Gunner - Service Number - VX129395 - 6th Heavy Brigade Royal Australian Artillery
Personal Details
Born: 18 March 1918 - Scarsdale, Victoria and was a rubber worker at the time of his enlistment.
Died: 1 July 1942 - Lost at Sea - P.O.W. on board the torpedoed Japanese troop ship, "Montevideo Mara".
Parents/Family: James and Helen Rosewarne née Scott who were living at 2 James Street, Footscray/Seddon at his time of enlistment.
Dick was the younger brother of James Norman Rosewarne (Uncle Jim) 1912 - 1995.
War Service
Clarence enlisted on 3rd of July 1940 and joined the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA) and on 16 July 1940 he was taken on strength as a Gunner with the 6th Heavy Brigade which formed part of the 'Lark' Force.
LARK FORCE
Lark Force was an Australian Army formation established in March 1941 during World War II for service in New Britain and New Ireland. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Scanlan, it was raised in Australia and deployed to Rabaul and Kavieng, aboard SS Katoomba, MV Neptuna and HMAT Zealandia, to defend their strategically important harbours and airfields.
The objective of the force, was to maintain a forward air observation line as long as possible and to make the enemy fight for this line rather than abandon it at the first threat as the force was considered too small to withstand any invasion.
Most of Lark Force was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army after Rabaul and Kavieng were captured in January 1942. The officers of Lark Force were taken to Japan, but while the NCOs and men were being transported to the Chinese island of Hainan aboard the Montevideo Maru, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the USS Sturgeon. Only a handful of the Japanese crew were rescued but none of the between 1,050 and 1,053 prisoners survived, because they were still locked below deck.
He embarked the HMAT Zealandia at Sydney on 18 April 1941 and disembarked at Rabaul, on 9th May 1941 which is situated on the northern tip of the island of New Britain - an Australian mandated territory at that time.
HMAT Zealandia
On the 20 January, 1942, Clarence was evacuated to the Military Hospital in Rabaul suffering from Enteritis.
The Japanese started bombing Rabaul in early January 1942, in advance of an invasion. In anticipation of the coming invasion, the battalion withdrew from around Rabaul and set up defences on the western shores of Blanche Bay, only hours before the Japanese landings commenced at 01:00 on 23 January, 1942.
It would have been around this time that Clarence was taken as a prisoner of war. He was officially reported missing on 20/4/1942 with a missing date of 25/1/1942.
On 18 January 1945, Clarence was presumed dead as it was ascertained he was a prisoner of war being transported on the Montevideo Mara - and most likely locked in the holds - when it was torpedoed by the American submarine, Sturgeon, believing it to be a Japanese troop ship and unaware it was carrying over 1,000 Australian prisoners of war. (This was the biggest single loss of life in Australia’s wartime history, with up to 845 soldiers and 206 civilians believed to have been locked in the ship’s hold when it sank.)
Many of the Australians who died were members of Lark Force.
Garrisoned in Rabaul, on the tip of the eastern province of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Lark Force consisted of the 2/22nd Battalion AIF (Australian Imperial Force) and supporting units. It comprised 1400 Australian Army soldiers and ‘… represented Australia’s cursory first line of defence in PNG after Japan entered the war’. According to Norm Furness, a former member of Lark Force who has devoted over 50 years to the cause of gaining recognition for Lark Force:
We were poorly equipped, mainly with stuff from World War I that had been packed in grease for 20 years ... we were supposed to be a garrison force and build up the fortress to protect the base and the airfields, but the extra equipment and reinforcements never came. We had two field guns and one was cracked ... and our airforce consisted of 10 Wirraways and two Lockheed bombers - trainer planes really.
… We were supposed to defend 35km of beach with antiquated equipment. If the Japanese landing parties attracted any flak, they would just go another 500 yards up the beach … I remember looking in the bay and there were 25 Japanese ships, including two aircraft carriers.
The Australian army garrison was inadequate for the task it faced and was quickly overrun by an estimated 15 000–20 000 Japanese soldiers in January 1942. Unfortunately, the garrison was not reinforced nor was it ordered to withdraw. The difficulties of sending reinforcements by sea and maintaining the additional forces when they were there meant that the Australian Chiefs of Staff decided that reinforcements were not possible. Much of Australia’s fighting force was still focused on the war with Germany and this, plus the relentless advance of the Japanese down the Malayan Peninsula and the resultant fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, must inevitably have drawn the attention of the Chiefs of Staff away from the situation in Rabaul.
Only hours into the invasion, the commanding officer, seeing the futility of the situation, ordered ‘every man for himself’. Approximately 400 Australians fled into the jungle, but many were subsequently recaptured and over 130 were tortured and killed. About 300 men survived a punishing trek to avoid capture and returned safely to Australia. The rest were taken prisoner and a few months later were marched from their compound, minus some officers, to a transport ship—the Montevideo Maru. Before boarding many of the prisoners were allowed to write letters to their loved ones. These were subsequently airdropped over Port Moresby. According to one witness, the departing soldiers were ‘… half-starved and ill ... with a smile and a cheery wave for those remaining, the stronger supporting the weaker, arm in arm’.
The Mothers’ and Widows’ Badge of the Second World War was issued to the mother and/or widow of a member of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), AIF (including the Australian Army Nursing Service), Citizens Military Forces, or Royal Australian Air Force who was killed in action, or died of wounds or other causes as a result of their service. The badge was round and silver-coloured. The obverse showed a raised image of a woman and part of a laurel wreath with the words "For Australia" in raised letters. The reverse had a hinged securing pin and raised lettering which reads "Issued by the C'wlth Govt" along with the manufacturer's details. Suspended by two securing rings from the bottom of the badge is a flat rectangular bar where stars were added, as in the case of the First World War Mothers' and Widows' Badge. Authority for the issue of the badge in the Second World War was given under AIF Order 200, 14 February 1941.
Helen May Rosewarne successfully applied for the Mother's and Widow's Badge on either 21/11/45 or 21/11/46.
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LEST WE FORGET
While researching my family history, I often come across military records so I decided to do a commerative page for those that I found that had served in the armed forces in whatever capacity. So some that are mentioned here are closely related but others may be on the periphery having married into the family etc. While others may not be related at all but have a tragic story to tell.