Free Fortress Rabaul by Bruce Gamble Page B

lost control over his scattered rifle companies, which began to fall back in disarray.
    SEVERAL WEEKS PRIOR to the invasion, Scanlan had chastened subordinates for suggesting that food and supplies should be cached in the jungle, berating their attitude as “defeatist.” He reinforced his point on New Year’s Day with two unyielding proclamations, distributed to all hands: “EVERY MAN WILL FIGHT TO THE LAST,” and “THERE SHALL BE NO WITHDRAWAL.”
    But on January 23, as his defenses fell apart around him, Scanlan reversed his position. During his last radio contact with Lt. Col. Howard H. Carr, commanding officer of the 2/22nd Battalion, Scanlan stated that the situation appeared hopeless. It had become, he said, a matter of “every man for himself.” The unimaginative Carr, interpreting Scanlan’s words as a directive, ordered the phrase transmitted to the scattered companies. He even sent out runners to make certain the message was delivered.
    Scanlan then did the unthinkable. Accompanied by several members of his staff and a native houseboy, he walked off the battlefield while the fighting was still in progress. A short while later, all resistance by LarkForce collapsed. What had begun as an organized withdrawal degenerated into a pell-mell dash for the sanctuary of the jungle.
    Among the hundreds of Australians who “went bush,” almost none were prepared for long-term survival in the wilds of New Britain. Much of the blame lies with Scanlan’s bizarre decision to deliberately mislead his men into believing they were deploying on an exercise of two or three days’ duration. His earlier refusal to allow caches of food to be hidden in the jungle also came back to haunt him, because there were several trailheads and other strategic locations where supply dumps might have been placed. A veteran of trench warfare, Scanlan had no background in jungle fighting. As a direct result of his intractability, hundreds of men entered the jungle with little more than the lightweight khaki uniforms they wore.
    A FEW OF THE firefights, though brief, had been intense. At various sites, mostly on the plateau south of the caldera, fifty-seven Australians lay dead, and dozens more were wounded. The Japanese captured most of those who could still walk, but men immobilized by their wounds were generally finished off.
    At least five Lark Force officers were murdered by General Horii’s soldiers. On January 26, Lt. Lennox D. Henry, an infantry officer, and Capt. Herbert N. Silverman, a medical officer with the Royal Australian Artillery, were captured with a small party of evaders following a skirmish northwest of Rabaul. The Japanese beheaded Henry on the spot and took Silverman to Rabaul, only to execute him four days later after refusing to recognize his status as a doctor. Captain Richard E. Travers, who led a rifle company in the 2/22nd Battalion, voluntarily surrendered with approximately one hundred of his men on January 27 and was immediately murdered. His death was apparently intended as a warning to other Australians contemplating evasion.
    In the minds of the Japanese, the killings were justified. On the day of the invasion, thousands of leaflets had been air-dropped to the Australians hiding in the jungle, warning them in no uncertain terms that their situation was hopeless:
     
To the Officers and Soldiers of this Island!
SURRENDER AT ONCE!
And we will guarantee your life, treating you as war prisoners. Those who RESIST US WILL BE KILLED ONE AND ALL. Consider seriously, you can find neither food nor way of escape in this island and you will only die of hunger unless you surrender.
January 23rd, 1942
Japanese Commander in Chief
     
    Horii must have anticipated quick compliance, for that was how the system worked in the Imperial Army. His decree was more than a warning: it was a direct order. But the Australians had no intention of complying. As the days passed, only a few surrendered, mainly because no one in Lark Force