernie was actually 19 and Ted 18. 

Ernie was allocated to 12 Platoon, Charlie Company of the 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion, Charlie Company was made up of Tasmanian soldiers. He and his brother Ted completed their initial training at Brighton Army Camp.  Up until he joined the Army, Ernie had never worn socks!

In the book 'As I heard it' by Tim Flanagan the son of TX3361 SGT Arch Flannigan, Arch describes Donc and his brother Ted as 'Two untraveled country lads, so bushy that, as the townies used to say of such, "you could smell the gum leaves on them" '. Training at Brighton Camp was inconsistent with little equipment, rudimentary barracks accommodation, and a dislocated HQ in Adelaide. The men did eventually meet the standards required. The Company war diary from those early days of 1940 illustrates concern that if the men were not embarked for war soon that it was likely they would start going AWOL.

Eventually at the end of October 1940, C-Company was ordered to concentrate in Adelaide.  They steamed from Tasmania on the SS Taroona to Melbourne and then to Adelaide via train joining with the rest of the Battalion (less the WA D Coy). A period of intensive training that involved a lot of route marches and range practices occurred in Adelaide. Ernie recalled many marches but one in particular would be the longest route march undertaken by any AIF unit during training, a gruelling 310km, two-week monster of a march. Ernie was quite proud of the fact that the Machine Gunners had untaken this march.  Ernie then had a period of leave prior to returning to Adelaide for Embarkation.

The Battalion moved from Adelaide by train and embarked from Sydney on Good Friday 1941 in Convoy US10 aboard the HMT MM (SS Ile de France). The former luxury liner had been refitted as a troops ship, and refitted badly. The men complained of an uncomfortable trip in crowded conditions way below deck. Respite came when the Machine Gunners were allocated Air Watch on deck although the ship’s crew complained they were not taking this duty seriously.

Convoy US10 travelled South around the bottom of Tasmania and called in to Freemantle, WA where they embarked D Company. On 26 April 1941 they arrived in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and were given limited shore leave. Arriving at Port Tewfik on 13 May 1941 the Battalion disembarked the next day and travelled by train to their destination about 16 km North of Gaza.

Ernie caught Diphtheria and was evacuated to hospital in September 1941 and spent a month recovering before posting back on strength. He fought in the Syrian campaign against the Vichy French Forces in towns such as Qouneitra, the Golan Heights, and was there for the surrender of Damascus. He talked about firing his Vickers gun consistently in the battles, so much that they ran out of water for the cooling jacket and all had to pee in the water tin! 

Anecdotal evidence from his fellow soldier’s states that he acquitted himself well during this time of heavy fighting and there is an entry in his war record of being 'Wounded in Action' but no details. He never spoke of being wounded in Syria, this was to come later. I suspect this was a later entry out of sequence. Ernie tells the story of a stolen motorcycle that he and some men used to get into town one day. Ernie had never ridden a motorcycle and barely driven and so once underway he did not know how to stop the thing, and ended up crashing. Maybe this was the ‘wounding’ spoken of?

In July 1941 the Vichy French Forces surrendered and C Company became part of the Occupation Forces in Syria. Ernie spoke of touring around Syria and visiting places of history during the occupation. He was annoyed that the Australians had to halt outside Damascus to let the Free French Forces take the official surrender and always maintained it should have been Australians as they had done the hard fighting. 

C Company wintered in the small village of Fih a few kilometres inland from Tripoli, they had a white Christmas and made many friends of the locals. 

After the Syrian Campaign the 2nd/3rd Machine Gun Battalion was to be repatriated to Australia to refit ready for redeployment to the Pacific. So on 31 January 1941, Ernie and Ted embarked from Suez on the SS Orcades. On-board the Orcades was most of C Company, HQ Company and elements of other units. C Company had completely de-kitted as they were supposed to be going home. Their equipment was aboard other vessels and they basically travelled with just their personal gear, not even their kit bags. 

In what is now considered an infamous decision, the SS Orcades was redirected to Batavia (Java) in what is now Indonesia in an attempt to bolster the Dutch forces in preparation for a Japanese invasion.

Ernie spoke of disembarking from the Orcades over a period of hours’ numerous times in various forms of uniform. He said they were told this was to confuse spies and mask the actual number of troops being disembarked. He found this very amusing. What he did not find amusing was that they were issued old ships rifles and only five rounds of ammunition each.

This group of mixed units and men became known as 'Blackforce' as they were under command of the CO of the 2/3 MG Bn LTCOL Arthur Blackburn VC. As the Japanese invaded Java, most of the Allied forces were to be evacuated to Australia with Blackforce being left behind to delay the invasion as long as possible. 

