Sandakan
The Death Marches Australia Tried to Forget
Few places in the history of Australian military sacrifice carry the weight, tragedy, and brutality of the Sandakan Death Marches.
For many Australians, the Gallipoli Campaign, the Kokoda Track campaign, and the Burma Railway are deeply woven into our national memory and psyche. Yet the story of Sandakan, the greatest single atrocity committed against Australians during war, remains far less known.
Australian Battlefield Treks and Tours invites you to walk in the footsteps of these men, to visit the sites where courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice endured against unimaginable cruelty, and to ensure their story is never forgotten.
The Road to Sandakan
Following the fall of Singapore in 1942, approximately 2,700 Australian and British prisoners of war were transported to Sandakan on the north-east coast of Borneo. Their purpose was simple: to build and maintain an airfield for the Japanese war effort.
The prisoners arrived at a remote jungle camp under the command of Captain Hoshijima Susumi, a man whose ominous warning would soon become a cruel reality:
“You will work until your bones rot under the tropical sun of Borneo.”
For nearly three years, the prisoners endured starvation, disease, forced labour, brutal punishments, and relentless violence. Men were beaten for the smallest infractions, denied medical treatment, and forced to work in impossible tropical conditions while surviving on starvation-level rations.
Despite this, acts of resistance continued. Prisoners secretly constructed radios to monitor Allied progress and maintain hope. When the radios were eventually discovered, the Japanese response was savage. Men were tortured, confined in tiny wooden cages for weeks, and subjected to horrific interrogations and punishments.
Starvation as a Weapon
By late 1944, Allied bombing raids had severely damaged the Sandakan airfield, making it unusable. With the camp and airfield no longer strategically useful, the Japanese began systematically starving the prisoners.
Daily rice rations were cut to levels that guaranteed slow death. Men weakened rapidly from malnutrition, tropical disease, and exhaustion. Many became little more than living skeletons.
Then came the order that sealed their fate:
“All prisoners were to be eliminated.”
The Sandakan Death Marches
Beginning in January 1945, prisoners were forced to march approximately 260 kilometres through dense jungle and mountainous terrain from Sandakan to the remote village of Ranau.
The men were already critically weakened. Many had no boots. Food supplies were almost non-existent.
What followed became known as the Sandakan Death Marches.
Those unable to continue were executed where they fell. Some were bayoneted. Others were shot beside the track. Bodies were dragged into the jungle and left unburied beneath the tropical canopy.
Survivors later described the terrible moment when exhausted prisoners realised they could walk no further. Men would shake hands with their mates, say goodbye, and then sit quietly beside the track waiting for the Japanese guards who followed behind the POW columns.
Of the 455 men who began the first march, fewer than 200 reached Ranau alive.
The second march was even worse.
Mateship in the Jungle
Among the survivors who reached Ranau were two Australian soldiers, Privates Richard Murray and Keith Botterill.
Starving and close to death, they understood that escape was their only chance of survival. The pair began secretly stealing rice from Japanese supplies and hiding it beneath a hut in preparation for an escape attempt.
When the theft was discovered, the Japanese assembled the surviving prisoners and demanded the guilty man identify himself. If no one confessed, every prisoner would be executed.
Richard Murray stepped forward.
He knew that his actions would be a death sentence — but he stepped forward anyway.
He was beaten, taken away, and later bayoneted to death. His body was discarded in a bomb crater.
Murray sacrificed his life so that his mate might survive. Keith Botterill later escaped into the jungle and became one of only six survivors of Sandakan. In 2022, Richard Murray was posthumously awarded the Commendation for Gallantry for his extraordinary act of self-sacrifice and mateship.
Murder After the War Had Ended
The horror did not end with the marches.
At Sandakan, prisoners too sick to move were murdered outright. On 13 July 1945, twenty-three surviving prisoners were marched to the airfield they had once built and executed.
One final atrocity followed.
On 15 August 1945, the day that Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allies, the last known prisoner at Sandakan was led to a trench and beheaded.
Even after the official surrender, killings continued at Ranau. Evidence strongly suggests that surviving prisoners there were murdered up to twelve days after the war had formally ended.
The Rescue That Never Came
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Sandakan story is that a rescue operation had been planned.
Known as Operation Kingfisher, the mission would have inserted Allied troops into Borneo to rescue the prisoners. Australian paratroopers and supporting forces stood ready.
But faulty intelligence incorrectly reported that no prisoners remained alive and consequently the operation was cancelled.
Approximately one thousand prisoners were still alive at Sandakan when the rescue mission was cancelled.
The order to proceed never came.
A Story Buried for Decades
After the war, the full story of Sandakan was not widely shared with the Australian public. Many families received only brief notifications confirming the deaths of loved ones, with little explanation of how they died.
It was not until historians and researchers revisited the events decades later that many families finally learned the truth.
Of the 2,434 Allied prisoners held at Sandakan, only six Australians survived — every one of them because they escaped.
That represents a fatality rate of 99.75 percent.
Walk the Ground Where History Happened
Today, Sandakan Memorial Park stands on part of the original camp site, serving as a place of remembrance and reflection. Nearby locations including Ranau, the death march tracks, memorial sites, and former POW locations provide a powerful and deeply moving insight into one of the darkest chapters of Australian military history.
Australian Battlefield Treks and Tours is developing immersive Sandakan battlefield tours designed for travellers seeking more than just a holiday. Our journeys focus on military history, remembrance, education, and commemoration.
Our planned tours will explore:
- Sandakan Memorial Park
- Former POW camp locations
- Death march routes
- Ranau and surrounding sites
- Allied memorials and cemeteries
- Local wartime history and cultural experiences
- The stories of the six survivors
- Acts of extraordinary courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice
These tours are designed to honour the men who suffered and died in Borneo while helping ensure their stories continue to be told for future generations.
Lest We Forget
Two thousand four hundred and thirty-four men entered the jungles of Borneo.
Only six came home.
The story of Sandakan is not simply a story of cruelty and suffering. It is also a story of resilience, sacrifice, loyalty, and the enduring Australian spirit under the harshest imaginable conditions.
Some histories demand to be remembered.
Sandakan is one of them.
Lest We Forget.