After surrendering to local Japanese forces on Bangka Island, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies, the group and its wounded were taken to a beach where they were killed by being bayonetted and machine gunned in the surf.

Only South Australian nurse Sister Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkel, American Eric Germann and Royal Navy Stoker Ernest Lloyd survived.

On 12 February 1942 the royal yacht of Sarawak Vyner Brooke left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army.

[1] Two nurses were killed in the bombing; the rest were scattered among the rescue boats to wash up on different parts of Bangka Island.

About 100 survivors reunited near Radji Beach at Bangka Island in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), including 22 of the original 65 nurses.

[1] While he was away army matron Irene Melville Drummond, the most senior of the nurses, suggested the civilian women and children should leave for Muntok, which they did.

After the nurses had heard a quick succession of shots, the Japanese soldiers came back, sat down in front of the women and cleaned their bayonets and rifles.

[1] Evidence collected by historian Lynette Silver, broadcaster Tess Lawrence and biographer Barbara Angell, found that most of the nurses were then raped by these Japanese before they were murdered.

A plaque commemorating the South Australian Army Nursing Sisters who died, including Drummond and six others was erected at the site.