The Hunter Remembers WWII

Japanese captured by the Australians in the Wewak area believed that the Japanese Army had occupied cities on the east coast of Australia. This was revealed in an Army statement on Wednesday. It said that one English-speaking Japanese captured by the Sixth Division in the mountains of north-east New Guinea said: "You may have captured Wewak, but you'll never drive our soldiers out of Brisbane and Sydney." The Army statement said there was evidence that similar propaganda was dished out to the Japanese in the Lae and Salamau areas. Low-rank captives are docile, but officers are arrogant.

Each Australian serviceman in operational areas in the South-west Pacific will now get 13 ounces of tobacco or an equivalent number of cigarettes a month through the canteens and two ounces a month as a free issue from the Comforts Fund. This was announced in the Senate by the Minister for Triade and Customs (Senator Keane), who said it had been decided that troops in forward operational areas would receive their full quotas irrespective of who else went short.

The time was approaching when men would have to be withdrawn from the Army, whether they liked it or not, said the Acting Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) in the House of Representatives. In reply to Mr Abbott (C.P., NSW), Mr Chifley said that soldiers with five years' service who had been offered a release from the Army, preferred to remain in service, just prior to recent actions. Mr Abbott had asked if any men who were qualified for release under the Government's latest decision had been sent into combat areas, and why they had not been kept in the Commonwealth. Mr Chifley said it had not been the Government's practice to get men to leave the service when they did not wish to do so.

When HMAS Strahan, the first corvette built at the State Dockyard at Newcastle, tied up at an Australian wharf recently after 12 months on convoy duty in the Pacific, she carried three Newcastle men who have been with her since she was commissioned. Leading Stoker S. Corbett and Stoker Allen Searles, of Hamilton, and Able Seaman A. W. Parsons, of Waratah, had covered 44,000 miles on the Strahan since she last docked in an Australian port, averaging more than 3500 miles a month. Commanded by Lieut.-Commander I. D. Williams, of Melbourne, the Strahan was commissioned on March 14 last year. Last March she took part in the surprise raid on Biak, patrolling Soreide Lagoon without meeting any Japanese interference. Conditions were different at Morotai, where two or three air raids a night were a regular feature.

Christened the "Stray Hen" by Allied servicemen unable to pronounce her name when she visited the islands, the Strahan, until she headed back towards Australia, carried a larger than life-size portrait of a wandering Orpington on the forward gun turret. The name would have seemed appropriate to anyone watching the wake left by the corvette as she steamed out of Sydney Harbour on her maiden voyage, carrying in her crew only three men who could steer. Half the men on board were making their first trip to sea.

Some hours before the Pearl Harbour attack, Japanese fighters shot down a Catalina flying boat in the Gulf of Siam, the Air Force magazine Wings has revealed. This was Japan's first act of war on the Western Nations, it declared. The Catalina was piloted by Flying Officer Pat Bedell, former Malayan Flying Club pilot. He was shot down after he had reported by radio that a large convoy of Japanese shipping was in the gulf heading westward.

Small parties of former AIF prisoners of war were still arriving in England from Western Europe, via France or the Mediterranean, said Senator Fraser. In the week ended June 9, 154 men reached England, making 4052 since April 1. There were nearly 4000 Australian ex-prisoners in the United Kingdom at present, about 2000 of whom were on leave. Some applications from ex-prisoners to participate in university, agricultural and industrial courses in England had been approved.

Douglas transport planes of the RAAF are now using Wewak (New Guinea) air strip. The first landing was made there on Wednesday, the Department of Air reported. Aircraft carried fresh meat and supplies for the troops, and brought out the wounded. Throughout the whole of the campaign in this area the RAAF had completely maintained Army forces with rations, ammunition, equipment and mail.

Coinciding with the fall of Brunei city to the Australian Ninth Division, Tokio Radio said that Australian and Dutch troops had completed the capture of Tarakan, off the east coast of Borneo. The capture of Brunei city was achieved almost without opposition. The Australians have now advanced nearly 20 miles inland since invading Borneo on Sunday. Success in the immediate objective of the campaign, the capture of the city, was achieved with only a few casualties from sniper fire. The role of the Australians on Labuan Island has been more difficult. The Japanese garrison, estimated at 500, fought the attackers with heavy mortar and small arms fire along MacArthur road, leading north from Victoria beyond the wrecked airstrip. The road was thickly sown with landmines in an effort to delay the Australian advance. Australians advancing across Labuan Island got to within half a mile of Timbalal airstrip.

