Moresby. On 14 May 1943, at 4:00 a.m., Centaur was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-177, and sank in less than three minutes. Of the 332 aboard, there were only 64 survivors, including 15 members of the 2/12th. It was 13 hours before they were rescued by USS Mugford. The survivors were reinforced by men from the 4th Light Field Ambulance, and was the 2/12th briefly attached to the 1st Division around Belgownie before being attached at corps-level to I Corps on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland, arriving there on November 1943. In early 1944, the unit re-established itself at Wongabel in preparation for deployment to New Guinea where Australian forces were fighting around the Huon Peninsula. In the end, the unit was not deployed there and had to wait until 1945 before it would be sent overseas again, when it was committed to the Borneo campaign. In February, the unit was despatched to Morotai from where it would eventually detach elements to Tarakan, Lutong, and Kuching to support the 26th and 20th Brigades, both part of the 9th Division. The unit was disbanded in 1946, having served past the war's end, working with the retrieval and care of Allied prisoners of war. During the war, according to author Graham McKenzie-Smith, the unit had the "highest casualty rate of a non-combatant unit in the Australian Army". Notes Bibliography External links 2/12th Field Ambulance, Australian War Memorial Company sized units of the Australian Army Army medical units and formations of Australia Military units and formations disestablished in 1946 Military units and formations established in 1940 Army units and formations of Australia in World War II