AUSTRALIAN
CHRONOLOGICAL FAR EAST DATES

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September 3rd 1939	Australia declares war on Germany
January 1940	Troops of the 2nd AIF sail for the Middle East
December 1940	Australians in battle in North Africa
February 1941	22nd Brigade and Attached Troops of 8th Division sail for Singapore and Malaya
March/April 1941	Lark Force (2/22nd Battalion) arrives in Rabaul
April 1941	Australians fighting in Tobruk and Greece
August 1941	27th Brigade and attached troops of 8th Division arrive in Singapore
December 7/8th 1941	Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, Philippines and Malaya
December 12th 1941	Sparrow Force (2/40 Battalion) arrives in Timor
December 17th 1941	Gull Force (2/21 Battalion) arrives in Ambon
January 14th 1942	Australians in battle at Gemas and Muar, Malaya
January 23rd 1942	Japanese land at Rabaul
January 30th 1942	Japanese land on Ambon
February 14th 1942	VYNER BROOLE carrying 65 Australian nurses sunk in Banka Strait
February 15th 1942	British Forces on Singapore surrender
February 19th 1942	Units of 7th Division land in Java and become part of Black Force
February 19th 1942	First Japanese bombing on Darwin
February 19th 1942	Japanese land on Timor
February 28th 1942	Japanese land on Java
February 28th 1942	PERTH and HOUSTON sunk in Sunda Strait
May 1942	POWs in A Force sail from Singapore to Burma
June 1942	US Forces defeat Japanese in Battle of Midway
July 1942	MONTEVIDEO MARU sunk off the Philippines and over 1,000 service and civilian prisoners captured in New Guinea killed or drowned
July 1942	Australian officers and nurses captured in Rabaul sailed to Japan
July 1942	B Force sails from Singapore to North Borneo
August 1942	Senior officer POWs sail from Singapore to Taiwan and eventually to Korea and Manchuria
September 1942	Australians inflict first land defeat on Japanese at Milne Bay
October 1942	500 Dutch and Australian POWs on Ambon sail to Hainan
January 1943	Dunlop Force sail from Java to Singapore and Thailand
January 1943	Japanese Forces defeated in Papua
March 1943	D Force travels by train from Singapore to Thailand. F and H Forces follow.
March 1943	E Force sails from Singapore to North Borneo
June 1943	8 Australians escape from Borneo and reach the Philippines
September 1943	Allies re-capture Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea
October 1943	Burma and Thai ends of railway joined at Konkoita
December 1943	Survivors of F Force return to Singapore
June 1944	Allied Forces land in Normandy
July 1944	BYOKI MARU with over 1,200 POWs leaves Singapore on 10 week voyage to Japan
September 1944	ROKYU MARU carrying 1,250 Australian and British POWs sunk and 141 men rescued by USA submarines
October 1944	Americans return in force to the Philippines
November 1944	Acting Prime Minister, Frank Forde, makes public statement on the treatment of POWs in Singapore and on Burma-Thailand Railway
January 1945	First Sandakan to Ranau death march
April 1945	Americans land in Okinawa
May 7th 1945	Germany surrenders
May/June 1945	Second Sandakan to Ranau death march
August 6th 1945	Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
August 9th 1945	Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
August 15th 1945	Cease fire against Japan
September 2nd 1945	Japanese sign surrender documents on USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay