From Collingwood, Waikiwi in Invercargill, he was a hardy southerner who had been working with the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department. When he was old enough he joined the war effort, enlisting into the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals.

He was selected for special service with seven others by SOE operative Captain Don Stott at Trentham Camp in November 1944, and the following month sailed to Australia on the USS freighter Waipouri. Undergoing training at the Fraser Commando School on Fraser Island in Queensland, Ernie Myers completed a parachute course in preparation for his first mission.

The group were attached to the Service Reconnaissance Department, an Australian Special Operations organisation which was an offshoot of the British SOE. Ernie Myers was posted to ‘Z’ Special Unit, which had been formed to infiltrate behind enemy lines by parachute or submarine to attack key targets or organise local resistance groups to fight against the Japanese.

Allocated to a four-man commando party, the 21 year-old was inserted by parachute into Balikpapan, the Dutch region of the island of Borneo on 30 June 1945. The group’s task was to gather intelligence, but the drop area had not be fully checked. When they parachuted into enemy-held territory near Semoi, Ernie Myers landed with two others inside a Japanese camp.

The group tried to fight their way out, but were overwhelmed when Australian commando Sergeant O’Dwyer was killed, and Ernie Myers and Lance Sergeant Ma’eroff Bin Said a Malay interpreter were captured. Both men were subjected to horrendous torture for three days before the enemy beheaded them on 4 July 1945.

Their remains were recovered after the War by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and interred in the service cemetery on Labuan Island, in Brunei Bay, Borneo. Only the party’s leader Flight Lieutenant Martin, who had landed 10 miles away, survived the mission. A post-War war crimes tribunal investigated their deaths, and a trial resulted in the conviction and execution of the Japanese involved in Ernie Myers murder.

References:

Gabrielle McDonald, New Zealand’s secret heroes: Don Stott and the ‘Z’ Special Unit, Reed Books: Auckland, 1991.

Graham Greenwood, No turning back: Top secret intelligence operation in Borneo during World War II behind Japanese lines, SSS Distributors: Christchurch, 2005.

Barry Gamble December 2020