Two prongs, each with its personnel drawn mainly from NSW units, converged on Brunei city to make the final capture. One force swept north from Brooketon on Brunei Peninsula, the other closing in from the east by amphibious jumps along the Brunei River. The two forces staged a grim race for the city. The rate of advance was such that the infantrymen outstripped their tank support, while the enemy was not given time to settle down in well-prepared positions. In the race to the city, the Australians driving along the road captured Brunei airstrip, in Melaban rubber plantation. Opposition encountered as the invaders gained on their target came mainly from parties up to 50 strong, the enemy relying almost entirely on small arms to check the advance. The advance upset the Japanese, who had no chance to explode many 50 kilo bombs and mines planted in the path of the Australians. Several enemy parties walked into positions taken by the Australians, showing they were ignorant of our proximity to the city. A correspondent says the only real defence preparations encountered were found on Brunei airstrip, where hundreds of wooden stakes had been driven into the ground to impede any attempted landing by paratroops.

Fierce fighting continues in New Guinea and the Solomons, says the Department of the Army. Advancing infantry in the hills behind Wewak (New Guinea) overran several more Japanese defences. Australian Third Division men have deepened their penetration in the Japanese garden areas in southern Bougainville. The advance of the Sixth Division in the hill country behind Wewak was preceded by stinging barrages of mortar bombs and artillery. The enemy's bunkered positions about a mile south of Koegin have been effectively mortared. In the hills behind Dove Bay the enemy was forced to evacuate a strong position south of Brandi plantations. Australians fighting inland in the Maprik sector have captured Yamil village No.3. The main Japanese strongpoint at Yamil is already in our hands.

The absence of Japanese submarines in recent weeks is the greatest mystery of the Pacific war, said Captain H.J. Buchanan, DSO, RAN, captain of the destroyer flotilla with the British Pacific Fleet. Captain Buchanan has been with Australian destroyers which have been acting as escorts to British carriers engaged in recent strikes against the Sakishima Group. He revealed that about 7000 Australian naval personnel are serving in the Pacific divided about equally between the British Pacific Fleet and the US Seventh Fleet. Large British and American task forces in the last two months had been well within submarine and E-boat range, but expected attacks had not eventuated, he said.

"We are not worried, but somewhat mystified," he said. "We know the Jap has 80 to 100 submarines and plenty of E-boats. We can only guess why he does not use them. Perhaps he has realised that his chance of inflicting worthwhile defeat on the Allied fleets is nil, and the Jap is no fool. The submarines he has used have suffered severely. They have been used incredibly badly. On the other hand, he may be holding everything and building for a last desperate throw."

Australians who made the new landing in Borneo met no Japanese opposition. The invaders are quickly pushing inland. Other units advancing down the east coast of Borneo have captured the village of Tutong, 51 miles south of the landing point and less than 30 miles from Seria oilfield. The spokesman at General MacArthur's headquarters said Labuan Island airfield was now operating for transport and fighter planes.

On Tarakan Island our forces have overcome two of the remaining enemy strongpoints in the centre of the island, including the former Japanese command post, north-west of the town at Sesanit oilfield. Japanese casualties on the island total 1028. The new Borneo landing was made at Weston, a small port and railway terminus in Brunei Bay, 26 miles east of Labuan. It was the spot at which the Japanese first landed in Brunei Bay. The Japanese apparently had abandoned the district several days before.

Flight-Lieut. Charles H. Fry, DFC, Greek Flying Cross, who was repatriated to England on June 12, after spending four years as a prisoner of war in Germany, is believed to be the only Australian awarded the Greek flying decoration. Flight-Lieut. Fry left Australia in 1937, after gaining a short service commission with the R.A.F. in 1938. When the war broke out he was attached to a Mediterranean RAF squadron, and was taken prisoner in Crete after escaping from Greece. He also saw service in Libya. He is a son of Mr and Mrs H.C. Fry of Hamilton.

Xavier Ennius Quintus Duxbury, Homeville; Norma Alene Kay, Killingworth; Norma Frances Jean Short, Waratah; Harry Woolford, Fassifern; Archie Keith Ferguson, Gloucester; Robert William Page, Cardiff; Ida Adele Vercoe, Muswellbrook; Louis Elizabeth Woodbine, Toronto; Ivan Lancelot Chernlayeff, Merewether; Cedric John James, Wickham; Edwin Shropshire Morrisby, Mayfield; Clifford Herald Gray, Dungog.

Private Leslie Alfred Clarke, Maryville. POW; Private Robert Edwin Levey, Hamilton. POW; Gunner Frederick John Platt, Salt Ash; Lance Corporal Henry Phillips, Wickham; Sapper Wilfred Charles Johns, Adamstown; Private Robert Lorne Lindsay, Maitland. POW; Private Thomas Bailey Patterson, Islington. POW; Private Charles Campbell, Hinton. POW; Private Charles Edmund James, Hamilton. POW; Private Colin Lyall, Shortland; Leading Aircraftman Walter Alexander Strang, Newcastle.