Go back to the index.

photo of:2/25th men Sam Willianson, Abby Myatt, Reg Ward, Fred Greer, Don Johnson, & Norm Duel. 

CHAPTER 70

   On the 21st day January of 1942 several thousand Japs had

invaded Rabaul just east of new Guinea. Fourteen hundred of our

2/22nd Battalion Diggers had fought a desperate

fight, to try to keep them back. Our slow trainer Wirriway fighters

using one .303 machine gun eace  fought the Zeros there, though

outnumbered, out gunned   and out classed they downed a Zero each

before they were finished . From Rabaul the Jap would launch

massive attacks on Guadacanal and New Guinea. On the fifteenth of

February 1942 Singapore had fallen. On the nineteenth there was a

Japanese air raid on Darwin, the  carrier aircraft those used at

Pearl Harbour they participated.  Jap troops then

landed on New Guinea soil on the eighth of march 1942. Coming from

Rabaul they`d landed at Lae and Salamaua on the northern coastline.

 Next day on the ninth of March our 7th Division landed at

Adelaide, battle scarred but unbeaten. The Salvation Army

gave us a welcome home dinner. They spared not their effort, it was

magnificent. I thank them now. It was great to be back home again.

I discovered when I saw my mother next that my mother had been

informed that I`d been lost at sea.    Reg Ward  and I, we

went north to rejoin the battalion again. It was building up

strength for the New Guinea campaign. For the 2/25th Btn. had

sustained hundreds of casualties and had many men

dead, to be replaced.

CHAPTER 71

     Finally back in camp in Brisbane again before going to New

Guinea.

 I had a bit of leave and stayed with friends near Balmoral

occasionally. I had a mate in camp Jack Kerr, he seemed  alone so

I decided to get him a woman friend, he was a

quiet decent bloke. So I said to Jack " You are invited home for

the weekend." We were all cleaned up washed and shaved, in clean

uniforms everything prim and proper. So I said to him, " I'll take

you out and introduce you to the fat lady."  So we came to town.

In 1942 there used to be a fruit vendor there, and he had a barrow

between the Albert hotel and St.James theatre. On this day there

was an old Aboriginal standing on the steps of the Albert hotel. I

didn't know why he stood there, till later? Jack said to me "

A nice bit of fruit." We wanted to buy some fruit but the owner

wasn't there. I said " The mandarins don't look too good?" Jack

said " They're not mandarins they're cumquats." I said " No they're

not!" Jack said " You try one they're sour." So I tried a

mandarin and it was sour. I saw the old Aboriginal disappear inside

the Albert Hotel.

Out came four big fellows. One a big red headed fellow about six

foot four. They never said a word to us, they just got stuck into

us. It was four onto two, bad odds. I was knocking them down as

fast as they were getting up.  One bloke was sitting in Jack's

chest and was punching old Jack's eyes out. Jack was out like a

light. One of them came at me with a case of cumquats and swung it

over his head. I brushed it off with my left arm but the case hit

me in the corner of the eye, it set me back a pace or two.

 So I tore a shaft off their fruit barrow about six feet long and

an inch thick. It came off like a great spear. I swung it and

knocked the legs from under three of them. Hit them

on the knee caps and down everyone they went. I went over and gave

them one each on top of the head. Meanwhile the fourth was still

sitting on Jack punching his eyes out. So I went over and gave him

a good one. Now he was obviously unconscious. There was an

underground toilet between the Albert and the city hall so I headed

for it.

I had blood squirting out of the corner of one eye, and Jack had

his eyes completely closed. We arrived at the toilet and spoke to

the attendant. I said to him " Give us a towel, will you?"  He said

" No I won`t!" I said " I'll take one!" And I did. So I had Jack

laying on the floor of the toilet, while I tried to stop the blood

running out of him. I had one finger jammed in the corner of my own

eye to stop the blood squirting. Then up came a

" Chocko Provo." He'd been conscripted. He had a sergeant with him

and they told me to get in the " Paddy Wagon."  They'd take me down

to the lockup. I said " There were four other blokes tried to take

us a little while ago, we're not that easy!"  So I went up

the stairs at them with the shaft like a bayonet. The sergeant

spoke then saying " Listen mate this is what we'll do, we'll take

you's down to the Exhibition grounds, get you`s

fixed up there. Looks like you've been in a brawl and you've come

off the worse for wear." I said " We aren't as bad off as the other

fellows."

