Chapter 4 Capture of Damascus; Coastwatchers; His Cobber Bill;

THE COASTWATCHERS

Shortly after World War 1, the Naval Staff instituted a system of civilian coast watchers, whose duty it was to report any matters of naval intelligence coming to their notice. Slowly the scheme was developed until the settled part of the Australian coast was under observation. In the late twenties the organization was extended to Papua, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Webmasters note. US Admiral Halsey said that the intelligence signalled by two coast watchers from Bougainville had saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal had saved the South Pacific.

On the mainland of Australia land-line telegraphy was depended on for the transmission of messages, but in the islands it was necessary, to use radio.

The principal stations were controlled by Amalgamated Wireless of Australia (AWA) and later teleradios communicated to them.

However. the area was but sketchily covered, radio stations being placed to suit commercial development and without regard to strategic needs.

Soon after the outbreak of war in 1939, the writer was appointed Staff Officer (Intelligence) at Port Moresby and given the task of expanding the coast-watching organization to meet war needs, but still on an unpaid civilian basis.

New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomons and the New Hebrides form a screen across the north-east of Australia.

The object was to make this a sensitive web which would immediately give notice of any hostile force penetrating it.

The peace-time organization left gaps, so that it was rather like a fence with a few gates in it, left open.

I had lived in New Guinea for sixteen years as a civil servant and had served in most districts. In addition, I had made friends in Papua and the Solomons, so that I not only knew the country but knew the people in it and many of them knew me. I made my first survey, with the assistance of the local governments, using any means of transport available and making personal contact with all those placed in strategic positions. Throughout, personal contact was of greater importance than the official relationship.

By August 1942 there were over a hundred teleradios tied in, each to its own centre, either Port Moresby, Rabaul, Tulagi or Vila, on a special frequency which was rarely used so that attention would not be called to it. During this time a teleradio reporting system had been organized along the same lines in the islands of Torres Strait.

Until the entry of Japan into the war the coast -watchers remained a civilian, static, defensive reporting system, designed to report the incursions of an enemy into our own territory. The question of coast watchers remaining in the event of the country being over-run had been raised. It was decided against, except in the case of naval intelligence officers.

The entry of Japan into the war left the island screen as the front line. Coast watchers reported scouting enemy aircraft and, soon afterwards, enemy flights on their way to bomb Rabaul. Tabar Island lay directly on their route and Page, the coast watcher there, usually gave Rabaul twenty minutes' warning of an attack. On occasions when the aircraft passed beyond his sight., others reported them, so that Rabaul had no raid without a warning, which minimized casualties, though there were no effective aircraft there to meet the attacks. On 21 January 1942 a Japanese force occupied Rabaul, driving, our troops, a little more than a battalion in strength, into the jungle of New Britain. With them went the naval staff of Rabaul, and the silence closed about them.

So I sent a signal to McCarthy, who was Assistant District Officer at Talasea, about two hundred miles west of Rabaul, on the north coast of New Britain. He was a civilian and not under my orders and quite free to save himself. I asked him to take his teleradio and go towards Rabaul to find out what was the fate of our forces. Two planters volunteered to assist him; he took one with him and left the other to manage the base. Travelling by launch, he met the first refugees at Pondo and was joined by other civilian helpers there, one of whom walked across New Britain to advise anyone on that side to join McCarthy. The latter went farther forward, sending back the small bodies of soldiers he found at plantations.

In the meantime a few small vessels had been collected on the New Guinea coast and these came across Vida Strait to assist in the evacuation. McCarthy sent his parties westward, and was met by the good news that a small motor vessel was still hidden at Witu Island. He took possession of her, loaded his men, over two hundred, on board and ran out to China Strait and safety. Several of the civilians who had assisted him remained behind to continue reporting.

His signals had told us that there was still a large number of troops on the south coast of New Britain so the Laurabada, in charge of Lieutenant Ivan Champion, R.A.N.V.R., was sent across to pick them up.

She made her arrival at dawn, remained at anchor camouflaged by branches during daylight, and then successfully ran back in the night with another hundred and fifty men.

