Thread
THE LOST 600: October 1942, 600 British PoWs were taken by the IJN from Singapore to Ballalae (or Balalae) Island, 7,000km east (just off Bougainville Island) to build a Naval airstrip. The party composed mostly of officers & gunners of the 35 L.A.A. Regt’s 144 Battery,

2/8 also men from the 7 Coast Regt; 9 Coast Regt; 11 Coast Regt; 3 Heavy A.A.Regt.; 5th Searchlights and the Hong Kong Singapore Artillery. Over 80 men were kept at Rabaul. 517 men were taken on to Ballalae & faced many dangers; US bombers were now ranging overhead; the British

3/8 were in very bad shape; as well as the heavy US bombing, they endured regular beatings by guards taking out their hatred of the US bombing on the British. PoWs were not allowed to have slit trenches. Ballalae was under the command of Lt/Cdr Ozaki, 18 Naval Construction Unit.

4/8 On an island of only 7sq Km, bombing must have caused many PoWs’ deaths. Many soldiers are known to have died of malnutrition and mistreatment in the weeks before the final massacre, their bodies dumped offshore. After the strip was finished all of the men still alive were

5/8 massacred by Japanese bayonets & swords by the end of June 1943. There were no survivors. After war’s end 2½ years later in Oct-Nov 1945 a mass grave was found on Ballalae Island by the Australian 7th Battalion and the Papuan Infantry Battalion. 436 skeletons were exhumed.

6/8 There were no records left at all. The fact that British PoWs were so far from Singapore had been totally unknown. Meagre scraps of possessions were studied. A few Chinese slave laborers gave a little info about the mysterious soldiers as the skeletons were disinterred.

7/8 In Dec 1945 the remains were moved to CWGC Bomana, Port Moresby, where they lie today. Of the 81 men who’d been left behind at Rabaul in Nov '42, only 18 emaciated survivors were still alive at war’s end. Thus only 3% of the original 600 British soldiers survived captivity.

Thanks to @GrahamMcKechnie for info on two of the 600: George Gerrard, attached to Royal Indian Artillery, played for Northampton Rugby 1934/35 while at Cambridge, returned to Liverpool to play for Waterloo Rugby. Norman Bowell, 39 y.o., had played for Northants CC in 1925. End