Gordon William AUSTIN

AUSTIN, Gordon William

Service Number: VX23351
Enlisted: 10 June 1940
Last Rank: Lance Corporal
Last Unit: 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion
Born: Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia , 16 July 1919
Home Town: Lapoinya, Waratah/Wynyard, Tasmania
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Tramway Conductor
Died: Presumed dead, Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, 20 February 1942, aged 22 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 VX23351
10 Jun 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, VX23351
15 Jul 1940: Transferred Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion, Part of Gull Force.
26 Dec 1941: Promoted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, 2nd/21st Infantry Battalion

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Biography contributed by Mari Walker

Son of Lewis Victor and Elizabeth Christina Amy Austin, of Lapoinya, Tasmania, Australia.

Corporal Gordon Austin was a Tramway Conductor. He enlisted in June 1940 and served in Australia with 2/21st Infantry Battalion. Cpl Austin was posted overseas in December 1941, being reported missing on 2 February 1942, believed to be taken as 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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