 Meanwhile , a detachment of about 100 men from the battalion , who had been left behind in Australia when it deployed to Singapore , also took part in the fighting on Java . After a brief campaign , the majority of these personnel were taken into captivity when the Allied forces were overwhelmed around <unk> in mid @-@ March 1942 , although some attempted to fight on as <unk> . Eventually these men were either killed or captured ; prisoners remained in Japanese captivity until the end of the war in August 1945 . During the three @-@ and @-@ a @-@ half years they were held by the Japanese , members of the 2 / 4th were sent to prison camps around the Pacific , where they were used as slave labour and subjected to harsh conditions and extreme brutality . After the war , the surviving members of the battalion were returned to Australia but the 2 / 4th was not re @-@ raised . 