Page, on Tabar, remained on his island. as did Kyle and Benham in southern New Ireland, the latter two sending off two boatloads of escapees while themselves remaining. Woodroffe, on Anir, was raided and his teleradio smashed, though he himself escaped to the jungle. All of these were captured and killed a few months later. Cecil Mason who landed from a submarine in an attempt to rescue them, shared their fate.

In Papua, New Guinea and the Solomons most civilians were evacuated. Many coast Watchers, however, decided to remain and continue their reporting. They were still civilians, were unpaid and had no provision for their families. Their only hope of survival appeared to be in the reconquest of the country by our forces, which was problematical in the dark days of 1942. Theirs was a very special type of courage.

In the Solomons the Resident Commissioner abandoned the north-western part of the group but kept his staff in the south-eastern islands, himself retreating to Malaita. In Bougainville, Read, Assistant District Officer, Moved supplies inland and prevailed upon the small section of the A.I.F. there to do like wise. Mason, a planter, also made preparations to stay.

In February the Japanese occupied Lae and Salamaua, but this move had been foreseen and Vial, an assistant district officer, was commissioned into the R.A.A.F. and sent into the jungle. From a ridge near Salamaua he watched every Jap movement and, for six months. gave warning by teleradio of every Japanese attack on Port Moresby. These warnings were invaluable. Eventually Japanese penetration forced the relinquishment of the post, but by that time many additional spotter stations had been established in Papua so that Port Moresby did not go unwarned.

In March the Japanese occupied Buka Passage and the Shortland Islands. Read h2d already taken to the jungle, but Good, on Buka, was killed by the Japanese, an incautious news broadcast being a contributing factor.

The death of Good brought the question of the status of the coast watchers to a head. Those in the field were soon given rank or rating.

Shortly after this General MacArthur assumed the supreme command in the Southwest Pacific and it was decided that the coast watchers. with analogous organizations should be placed under G.H.Q.'s direct command. as the Allied Intelligence Bureau.

Plans at this time envisaged an early attack on Rabaul and the coast watchers were given the task of landing parties to make a preliminary scout survey of the position. To observe native reaction to the Japanese invasion, Wright was landed from a submarine about forty miles from Rabaul. He stayed ashore for a week and was then picked up. His information indicated that we would have no insuperable difficulties to overcome from the indigenous population, so we prepared a small motor vessel for the trip. However, the Jap beat us to the punch by landing at Buna. The task was then given us to buoy and light the channel from Milne Bay to Oro Bay, and this was successfully done, Ivan Champion acting as pilot for the first vessels through.

Those coast watchers who had remained after McCarthy had brought out troops from Rabaul were concentrated at Saidor. on the New Guinea coast. Supplies were dropped to them from aircraft. They collected stores, teleradios and launches and were held in readiness for the future.

The Japs moved down into the Solomons. Their first ships were reported by Kennedy. American naval forces attacked them, developing into the Battle of the Coral Sea. In spite of their losses, they occupied Tulagi and soon after commenced constructing an airfield on Guadalcanal. There were four coast watchers on Guadalcanal - Macfarlan, the N.I.O., Clemens, the district officer, Rhoades, a planter, and Schroeder, a trader. There were also a few miners who assisted. These kept watch on the Japanese developments, sending natives right into the camp and reporting the progress the Japs were making.

The Japanese also extended their holdings from the Shortlands to Bum. which soon became a major base. Mason moved down to overlook it, and gave a daily tally of Japanese shipping in the harbour, Read continued to watch Buka Passage. The Japs sent patrols out after them, but these gave up after a day or two, and the coast watchers returned to their posts and continued reporting.

Thus it was that, before the American attack on Tulagi and Guadalcanal, the Japanese positions were under observation and the ,strength of his forces known, while the routes he would use for counter-attack and reinforcement were also under surveillance. The nearest enemy air bases were at Rabaul and Kavieng, and aircraft from these would fly over Bougainville on their way to Guadalcanal and would be seen and reported by our men.

