Mt Compass Archives

PROMOTING THE HISTORY AND ARCHIVES OF MT COMPASS

Jacobs, Oscar Ernest (Private)

Oscar Ernest Jacobs was born on 20th October 1916 at Hindmarsh in Adelaide. He was the second son of Ernest E Jacobs and Ellie Jacobs (nee Goodall) of Mt Compass.

Prior to the war, as Secretary of the Mt Compass Literary Society, Oscar (aka ‘Toot’) had commenced gathering articles that later became the town’s “First Hundred Years” history book. In 1934 he was also responsible for building the two community tennis courts on his parent’s Nangkita Road property. These were built due to his involvement with the Christian Endeavour Society, the local Church of Christ’s Youth group.

At the time of his enlistment, Oscar was running a grocery store at Port Elliot, which sold his family’s farm produce, along with fruit & vegetables that his brother Horace would purchase from the markets in Adelaide.

On 25th July 1940, at the age of 23, Oscar signed his Oath of Enlistment in Adelaide. Following his army training, Oscar was assigned to driving trucks between Alice Springs and Darwin, prior to being posted to Singapore.

In October 1941, one month before he would leave for Singapore, Oscar and Miss Gwenyth Fitzgerald of Torrensville, publicly announced their engagement via a notice in the “Advertiser” newspaper. Unfortunately, by February of 1942 he was reported as missing, and soon after was listed as a Japanese Prisoner of War (POW) held at a camp in Thailand. Oscar was one of a group of men selected by his captors for transportation, destined to work as forced labourers, possibly in Japan.

The ships that carried these POWs were nicknamed ‘Hell ships’ with prisoners often crowded into cargo holds with little air, food or water. Like many ships during this period, the one carrying Oscar was torpedoed by a group of US submarines who were unaware that allied prisoners formed part of the cargo.

Noel, Oscar’s younger brother, who also enlisted in 1940, was by chance in an army hospital at the same time that one of the survivors from this sinking was brought in. From him, the family were able to confirm the fate of their son and brother. This survivor knew of Oscar and was able to provide some details from his final days.

Following the sinking of their transport ship, Oscar and other survivors, floated for three days in life rafts. Due to their poor physical condition some survivors, Noel was told, were even tempted to drink the sea water. Oscar would voluntarily swim between these rafts, reasoning with survivors to remain positive and to support each other, confident that they would be saved. It was suggested that he wore himself out carrying out this compassionate task - he died just 12 hours before the remaining men were rescued. The submarines responsible for sinking their ship carried out the rescue after returning to the area three days later.

From information his sister Betty provided, Oscar’s fatal ship was the Japanese Troopship ‘Rakuyo Maru’. A link at the end of this article gives more information on the fate of this ship.

For two years the family knew that Oscar had been a prisoner of the Japanese but it was another two years before his fate was known for certain, as letters he had written while a POW continued to randomly arrive in Mount Compass, long after they had been written.

The Jacobs family, as it happened, were one of many in the district that employed Italian Prisoners of War on their properties. Betty Jacobs spoke of how she hoped at the time, that her brother Oscar would be receiving the same care and compassion that they showed to their workers, however it was not the case. She believed that Oscar, “an understanding man” would have wanted them to look after their POWs. 

Although he failed to return from the war, the Mt Compass community was inspired to complete his history book project, which was published in 1946, two years after his death. A photograph of Oscar in uniform is included in this book as an acknowledgement of his work.*

Oscar’s brother Noel, married Beth Manning in 1943 while still in the army. After the war they built a house on Nangkita Road, on the family property and raised seven children.

Oscar’s fiancée during the war, Gwenyth, did later marry and raise two children.  

*The First Hundred Years book is available in Kindle form

Clipof the survivors being rescuedOn the morning of 12 September 1944, the convoy was attacked in theLuzon Straitby awolfpackconsisting of three US submarines:Growler,PampanitoandUSSSealion.Rakuyō Maruwas torpedoed bySealionand sunk towards the evening. TheKachidoki Maruwas also sunk with 488 people killed, mostlyPOWs. The Japanese survivors of theRakuyō Maruwere rescued by an escort vessel, leaving POWs in the water with rafts and some abandoned boats. A total of 1,159 POWs died, including sportsmanWinston Ideand brigadierArthur Varley. 350 of the dead were bombarded in lifeboats and killed by a Japanese navy vessel the next day when they were rowing towards land.On 15 September, the three submarines returned to the area and rescued 149 surviving POWs who were on rafts. Four others died before they could be landed atTanapag Harbor,Saipan, in theMariana Islands.

*Another article reports that only 63 survivors were picked up when rescued three days later.

References: “Chasing Rainbows in the Rain” by Ann Riddle, trove.nla.gov.au, NAA Service Records, a 1984 recorded interview with Betty Jacobs, Linton Jacobs and the Wikipedia website