Seventy-five years on, the procession is set to be recreated as the Friends of the 2/40^th Battalion remember some of Tasmania's most revered soldiers.

Setting off from the Brisbane Street Mall at 11am on Thursday, commemorators will be led by the RSL Pipes and Drum Band to the Launceston Cenotaph before holding a ceremony at the 2/40^th memorial garden in Kings Park.

Friends of the 2/40^th coordinator Rod Stone said the procession would mark exactly 75 years since the battalion was forced to surrender to Japanese troops. 

“The Tasmanian boys held them up for three weeks which stopped the Japanese sweeping down through Papua New Guinea and actually landing in Darwin,” Mr Stone said.  

“The idea was to bomb Darwin to the point where the Japs could come in and make a landing and take over Northern Australia - all the men (from the 2/40^th) were either killed or became prisoners of war.”

The ceremony will also pay tribute to prominent Friends of the 2/40th Battalion member Brian Sansom, who passed away last month. 

Senior students from Scotch Oakburn College, the school Mr Sansom attended in the 1950s, will perform John Lennon’s Imagine at the ceremony in Mr Sansom’s honour. 

Mr Stone said it was important to include youth wherever possible in commemorating the state’s military history.

“You've got to look at it from a youthful perspective because 75 years a is a long time to be bearing grudges.

“You've got to be respectful in terms of reminding yourself that we don't ever want to do this again, but you’ve got to look at it from a broader perspective and that’s where the kids come in.”

The Kings Park ceremony is expected to begin at 11.30am and will conclude with the release of 75 balloons to symbolically release the spirits of the battalion’s 919 soldiers.

Hobart’s Lloyd Harding and Bridgewater’s Bill Russell are the last known surviving members of the 2/40^th Battalion.  

Launceston’s last surviving member Ron Cassidy died in 2015.