Albert enlisted in the Army at Caulfield on 24
June 1940, aged 21 years. He went for training in Bendigo, the
transferred to Bonegilla for more training (At Bonegilla he would
have had a chance to catch up with his family, who were then at
Huon, only a few miles away). On 3rd of May 1941 he embarked for
Rabaul. Upon the Japanese invasion he was taken prisoner after
spending some time hiding in the caves in the area. On 28 April 1942
Albert was reported to be a POW. His record states that he was on
the Montevideo Maru, and presumed dead. The Montevideo Maru was a
Japanese ship transferring prisoners to Japan which was sunk by am
American submarine in the early hours of 1 July 1942 . 1058
Australians went down with the ship. Solitary ships on both
sides often traveled at night hoping to avoid submarines. There was
no way the American submarine could have known the ship was carrying
POWs. The Japanese did not notify such ship movements..Relatives
were not notified of the Men's fate until an announcement by the
Deputy Prime Minister in October 1945.
Rumors circulated after the war that the missing
men were not on the ship, but were taken into the jungle near Rabaul
and massacred, and that the Japanese used the Montevideo Maru
story to cover up the atrocity. Exhaustive enquires
were made but no evidence was ever found to give them any
credence. It is known that the Japanese did attemt to cover up
atrocities such as at Sandakan, but in these cases, much evidence
was found.. These days these conspiracy theroies are alive and
well on the internet.
Source for the above comments is a book "Heroes
at Sea" by Don Wall.
