The Soldier's Details

Review WX9911 Gordon Stanley John Mc Donald‘s military records held at NAA.

 

McDonald was firstly with the militia Light Horse before enlisting with AIF.

2/3rd MGB soldier Gordon McDonald was with Java Party 20 leaving Java to ultimately work in Japan.  He was onboard POW transport ship Tamahoko Maru when she was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Japan near Nagasaki on 28 June 1944.  He was one of only a few hundred fortunate survivors taken to Fukuoka 14B Camp to work and where he was recovered from at the end of the war.

19 May 1944 800 POWs departed Java on Kiska Maru to Singapore arriving 21 May 1944.  POW group consisted of 194 British, 258 Australian, 42 American, 306 Dutch.

POWs were glass rod tested at Havelock Road Camp.  One Australian and four Dutchmen were removed from Party.  795 POWs embarked on Miyu Maru.

Japan 1 formed a convoy of 12 ships and four escorts known as H0-02 as well as Bauxite Convoy. 4 cargo ships carried POWs:

Miyo Maru (795 POWs from Java Party 20)

Hozan Maru (451 POWs as well as carrying bauxite)

Hiyoki Maru (450  POWs and bauxite)

Kokusei Maru (456 POWs and Bauxite)

3 June 1944 H0-02 convoy sailed Singapore to Japan via Philippines.

6 June 1944 160 miles E.S.E. Cape St Jacques, French Indo-China, USS Raton (SS 250) attacked the convoy. At 2225 hours an escort was sunk and USS Raton received damage.

11 June 1944 Arrived Manila where Tamahoko Maru loaded 7,500 tons copper ore into her holds and joined the convoy.

14 June 1944 sailed from Manila in a convoy of six ships.

15 June 1944  the convoy ran into a typhoon, causing damage to Miyo Maru.

18 June 1944 Convoy reaches Takao, Taiwan.

POWs on Miyo Maru were transferred into two holds on the Tamahoko Maru.

20 June 1944 Convoy H0-02 sailed out of Takao, Taiwan accompanied by escorts.

21 June 1944 Stopped over at Keeling, the convoy then headed for Japan.

24 June 1944 three US submarines Tang, Tinosa and Shark II attacked the convoy off the Japanese coast, 40 miles S.W. Nagasaki.  The Tamahoko was hit and sank with the loss of 560 POWs out of 772 POWs on board.

25 June 1944 200 survivors of the sinking were taken to Fukuoka 14B Camp.

Survivors from Western Australia included:

WX5300 JOHNSTON, Gervase Clifford – Omine Camp

WX5300 LECKIE, John Henshaw

WX9911 McDONALD, Gordon Stanley John – Omine Camp

WX18552 MONTEFIORO, Arthur Eric  – Omine Camp

WX2844 PARKIN, Charles Owen – Omine Camp

WX11771 ROSS, Gordon  – Omine Camp

WX9943 TICKLE, Horace James  (later died illness)

 

Western Australians who Perished:

WX10551 DORAN, Edward John

WX12070 GLEADALL, John Alfred

WX3336 HAMILTON, Richard

WX6228 NORMAN, William George

WX14456 McCURDY, David Vincent

 

McDonald was recovered from Ohama PoW Camp, Japan at the end of the war.  Pease read further

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McDonald was only son with two sisters born to parents John Alexander McDonald and Ethel May (nee McArthur) who married 1908.    John McDonald aged 36 years was a farmer from Tambellup when he enlisted WW1 23 May 1916 into 15th Field Artillery Brigade Service No. 31712.   He sailed to England and within months died from illness in a British Hospital.  He was buried in England.  His total war service was 4 months. His son Gordon was about 5 years old.

Ethel McDonald was widowed with three young children. She remarried to Frederick Bessen in 1922.

Gordon McDonald married in 1940 to Hilda G Forsyth.

 

 

 

 

 

Below:  Farewell to John McDonald as he heads off to war.

 

 

Below:  Gordon’s father’s WW1 death details 1917 England.

Below:  Gordon’s grandmother and mother to Ethel McDonald now Bessen.

Below:  Gordon and Hilda announce their engagement June 1940.  They married at the end of the year.