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Born 12th
Jan 1919 Smithton Tasmania to Arthur Thomas and Amy Alice Harman
(nee Rawlings) and was married to Stella Mary Lacey.
He enlisted in
Victoria and was posted to the No 1 Independent Company which
was formed in June 1941
The following month,
with the threat of war with Japan looming, it was sent to
Kavieng, New Ireland (Papua & New Guinea). The Company was
based at Kavieng, where it was to protect the airfield but
sections were also sent to Namatanai in central New Ireland,
Vila in the New Hebrides, Tulagi on Guadalcanal, Buka Passage in
Bougainville and Lorengau on Manus Island to act as observers.
In the event of an
invasion, the company’s role was the resist the enemy long
enough so that the airfield could be damaged and other military
installations, such as fuel dumps could be destroyed. The
company was to then withdraw to bases further south where they
could wage a guerrilla war.
On 21st
January about 60 Japanese aircraft attacked Kavieng. The
commandos’ shot down a number of aircraft, but the schooner, the
Induna Star, which was the company’s only means of escape had
also been damaged. Despite this though, the schooner managed to
sail to Kaut. Meanwhile, the commando’s started to withdraw
over land to Sook. Later that day the Australians received a
message that a Japanese naval force of an aircraft carrier and
six cruisers was approaching New Britain. The Japanese landed
in the early morning the next day.
As the lead Japanese
troops reached the airfield, there was some fighting as the
Australians blew the airfield and supply dump. The Japanese
landed between three and four thousand troops, hopelessly
outnumbered, those commandos still fighting around Kavieng fell
back to Sook, but not all of them made it. Some were captured.
At the end of June,
these men, along with the 2/22nd Battalion and other
members of Lark Force who had been captured on New Britain and
about 200 civilians boarded the Japanese ship “Montevideo Maru”.
Unescorted, she sailed from Rabaul on 22nd June but
on 1st July the ship was sighted by the American
submarine “Sturgeon”. Firing its torpedoes the “Sturgeon” sunk
the Montevideo Maru. None of the prisoners survived.
All 133 men from the
Independent Company who were aboard the “Montevideo Maru” were
lost.
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