General News
20 September, 2025
VETERANS' VOICES: Thomas Hutchins
Thomas Hutchins was born at Rainbow on May 10 1913 to John and Janet Hutchins. Thomas enlisted at Royal Park on March 5 1941.
His service number was VX50460.
Thomas’s last unit was 2/21 Australian Infantry Battalion.
He was one of six brothers who served during World War II, four of his siblings overseas and one in Australia.
All survived the war.
On September 4 1945 Thomas died of illness as a prisoner of the Japanese at Ambon, Netherlands East Indies. aged 32.
Thomas was in the same prison camp (Tan Tui) as two of his cousins, David and Fred, and was one of the last men to die on the island.
He died 20 days after the Japanese surrendered.
Thomas is buried at Ambon with his cousins who also died.
Seven of Thomas’s cousins with the surname Hutchins, from Woorinen near Swan Hill, also served overseas.
Only three of this set of brother cousins survived: Malcolm, William and Ivan.
Four died as prisoners of the Japanese, David from beri beri, Alan while trying to escape the Japanese, Fred from injuries inflicted when he was beaten, and Eric in a massacre at the Lah Airfield.
One of these died at Rabaul and three at Ambon with Thomas.
All their names appear on the Australian War Memorial Wall of Honour and on the Ballarat Australian Ex POW Memorial at 1A Carlton Street, Lake Wendouree.
Thomas’s name is on the Rainbow War Memorial.
The Hutchins family suffered much due to so many losses of family members during World War II.
Invasion of Ambon
Between January 31 and February 3 1942 the island of Ambon was a strategically important target for the Japanese because of its two airfields.
The island was defended by Gull Force (2/21 Battalion) and by several hundred Australian gunners and a force of 2600 Dutch Indonesian troops.
The commander of 23rd Brigade, Brigadier EF Lind, had known since May 1941 of his probable task to command a battalion group known as Gull Force to Ambon and another battalion group, Sparrow Force, to Timor.
During the following months he pressed army headquarters in Melbourne for permission to make a liaison visit to the Dutch headquarters in Java.
Permission was constantly refused, so neither Lind nor his commanders knew what to expect.
Lind’s orders to move his battalions came on December 7 1941, just hours before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbour.
He had 1100 men in all to defend Ambon: 2/21 Battalion, an anti-tank troop, a section of engineers, a detachment of signallers, and medical and service personnel.
The battalion CO, Lieutenant Colonel LN Roach, had no idea what he was expected to accomplish and received no clear orders.
The Gull Force commander had appealed throughout December 1941 for additional reinforcements and equipment: mainly artillery, anti-tank guns, mortars and automatic weapons.
He sent constant warnings to army headquarters in Melbourne that the force was inadequate to defend vital points on the island.
On January 10 1942 Lind signalled army headquarters that an attack was expected soon.
Three days later he sent another signal suggesting that if this force were attacked it could not hold out for more than 24 hours.
Roach recommended that to avoid purposeless waste of life he should evacuate his force immediately.
Army headquarters was quick to react and Roach was told that such messages were to “cease at once”.
The next day Roach was sacked as CO.
On January 28 1942 the remaining Hudson Bombers were withdrawn to avoid their destruction in the enemy raids.
Along with them went all the RAAF personnel except for 11 men whose boat was intercepted by the Japanese.
All other RAAF personnel made it back to Darwin.
The new commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, was disturbed to find no plans had been made to store supplies in the hills so that if the island fell to the Japanese a guerrilla war could be waged.
The Japanese invasion of Ambon commenced on January 30 1942 and within a day the Dutch native troops began to surrender.
On February 3 1942 Lieutenant-Colonel Scott surrendered the main body of his battalion.
Fifteen Australians had been killed.
Across the bay from where Scott was, several companies of 2/21 put up a furious defence of the beach and the airfield at Laha.
Overwhelmed on February 2, the 309 Australian officers and men were butchered by the Japanese in a series of mass executions as reprisals for an enemy vessel having been sunk by a Dutch mine.
Of the original 1100 men of Gull Force, only 363 survived the battles and their ensuing years of captivity at the hands of the Japanese.
With thanks: Sally Bertram, RSL Military History Library. Contact Sally at sj.bertram@hotmail.com or call 0409 351 940.
