The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (QX6380) Captain Domenic George Picone, Australian Army Medical Corps, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (QX6380) Captain Domenic George Picone, Australian Army Medical Corps, Second World War.

QX6380 Captain Domenic George Picone, Australian Army Medical Corps
Execution 27 August 1945

Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Domenic George Picone.
Domenic Picone was born in Perth on 14 March 1909, the son of Anthony and Mary Picone.

Known as “Dom”, he graduated in Melbourne University in 1936. Initially a pharmacist, by the time of the Second World War he was working as a GP in the town of Cooroy in Queensland.

Around mid-1940 Picone decided to enlist. With his experience as a medical practitioner he was a natural fit for the Australian Army Medical Corps. By July he had been promoted to captain and shortly afterwards he was attached to the 2/10 Field Regiment which had just been formed at Brisbane as one of the 8th Division’s three artillery regiments.

Towards the end of the year the unit conducted field manoeuvres and trained with 18-pounder guns from the First World War.

After a period of leave in November and attending a course on tropical hygiene early in the new year, in early February Picone and his comrades travelled by train to Sydney. Arriving at Circular Quay, they boarded the Queen Mary, which had been converted from a passenger ship to a troopship.

The Queen Mary was a part of a convoy taking troops of the 8th Division to Malaya and Singapore. The regiment took up residence in the Malacca High School and the school at Tranquerah; and for the next few months groups were rotated between both locations. The regiment trained and carried out manoeuvres at Mersing, where it was located when Japan entered the Second World War, beginning with the invasion of Malaya.

In early September, Picone learnt that his sister had died, and the following month he was given a period of special leave.

In January 1942, the regiment's position was bombed and strafed for the first time by Japanese aircraft. Japanese troops were able to quickly advance through Malaya and by January they had entered Johore. The regiment first went into action on 21 January, when it was called upon to bring down artillery fire on Japanese troops along the Mersing–Endau Road. The Japanese force had cut off a platoon from the 2/20th Battalion but the regiment's fire allowed the platoon to escape.

The 2/10th was in action from then on, firing on targets in the Mayang Estate and Lalang Hill, providing support for the 22nd Brigade’s successful ambush in the Nithsdale Estate, and then withdrawing to Singapore Island.

By 12 February Commonwealth troops had withdrawn to the city. The 2/10th remained in action, firing 2,100 rounds on Bukit Timah village. The next day the regiment moved to the Tanglin golf course, where it came under enemy artillery fire and air strikes. The regiment ceased firing at 10.30 pm on 14 February and the next day the garrison surrendered.

Most of the Australians captured in Singapore were moved into Changi, where they occupied Selarang Barracks. For many, this was just a transit stop, as working parties were soon dispatched to other camps in Singapore and Malaya.

Picone was one of almost 1,500 prisoners placed in B Force. The group was transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour almost a fortnight later.

At Sandakan, the men worked to construct an airfield and prisoner-of-war camps. Allied air raids on Sandakan began in October 1944. The airfield was bombed and strafed, and about 60 Japanese aircraft on the ground were destroyed. On Christmas Day 1944, B24 Liberators finally put the airfield out of commission.

From the beginning, conditions had been harsh. Men were confined to a cage for periods from a few days to many weeks for minor infringements, and subjected to repeated brutal bashings and starvation. Rations rapidly dwindled in 1944, and general health deteriorated.
Minimal food and brutal treatment at the hands of Taiwanese guards and Japanese soldiers exacerbated the impact of tropical diseases. The death rate climbed.

At one point Captain Picone was caught taking a light bulb to light his surgical hut in order to perform an emergency operation on a patient with a ruptured ulcer. He was beaten and forced to stand at attention for two hours while the patient lie bleeding in darkness on the operating table.

On 28 January the first forced march began, starting at Sandakan and ending near the village of Ranau some 260 kilometres to the west.

Four-hundred and seventy prisoners thought fit enough to carry baggage and supplies for the Japanese battalions relocating to the western coast were selected. They were all malnourished or suffering serious illness, and had meagre rations for the trip. Those who collapsed from exhaustion or sickness were killed or left to die.

The next group of 536 prisoners, including Picone, left in late May, arriving at Ranau a month later.

On 9 June another 75 men were sent. They were so weak that none survived beyond 50 kilometres. As each collapsed from exhaustion, he was shot by a Japanese guard. Those left at Sandakan who could not walk were killed or died of starvation and sickness.

By the end of July there were 38 prisoners left alive at Ranau. Two days after the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945, aircraft dropped leaflets with the news into the jungle. Only 15 prisoners were now alive.

On 27 July 1945, a Japanese guard warned Warrant Officer William Sticpewich that the Japanese were planning to execute the surviving prisoners. Sticpewich told four men, including Captain Picone, and offered them the opportunity to escape with him. All four turned down his offer.

Domenic Picone and the 14 other survivors of the infamous Sandakan Death Marches were shot by Japanese guards on 27 August 1945. The war had ended, but Allied forces had not arrived to liberate the prisoners at Ranau.

During the course of the war, the members of Domenic’s immediately family had died. While he had mourned the death of his sister, Domenic Picone had no opportunity to learn about the death of his mother Mary or his father Anthony on 17 August 1942 and 29 May 1945 respectively.

Today he is commemorated at the Labuan War Cemetery.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Domenic George Picone, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section