Java Harriers

Following the articles Stepsister, and Black Force in recent issues of BWB, the story of the 2/2nd Pioneers may be of interest to ExPOWs. Formed in Victoria in May 1940, as an independent Infantry Battalion it was trained to carry out the functions of both Infantry and Field Engineers. On the 7th April 1941, the battalion boarded the Queen Mary and on the 4th May disembarked at Port Tewfick, Within 5 weeks the Pioneers were in action in Syria against the well trained Vichy French forces which included the famous French Foreign Legion for strategic Fort Merdjayoun. To fill the depleted ranks of the battalion, 52 West Australians training at Dimra in Palestine as reinforcements for the 2/16th battalion joined the Pioneers

In World War 11, the three Australian Pioneer Battalions were trained as fast moving, lightly equipped, mobile infantry men, also as semi trained Engineers. The 2/1st Pioneers fought with the 6th Division with high casualty rates in Tobruk and later in the Islands. The 2/2nd Pioneers fought both in Syria and in Java with the 7th Division, after Java, the battalion was reformed and fought in New Guinea & Borneo. The 2/3rd Pioneers were attached to the 9th Division and fought at El Alamein and in the islands with distinction, one member of the 2/3rd Pioneers in Tarakan Borneo Corporal John Bernard Mackey won a Victoria Cross

924 Pioneers landed in Java, from the SS Orcades of these 30 were killed in action against the Japanese or died of wounds, including three officers in A Company C.O., Capt Guild D.D. VX15341 Lieut Stewart I.A. VX19507 Lieut Lang C.W.P. VX22679. Of the 865 taken prisoner, 258 Pioneers lost their lives during the 3 ½ years of captivity, 177 died on the Burma railway, 64 drowned on their way to Japan, 9 died in Borneo, 3 in Java, 2 in Japan, 3 were killed when their prison ship was bombed off the Burma coast.

450 Pioneers under Colonel Williams, and 143 under Capt Bishop worked on the Burma end of the Death Railway, 157 under Major Woods worked on the Thailand end of the railway, 13 were sent to Borneo. At the end of hostilities surviving members of the battalion were spread over a wide area of Asia. 393 were recovered in Thailand, 104 in Japan, 43 in Java, 27 in Saigon, 21 in Singapore, 6 in Sumatra, 4 in Borneo.
9 Pioneers were rescued by US submarines after the sinking of the “Rakuyo Maru in September 1944 and reached Australia to tell the horrifying story of the Death railway.

Of the 607 Pioneers who survived 31/2 years of captivity, 66 are still alive at the end of 2004, the Association is very active and publishes and distributes a Newsletter three times a year to Pioneers and the widows and families of deceased Pioneers. WX16572 Neil MacPherson.