MELBOURNE: Twenty Australian soldiers, including some who were at Sandakan in Sabah, killed while trying to escape or after recapture by Japanese forces during World War II, will be honoured by the government with posthumous gallantry awards.
The independent Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal looked into their cases and decided the men deserved recognition.
Parliamentary Secretary of Defence Senator David Feeney accepted the tribunal’s recommendations and called for the soldiers’ next of kin to come forward and accept the commendation for Gallantry awards.
“Each (serviceman) has his own story. Some were killed while trying to escape, others executed after being recaptured,” he said in a statement yesterday.
“But what is common to all 20 men is the Australian spirit they showed before their deaths.” Among the soldiers were the Tavoy Eight, members of the 4th Anti-Tank Regiment executed by firing squad in Burma on June 6, 1942, while others were held at the notorious Sandakan prisoner of war camp in 1943.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said Gunner Albert Neil Cleary was just 22 when he died after a bid for freedom from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
Recaptured in Borneo by local men and returned to his captors for a reward, he was tortured and beaten for 11 days before dying under the care of his POW mates in a small hut.
“Cleary was one of about 2,000 Allied prisoners of war in the Sandakan POW camp,” Senator Feeney said. — Bernama