Scotch College

A boy's own war story

One Scotch Collegian who served in World War II does not appear in the government’s records.

Robbie Drijver (’47), who died last year, entered Scotch as a refugee from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). His father had worked at the Standard Vacuum Oil Company refinery at Soengi Gerong, Sumatra, where Robbie himself attended school and led an exotic childhood that included having a Sumatran tiger kitten as a pet.

When the Japanese invaded in early 1942, the family fled to Australia. In the crisis, Robbie, then aged about 14, was left behind. (Each of his parents thought he was with the other.) Imprisoned in a boys’ camp, he slipped away undetected to a Chinese family who had acted as ships’ chandlers for the oil tanker fleet, and was smuggled out on a small sampan.

Two nights later, at sea, a submarine surfaced right next to them and their hearts stopped for fear it was Japanese. However, it was American, and although Rob couldn’t speak any English the Chinese made the Americans understand that the young boy wanted to get to Australia. The Americans took him on board and later transferred him to a Catalina, which flew him to Darwin where the Red Cross traced his father in Melbourne where Rob went back to school.

One day, his father consulted him about plans to drop parachute troops to capture the oil refinery, asking his views on the drop site. Rob had hunted over every square inch of the area and said: ‘No, not on any account. Those are fish ponds and the paratroopers would drown.’ He identified the small village where their cook and gardener lived and other friendly natives who knew him, and it was decided to assemble a small commando reconnaissance group to prepare for the bigger landing.

Rob took part! They were dropped at night close to the refinery. They identified a safe drop site, but managed to withdraw safely only after a fight with Japanese troops in which a grenade injured Rob in the leg.

Sworn to secrecy, Rob returned to his classroom at Scotch but was pleased after the war when the new swimming coach at Scotch turned out to be Allan Crawford (1935), who had been one of the Australian commandos.

Before the mission, Rob was trained at Point Cook how to kill quickly and quietly in unarmed combat. At the same time, he was taught never to get into a heated argument, but just to turn and walk away from any conflict at School for fear that his automatic response might be lethal. So if any of his former classmates wondered in later years why Rob used to walk away from fisticuffs at School, it was always for his friends’ well-being.

June Drijver