A MEMORIAL service has been held to remember prisoners of war killed in the Sandakan death marches in World War II.
The special wreathlaying ceremony on May 26 at the Australian War Memorial commemorated the service and sacrifice of those who were forced to march from Sandakan to Ranau in 1945.
One of the most infamous crimes of World War II, the death marches remain one of the greatest war atrocities committed against Allied prisoners of war during the war.
In 1942, the Japanese sent prisoners of war to build an airstrip at Sandakan in Borneo. Over time their rations were reduced and physical abuse increased.
But in January 1945, the Allies bombed the airstrip and the Japanese began moving the Australian and British prisoners of war on a series of forced marches through the island's rugged interior to a jungle death camp at Ranau.
The weak and malnourished prisoners staggered along jungle tracks for more than 260 kilometres.
Many died en route, their bodies never recovered. Those too weak to continue were killed by the guards.
Of the 2500 prisoners of war originally held at Sandakan only six - all Australians - survived the war.
The Sandakan Families, in conjunction with the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans Association and the Australian War Memorial, hosted the wreathlaying ceremony at the Sandakan Memorial in the War Memorial's Sculpture Garden.
Only six soldiers, all of them Australians, survived the Sandakan death marches. They were:
- Warrant Officer 'Bill' Sticpewich, Australian Army Service Corps
- Private Keith Botterill, 2/19th Battalion
- Lance Bombardier William Moxham, 2/15th Australian Field Regiment
- Private Nelson Short, 2/18th Battalion
- Gunner Owen Campbell, 2/10thAustralian Field Regiment
- Bombardier Richard 'Dick' Braithwaite, 2/15th Australian Field Regiment
