Career
Armed with improvised knives and bats the Japanese stormed the guard posts with what a military court of inquiry termed "a suicidal disregard of life." Two hundred and thirty-one prisoners were killed during the ensuing fighting and 108 wounded. All of the remaining escapees were recaptured within days. Private Charles Henry Shepherd was the third Australian victim of the fighting at the camp, while Lieutenant Harry Doncaster was ambushed and killed while recapturing the escapees.
The court of inquiry found that the Australian soldiers had ceased fire as soon as they had reestablished control of the camp, and that many of the dead had either killed themselves or been killed by fellow prisoners, while many of the wounded had self-inflicted injuries.