Australian 8th Division

Structure

• 22nd Australian Infantry Brigade, New South Wales, (NSW)
• * 2/18th Australian Infantry Battalion
• * 2/19th Australian Infantry Battalion
• * 2/20th Australian Infantry Battalion

• 23rd Australian Infantry Brigade
• * 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion, Victoria, (Vic.)
• * 2/22nd Australian Infantry Battalion, Vic.
• * 2/40th Australian Infantry Battalion, Tasmania, (Tas.)

• 24th Australian Infantry Brigade – to 9th Division, 1940
• * 2/25th Australian Infantry Battalion, Queensland (Qld)
• * 2/28th Australian Infantry Battalion, Western Australia (WA)
• * 2/43rd Australian Infantry Battalion, South Australia (SA)

• 27th Australian Infantry Brigade – from 9th Div., 1941
• * 2/26th Australian Infantry Battalion, Qld
• * 2/29th Australian Infantry Battalion, Vic.
• * 2/30th Australian Infantry Battalion, NSW

• Artillery regiments
• * 2/9th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery (RAA) – to 7th Division, 194?
• * 2/10th Field Regiment, RAA
• * 2/11th Field Regiment, RAA – to 7th Div., 194?
• * 2/14th Field Regiment, RAA
• * 2/15th Field Regiment, RAA
• * 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA – to 9th Div., 1940
• * 2/4th Anti-Tank Regiment, RAA

• Other units
• * 2/4th Australian Machine-Gun Regiment, WA
• * 2/3rd Australian Pioneer Battalion
• * 8th Australian Divisional Cavalry – to 9th Div., as 9th Div. Cavalry, May 1941.
• * Engineer companies
• ** 2/10th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, Vic.
• ** 2/11th Field Company, RAE, Qld
• ** 2/12th Field Company, RAE, NSW
• ** 2/4th Field Park Company, RAE, WA – to 9th Div., 194?
  

  Commanders

  
  Major General Vernon Sturdee, 1940
  
  Major General Henry Gordon Bennett, September 27, 1940 – February 15, 1941.
  

  History

  
  The 8th Division was raised to fight Nazi Germany and was trained for the conditions of the Middle East. However, as the possibility of war with Japan loomed, the 22nd Brigade was sent instead to Malaya on February 2, 1941. The 23rd Brigade went to the Northern Territory in April: each of its individual battalions was sent to one of the islands to Australia’s near north. The 2/22nd Battalion (Lark Force) was deployed to Rabaul, New Britain in April; the 2/40th Battalion (Sparrow Force) went to Timor, on December 12 and; the 2/21st Battalion (Gull Force) went to Ambon on December 17. In December 1940, the 24th Brigade was sent to North Africa, and became part of the 9th Division. It was replaced in the 8th Division by the 27th Brigade, which joined the 22nd Brigade in Malaya in August 1941.

  Malaya

  
  As war broke out Japanese forces based in Vichy French controlled Indochina quickly overran Thailand and invaded Malaya. The demoralising loss of two British battleships, HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales, off Malaya on December 10, 1941, neutralised Allied naval superiority. Japanese forces met stiff resistance from III Corps of the British Indian Army and British units in northern Malaya, but Japan's superiority in air power, tanks and infantry tactics slowly drove the Allied units back.

By January 22, the 2/19th Battalion and other Allied units had been isolated and overrun at Parit Sulong. Japanese Imperial Guards massacred about 150 prisoners in particularly barbaric fashion, following the fighting. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Anderson, acting commander of the 2/19th, was taken prisoner and was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. The rest of the 27th Brigade was waging a fierce rearguard action, as the Allied forces retreated towards Singapore.

The 22nd Brigade was guarding the north end of the causeway which linked Malaya to Singapore.

Rabaul

The island, part of the Australian territory of New Guinea was important because of its proximity to the Japanese territory of the Caroline Islands, including a major Japanese Navy base, on Truk Island. The main tasks of Lark Force were protection of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airfield and flying boat anchorage, which were important in the surveillance of Japanese movements in the region. A 130-strong 1st Independent Company was detached to the nearby island of New Ireland.

In January 1942, Lark Force came under heavy attack by Japanese aircraft, which neutralised coastal artillery. In the early hours of January 23, 1942, 20,000 Japanese marines began to land. Some faced fierce resistance, but because of the balance of forces, many landed unopposed. Within hours, the Lark Force commander, Lt Col. J. J. Scanlan had ordered: "every man for himself" and Australian soldiers and civilians split into small groups and retreated through the jungle. Only the RAAF had made evacuation plans and its personnel were removed by flying boat.

The army had made no preparations for guerilla warfare, and most soldiers surrendered during the following weeks. At least 130 Australians, taken prisoner at the Tol Plantation, were massacred on February 4, 1942. From mainland New Guinea, some civilians and individual officers organised unofficial rescue missions and — between March and May — about 450 troops and civilians who had managed to evade the Japanese, were evacuated by sea.

At least 800 soldiers and civilian prisoners of war lost their lives on July 1, 1942, when the ship on which they were sent from Rabaul to Japan, the Montevideo Maru, was sunk off the north coast of Luzon by the US submarine USS Sturgeon.

A handful of Lark Force members remained at large on New Britain and — often in conjunction with indigenous people — conducted guerilla operations against the Japanese. Rabaul became the biggest Japanese base in New Guinea. Allied forces landed in December 1944, although substantial Japanese forces continued to operate on New Britain until Japan surrendered in August 1945.

By the end of the Pacific War, more than 600 members of the 2/22nd Battalion were dead.

