April 2022
PATRON: Major General B. W. (Hori) Howard AO MC ESM (Ret’d.)
ANZAC DAY 2022
Anzac Day is approaching very quickly, and Association members are invited to check their local March times and Ceremony times. Vice President Greg, and State Reps., will provide emails to this effect, and these will give details of some of the Anzac Day activities. Members are also advised to visit their State RSL websites during April as virus safety details are likely to be relevant for the events on the 25th April.
President Don has earned eternal notoriety for ending up as a “centrefold” picture in the Queensland RSL News following Remembrance Day 2021. No naughty comments about staples, please!
News from ADF Officer attached to 1 RPIR
Readers will be aware that ADF Officers are selected to serve for two years as Liaison Officers with the PNGDF at Port Moresby, Lae and Wewak. Below is a short report from Captain Tom Folley who is attached to 1 RPIR.
These first few months have been a busy time for 1RPIR, PNG has National Elections in Jul/Aug this year and the Battalion will provide A & B Company in support of security operations. As such we have team from the ADF, comprising of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment from Townsville. They are being supported by Gurkhas from the 2nd Royal Gurkha Regiment and a Military Police team for the US. They key tasks are to enable the Battalion to conduct training across a wide variety of areas including individual combat behaviours, combat shooting, first aid training, convoy escort, vehicle checkpoints and vital asset protection.
We have also been lucky to host the new PNGDF Chief of Defence, MAJGEN Mark Gonia and the Chief of the Australian Army MAJGEN Rick Burr and Second in Command of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, MAJ Rose.
The next few months will see a culmination of the pre-election training and the deployment of the 1RPIR companies likely into the PNG Highlands. Meanwhile the rest of the Battalion will remain in Port Moresby and deployed on Border Operations.
The Battalion has a Facebook page that provides periodic updates across key events, and I encourage your members to follow the page if they are not already. Simply search 1st Battalion, Royal Pacific Islands Regiment.
Exchange Exercise Strengthens Partnership
By Private Jacob Joseph
An annual integration exercise was completed in Townsville this month, with Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) soldiers waving goodbye to Lavarack Barracks after two months of training with the 3rd Brigade.
Fourteen PNGDF soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Pacific Island Regiment, participated in Exercise Kumul Exchange from September 9 to November 12, joining infantry, engineer, and combat support battalions in barracks and in the field.
PNG soldiers took part in sub-unit training, such as direct-fire support weapons and mortar courses and rolled up their sleeves to work on vehicles and equipment, learning logistics and maintenance procedures.
PNGDF armourer Private Steven Malaisa, who was hosted by the 3rd Combat Service Support Battalion, said it was his first hands-on experience working with the EF88 Austeyr rifle.
“It’s good that I came here to learn new things so, in the future, if we have these types of weapons, I’ll be aware of them so I can assist with the fitting,” Private Malaisa said.
Across the barracks, Private Jack Kuhlberg, of 3rd Brigade’s 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, took on a mentoring role during the exercise, training a handful of PNG soldiers in urban-clearance drills.
After a step-by-step demonstration, Private Kuhlberg said the soldiers from the Royal Pacific Island Regiment got the hang of things quickly.
“We demonstrated room clearances, quartering and room-entry drills and they took it all in,” Private Kuhlberg said.
“I think they got a lot out of it.”
Similar training occurred at the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment, where the visitors joined basic training on direct fire support weapons, mortars, and combat engineering courses.
The exercise was part of the bilateral training activity Olgetta Warrior – an ADF and PNGDF engagement that was first held in 2009.
Kumul Exchange aimed to give soldiers at Lavarack Barracks exposure to working with a Pacific military and enhance the military relationship between Australian and PNG soldiers.
With more PNGDF personnel set to return next year, Private Malaisa said the exercise was something PNG soldiers looked forward to.
“I want to say thank you to the ADF for this opportunity,” Private Malaisa said.
“When we come here, we learn new things. The partnership program helps us in our work back in PNG.”
(Source: Veteranweb Network, November 2021)
The preceding two articles were sent to Armi Nius by co-editor, Greg Ivey. Thank you, Greg and Tom.
The following excellent short story was written by Association member, Roger Dundas. Thank you, Roger- it is a fine, well-written short story that makes for a very enjoyable read. We welcome more Army aviation stories for our Newsletter.
Coffin Carrier
One afternoon a message came over the Squadron Operations radio that a Head Man from a village, about 20 nm (40km) south of Lae had died. 183 Recce Flight had been requested by the PNG Administration to transport a coffin to the village and return the Headman to Lae for ceremonial burial.
The Operations Corporal, somewhat flustered by this request, put a Pilatus Porter and pilot Lang Kidby* on standby to await the arrival of the coffin from the Lae Hospital. Lang carried out the pre-flight planning and, as I had no helicopter tasks that day, I suggested I should travel with him to assist the operation. The coffin arrived, was loaded into the rear of the Porter and the Ops Corporal waved Lang and I into the air.
Airborne and almost at our destination the Ops Corporal radios to us that there is no further requirement for the coffin delivery, return to base. Lang and I thought this request somewhat strange but being the highly trained order takers that we were, we chucked a ue (U-turn).
