An inadeqquate force: Neville Threlfall
Much has been written lately about the fall of Rabaul in January 1942 and the consequent tragic loss of life when over a thousand prisoners went down in the prison ship Montevideo Maru. These...
Category: Battles and Campaigns
Ballarat memorials to the Australian POWs and the Montevideo Maru
The commemoration of both the Australian Prisoner-of War Memorial (6 February 2004) and the Memorial for those who died on board the Montevideo Maru (7 February 2004) was attended by a number of PNGAA...
Tropical force and the Kavieng graves: Greg Knight
Kavieng is the principal town of Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland and less than three degrees south of the equator. Present day Nusa Parade runs along Kavieng’s sleepy waterfront with large tropical trees forming...
When the Japanese bombed Magang: Bob Emery
(As recorded on tape on 1 May 1996 and published Una Voce, September 1996, page 13. An edited version is contained in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 56). Bob Emery, a long-time member...
Read, Mason, Tashiro and the Bougainville mystery: Ken Wright
During World War 2, two groups of Australian Coast Watchers operating independently of each other played a decisive part in the battle for Guadalcanal and the subsequent Allied advance through the South Pacific. The...
World War II in the Pacific—The closing stages: Charles Betteridge
As World War II in New Guinea progressed, the noose around the Japanese was tightening further. By March 1944, the Americans were in possession of the Admiralty Islands and Madang, where the Japanese were...
The unveiling of the Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse at Madang on 15 August 1959: Roma Bates
(Published Una Voce, September 1999) Forty years ago, the Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse, at the entrance to Madang Harbour, was dedicated and switched on for the first time. Present at that ceremony was Roma...
A daring escape: Gladys Baker
(Published Una Voce, June 2002, page 14) This is the story of Gladys Baker’s escape from the Japanese as she described it on Radio 2FC at 7.45pm on Sunday night, 27 August 1942. Glad...
Evacuation from Edie Creek: Hilda Johnson
Extract from a letter written by Hilda Johnson to a close friend – published Una Voce, December 1997, page 30 and in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 65. The letter was written some...
Evacuate! Be ready in four hours: Dick & Robyn Dunbar-Reid
The first time that my parents heard of the impending invasion of New Guinea by Japanese forces was on Boxing Day, 1941. At that time we were at Korandindi Plantation on the Mavulu River...
Let’s recall what Bert really wrote in “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels (and other verses)”: Stuart Inder
Fuzzy Wuzzy AngelsDedicated to Sapper Victor Cooke, 2/22nd Field Coy, R.A.E. Many a mother in Australia, When the busy day is done, Sends a prayer to the Almighty For the keeping of her...
Graves of Gallipoli survivors at Kavieng: Jim Ridges
25 April 2015 marks the 100 years anniversary of the unsuccessful, but often heroic, troop landings, and eventual withdrawal, at Gallipoli in Turkey in the 1914-18 World War. The shared experiences and losses gave...