Fortunately, a convoy destined for Singapore had been diverted to Java and contained critical war materiel such as weapons, ammunition, light armoured vehicles and other supplies. As such Blackforce, whilst not fully equipped, was in a better position than they had been. 

LTCOL Blackburn had decided to engage the Japanese at the Tijanten River in the vicinity of Leuwilang. 

On 2nd of March 1941, C Company left their holding position and moved forward to engage the Japanese. Ernie was in a position known as Cemetery Hill, with 11 and 12 Platoons, 10 Platoon was in reserve and B Company was covering the flanks. 

By the time the Machine Gunners arrived at the now destroyed bridge over the Tijanten river the Imperial Japanese Army had already been engaged by a Company of Australian Pioneers with anti-tank weapons, mortars and eventually artillery. 

Due to a complete lack of intelligence about Japanese dispositions, three C Company Officers had been captured during a reconnaissance to the South of their positions. This left C Company very short of Officers with only VX45731 CAPT Dick a’Beckett as OC and TX2098 Lieutenant Tim Brettingham-Moore. Ernie always spoke highly of Tim Brettingham-Moore and thought he was a good officer.

The next day on 03 March, in the pre-dawn, and in driving rain, the Japanese crossed the river and stumbled upon the 11 and 12 Platoon positions. Three attacks later and the Japanese were temporarily beaten back but not without Australian casualties. It is unclear on which day of fighting Ernie was wounded but he told the story that he confronted a young Japanese soldier during the attack, they both fired and Ernie was the better shot. I cannot remember whether he said that this was when he was wounded but he sustained a bullet wound to his left shoulder.

Three members of the company had been killed and 27 wounded including Ernie and Ted. Ernie also told the story of being evacuated on a stretcher in a Bren Gun Carrier and having a Japanese bullet strip his pants off without injuring him. A close call indeed.  

On the 5th of March 1941, under threat of encirclement, Blackforce withdrew to the East and into the mountains leaving behind significant battle casualties on the Japanese side. Shortly after, on 8th March 1941 the now Brigadier Arthur Blackburn VC was informed of the Dutch surrender and gave orders to destroy all equipment so as not to let it fall into Japanese hands. Blackforce then moved to the town of Arinem to await the Japanese.

Ernie did not speak much about the initial days of captivity besides to say that the Australians felt they should have fought on. He was very unhappy with the Dutch Command and his senior officers for surrendering so quickly.

The men were eventually moved to a big allied POW camp at Bandoeng. Food was fairly good and the men did education courses. Ernie signed up with a mate TX3361 Arch Flanagan for a first aid course and inevitably copped the nickname ‘Dr kil-Dare’ from the novels by Max Brand. When Arch would come and collect him from his crowded tent the cry would go out ‘Paging young Dr Kildare!’ (Tim Flanangan, As I heard it 2004). Arch and Ernie were to become the best of mates.

The Japanese were not sure what to do with so many prisoners and so commenced a series of key infrastructure works throughout SE Asia, one being the Thai-Burma railway. In January 1943 Ernie and some of the men of C Company were drafted to work on the Hintok section of the railway.  

Dunlop’s One Thousand as the group was to be known was commanded by a Medical Officer Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop. The men, including Ernie credit Dunlop with saving their lives and idolised him for the rest of their lives. Working at now notorious locations such as Hammer and Tap Cutting, Hintok Bridge (the pack of Cards Bridge), and compressor Cutting camp.

Ernie never spoke of the bad times in later years but he never forgave the Japanese for the death of his mates, nor for the treatment he received at their hands. Some of the more amusing stories he told me as a child were regarding tricks played on the Japanese guards. Once, when a very rare supply of Red Cross supplies had reached the men and inevitably had been confiscated by the Japanese, Ernie told of them convincing the guards that the tinned pineapple was only pineapple juice. The Japanese would puncture the tin and drink the juice, discarding the tin. The men would then open the tin and share the pineapple inside. Another time one of the cattle used to feed the guards was killed, or had died. Ernie told of leading a Japanese guard past the carcass from multiple directions to make it seem like a number of cattle had died, allowing the slaughter of other beasts without recourse.

After his death in 1993, further stories from various sources were told of his bravery and his despair in equal measure. He was beaten severely by a guard, was tied to a tree and was to be used for bayonet practice, however for some unknown reason he was cut down. Another time he was so sick he asked his mates to take him from the hospital and let him be run over by a truck, they refused. Ernie caught malaria, tropical ulcers, Beriberi and other tropical diseases as did the rest of the men. I guess it was a testament to his tough upbringing that he eventually made it off the railway.

