New Guinea Volunteer Rifles

The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR) was the only Australian Army Militia unit to have been raised, mobilised, fought and disbanded overseas.  NGVR operations included rescue missions, the evacuation of thousands of European civilians from the war zone and setting up camps for several thousand native labourers.  When the Japanese forces landed at Rabaul in 1942, they quickly overran the NGVR defences; 28 men were killed and many NGVR personnel were taken prisoner.  About 36 NGVR personnel were also among the 1,053 lost on board the Japanese ship, Montevideo Maru, when it was torpedoed and tragically sunk by an American submarine in 1942.