The band of 2/22 Battalion, with the battalion formed up at the rear, about to move off during ...

The band of 2/22 Battalion, with the battalion formed up at the rear, about to move off during the Anzac Day Service. The band was unique, as 23 members were originally Salvation Army bandsmen. They enlisted as a band under their Bandmaster, Arthur Gullidge, and were assigned to 2/22 Battalion. The battalion was sent to garrison Rabaul as the infantry unit in Lark Force, arriving in New Britain in March and April 1941. The battalion suffered 571 men killed either during the New Britain campaign or later as prisoners of war following the Japanese invasion of January 1942. Some were executed by the Japanese at Tol. Many were held at Rabaul, New Britain until 22 June 1942 when an estimated 845 POWs and 209 civilians embarked aboard the Japanese transport ship MV Montevideo Maru. The POWs were members of 2/22 Battalion, No. 1 Independent Company, and other units of Lark Force. Civilians included officials of the New Guinea Administration and missionaries. The ship sailed unescorted for Hainan Island. On 1 July 1942 all the prisoners died when the Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy submarine, USS Sturgeon, off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Only one member of 2/22 Band, VX29061 Private Frederick William Kollmorgen, survived the 1942 New Britain campaign.