NUMBER:

VX27881

BATTALION / UNIT / SHIP:

27 Brigade Coy, Australian Army Service Corps

PLACE & DATE OF BIRTH:

Melbourne 25 September 1920

NEXT OF KIN:

Beatrice Edwards his mother  Son of Ernest and Beatrice Amy Edwards, of Frankston, Victoria.

DATE & PLACE OF ENLISTMENT:

27 June 1940 at Caulfield

LOCATION ON ENLISTMENT:

Meeniyan

OCCUPATION:

Motor mechanic

PLACE & DATE OF DEATH:

12 September 1944 in the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru in the Luzon Strait, South China Sea. He was aged 24.

LOCATION OF GRAVE/MEMORIAL:

He is remembered on the Labuan Memorial and the Leongatha Memorial.

RELATIONSHIP TO WOORAYL SHIRE:

He was from Meeniyan

MILITARY/OTHER HISTORY:

In September 1944 the Ruyuko Maru was transporting 1317 Australian and British POWs from Singapore to Formosa (Taiwan). The soldiers were survivors of the Thai Burma railway had recently returned to Singapore from Burma and Thailand. On 12 September the vessel  was attacked by three US submarines. It was sunk by the USS Sealion. Some of the POWs survived on rafts and were rescued a few days later. In all 1159 POWs, including Herbert, died.