 So we carried Jack up and laid him on the floor of the paddy

wagon. I was just about to climb in myself, the blood was still

squirting heavily from my eye. I was holding it trying

to stop the flow, when another " Provo " came walking down the

street. He looked a dude with his red patches. We called them

'Crimson wings '. This Provo. grabbed me

quickly and hurled me into the back of the van, my head went clunk.

He jumped on the back landing and yelled " To the cells!" When we

arrived at the lock up, there were two old Pommies on guard there,

each armed with a Thompson sub machine gun. As I came near to them

I grabbed them and bumped their heads together and caught up the

pair of guns, one in each hand. Now that I was in charge I directed

the M.Ps. to contact my Battalion. They did and our Colonel sized

up the situation quickly. After our Colonel tore strips off the

M.Ps. he directed the M.Ps. to take Jack and I down to the

Exhibition grounds to be patched up. I handed over the guns and we

went off to be patched up, in the wagon. The Doctor on duty there

must have done his trade stitching up sheep at a shearing shed. He

grabbed the corner of my eye and stitched up the piece leaving me

with a lumpy section to heal. Later that year in New Guinea  I had

to ask our medico to cut the lump away so I could see past the lump

on that side. Impaired vision would have been a deadly handicap,

could have got me killed in the jungle warfare. 

CHAPTER 72

  I was walking a cousin, a young woman to the tram stop at South

Brisbane it was after dark. I was in uniform and as we waited for

a tram for some minutes. From the shadows came six big American

negroes. One spoke to me saying. "We'll take your woman man!"

So they rushed forward to grab my friend. From a shoulder holster

I produced my army issue forty five calibre revolver and I fired a

few  casual shots. Saying "I don't think so boys!" They left us in

a few seconds and were gone, there came a strong smell of human

excreta exhaust, produced as they departed.  

CHAPTER

   On a later occasion Slim and I went to town for a meal at the

Oyster bar in Edward street In Brisbane city. It was second class

downstairs, and first class upstairs. Everything

was antique furniture tables with white table cloths, it was run by

a little Greek. He had his daughter working there and he was behind

the till. Slim Jenkins and I went into the Oyster bar upstairs to

get a feed. While we were sitting there, over at another table sat

six big Yanks. They were drunk and they were pinching this Greek

sheila on her bottom.

One was tormenting her saying " Honey I'll take you out tonight,

down the street to the movies." She said finally, " I can't go I

can't go, that`s my husband over there." She was

pointing at me. This big Yank about six foot six tall came over to

our table, full of grog.

He slapped both hands on our table and leaned forward menacingly.

He said " Say man I want to take your broad out to the movie's

tonight?"

 Insulted suitably, I smartly upper cutted him from the sneezer to

the breeser. He went down and the other five come at me, and I

fought them all for about half an hour. All the antique furniture

was smashed in the fight. Old Slim Jenkins he was still in the

corner in his chair, if they went for him he'd poke at them with a

broken chair leg.

Everything was smashed tables, chairs, every bit of crockery in the

place it was a pigsty.

Finally flogged, I dragged the 6 Yanks to the narrow stairway down

to the second class section and threw them down the stairs. The old

Greek he was still sitting behind his till.

He had a little moustache on his well lined face.  He ran over to

me and said with feeling

" My friend my friend!" He knew what was going on, he put both arms

around me and kissed me on both cheeks. I was very sorry we`d made

such a mess ...  So then we went down to Smoky Joe's in Edward

street, if you could get in there and you could see. It

was that smoky because old Joe had the cook grilling lamb chops

there most the time.

