Caged Sparrows: The 2/40th Infantry Battalion
AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY – NATIONAL OFFICE ‐ MISSING, WOUNDED AND PRISONER OF WAR ENQUIRY CARDS (2016.0049)
The University of Melbourne archives holds many documents from the Australian Red Cross Society’s war records. Among these documents are 60,000 summary cards which detail the whereabouts of soldiers who were injured, missing or taken prisoner. The cards originate from World War Two, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. As of 2019 only the summary cards from WW2 are available to view due to privacy concerns. The data summarised on the cards was collected from military dispatches, upon the request of family members.[1]
It seems that throughout history, humans have had anxieties about their ability to keep safe the number of records available to them.[2] “Archivists are besieged by hopelessly contrary diktats-adjured on the one hand to collect only what “they can afford to responsibly arrange, describe, preserve, and provide access to, compelled on the other hand to keep every-thing dumped on them.”[3] The 60,000 summary cards held by the university could be considered redundant because the information communicated by them is recorded in the Australian Army’s official service and casualty forms held by the National Archives. Though they do not reveal unique information, simple features make them powerful objects worthy of protection. For example, Earnest Huett’s summary card details a change in next of kin address due to the death of his father Robert Huett. Earnest was imprisoned in a Java prisoner of war camp, likely without any knowledge of his father’s death. He may not have been notified until 1945 when he was released in Siam. The Red Cross took on the role of providing information to families worried about their sons, husbands and brothers. The summary cards are also an extraordinary example of this service and wartime record keeping.
2/40th Australian Infantry Battalion
The 2/40th infantry battalion was the only WW2 battalion to be mostly composed of Tasmanian men. Their long imprisonment and shared roots have led to the group becoming something of a legend in their home state. The battalion was formed by the army in mid-1941. 80% of members were from Tasmania, the final 20% were made up of personal from Victoria.[4] Though 73% were from rural areas the range of professions practiced among varied. Among them were farmers, bakers, plumbers, dentists, salesmen, journalist, accountants, teachers and the likes.[5] They were a mixed bunch of men, heading for what would be the defining event of their lives.
Earnest Albert Huett, TX5447
Born in the sleepy town of Sheffield Tasmania, Earnest Albert Huett stood at 5ft 10ins with brown eyes and fair hair.[6] He worked as a farm labourer at Latrobe, a place boasting fertile, sandy soil perfect for cropping. Earnest enlisted for the AIF at Mona Vale in June 1941. At the time, Japan had not yet entered the war. It is likely that Earnest imagined he was signing up for the war against Hitler in Europe. Instead he was to fight the Japanese in a hopeless Timor campaign. Aged 31, Earnest was older than many of his fellow soldiers who averaged in their mid-twenties. After training for several months in Brighton, he was to be sent to Darwin for embarkment. On Friday August 8 the local community threw Earnest a farewell evening in Latrobe. He was presented with cigarettes and chocolates from the Soldiers Farewell Committee.[7] On the December 8, 1941, Earnest and the 2/40th Battalion left Australia for Java.
Sparrow Force
The 2/40th were stationed on Timor as a part of Sparrow Force. Made up of Australia, British and US battalions, Sparrow Force was to defend Timor from Japanese expansion.[8] The 2/40th were stationed at Penfui Airfield, a key strategic holding for the allies. On the February 19 Japanese forces landed in Timor, attacking two key Sparrow Force positions at the capital Dili and at Penfui. Increasing numbers of paratroopers, tanks and infantry overwhelmed Sparrow Force who on the morning of the February 23 surrendered to the Japanese. The men of Sparrow Force including some of the 2/40th were taken prisoner, to be distributed throughout prisoner of war camps throughout Asia.
Captured Sparrows
Captured men of the 2/40th were dispersed in camps in Java, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Manchuria.[9] For historians, the stories of the 2/40th men are a snapshot of Australian POW experience.[10] Earnest would spend time in Java and Thailand during his three-year imprisonment. Earnest’s first known whereabouts after his disappearance if a POW camp in Java. It is unclear which of the five Java camps he was interned at. We do know that sometime after August 1943 Earnest was transferred to Thailand Camp 4. It is unlikely that Earnest worked on the Thai-Burma Railway, as it was completed in October 1943. Slim rations, primitive health care, harsh punishment, disease and overworking plagued POWs. Photographs and illustrations show figures who look more like skeletons than young men.[11] Finally, in late September 1945 the men of Thailand Camp 4 were recovered. They were taken to Singapore before boarding boats to Darwin. By the end of the war, one third of the 2/40th had died.[12] Most lost their lives during imprisonment due to overwork, disease and malnutrition.[13]
Life after Siam
After release Earnest spent four months recovering in the 2/14th Australian General Hospital in Darwin and the 115th Heidelberg Military Hospital in Victoria.[14] His initial hospitalisation was due to diarrhoea, likely a symptom of camp dysentery or readjustment to regular food. By the time Earnest applied for discharge in February 1946 he was 37 years old. He would go on to marry local girl Annie Francis Bauld and have two children.[15] Earnest passed away in September 1980 at the age of 71. In his will he left his estate to his children, suggesting that Anne had passed before him. Little information about Earnest’s life after the war is known, except these few details.
Earnest’s summary card is one of very few documents left as testimony of his experience. Though works about his battalion have been published, Earnest’s individual experience does not feature. His summary card is important in that not only does it detail his journey but shows that family on the home front were concerned for his safety. For someone who has published war diaries or kept detailed drawing of their experience, a summary card may be inconsequential. For a small-town farmer like Earnest, the continued preservation of this summary card ensures that his individual experience is not forgotten.
Rachael Huett
[1] University of Melbourne Archives, “Catalogue Record: 2016.0049 [Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiry Cards],” University of Melbourne Archives, http://gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au/imu/imu.php?request=display&port=45208&id=772e&flag=start&offset=0&count=1&view=details&irn=151535.
[2] David Lowenthal, “Archives, Heritage, and History,” in Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory, eds. Francis X. Blouin and William G. Rosenberg (Michigan; University of Michigan Press, 2006), 195-197.
[3] Ibid, 195-196.
[4] Peter Henning, Doomed Battalion: The Australian 2/40th Battalion 1940-45 (Sydney; Allen and Unwin, 1995), 42-43.
[5] Ibid, 42-46.
[6] Document, Earnest Albert Huett Proceedings for Discharge, Australian Army, (National Archives Australia February 1946).
[7] “Latrobe: Farewell to Soldiers," Advocate, August 11, 1941.
[8] Henning, Doomed Battalion, 47-48.
[9] Henning, Doomed Battalion, xxiv.
[10] ibid.
[11] Jack Chalker, Dysentery hut Chungkai, 1943, Pen and wash illustration.
[12] Henning, Doomed Battalion, 301.
[13] ibid.
[14] Summary Card, Earnest Albert Huett Service and Casualty Form, Australian Army (Melbourne; National Archives of Australia, June 4, 1941- February 25, 1946).