|
The Battle of Rabaul, around the main town of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, in early February 1942, represented a strategically-significant defeat of Allied forces by Japan, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Following the capture of Rabaul, Japanese forces turned it into a major base and proceeded to land on mainland New Guinea, advancing towards Port Moresby and Australia.
New Britain, which was part of what was then the Australian territory of New Guinea, was important because of its proximity to the Japanese territory of the Caroline Islands, including a major Imperial Japanese Navy base, on Truk Island.
The 1,400-strong Australian Army garrison in New Britain, known as Lark Force, was commanded by Lt Col. J. J. Scanlan. It included 716 frontline soldiers, in the shape of the 2/22nd Battalion, deployed from March 1941 as fears of war with Japan increased. The force also included personnel from a local militia unit, the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, a coastal defence battery, an anti-aircraft battery, an anti-tank battery and a detachment of the 2/10th Field Ambulance. The 130-strong 1st Independent Company was detached to the nearby island of New Ireland. The main tasks of the garrison were protection of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airfield and flying boat anchorage, which were important in the surveillance of Japanese movements in the region. However, the RAAF contingent had little offensive capability at Rabaul, being comprised of 10 lightly-armed CAC Wirraway training aircraft and four Lockheed Hudson light bombers.
In January 1942, Lark Force came under heavy attack by Japanese aircraft, which neutralised coastal artillery. In the early hours of January 23, 1942, the 20,000 Japanese marines of the South Seas Force, under Maj. Gen Tomitaro Horii began to land. Some faced fierce resistance, but because of the enormous imbalance in forces, many Japanese troops landed unopposed, in unguarded locations. Within hours, Scanlan had ordered: "every man for himself" and Australian soldiers and civilians split into small groups and retreated through the jungle. Only the RAAF had made evacuation plans and its personnel were removed by flying boat.
The army had made no preparations for guerilla warfare, and most soldiers surrendered during the following weeks. At least 130 Australians, taken prisoner at the Tol Plantation, were massacred on February 4, 1942. From mainland New Guinea, some civilians and individual officers organised unofficial rescue missions and—between March and May—about 450 troops and civilians who had managed to evade the Japanese were evacuated by sea.
At least 800 soldiers and civilian prisoners of war lost their lives on July 1, 1942, when the ship on which they were sent from Rabaul to Japan, the Montevideo Maru, was sunk off the north coast of Luzon by the US submarine Sturgeon (SS-187).
A handful of Lark Force members remained at large on New Britain and—often in conjunction with indigenous people—conducted guerilla operations against the Japanese. Rabaul became the biggest Japanese base in New Guinea. Allied forces landed in December 1944, although substantial Japanese forces continued to operate on New Britain until Japan surrendered in August 1945.
External links
Australian War Memorial, Rabaul, 1942 (http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/remember.nsf/pages/NT00002EBE?openDocument)
|
