Lyn’s latest history piece is a must read

LYN Skillern launched her book ‘Forgotten For Too Long,’ on Sunday, March 26. 

The book tells the story of 79 men associated with Gippsland, who were in Lark Force, with most being part of the 2/22nd Infantry Battalion.

The launch was well attended with over 100 people in the audience, and many of these were direct relatives and descendants of the soldiers that Lyn had researched and written about. 

Lyn was able to meet these people face to face for the first time. 

“It was wonderful… Meeting people in person was nice as I’ve only spoken to them on the phone.”

Many of the men’s family members gave Lyn information and photographs and wrote the stories of their relatives. 

After time, Lyn began to be able match faces with names and could identify soldiers in group pictures and tell families who stood alongside their relatives. 

As the story began to unfold, Lyn decided that they deserved their story to be told, stating it was one of the biggest debacles.

The start of this book began about 20 years ago with just a spark of an idea, when Lyn was a teacher at Leongatha High School. 

An honour board displayed at the school listed the names of two students and a teacher who died in the First World War, and 22 students who died in the Second World War. 

Each time the school captain read the names out from the board, Lyn thought, “One day when I’ve got time, I would like to find out what happened to all those men.”

That day came around the time when Lyn was retiring in 2002, and she became interested in the stories of two men in particular. 

“One was on a prisoner of war ship, a ship that was carrying prisoners of war that was sunk on the first of July 1942…. Another was in a massacre of prisoners on Rabaul in New Guinea, in March 1942.”

“I discovered what battalion they’re in, and then I discovered that each of them died with five other (Gippsland) locals.”

“Then I got a nominal roll for the battalion, and I started looking for other locals and I found 12.”

 “Then I thought, I think I’ll just search for Gippsland people”, of which Lyn found 57 at first. 

She started writing a few articles about the soldiers and the events in New Britain, New Guinea.  

“I gradually wrote more and more articles, then I met more and more people. I got more information.” 

She eventually discovered there were 79 Gippsland men who were in Lark Force and of those, fewer than half survived, and many of those who survived died young.

“They sent them to New Britain, the island where Rabaul is located to protect the harbor… it wasn’t a very big force, it was not at all well-resourced. The Japanese invaded with huge numbers and defeated them on the 23rd of January 1942.”

Lyn goes into detail in the book about the events surrounding the invasion and what became of the men in Lark Force.  

Many were kept as Prisoners of War (POW) on Rabaul, 30 were taken as POW on board the Japanese ship Montevideo Maru, some of the soldiers escaped and there are personal diaries of others. 

A direct relative of one of the surviving soldiers and who told his father’s story was Peter Dennison, son of Clifford Dennison. 

Peter is a Gippsland resident, and Lyn met him when they were both in Canberra last year at a special service for the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the HMAS Canberra. 

Peter was familiar with his the some of the events surrounding Lark Force and spoke at the book launch. 

Lyn tells of another chance encounter with Joyce Miller, a direct family member of one of the soldiers who died in Rabaul. 

“I met her (Joyce) quite by accident,” Lyn says.  

It was one year, during a daffodil festival at the Historical Society Hall and there was a display of the soldiers in the front room. 

Joyce was there and commented to Lyn that her dad was killed in the war, and he was from Kooweerup. 

Lyn knew who it was and said Joyces father’s name, which Joyce confirmed was correct. 

“She didn’t know her dad. He was killed on the day of the invasion, and she was here on Sunday (at the book launch).”

Lyn has given families of these men the chance to publish their stories and her work on ‘Forgotten For Too Long’ means that while many men lost their lives and families lost their loved ones, their stories are no longer lost and they will now, not be forgotten.