As you can never keep a youthful fertile mind at rest, I thought it might be interesting to hop into the coffin and report to the Corporal that we had picked up the deceased and were returning to base. This was duly done and with no obvious inquiring response from the Ops Corporal. Lang made the necessary arrangements to have the aircraft met and the “cargo” unloaded into the only air-conditioned room in the unit. Still no questions from operations! We duly landed and the troops, including the Ops Corporal came out to unload the “Headman” (retired list).
“Bloody Hell he’s heavy!” and “Phew, he’s a bit on the nose as well”, being just some of the astute remarks passed as I was carried head-first down the steep stairs that led to the “cool room”.
Lowered less than gently to the floor I waited in the claustrophobic darkness of the coffin for the prearranged signal from Lang. I could hear the sounds of a number of the troops gathering to look at the unusual cargo brought back from the village, and I wondered if the Corporal might have wondered where Lt Dundas might be.
At last, the signal from Lang. I burst noisily from the coffin only to see the retreating backs of a number of the “cream of Australia’s Defence Force” as they jostled their way forcefully through the single exit. Bronzed Anzacs all!
Roger Dundas (Lt., 183 (Independent) Recce Flight, Lae 1972-74)
*Editor’s note: Major Lang Kidby was witness to a more serious incident in late August 1972. As reported by Dave Williams, then Captain Kidby assisted the RAAF to locate the crashed Caribou carrying Army Cadets and ADF staff – see previous Newsletter page 21. As the support aircraft for Terry Hayes in his helicopter search, Lang remained circling above the crashed Caribou until the RAAF helicopters reached the scene.
KOKODA TRAIL OR TRACK
I do not support the words “Kokoda Track” to describe where the fighting took place in what was the Kokoda Trail Campaign from July 1942 to February 1943 which was fought to repel the Japanese Army from Papua. The fighting in the mountains was only part of the campaign.
The word track is in common use these days to describe the heroics of the Kokoda Trail Campaign. However, it should be remembered that over two thirds of the Australians killed in the campaign occurred, not on the actual trail as described by the Australian War Memorial but on the coastal side of the Kumusi River when they assaulted and drove off the Japanese from the coastal villages.
Prior to 1942 there was no Kokoda trail or track. A prewar mail route between Port Moresby and the European settlements on the north coast existed which would have had relay points along the way due to the various languages spoken and the warlike nature of the many Papuans inhabiting the villages along the route.
The Australian War Memorial describes the Kokoda Trail as being “a path that linked Owers Corner, approximately 40km north-east of Port Moresby and the small village of Wairopi on the northern side of the Owen Stanley Mountain range. From Wairopi, a crossing point on the Kumusi River, the Trail was connected to the settlements of Buna, Gona and Sanananda on the north coast. Its name was derived from the village of Kokoda that stood on the northern side of the main range and was the site of the only airfield between Port Moresby and the north coast.” This path generallyfollowed the prewar mail route between Port Moresby and Buna.
The Kokoda Trail Campaign started when the Japanese landed at Buna and reached the village of Ioribaiwa before they were driven back to Buna, Gona and Sanananda by Australian troops with support from the Australian and the USA air forces. Here they were joined by a detachment of USA troops where, with additional support from the USA navy, they destroyed the remnant Japanese army units that had fought along the Trail. The USA air and naval forces had a major role in preventing the Japanese from reinforcing and resupplying its land force on the Trail.
The Army’s general staff in 1942 had recognized the existence of multiple paths parallel to and branching off the mail route paths linking the villages from Owers Corner to Wairopi and issued orders for the mail route paths to be called the Kokoda Trail.
Press reports at the time, and subsequent historians, have called the main paths the Kokoda Track which they are reported to have done so in deference to the troops they had interviewed who had fought along the trail. However, they recognize that there were several different tracks along the main track. It is of interest that Dudley McCarthy, the official war historian who wrote the history of the Kokoda Trail Campaign published in 1959 has, in his history, reproduced a map of the route over the Owen Stanleys from Port Moresby to past the Kumusi River which he titles “The Kokoda Track” however the words “Kokoda Trail” are written on the map alongside of the paths between the villages of Uberi and Efogi by the cartographer. I assume McCarthy obtained this map from Army archives.
So, who is correct the general staff or the troops?
Bert Kienzle called it a Trail. He was a planter and miner who was a long-term resident of Kokoda when the war broke out and he played a significant role during the fighting, He was appointed by the general staff to be in command of the Papuan porters who resupplied the troops and helped evacuate the wounded. He also cut other paths away from the prewar mail route including a bypass track to Myola from the Efogi village to Templeton’s Crossing to make the resupply of the forward troops and the evacuation of the wounded faster and easier.
His initial crossing of the Owen Stanleys on foot using the prewar mail route was to report to the Army’s general staff in Port Moresby. No doubt he influenced the general staff. Why did Kienzle call it a trail?