The American carriers were tied in to our frequency so that they could receive warnings without delay. The warnings themselves were in plain language and there were alternative channels in case the direct reception was poor.

The attack achieved perfect surprise. Tulagi and Guadalcanal were taken within hours and transports moved in to discharge. Then came a signal from Mason on Bougainville, stating that twenty-four torpedo bombers were on the way. This gave two hours' warning, allowing ships to prepare to meet the attack. Transports were got under way and destroyers were disposed with their guns at the ready, so that the aircraft ran into a trap, all but one being shot down. Next day Read gave warning of forty-five dive bombers, who were met by carrier-borne fighters. The attack was broken up with heavy casualties to the Jap and only one ship was hit. For the next few days warnings preceded each attack, resulting in such high Japanese losses that there was a lull until further air forces could be flown in.

The warnings from Bougainville had been vital. After the first week it became necessary to withdraw the carriers to avoid submarine attack, leaving the beachhead without air defence. Had the air attacks been unheralded, they must have achieved considerable success and would have continued after air cover had been withdrawn, so that the position could not have been built up to stand the serious counter-attacks which later developed.

A week after the landing on Guadalcanal, Mackenzie (who had been N.I.O. at Rabaul when it was captured) and Train established themselves near the airfield. Soon afterwards, Henderson Field became operative and American Grumman fighters were flown in. By this time the Japanese had made good their losses and the air attacks recommenced. Mackenzle received the warnings and passed them on, so that again there were fighters in the sky to meet the bombers.

In spite of their losses the Japanese air attacks continued and the base was sometimes shelled at night, while troops were landed to retake it. During this time the coast watchers on Guadalcanal came in to the base, fortunately without casualties.

The Japanese counter-attack culminated in November when a large convoy set out, preceded by a force, which included battleships, to land troops on Guadalcanal. The concentration of shipping and its movement had been observed by the coast watchers on Bougainville, so that forces were ready to meet the attack, which was defeated with heavy losses.

Buin had by this time become the base from which shipping and aircraft moved against Guadalcanal, so, as Mason could not see all that went on, measures were taken to cover it. Two coast watchers were landed by submarine on Vella Lavella and two on Choiseul; these had a perfect view of all that went past. Soon afterwards the Japanese established a base at Munda, where Kennedy's native scouts kept them under observation and another coast watcher was inserted on Rendova Island, where he had a perfect view of Munda airfield and harbour from a mountain.

During this time the Buna campaign was being fought in New Guinea. Parties kept watch there on the coast between Buna and Salamaua, calling up aircraft to attack barges and landing parties so that the Japanese supply was utterly disorganized.

Plans were in train at this time to attack Salamaua and Lae as soon as Buna fell. To provide air warnings to cover this operation parties were required on New Britain along the routes which would be followed by the enemy aircraft. The coast watchers from Saidor were dispatched to carry out this duty. However, the Japanese occupied many of the points selected before Buna fell, and four coast watchers were killed and the rest driven back to Saidor. When Buna fell the troops were so exhausted by the campaign that they were not fit for further operations, so no attack was made until months later.

Fit personnel was sent in to relieve the survivors of the New Britain operation. Two of the latter were killed while returning, and the relief party itself was shortly driven out. Another party, which had been overlooking Finschafen, was also forced to retire, and a third landed on the Sepik River to observe Wewak had to retreat as well. In all these cases men were fired at from a few yards and had miraculous escapes, purely due to the poor marksmanship of the Japs. My own health failed, and Commander J. C. McManus took over the command.

The section of A.I.F. on Bougainville was also relieved by submarine, at this time. They had done little of positive value, but had been a force which had discouraged Japanese patrols. Three additional coast watchers were landed to assist Read and Mason, the latter having been driven away from Buin. Many civilians, including missionaries, were evacuated at the same time.

A further party, led by Wright, was landed on New Britain to keep watch on the barges and submarines running supplies from Rabaul to Lae.

