Introduction
The Royal Australian Navy had less than a dozen men in Rabaul when the Japanese stormed
ashore in January 1942.
Despite that, they were involved in every significant aspect of that short and dreadful campaign:
the fatally flawed higher commanders; withdrawal along the North and South coasts of New
Britain; deaths from disease, privation and war crime; endurance and leadership; evacuation
on the Lakatoi and Laurabada; the Coastwatchers; personal sacrifice; massacres at Tol
Plantation and Waitavolo; and the tragic sinking of the Montevideo Maru.
This story mines academic histories, archival sources, and personal recollections and memoirs
to bring their individual stories into one narrative.