Large respectful gathering greets Leongatha dawn
We will remember them
THE COMMUNITY of Leongatha and surrounds was out in force to pay respect on a cold but still Anzac Day morning, the South Gippsland Shire Brass Band setting the mood playing moving hymns.
Korumburra-based Lieutenant Colonel John Blunt, a Leongatha RSL committee member, gave the address, speaking of the hopelessly outnumbered ‘Lark Force’ that fell to the Japanese in Rabaul.
He spoke of those of the 2/22nd Battalion of the 23rd Brigade of the 8th Division, from which much of Lark Force was drawn, that Battalion raised from soldiers recruited from Victoria, including Gippsland, one being Leongatha’s Major William Owen.
“Allied headquarters had concluded that though the scale of the attack which could be brought against Rabaul was beyond the capacity of the small Garrison to repel, the enemy should be made to fight; but Lark Force was ill-equipped and likely to be overwhelmed by an enemy attack,” Lieutenant Colonel Blunt said.
So it proved on January 23 1942 when the Japanese landed in force, soon breaking down resistance.
Prisoners were taken, 160 of whom were massacred at the Tol Plantation.
Of those captured, a further 849 soldiers and about 200 civilians were loaded onto the Montevideo Maru to be transported to prisoner of war camps on the Chinese Island of Hainan, but tragically the ship was torpedoed and all prisoners perished.
Major Owen was among the soldiers fortunate to be rescued, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to the 39th Battalion as its new Commanding Officer.
The 2/22nd Battalion was never reconstituted.
Sadly, Lieutenant Colonel Owen was killed in action at Kokoda in July 1942.