When the railway was nearing completion, the ‘fittest’ of the men were drafted to be taken to Japan to work in the coal mines. Ernie and Arch Flanagan were two of the many chosen. Just prior to leaving Ernie was permitted to send a telegram to his NOK which was broadcast over Tokio (sic) radio on 4th of April 1944. The telegram read:

‘Dear Mother: Just a few lines to let you know that Edwin and I are in the best of health and hoping you are the same. Also Gran, Jean and the rest of the family. Ted is not writing because he wasted the paper by making a mistake. Well Mum, there is not anything to tell you so I’ll close now with love to you all from your loving sons, Ernest and Edwin.

He told me of the trip on a train packed 24 to a railway wagon and he and Arch Flanagan taking turns in resting their legs on the other’s shoulders to alleviate the cramps. This was in June 1944. On 01 July 1944, Ernie embarked on the Japanese freighter Rashin Maru and sailed to Japan to work in the coal mines arriving on 08 September 1944. The Rashin Maru was quickly nicknamed the Byoki Maru, or ‘sick ship’ as this ship had been badly damaged by bombs and was literally a burnt out, rusted hulk with a jerry-rigged wheelhouse. This is when he and Ted were separated and would not see each other again until the end of the war.

The men aboard endured 70 Days locked up in this death trap including surviving American submarine attacks, surviving a typhoon with no covers on the deck, and watching the hull physically twist apart to let water stream in. As quoted in the book ‘As I heard it’ one of the POWs from WA, Harry Stevens was heard to exclaim, ‘You’ve never really travelled until you’ve travelled with the Japs!’

After enduring the Japanese ‘Hell Ship’ Ernie ended up in a town on the very Southern tip of the Japanese Island of Honshu, in the Yamaguchi Prefecture, called Ohama. Ohama contained a coal mine that stretched out into the bay and under the sea. The camp was part of the Hiroshima group of prison camps and was known as Hiroshima 9B. Established in 1942 this camp was for the express purpose of digging coal to support the Japanese war effort. The Camp was a multi-national affair with POW from the Commonwealth, the US, and Dutch prisoners.

Ernie did not rate his time in Japan highly at all. It was cold, the work was fairly dangerous and the Korean guards were brutal. He spoke of having near misses with mine collapses and the constant hunger, lice and poor conditions. The sketches done in secret by a prisoner of a nearby camp (Omine) named Geoff Tyson, and post war published into a book called ‘The Last Phase at Omine’ are a sobering look at the brutality of life for a POW under Japanese control.

On August 15 1945 Japan surrendered unconditionally. The men at Ohama had noticed that food was becoming scarcer and brutality worse. They were discussing what to do should the Korean and Japanese guards decide to kill the prisoners. During this time a number of allied aircraft were seen flying around. Eventually in September of 1945 the prison camp was discovered, food drops occurred and Ernie and his mates rescued. The guards had all but disappeared and Ernie spoke of trading food with locals.

Ernie at the time of rescue was very malnourished and in fact for the rest of his life he appreciated simple food but would only eat rice if it was covered in milk and sugar. Ernie returned to Australia via the Philippines on HMS Speaker, a British Escort Carrier, and disembarked in Sydney on 15 October 1945. He arrived back in Tasmania via the ferry Nairana to be finally reunited with his family. In total Ernie had spent 62 Months in the service of his Country. His discharge from the AIF took effect from 21 December 1945.

Post war Ernie met and married a girl from Woodsdale, the next locality over from his home of Levendale. Doreen Ailsa Howard married Ernie in 1946 and they eventually had 8 children (my mum Julie being number 5) and took on two foster children. Ernie worked various jobs post war including running his own freight business and a bus service. Eventually he and Doreen moved to Glenorchy, a suburb of Hobart and he commenced working for Johnson Brothers which was a hardware store eventually purchased by Hopkins.

His health was not great although he did smoke a pipe constantly which would not have helped. In 1978 he retired due to ill health and was granted a TPI pension which helped enormously. My Grandfather, TX2920 Private Ernest James Dare died in Hobart on 1st of September 1993. One of his final wishes was to have no priest and no prayers at his funeral. He did this to honour those that had died in captivity without the benefit of either, saying ‘If it was good enough for those men, it’s good enough for me’. 

Ernie is buried in the Woodsdale cemetery and is remembered on a memorial plaque at the Woodsdale Museum and old schoolrooms.

The information in this biography was obtained from the following sources:

1.      National Archives of Australia B883 – TX2920 PTE EJ Dare

2.      Around the Ragged Tier – The history of William and Charles Kingston and their descendants – Compiled by Doreen Dare 1994

3.      The Road to Damascus –A pictorial journey of C-Company, 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion – by Craig Hoehne and Tim Flanagan (editor) – (2011)

4.      As I heard it – Arch Flanagan talks about his fellow soldiers of C-Company, 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd AIF (2004)

5.      Anecdotal from Dare and Bellette family conversations with TX2920 Private Ernest James (Donc) Dare.