Former Australian prisoners of war are rescued by the crew of USN submarine USS Pampanito ...

Former Australian prisoners of war are rescued by the crew of USN submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383). These men survived the sinking of two Japanese troop transports, the Kachidoki Maru and the Rakuyo Maru by Pampanito and USS Sealion II (SS-315) on 12 September 1944 respectively. Many individual survivors formed groups and fashioned makeshift rafts from what floating debris was available to them. Covered in oil, this condition saved them from serious sunburn and kept waiting sharks away. These men were later disembarked at Saipan and eventually repatriated to Australia in October 1944. Other USN submarines also searched for and rescued groups of survivors. Those men recovered by Japanese ships would continue on to Japan for transfer to new camps where they would remain in captivity until the end of the Second World War.