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. Only 11 NGVR soldiers were among them. Many were less fortunate. 160 wounded and sick Australian soldiers, including a number of NGVR personnel, were captured and subsequently murdered by the Japanese at Tol Plantation in Wide Bay. 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 hit by three torpedoes fired by the submarine "USS Sturgeon", resulting in the loss of 1,035 lives, most of them Australian civilians and prisoners of war from Rabaul. Among those killed were 36 men from the NGVR.