The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX35406) Private William Thomas Doolan, 2/21st Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (VX35406) Private William Thomas Doolan, 2/21st Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

VX35406 Private William Thomas Doolan, 2/21st Battalion, AIF
KIA 1 February 1942
Photograph: 133887

Story delivered 3 February 2017

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Ambon in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) on 1 February 1942.

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Thomas Doolan, who was killed in the defence of the island.

William Doolan was born on 15 January 1913 in the Melbourne suburb of Werribee, Victoria, the eldest son of Thomas and Emily Doolan. In the 1920s the family moved to Morwell in Gippsland, Victoria, and became well known within the community. William Doolan later returned to Melbourne, eventually coming to live in Hawthorn with his wife and two daughters.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Doolan volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force, enlisting on 11 July 1940. His younger brother, Martin, was already serving, and would eventually become a prisoner of war after being captured by the Germans on Crete in May 1941.

Private William Doolan became a driver with the newly raised 2/21st Battalion, part of the Australian 8th Division. The battalion carried out much of its training in Trawool in central Victoria and Bonegilla on the Victoria–New South Wales border. In March 1941 it began to move to Darwin. If the Japanese made an aggressive move into the region, the 2/21st Battalion would be sent to Ambon to reinforce Dutch forces defending the island. Such a move, however, could only take place once Japanese intentions were known. Japan was still neutral, and the Australians would not move prematurely into the Netherlands East Indies for fear of provoking them.

The battalion spent nine months in Darwin. It was only after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the war in the Pacific that Australian forces moved to Ambon in mid-December 1941. Along with an anti-tank battery, a field ambulance, and other supporting troops, the 2/21st Battalion formed part of “Gull Force”. Even when combined with the Dutch troops, the force was modest, with limited rations and supplies, and minimal transport, air, and artillery support. When the Japanese invaded Ambon on 30 January 1942 the Australian and Dutch defenders were quickly overwhelmed.

Before dawn on 1 February a small Australian reconnaissance patrol crept towards Japanese lines near the village of Kudamti. When the time came to withdraw, Doolan volunteered to provide cover. It was the last time he was seen alive. As he ambushed three truckloads of Japanese soldiers, the retreating Australians first heard shooting, and then silence. Doolan’s bullet-riddled body was later found and buried.

He was 29 years old.

The Ambonese later picked up a popular tune from Australian prisoners of war, and turned it into the “Ballad of Driver Doolan”, one version of which reads:

From his tree, the Australian Doolan killed many men of Japan,
He did not run away or move back …
Then died by the bullets of the men of Japan
Calling his mother, father, wife and children,
But they did not hear him.

Fighting continued on Ambon until 3 February. In the days following the surrender, the Japanese executed some 300 Australian and Dutch soldiers around the airfield at Laha. The surviving members of Gull Force spent the rest of the war as prisoners of the Japanese. A small number, around 30, escaped Ambon and made their way back to Australia.

Private Doolan’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private William Thomas Doolan who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section