Ambon

The 8th Division's 1,100-strong Gull Force, commanded by Lt Col. L. N. Roach, arrived on December 17. In addition to the 2/21st Battalion, it included 8th Division artillery and support units. The existing Royal Netherlands Army garrison, commanded by Lt Col. J. R. L. Kapitz, consisted of 2,800 Indonesian colonial troops, with Dutch officers. Kapitz was appointed Allied commander on Ambon. Roach had visited the island before Gull Force's deployment and requested that more artillery and machine gun units be sent from Australia.

Ambon first came under attack from Japanese aircraft on January 6. Roach complained about the lack of response to his suggestions and he was replaced by Lt Col. W. R. J. Scott on January 14.

A Japanese fleet including two aircraft carriers and about 5,300 Japanese marines and soldiers reached Ambon on January 30, 1942. Although the Japanese ground forces were numerically not much bigger than the Allies, they had overwhelming superiority in air support, naval and field artillery, and tanks. In the belief that the terrain of the southern side of the island was too inhospitable for landings, the Allied troops were concentrated in the north. However, the iniital Japanese landings were in the south.

Within a day of the Japanese landing, the Dutch forces had been surrounded and had given up. Gull Force held out until February 3, when Scott surrendered.

According to Australian War Memorial principal historian, Dr Peter Stanley several hundred Australians surrendered at Laha Airstrip. At intervals for a fortnight after the surrender, more than 300 prisoners taken at Laha were executed. "The Laha massacre was the largest of the atrocities committed against captured Allied troops in 1942."[1]

Dr Stanley said of Australian prisoners of war on Ambon: "They suffered an ordeal and a death rate second only to the horrors of Sandakan, first on Ambon and then after many were sent to the island of Hainan [China] late in 1942. Three-quarters of the Australians captured on Ambon died before the war's end. Of the 582 who remained on Ambon 405 died. They died of overwork, malnutrition, disease and one of the most brutal regimes among camps in which bashings were routine."[1]

Only 302 members of Gull Force survived the war.

The Fall of Singapore

By January 31, the last Allied forces had left Malaya, and Allied engineers blew a hole, 70 feet (20 metres) wide, in the causeway.

The Allied commander, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival gave Maj. Gen. Gordon Bennett's 8th Division the task of defending the prime invasion points on the north side of the island, in a terrain dominated by mangrove swamps and forest — the 22nd Brigade was assigned a daunting 10 mile (16 kilometre) wide sector in the west of the island, and the 27th Brigade a 4,000 yard (3,650 metre) zone in the north west, near the causeway.

From vantage points across the straits, as well as aerial reconnisance and infiltrators, the Japanese commander, General Tomoyuki Yamashita and his staff gained excellent knowledge of the Allied positions. From February 3, the Australian positions were shelled by Japanese artillery. Shelling and air attacks intensified over the next five days, destroying communications between Allied units and their commanders.

At 8.30pm on February 8, Australian machine gunners opened fire on vessels carrying a first wave of 4,000 Japanese troops towards Singapore Island.

Fierce fighting raged all day, but eventually the increasing Japanese numbers — as well as their artillery, planes and military intelligence — began to exploit gaps in the Australian lines. By midnight the two 8th Division infantry brigades were separated and the 22nd Brigade was being forced to retreat. At 1am further Japanese troops were landed in the west of the island and the last Australian reserves went into position.

Towards dawn on the February 9, elements of the 22nd Brigade were being overrun and it was decided to form a secondary defensive line. The 2/18th Battalion had lost more than 50% of its personnnel. During the course of the day, the 22nd and other Allied units in the east were forced to retreat further south.

The 27th Brigade had not yet faced an attack. However, the next day, Japanese Imperial Guards made a botched landing in the north west, suffering severe casualties from drowning and burning oil in the water, as well as Australian mortars and machine guns. In spite of the 27th Brigade's success — as a result of a misunderstanding — they began to withdraw from Kranji in the north. That same day, further misunderstandings, increasing numbers of desertions and the arival of Japanese tanks, caused the Allies to lose control of the crucial Kranji-Jurong ridge through the western side of the island. However the Japanese armoured units failed to seize an opportunity to advance into Singapore City itself.

On February 11, knowing that his own supplies were running low, Yamashita called on Percival to "give up this meaniningless and desperate resistance".

The next day the Allied lines stabilised around a small area on the south side of the island and fought off determined Japanese assaults. However, the Allies lost more ground on February 13, and Bennett and other senior officers advised Percival to surrender, in the interests of minimising civilian casualties. Percival refused but unsuccessfully sought authority to surrender from his superiors.

The following day the remaining Allied units battled on; civilian casualties mounted as one million people crowded into the area now held by the Allies and bombing and artillery attacks intensified. Civilian authorities began to fear that the water supply would soon give out. Japanese troops killed 200 staff and patients after they captured Alexandra Barracks Hospital.

By the morning of February 15, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence in the north and food and some kinds of ammunition had begun to run out. After meeting his unit commanders, Percival contacted the Japanese and formally surrendered the Allied forces to Yamashita, shortly after 5.15pm. General Bennett created an enduring controversy when he handed over the 8th Division to a brigade commander, commandeered a boat and managed to escape captivity.

Almost 15,000 Australians became prisoners of war at Singapore, an absolute majority of all Australian prisoners of the Japanese in World War II. During the Malaya-Singapore campaign as a whole, the 8th Division suffered 73% of Allied deaths in battle, even though they comprised only 14% of the Allied forces.

Timor

1942-45

Following the loss of its original battalions, the headquarters units of the 23rd Brigade, which had remained in Darwin, acquired Militia battalions and became a Militia unit for the rest of the war. The 8th Division ceased to exist.

Further reading

• Silver, Lynette Ramsay, The Bridge at Parit Sulong - An Investigation of Mass Murder, The Watermark Press, 2004. ISBN 0-949284-65-3.

See also