As a National Service 2nd Lieutenant, I served 17 months from January 1967 with the Port Moresby based 1st Bn Pacific Island Regiment whose regimental colours include the battle honours “Kokoda Trail” and “Kokoda-Deniki” and whose motto is “To Find A Path”. The PIR was formed after the war from the war time Papuan Infantry Battalion and New Guinea Infantry Battalions. The PIB made the initial planned ambush against the Japanese on the north coast of Papua on 23 July 1942.
From my experience with the PIR patrolling in remote country, my platoon often followed paths that were cut through the jungle between villages along our route. These paths were approximately 50 cm wide and were only identifiable, to me, by the remains of small finger width trees that had been cut when the path was blazed. We followedthe trail of these barely visible paths led by a local guide who also acted as an interpreter as he could understand the local languages of adjacent villages. Guides were regularly changed along the patrol route. (PNG then had a population estimated at 2.5 million and it was estimated there were 700 different languages.) It was not uncommon for adjoining villages to use different languages. It was also common that the villagers fought each other in, at times, lethal encounters. A police sergeant accompanied us on these patrols as “Police Motu” seemed to be a common language enabling him to communicate with remote villagers who did not speak “tok pisin”.
I imagine the prewar mail route to Port Moresby would have been similar to these jungle paths as it was not well used. Most of the villages along the route would have had different languages and probably fought each other. For example, the Koiari people who owned the territory centred on the village of Kagi had a reputation for being a fearsome tribe. When Kienzle first walked the mail route he could have been led by a member of the PNG constabulary who was familiar with the mail route and used Police Motu to communicate with the villagers. There was a Seventh Day Adventist mission near the village of Efogi which, I assume, would have been protected by the PNG constabulary and where the mail carriers from each end of the mail route would have met and swapped what they were carrying before returning to their start. To Kienzle he was following a trail that linked these villages.
The general staff called it a Trail presumably from Kienzle’s description of it in his first crossing. Another possible reason is that Brigadier Potts who commanded the retreat from Kokoda was a Western Australian and trail is commonly used in WA to describe tracks through the bush.
So why did some of – but not all – the troops call these multiple paths and multiple tracks a track?
I suggest these possible reasons:
a. After thousands of troops and carriers had used the mail route and the Myola bypass around the Efogi River gorge, the original mail route and the bypass would have become clearly defined with wider and seemingly continuous paths.
b. Most of the troops had no maps. In the jungle their vision would have been restricted and in their exhausted condition would have had no idea where they were until they arrived at a destination. The path they were following was a one and only path.
c. The Australian troops would have at some time marched to the tune of the popular Australian song of the 1920’s “Along the Road to Gundagai”. The words of which include “there’s a track winding back to an old-fashioned shack”. This song is quite rhythmic, and the music has a regular beat. It would have been used as a regimental marching tune as it was during my national service days. The word track would have been implanted in their thoughts.
d. They may have considered the word trail to be an Americanism. Trail is not an Americanism. Anti-American servicemen was intense at the time as evidenced by the Battle of Brisbane. Trail is quite a common word in Western Australia’s national parks. The Perth indigenous Nyoongar people have approved the use of the word trail in their description of the various paths they followed in their travels between Minim Cove on the Swan River and the chain of lakes in the western suburbs of Perth and between their camping grounds in the Darling Range. Signboards commemorating their traditional culture describe these paths as trails. The Camino Trail in northern Spain and the Inca Trail in Peru are other examples of the word trail.
I believe the Kokoda Trail is the right terminology for the war time route from Owers Corner to Wairopi. Kienzle and the generals were correct. The AWM’s choice of words “a path that linked” are the key. The paths between each village were not for walking to Kokoda from Port Moresby or Buna. They were to communicate with the immediate adjoining villages, but not the villages further along. These paths all overlapped to form a trail.
The Battle Nomenclature Committee adopted the name Kokoda Trail as the official British Commonwealth battle honour in October 1957, prior to McCarthy’s official history. They were possibly acting on the advice of the general staff who provided the strategy and directed the fighting along the trail and would have been aware of the significant involvement of the USA armed forces in the Kokoda Trail Campaign, which is either unknown to the majority of Australians, or ignored.
In PNG in 1967 the words “Kokoda Trail” were in use. The PNG post office issued a 5-cent stamp titled “Kokoda Trail” to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the start of the Kokoda Trail Campaign. At this time a wooden signpost displaying the words “Kokoda Trail”, was in place at McDonalds Corner on the road from Port Moresby to Koitaki. It pointed to a road leading to Owers Corner.
The words track, trail and path all have similar meanings. To my mind once a path has been cut and been used several times to become clearly defined it becomes a track. A track and a path are for walking between two locations. A trail is a series of overlapping paths, or tracks, between several locations along the way.
As mentioned by Peter Brune, “There were two pre-war and war time Kokoda Tracks; the Oivi – Kokoda Track and the Deniki – Kokoda Track.”
John Stringfellow, September 2020
[Editor’s note: John has undertaken the Kokoda hike twice – in 1967, with a Koiari soldier, from south to north; and in 2003, with a group of civilians, from north to south. John hopes that this article will trigger some discussion and debate amongst our readers.
Please send any comments to the Editors and these may be printed in the next Newsletter.]
Editors: Ian Ogston: ozoggies2@gmail.com Greg Ivey: iveygj@gmail.com