The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
N85071 Lieutenant (Lt) P W Fisher (left), Second in Command of the Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul, and N85247 Lt D M Selby (right), Officer Commanding, outside their hut at Malaguna Camp. The Anti-aircraft Battery was equipped with two out-dated 3 inch anti-aircraft guns. When the Japanese attack was expected the battery was moved to Frisbee Ridge, on Observatory Hill overlooking Simpson Harbour, and was also assigned the additional role of coastal defence against landing craft. Both officers survived the retreat from Rabaul in 1942, however, of the fifty-one other ranks in the battery only seven survived. Some were massacred by the Japanese at Tol. On 22 June 1942 an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians embarked from Rabaul aboard the Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of the the Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul, No. 1 Independent Company, 2/22 Battalion and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all of the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines.
N85247 Lieutenant (Lt) D M Selby, Officer Commanding the Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul, and his driver N108194 (NX191448) Lance Bombardier (L Bdr) B R Hartigan in the battery's Ford utility truck (Regi
An informal group portrait of officers and senior non-commissioned officers from the Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul at the battery's position at Frisbee Ridge not long before the Japanese attacks on Rab
Studio portrait of NX191455 Gunner (Gnr) Earl James Arrow, Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul, of Parkes, NSW. He enlisted in Moore Park, NSW, on 23 April 1941. Gnr Arrow was taken prisoner of war (POW) fol
Studio portrait of NX54267 Sergeant (Sgt) Victor Ernest Ross Wainwright, 17 Anti Tank Battery. Sgt Wainwright was taken prisoner of war (POW) on New Britain and died when the ship Montevideo Maru sank
Three members of the Anti Aircraft Battery Rabaul in the back of the battery's Ford utility truck (Registration Number C13605) returning to Malaguna camp after a pig shooting or "puk puk" expedition.
Starboard side view of the Japanese passenger ship MV Montevideo Maru. On 22 June 1942 an estimated 845 prisoners of war (POWs) and 209 civilians captured by Japanese forces embarked from Rabaul, New
