Service: Army – 2/22nd Australian Infantry Battalion
Service number: VX24104
Locality on Enlistment: Apollo Bay
Duration of Service: 10 Jun 1940 – 1 Jul 1942
Prisoner of War: Yes, Japanese at Rabaul
Honours: None to display
Date and Place of Birth: 17 Feb 1905 Wallacedale, Victoria
Parents: Thomas James McMINN and Flora McDonald REID
Spouse: Not married
Occupation: Forestry worker
Date and Place of Death: 1 Jul 1942, at sea, Montevideo Maru
Place of Burial: Rabaul War Cemetery and Memorial, Papua New Guinea
Notes:
Darcy McMinn – an excerpt from Red Dust Country by GM Henrickson.
After leaving the Mallee, Darcy who was recognised as a good worker, eventually joined the noxious weed division of the Lands Department and later transferred to Forestry. In May 1940 he joined the 2nd AIF as a “footslogger”. He had hoped that he would be sent to the Middle East with its long and interesting recorded history which he had gleaned from his avid reading. But it was not to be. As a member of the 2/22 he was posted to Rabaul on January 22nd 1942. He, along with those of his company, were captured and taken POW by the Japanese. He and 1400 other prisoners battened down in the hold of the POW ship Montevideo Maru, died when torpedoed by a US submarine.