In the Solomons, coast watchers led reconnaissance parties to Munda and Rendova, scouting the ground which was to be attacked. A further post was established on Kolombangara, overlooking the airfield there. By this time, when aircraft set out to attack Guadalcanal, they were reported by post after post, so that we probably had a more accurate estimated time of arrival than the Japs did themselves. Hardly a barge moved without being reported and strafed.

A subsidiary operation, which developed into one of importance, was the rescue of shot down airmen. Throughout the Solomons, the natives were loyal and helpful and would lead any American airman to the nearest post, where he was cared for until he could be sent out by the aircraft or launch which brought in supplies. Japanese airmen were killed by the natives. Later, the survivors of U.S.S. Helena were cared for on Vella Lavella, all being sent out safely, though there were numerous Japanese posts on the island.

On Bougainville, however, the Japanese decided to liquidate the coast watchers. Thousands of troops must have been employed on the operation. They scoured the country, intimidated the natives and succeeded in driving the coast watchers from their posts, until evacuation became imperative. This was carried out by submarine, after the loss of eight killed or made prisoners. Read and Mason had been on the island for seventeen months.

In June 1943 the advance against the Japanese commenced. In each case coast watchers landed with the troops and set up a station to receive warnings of air attacks, while others guided the troops through the just before the Torokina landings, parties were again landed on Bougainville, while reinforcements expanded the New Britain coast watchers until there were five separate parties operating there.

Others landed at Long and Rooke islands to see what the Japs there would do in reaction to the Cape Gloucester and Arawe landings, while other parties operated in the Sepik Valley.

A party landed at Hollandia before the attack on it met with disaster, its leader and four others being killed in action when their presence was discovered by the enemy.

With the move forward beyond New Guinea, the enemy forces in the latter area became impotent except in defence, and coast watching, in the sense of obtaining intelligence, came to an end. However, activities did not. Many natives had served with the coast watchers and more could be easily obtained. These were armed and used in guerrilla operations. This had been done to a limited extent in the Solomons in the early days. but now it became the principal occupation. In New Britain Japs retreating from Cape Gloucester to Rabaul were ambushed and their small posts were wiped out until the guerrillas actually held the island south of the Gazelle Peninsula, so that our troops landed and built their base at Palmalmal unopposed.

On Bougainville four parties were continuously operating behind the enemy lines. They spotted air targets and carried out a war of attrition in which they inflicted more casual ties on the Japs than did the Australian troops on the island.

The success of the coast watchers was largely due to the experience of the personnel. Nearly all were men who had lived in the country, who knew it and the natives, and who felt at home in it. It is easier to teach a man how to operate a teleradio or shoot a submachine gun than to teach him how to live in the jungle. The men, experienced and actually known to the natives, gained their help, for it would be impossible to conduct such operations if the natives favoured the enemy.

Throughout, we had ready co-operation from other Services. Aircraft dropped supplies to parties and sometimes picked them up; submarines and PT. boats landed them and took them off, always with a readiness and helpfulness which cannot be obtained by merely ordering an operation to be carried out. Without this co-operation the coast watchers would have been gravely handicapped.

Lastly, there was help from the enemy. He was so stupid that he did not realize the damage that was being done to him and many times neglected to take measures against us, and, by his own actions, alienated native sympathy. In fact, he was invaluable.

Eric FELDT (R.A.N)

HIS COBBER BILL

HERE was nothing dark or mysterious about the affair, for after the Navy's abortive attempt in March
transports began to assemble in ever-increasing numbers in Mudros Harbour, and the Turk had a fairly
good idea of what to expect.

A week before the Great Day they had taken the brigadier in the flagship all along the coast of Gallipoli. Through his field-glasses he had seen the heavy barbed wire nestling coyly in the sea in front of all the selected landing places.

On his return he had told the officers of the covering party that he expected them to have not less than seventy per cent of casualties, so the members of the covering party tried to make their "last days on earth" as happy as possible. They were proud to be selected as the spearhead of Australia's initial attack, but they felt that they were marked men with the odds more than two to one against them. So they celebrated in between the nightly rehearsals for the landing.

