Leslie Arthur Edward ALLEN

ALLEN, Leslie Arthur Edward

Service Number: VX50380
Enlisted: 17 March 1941
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion
Born: England , 21 July 1914
Home Town: Irymple, Mildura Shire, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Horticulturist
Died: Presumed to be dead, Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, 20 February 1942, aged 27 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Memorials: Ambon Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement VX50380
17 Mar 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, VX50380
18 Mar 1941: Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion

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Biography contributed by Mari Walker

Private Leslie Allen was born in Kingsclere, Hampshire, England, son of Robert Charles Allen and Dora (nee Curtis) and migrated to Australia in 1925. Pvte Allen was a Horticulturalist, serving with the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion in Australia, and on 17 December 1941 was sent to Ambon as part of Gull Force. Pvte Allen was reported missing 2 February 1942, taken prisoner of war at Laha.

The 2/21st Battalion was formed at Trawool, near Seymour in central Victoria in August 1940 and later, with a number of additional troops from other attachments, formed part of “Gull Force”. The force consisted of 1131 men, mostly Victorians.

Gull Force was sent to Ambon to defend the strategic island's harbour and air strip. In January 1942 an overwhelmingly larger Japanese force of approximately 20,000 men landed on the Island. Some members of Gull Force were sent to defend the air strip at Laha on the western side of the bay and after a series of short but fierce battles, fighting on Ambon Island ceased on 2 February 1942. During this conflict, 47 men were killed in action, 11 escaped, 5 managed to join the rest of the force on the other side of the Island, and 229 were massacred after surrendering.

During the conflict on the other side of the Island, 7 members of Gull Force were killed in action, 804 became Prisoners of War. Of that number 267 were subsequently taken to the Chinese Island of Hainan, where 86 died as prisoners.

Investigations after the war determined it was impossible to positively identify many of the remains found at Laha and these ‘war dead’ were declared “became missing and for Official Purposes Presumed to be Dead, 20 February 1942”. The remains which were found were reinterred in the Ambon War Cemetery.

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