Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul - Australia's Worst Military Disaster of World War II Book

The torpedoing of the Montevideo Maru by the USS Sturgeon on July 1, 1942, with the tragic loss of 1053 Australian POW's and civilians, was merely one chapter in the appalling story of Lark Force chronicled in this book. Before embarking on that final, fatal journey, these brave men had to endure many experiences shared by thousands of others unfortunate enough to have become prisoners of the Japanese - torture, outright murder, starvation, disease and humiliation. Those familiar with the Bataan Death March, or what happened to the survivors of the USS Houston, or those taken captive and held on Wake Island, will recognize all the similarities. Their experiences echoed what had already been going on in China for many years, and were perhaps the natural outcome of a philosophy of warfare which dehumanized and held in contempt those who surrendered, promulgated a philosophy of racial superiority, and, in the belief that, because of this superiority, none of the rules applied, refused to sign the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

Perhaps the story of Lark Force would have had a happier outcome had the Australian War Cabinet not decided, unbelievably, to make the men of Lark Force "hostages to fortune"…to not render any assistance or try to evacuate them once the Japanese invasion had begun. Australia inherited an entire string of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago after the Great War…islands formerly belonging to Germany. Because the lion's share of the Australian military had been sent to fight in North Africa, far too few men were committed to the defense of far too vast an area…New Guinea, New Britain and New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands. The rationale was that, should much larger forces be sent there, and subsequently lost, too few men would be left to defend Australia itself should an invasion take place. But it was an almost certain recipe for defeat.

After the events of December 7-8, 1941, when Japanese intentions regarding the entire Southwestern Pacific area became clear, there probably would have been enough time to evacuate the men of Lark Force and pull them back to Port Moresby or northern Australia, leaving in place a volunteer network of Coast Watchers to report on Japanese movements. This would have made far more sense than simply leaving the men to their fate. As it was, about 75 percent of the entire force eventually lost their lives. Those on the Montevideo Maru shared the fate of about 20,000 other Allied prisoners on "hellships" which were torpedoed by American submarines because there was no way to know that POW's were aboard. Some of the officers were later sent to Japan and were subjected to forced labor for the remainder of the war, finally being liberated after September 1945; those who managed to eventually make it back to Australia (about 400 men) endured weeks or months of unbelievable privation in the jungles of New Britain; the stories they told of the horrible atrocities committed by the Japanese against helpless prisoners merely increased the anxiety of the loved ones of those who were still missing for any sort of knowledge about their fate.

Only sketchy information was available as to the loss of the Montevideo Maru until after the war, when it finally became clear that this had been Australia's greatest military disaster of the war. The book does not give any information on whether or not any of the perpetrators of the atrocities on New Britain were ever held to account for their crimes, as, for example, Generals Homma and Yamashita were for the Death March and other acts committed in the Philippines. This story serves as yet another example of how thin the veneer of civilization is, and how easily stripped away.

This book (also entitled Invasion: Rabaul) is the first part of a trilogy which also includes Fortress: Rabaul and Target: Rabaul, and which carries the story of the Japanese stronghold to the end of the war. Highlighting the second book is the story of the February 1942 raid on Rabaul in which Butch O'Hare, flying a Grumman F4F Wildcat from the USS Lexington, earned the Medal of Honor by shooting down a number of Mitsubishi "Betty" bombers.

*** review by Chuck Graham ****