Jimmy Duncan, a subaltern in "C" Company, acted differently from most of them. He wrote a long letter to Margaret - they had been kids together -and asked her to marry him. He did this partly because he suddenly realized that he loved her and partly to convince himself that he was destined to survive. He was cheerful with his men and kept them in good heart. He had a few "spots" now and then, as was his custom, but at fitful intervals, when alone, he muttered all the little bits of prayers that he could remember.

Bill Watson, his cobber and Margaret's brother, over in "Beer" Company was two stone heavier and three inches taller than Jimmy. At school he had been skipper of the football team and very handy with the gloves, but Jimmy had more brains. He could beat Bill at tennis and was always nearer to the top the class than Bill was from the bottom; yet for some strange reason he looked up to Bill. Perhaps it was on account of Margaret, who never tired of singing her brother's praises.

Bill had never worried much about the future - that was Jimmy's pastime, but now he was convinced that the pearly gates were opening wide to receive him and Jimmy argued with him in vain. So he drank a good deal more than usual, enjoying himself in a feverish sort of way and winning quite a lot of money at poker, money which he said would be of no damned use to him.

But the last days of preparation were strenuous and there wasn't very much time for amusement. Every night they would clamber into ships' boats from the deck of a destroyer to be towed by a naval pinnace to an unlighted beach. Nearing the shore the pinnace would cast off, leaving the boats, still under way, to breast the beach and dig their bows in the sand. That was the signal for them to swarm noiselessly ashore, to form up in the darkness and rush the steep hill with bayonets fixed.

There was no slinking out of harbour in the dead of night, bound for some secret rendezvous. Nothing in fact could have been more spectacular than the gallant departure of the armada from Lemnos. Wavelets sparkled beneath a blazing sun, bands played and soldiers cheered as the warships in line ahead led the way to the open sea. Each of three battleships mounting 12-inch guns carried two companies of the covering party and the Navy treated the men as honoured guests. Chocolate and other gifts were showered upon them, while in the wardroom there were magazines from England less than a week old.

Towards dusk, when they lay off Imbros, Jimmy Duncan and his cobber Bill paced the quarter deck and spoke of Margaret and the folks back home. They were silent for a while and then Bill pointed with his pipe stem in the direction of Gallipoli.

"Yonder, old thing, lies our bone yard," he said.

"Rot," cried Jimmy, with more conviction than he felt.

"Tonight, old son," continued Bill, "we'll have a nice hot supper with affable companions and some hours later we'll breakfast pleasantly in Hell."

Jimmy grabbed him by the arm. "Don't be a b----- fool, Bill," he said. "How can you lead your men with your tail between your legs?"

Bill shrugged his shoulders. "If they'd sent the Turk a copy of our operation orders, they couldn't have made it easier for him. My tail's still wagging, little lad, but I know what's coming to me. You heard what the Brig. said, and he knows his onions."

A senior staff officer stopped beside them. "What's the argument?" he asked.

Watson laughed. "No argument sir, but we were just wondering if Old Nick knew how to cook omelettes."

The S.O. patted him on the back. "Nonsense, this isn't going to be a bloody affair by any means. How is your French? You'll need it, you know, when we get to Constantinople."

A few minutes later, in the wardroom, the ship's officers took charge of them. "Get into these pyjamas, and hop into the bunk," said the gunnery officer to Jimmy, "and don't get up until I call you."

About midnight there was a hot meal for the men of the covering party, and later, loaded with three days' rations, with picks and shovels, sandbags and tins of water, they were packed into ships' boats. Each company of two hundred odd men were in three boats towed by a naval pinnace and the tows advanced in line abreast over the calm luminous sea. Silently they moved towards the distant coast and behind them, without noise, followed the men-of-war: destroyers, cruisers, and battleships of the line.

Jimmy Duncan was in the bow of the leading boat of the tow, and in the pinnace he could just distinguish the blurred outline of the "snotty" who was celebrating his fourteenth birthday. Jimmy was feeling quite calm and normal except for a feeling of cold in the pit of his stomach. He knew the operation order by heart and he went over again and again just what he had to do on landing. He thought of Margaret, and she seemed very close to him, closer even than his cobber Bill who was somewhere in the next tow to his right. And then cold fear gripped him. He'd left his revolver in the gunnery officer's cabin!