Plus the tobacco smoke from his patrons. - There you'd get a three

course meal for one shilling and sixpence. (15 cents)

CHAPTER 73

    My mate Simmo, he joined up while still under age, when they

called for volunteers.

Simmo got sent back from the Middle East. Later he came again and

joined us in the desert. Simmo he was always in 'Blues,' always

fighting, whether it was front line or at some bar in town. We had

something in common Simmo and I.

 He was always being fronted before our Colonel C B Withey. Once

when they had him up on a charge. The Colonel said to him, " Look

Simmo if we are going to win this war,

It will be blokes like you that will do it!" Inside the battalion

we had some protection and the Colonel he stood by his men whenever

possible.

 CHAPTER   74

     Between the fourth and eighth of May 1942 came the battle of

the Coral Sea where American and Australian forces were victorious

stopping an invasion of Port Moresby.

Air power from the Yank Aircraft carriers made the difference. In

that month also the American cipher people cracked the Japanese

code. They`d had assistance. An Aussie signal man, had monitored a

Morse code transmission between Japan and a Jap agent in

Afghanistan. As the Jap agent didn't answer, the bold Aussie filled

his boots. The Aussie gave the Agents recognition signal and then

asked that the message sent again. Be sent again using the old code

as he didn't have the new code book yet! Sometime later

the second message was sent. With the two messages written down,

one each  the old code and the new. Our intrepid signal man had now

given the Yanks the new code!

With this edge, they soon had the inside information for the June

1942 Battle of Midway.     From their base at Rabaul the Japs had

invaded Gaudacanal and Lae in New Guinea on the eighth of march

1942.  Then  Planes of the fifth U.S. Air force

moved to Pt.Moresby and flew missions to attack targets at Lae and

Salamaua on the New Guinea north coast line.

CHAPTER 75

     The 39th Militia Battalion was raised at Darley in Victoria

in November 1941. It was made up by volunteers from the home

defence. Many of these boys then supposedly eighteen or nineteen,

but some had put their age up to get into a fight like their older

brothers in the A.I.F. Their teachers were first world war veterans

of 1914 - 1918 vintage. These men all over forty years became their

Officers and N.C.O's. The thirty ninth, and the fifty third New

South Wales Militia Battalion with the thirteenth Field Artillery

Regiment  sailed from Sydney on the Aquitania for Port

Moresby, 28.12.1941.

CHAPTER 76

     Just before the Invasion of Gona, Lieutenant Wort  with a

patrol of forty men, (P.I.B.) went to Gona Government station in

New Guinea and destroyed Radio equipment and the Code books.

He was part of the Maroubra Force that included a company of Papuan

Infantry Battalion

 (native troops) and the brave boys from Victoria the 39th militia,

some fresh out of school.

     At Gona on the northern side of the New Guinea island the

Japanese Army had landed their so far invincible army. It was on

July 21st 1942 that the first fifteen hundred troops

landed, followed ashore by thousands more of Lt. General Horii's

XV111 army.

These supremely confident heavily armed forces met no serious

opposition, so they swarmed inland.

 Their intention was to cross the Owen Stanley Range and to take

Port Moresby from the rear.  More than 13,500 Jap troops landed at

Gona and Buna in the first month.

They were to be stopped by 400 Aussie boy soldiers of the thirty

ninth battalion? Very bad odds! Horii's troops included the 144th

Infantry Regiment, the 41st Infantry Regiment veterans of Malaya

and the Philippines.  Veterans recently of the Rabaual

victory over the lone 2/22nd Australian Battalion, who fought alone

and unassisted, but still a few soldiers had  escaped the trap.

Also landed during the first month were the

Jap 55th Mountain Artillery, 47th Anti Aircraft Artillery, the 55th

Cavalry Regiment with 170 horses plus 700 Rabaul slave natives for

carriers.

     The P.I.B. with their Australian Officers ambushed the

advancing Japanese troops on July the twenty third of 1942. The Jap

troops there had used a human shield of Natives

from Rabaul a few hundred natives walking in front of their

soldiers. The Japs were doing it in style some riding push bikes,

motorbikes, and many were walking. The P.I.B.

troops opened fire with their .303 rifles and killed many Japanese.

