The Ient Family: Family History

In Java

So we attached ourselves to the City of Birmingham Squadron, 605. They said that a third of the Australian Navy’s was in Southern Java, down here (pointing to the map). So we got on board these wagons, just as we were, no kit, just as we stood ... khaki shorts, khaki shirt, straw hat, gum boots – that’s a crazy thing to have in the tropics! – knife, fork and spoon and your gas mask and your tin hat. So we got on board these wagons and we went across to Java, across a range of mountains across there [pointing to the map]. We got to Southern Java – nothing! We had one of these big wireless wagons with us, you know, a whacking big thing, the type they had before transistor radios. As you know, Java used to belong to the Dutch. Well, word came over this wireless that the Dutch had capitulated and all allied prisoners of war to wear a white arm band and report to the nearest Jap and hand in our weapons. Well, we’d never seen a Jap until up to this point. So there we were waiting to be taken prisoner, as I said, we had nowhere else to go. We were living on ... I remember, it was a 10 pound tin of tomatoes and 10 pound tins of apples between 12 of us, and that was our rations for the day. Well even these rations were running a bit short by now.


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