Lark Force

On the 18/4/2023 the shipwreck, Montevideo Maru was discovered at a depth of over 4000 meters of water, (13000 feet), in the south China sea, off the northwest coast of Luzon. The wreck is deeper than the RMS Titanic, and is in two pieces. This was a merchant ship of the Empire of Japan that was pressed into service as a military transport ship during world war two. There will be people in Beaufort that had a relative or someone they knew that was on that ship. Francis Roy (Jack) Hains, and Alexander Calder Cobden.

Jack married Dulcie Crick who was my grandmother’s Sylvia Lofts nee Crick, niece.

Both of these men enlisted in the Australian Army and were assigned to the 2/22 Infantry Battalion, part of the 23rd Brigade of the 8th Division that was raised in July 1940. They were based initially at Trawool in central Victoria then onto Bonegilla.

The battalion made the 235km journey on foot, were they began their training until they travelled by train for Sydney. Leaving for Rabaul on the 17/4/1941 and arriving on the 26/4/1941. The 2/22 combined with several other units to form what would be known as Lark force. While on Rabaul they were tasked with defending, two airfields, port and seaplane anchorage with hopelessly obsolete equipment and virtually no possibility of reinforcements or evacuation. Nonetheless Lark force constructed defences and trained for war in its designated areas of operations.

Lark force like Gull force who were sent to Ambon that l previously wrote about were among some of the worst decisions ever made by Australian Military planners. The men were ill equipped and too few in numbers to hold back the march of the Japanese Imperial Force. On the 20th of January 1942 over one hundred Japanese aircraft starting their bombing raids on Rabaul. No 24 squadron tried to defend the island but its efforts were futile. The squadron of eight Wirraway aeroplanes took off to intercept the Japanese aircraft, but were immediately attacked by a large force of Mitsubishi Zeros.

Air raids continued and at 1 am on the 23rd of January 1942, a 5,000 strong invasion force of the Japanese Imperial Army came ashore, outnumbering the 1,400 men of Lark Force. They landed at various beaches around the island and were supported by heavy bombing from the air. Whilst the single Australian battalion thinly dispersed around Blanche bay attempted to repel the invaders, they were ultimately forced to retreat. There had been no withdrawal or evacuation planes made before the invasion, command from the top had broken down, and Lark Force disintegrated. By nightfall Rabaul had all but been taken and Colonel John Scanlan ordered every man for himself. A small number of men managed to evade the Japanese by hiding in the jungle. Some found small boats and got away under their own means. Others were picked up by larger vessels operating from New Guinea. Around 400 members of Lark Force managed to return to Australia, 300 of which were members of the 2/22.

One of these lucky men was a Beaufort resident Peter Doull. On Peter’s enlistment papers it shows he came from Wick in Scotland and his address at the time he enlisted was Nerring via Beaufort. Another 160 men battled through the jungle, suffering from malaria, dysentery, ulcers and hunger eventually found some small boats. In these small boats they crept along the south east coast of New Britain coming ashore near Tol Plantation on the 4th of February 1942. They were expected and were met by five barge loads of Japanese troops. They were exhausted and had no choice but to surrender. At first it seemed they would be treated as Prisoners of War should be, then the order was given to execute them. They were tied together in small groups, taken into the jungle and executed. They were shot or bayoneted or both. Two men escaped and were re-captured at the neighbouring Waitavalo plantation where they were smeared in pig grease and burned alive in a house. A few survived by playing dead although they had terrible wounds, against all odds a few managed to get back to Australia. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, anyone that had escaped could be sentenced up to 30 days imprisonment. Japan had signed the agreement but they never officially ratified it. Therefore Japan ignored their responsibilities to POW under the agreement.

The remainder of Lark force were now POW. On the 22nd of June, four months after the fall of Rabual to the Japanese Imperial Force January/February 1942. 1,054 Australians of which 845 were from Lark Force, within the 1,054 were 209 civilians.

Some of these civilians came from as far a field as Denmark, England, Fiji, Germany, Holland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and America.

Early on the 22nd of June 1942 members of the 2/22 Battalion and civilian prisoners that were captured were ordered to march to the waterfront. Japanese guards divided the prisoners into groups of fifty men. They then were marched onto the Montevideo Maru and were locked below the deck. The ship was not marked that they were carrying POW and civilians on board. The ship departed without escort for the Chinese island of Hainan. This was the island were some POW from Ambon had been sent and were used as slave labour.

Eight days into the voyage, the Montevideo Maru was spotted by the American submarine USS Sturgeon near the north Philippines coast. The Sturgeon pursued but could not attack as the ship was moving at 17 knots (31 kh/h). At about midnight the Montevideo Maru slowed to about 12 knots (22 kh/h) to facilitate an expected rendezvous with two destroyers to act as escorts. The Sturgeon manoeuvred into a position to fire its four stern torpedoes. The USS Sturgeon’s log records an impact at 2.22.am, approximately near or towards the stern of the ship. Japanese survivors from the Montevideo Maru reported two torpedoes striking the vessel followed by an explosion in the oil tank. The Japanese crew of 88 were ordered to abandon ship. Only 17 survived the sinking, it does not appear that they made any attempt to assist the prisoners that were locked below deck.

The Montevideo Maru sank within 11 minutes. This has been described as the worst maritime disaster, in peace or war in Australian history.

Considerable efforts were made by the International Red Cross and the Australian government to seek details of the Montevideo Maru passenger list from the Japanese authorities. Despite evidence that the Japanese navy forwarded information about the loss of the vessel to Japan’s POW information Bureau as early as January 1943. Australian authorities were not provided with a list of casualties until October 1945. In 2012 the Japanese government handed over thousands of POW documents to the Australian government. The Montevideo Maru’s manifest which contained the names of all the Australians on board was among them. The translation of the manifest was released in 2012. Confirming a total of 1,054 Australians of which 845 were from Lark Force.

The discovery of the Montevideo Maru was made possible by the non for profit Silent World Foundation deep sea survey specialists. The crew and technical team on board the Furgo Equator, and the Australian Department of Defence. A service was held at sea for those Australian men who were trapped below the deck of the Montevideo Maru this year. I am sure that the discovery of the Montevideo Maru will provide closure to many familles knowing that their loved ones were not forgotten and the Montevideo Maru is classed as a war grave.

The service concluded by acknowledging the Japanese crew that were also lost at sea. Lest We Forget.

My information for this article has come from the National Archives of Australia, The Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the 2/22 Battalion Lark Force Association.
The Toll Plantation Massacre by Margaret L Henderson.

Written and researched by Colin Lofts