The first air attacks on Rabaul began on 4 January 1942. Within days the Japanese had succeeded in destroying the bulk of the defending aircraft, while further attacks targeted shipping in the harbour and shore installations. Lieutenant Colonel John Scanlan considered he would need an entire brigade to defend Rabaul, yet with an invasion imminent all he could do was redeploy some of his limited force, while the remaining aircraft were withdrawn and the airfields cratered. The Japanese South Seas Force of approximately 5,300 men under the command of Major General Tomitarō Horii landed at Rabaul in the early hours of 23 January 1942. Outnumbered, Lark Force was quickly overrun in the ensuing fighting, with the Japanese completing the capture of the town within 24 hours. Australian losses were heavy, with 28 men killed and most of the defenders captured. The survivors withdrew into the interior, moving south across New Britain to the Open Bay and Wide Bay areas, and west, for eventual evacuation. In total more than 400 servicemen and civilians escaped. Many were less fortunate. A total of 160 wounded and sick Australian soldiers were captured and subsequently murdered by the Japanese at Tol Plantation. Later, the Japanese naval prison ship "Montevideo Maru" was sunk off the west coast of Luzon in the South China Sea on 1 July 1942 after she was torpedoed by the submarine "USS Sturgeon", resulting in the loss of 1,035 lives, most of them Australian civilians and prisoners of war from Rabaul.