Eventually the Jap heavy machine gunners and the Jap mortars  had

their number and rained death down on the terrified natives of the

P.I.B. The Boongs disappeared and the Aussie Officers left with no

troops had to pull back, so they headed for the Kumusi river. When

they arrived there Lt.Chalk and the others, the Wire rope bridge

had been cut. So they had to swim the hundred yard wide river, many

landing further down stream, as it was now fast flowing. One

platoon of the 39th ambushed the Japs at Awala. They were using

only revolvers rifles and one ancient Thompson sub machine gun, the

gangster type. The Jap heavy machine-guns and mortars forced them

to retreat as the Japs surrounded their position.  Major Watson

their Commanding Officer had earlier withdrawn from Awala

over the Kumusi river by the wire rope bridge cutting the cable

when he did so. Major Watson pulled back to Gorari leaving the kids

of the 39th Btn. to hold the river crossing.

The P.I.B. troops were there again to back them also. The Japs

brought up rubber boats and tried to make a crossing, but they were

ambushed on the water and driven off. The

cunning Jap crossed further up and ambushed the defenders. The

P.I.B melted away and the 39th pulled back to Oivi.

CHAPTER 77

    During the skirmishing near there,  Captain Templeton died.

Uncle Sam as he was known was a born leader, who often carried

other soldiers equipment when required.

Sam was revered by his young charges.  The Battalion was surrounded

by Japs. Major Watson was now in charge and withdrew to Kokoda. 

 They had escaped in the night by creeping between the Japs, who

were stationed twenty yards apart, positioned  to surround the

Aussie's.  The Japanese tactic was to surround

any defence line across the jungle track with the thousands of Jap

troops then available.

Each new Australian retreat was through the Japanese lines of a

closing trap.  On July 27th the thirty ninth Battalion arrived at

Deneki and moved on to Kokoda. July 29th the

Japs attacked again at Kokoda. The new Commander Lt. Col. Owen,

late of the 2/22nd btn. of the Australian, Rabaul defenders, died

in the area shot through the head. So Watson was in charge again.

Some of the P.I.B. including George Meta escaped by

following a river to the coast arriving in the Yule island area.

Reinforcements arrived, another company to add to the embattled

39th Btn few. So by the sixth of August their

total strength was 464 young men including 31 mostly middle aged

Officers. The remaining P.I.B. under Major Cameron from Rabaul now

were 5 officers 3 N.C.O`s and 35 Boongs. ( The name used then to

describe the local natives.)  Meanwhile on the 7th

August the Yank 1st Marine Division landed over to the south east

of New Guinea at Gaudacanal. It took until the fifteenth of

November, when they had finally beaten the strong Jap Garrison

there after a desperate struggle for control of the island. The

Japanese troops were being reinforced constantly almost every night

by troop transport and destroyer convoys. On August the eighth the

39th attacked the Japs at Kokoda, they were driven back to Deneki

where approximately another 2,000 Japs in position then

attacked them. So they continued a fighting retreat skirmishing as

they went. To be surrounded was fatal in this Jungle Warfare with

the Japanese.

CHAPTER 78

     So in July 1942 the Kokoda Campaign had started, the closest

Australia came to being invaded. It was fought in the mountains and

the valleys often knee deep in clinging mud, and usually under

starvation conditions.

        Doctor G H Vernon was a Captain and a first World War

veteran Medical Officer with the 11th Aussie Light Horse. The good

Doctor was almost deaf from a shell burst on Gallapoli.

Doctor Vernon and his friend Captain Kienzle, CBE, MBE a gold miner

from near Kokoda, they were both old hands in New Guinea. These two

assembled six hundred coastal natives for the carrying parties to

supply the troops over the mountains to Kokoda. All the able bodied

whites in New Guinea were mobilized into the ANGAU.

Our Army had been committed to Churchill's War in Europe and the

cream of our youth was over there. Now as the Jap menace was coming