Descendants and families of those who died in Australia's worst maritime disaster have gathered at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, to mark the 80th anniversary of the tragedy.The Australian War Memorial has commemorated the 80th anniversary of Australia's greatest maritime disaster, the sinking of the Montevideo Maru
The Japanese Prisoner of War ship was transporting Australians and others to Hainan Island when it was sunk by US Navy submarine the USS Sturgeon. Laloma Puls, whose father was listed as being on the Montevideo Maru, said the commemoration had affected her more than she expected.She was born in Rabaul, but her family was evacuated to Melbourne in 1942 with her father left behind. She said her mother discovered her father had died by reading it in the newspaper.
"I was much more affected than I though I would be actually. I was just wishing Mum was here," she said.Andrea Williams, president of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, said the opportunity to remember her grandfather and great-uncle who died in the disaster was very special. "It wasn't just about the soldiers of Lightforce, it was about the civilians as well who were living there. Rabaul was the capital of the mandated territory at the time so there was a lot of administration people living in Rabaul, and basically all those administrative people died on the Montevideo Maru," she said.
"We know that all those 1,053 men who died on the hell ship Montevideo Maru — including the 33 from the Norwegian vessel the Herstein — those who had extraordinary arduous escapes that took weeks and months, the Coast Watchers, the men and women who suffered the war years in prison camps in the New Guinea islands, the families evacuated, the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and great uncles.
An American submarine killed 1000 Australian soldiers and civilians. How have I never heard of this atrocity?