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Joan Beaumont will be in conversation with Christina Twomey on her new book Gull Force Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941–45.

The members of the Australian battalion of Gull Force endured some of the harshest prisoner-of-war conditions of any Australian during the Second World War.

In February 1942, on the remote island of Ambon in Indonesia, 1131 Australian soldiers were preparing for invasion by Japanese forces. Outnumbered and ill-equipped, theirs was an impossible mission. After their defeat, over 200 Australians were massacred. The survivors faced three-and-a-half years of harsh work, beatings, disease and starvation on Ambon and the Chinese island of Hainan. Along with the brutal conditions came a crisis of leadership, with Australian officers accused of devising their own systems of punishment and handing men over to the Japanese. The prisoners on Ambon were tormented by two catastrophic raids by ‘friendly’ Allied air forces. Over 800 survived to endure years of captivity; only 302 returned home.

Acclaimed historian Joan Beaumont tells the full story of this tragedy and its aftermath including war crimes trials, the homecoming of the POWs and their later pilgrimages to Ambon and Hainan. A powerful account of suffering, death, endurance and memory, the story of Gull Force is one that must not be forgotten.

Joan Beaumont AM, FASSA  is Professor Emerita at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. She is one of Australia’s pre-eminent scholars on Australian prisoners of war and is the author of Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, the critically acclaimed account of Australia’s experience of the First World War, which was joint winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History and winner of the NSW Premier’s Prize for Australian History. She is also the author of Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis It Has Ever Faced and co-editor with Allison Cadzow of Serving Our Country: Indigenous Australians, War, Defence and Citizenship.

Professor Christina Twomey FAHA, FASSA was appointed the inaugural Chief Research Officer at the Australian Research Council in January 2023. A prize-winning historian, Christina research focuses on the social and cultural history of war, with a particular interest in imprisonment and internment, gendered violence, trauma, Australia-Asia relations, humanitarian and aid programmes, and visual cultures of atrocity. Her most recent work focuses on Australia's Asian garrisons and regional engagement during the Cold War period.

Professor Peter Stanley, one of Australia’s most distinguished military social historians, will give the vote of thanks.

Books are available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

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