His hand went swiftly to his belt but the feel of the cold metal reassured him.

They were nearing the shore; it was nearly time for the pinnace to cast off. But something was wrong. All unknowing, a current had carried them north of their objective and the "snotty" couldn't pick up his bearings. The pace slackened, the heavy boats hardly moving through the dull grey water. . . .

A single shot rang out and the dark cliffs spurted fire. Machine guns began their chatter and the "snotty" in the pinnace crumpled up. Men struggled at the heavy oars as bullets cracked and shells whined over them. Desperately they rowed and slowly the sand grew nearer and nearer. .

When the boats grounded they jumped overboard-into water up to their necks or over their heads. Some drowned; others were kept afloat by their packs. "Pongo", the battalion heavyweight, lugged Jimmy into shallow water.

"Just wait till I get to them," he cried, when Jimmy thanked him. "Anyway," he laughed, "the --s can't shoot." Just then a burst got him and he dropped in his tracks at the water's edge.

It was nearly light by now and Jimmy rushed his men across the narrow shell-swept beach. Hauling themselves up by the bushes, after discarding their heavy packs, they climbed the cliff. To their right they saw a Turkish gun flung high in the air by a shell from a cruiser, while to the left a boat packed with dead and dying drifted slowly ashore. And the moist air they breathed was heavy with the odour of wild thyme.

They came under heavy fire when they reached the cliff top, but they wormed their way forward through the scrub, firing at any movement in the bushes. Shells whined overhead and crashed behind them as they fought their way across a valley and up the slopes of a distant hill. When they came under heavy fire they scooped out little hollows with their entrenching tools and gradually worked themselves into the ground. Bullets cracked and whistled and field guns searched them out, but, painfully, inch by inch, they duo themselves in.

There was a heavy shower of rain and then the night came down. As they dug, the Turk came charging at them shouting "Allah! Allah"' and Jimmy ordered rapid fire.

"Hang, on! Hang on!" someone kept shouting out, and "Who the hell's leavin' go?" muttered Nobby Clark from Broken Hill as he reloaded his rifle.

Dawn came, and they munched bully and biscuit, taking time off to beat off fresh attacks. By now a trench had taken shape and some were able to snatch a little sleep, but Jimmy thought only of his men and he didn't s eyes. . . . And so another day and night went by.

Next morning he couldn't swallow any biscuit, but he nibbled a bit of chocolate and drank a little water. Then a curious thing happened. When he grasped his rifle it seemed all right, but when he leant it against the wall of the trench it grew in size until it was about eight feet long, with a muzzle an inch or more in diameter. "Elephant gun," he muttered. When he picked it up again it went back to its normal size. The grass too around the trench seemed about three feet long - until he picked some of it....

It was night again and the Turk attacked. Jimmy felt fine. His rifle was very light, but it seemed just the right size and the grass didn't worry him any more. The Turks were advancing, eerie giants in the moonlight but when he gave the order: "Let 'em have it," they floated gracefully to earth like hay under the scythe. There was a lull after that and presently Jimmy saw a black shadow between him and the moon. Strange- In a cloudless sky?" But as he looked in front of the shadow and smiling down at him, he saw his cobber Bill. He rubbed his eyes. Yes, it was Bill all right, but he shone like silver and his feet were a yard off the ground. It seemed as if Bill were trying to tell him everything was all right and gladly he called out to him: "Bill!"

"What the 'ell's bitin' yer:- yelled someone farther down the trench. But Jimmy was filled with a great contentment and he slept....

When they were relieved and the battalion went down the valley to sort itself our Jimmy learned that his cobber Bill had been wounded on the first day, and rumour had it that he had died on his way to Alexandria.

"Yes," said the M.O. on his return from the hospital ship that was lying off Anzac Cove. "He passed out all right, and just about the time you saw him."

"I'll never forget that smile he gave me." said Jimmy.

G. D. SHAW (10th Battalion).