But this had been their nightly routine for months, practising their drill in the event of an invasion.

So routine in fact, that few if any of the men took it seriously and left for battle empty handed.

The troops literally had nothing – no water or food, no quinine for malaria, no maps, no weapons.

None of the essentials needed to face the more than 7000 crack Japanese troops that would make the initial landing.

Soon enemy numbers would swell to more than 18,000.

With odds at more than 10 to 1, Lark Force had no chance.

With enemy raids continuing overhead, the coastal guns one of the first casualties of the invasion.

The enemy made their landing soon after midnight on January 23 and within hours would overrun the men of Lark Force.

Gallant as they had been, there was little else they could do but to make their way into the jungle with the hope of regrouping.

It was then that the order was given, “Every man for himself.”

With that, the regular correspondence that families had been receiving back home from their boys suddenly ceased, with no explanation.

One of those families were the Leeders of Merbein.

Harold’s sister Shirley Hosking, of Mildura, was 14 years old when Harold left for overseas service and never returned home.

“I remember they left from Merbein Railway Station. I was standing on the channel side of the station saying goodbye to them,” Shirley said.

After hearing from Harold on a regular basis through letters and gifts he would send home, Shirley recalls how it just suddenly stopped.

“We didn’t hear anything for years. Then one day, after the war ended, his wife Eileen came to our family home in West Merbein with her parents,” she said.

“She’d received a telegram that said Harold was missing presumed dead. Eileen and Harold had only been married for three months when he left. “

Harold had survived the invasion and had been held as a PoW in Rabaul.

But he, like most, would never see the end of 1942, instead perishing in the sinking of the Japanese cargo ship, the Montevideo Maru in the early morning of July 1.

Unmarked as a prisoner transport ship, the American submarine USS Sturgeon caught the Montevideo Maru in her sights and, believing it was carrying cargo for the enemy, sent two torpedoes straight toward the hull of the ship.

In doing so, Australia lost 1049 men that morning in Australia’s biggest single loss of life in any maritime incident or military battle.

More hands were lost that night than on the HMAS Sydney when she was sunk in 1941 with 645 men on board.

Shirley remembers a fun-loving brother who was admired by many.

“Paddy saw the fun in everything. There were nine years’ difference in our ages, but we did lots together.

“Life went on while Paddy was missing. It was wartime, so we just had to get on. But we did miss him. Mum was never really the same after that.”

Until recently, the loss of the Montevideo Maru remained relatively unknown to most Australians.

But the tireless efforts of relatives and survivors of Lark Force to get recognition for this tragedy has seen a number of memorials to the loss of the Montevideo Maru unveiled over the past few years.

It is hoped an official memorial will be unveiled in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in July, marking the 70th anniversary of the sinking.

For Shirley, the memorial will be the “final recognition” of the loss of her brother 70 years after his death.

On February 3, just 11 days after the fall of Rabaul, Japanese troops captured more than 160 Australians near the Tol Plantation on the island’s south coast.

One of those captured was Private Leigh Doyle.

Known as “Farmer Doyle” by his mates, he had been working in Merbein when he enlisted.

The following morning, on February 4, the men were herded outside.

Their names, ranks and army numbers noted down. Pay books, photographs, letters and other personal items were collected and thrown aside.

With their hands tied behind their backs, the men were tied together in groups of nine or 10 and marched off into the jungle by Japanese soldiers holding bayonets in one hand and shovels in the other. The PoWs knew their fate.

Deep in the jungle of New Britain, 160 Australian men were slaughtered, shot or bayoneted, while prisoners of war.

Many of them were still tied to their mates as each fell.

The Japanese never intended the world to know of Tol, nor a similar massacre at Waitavolo, burning the bodies of their victims, their equipment and personal items.

Were it not for a few PoWs who somehow survived the ordeal, returning to Australia to recall the tragic story, we may never have known what happened that fateful morning.

Recovery parties were sent to Tol after the end of the war with the dreadful task of locating and identifying the remains their comrades, determined to give their mates the dignity of a final resting place.

There were lucky survivors of Lark Force, who spent months in the jungle before making their way back to Australia on small boats located on the island.

Officers of Lark Force who became PoWs were also shipped off the island, only to be used as slaves in Japanese mines.

Those who survived the war were repatriated back to Australia.

In their fight for survival, the men of Lark Force made Australian military history.

When Japan’s first heavy air attack on the Rabaul came on January 4, it was the first time an Australian territory came under attack from an enemy force.

It was also during that raid that Lark Forces’ anti-aircraft battery became the first Australian soldiers in action on Australian territory, and the first militia unit to fire upon the enemy.

On January 23, 1942, organised resistance by the Australians prior to the Japanese invasion was officially estimated to be 1396, including six nurses.

From this group, two officers and 26 men had been killed that day.

Over the next days, weeks and months, only around 400 would make their escape back to Australia.

For many relatives of those lost, the mystery surrounding their fate on an island so close to Australia continues today.

This article appeared in Monday's Sunraysia Daily 23/1/2012.