Alex had only just transferred to the 2/4th Battalion on 16 July 1943 when he was hit by malaria again and was hospitalised from 28 August to 19 October 1943. He returned to the unit briefly and on 8 November was transferred to the East Australian Training Centre at Canungra where he would spend the next nine months.
canungra
The training centre draws its lineage from the Jungle Training Centre that was formed in November 1942 in response to the requirement to train troops for jungle combat. The centre grew out of the Guerrilla Warfare School that had been established earlier at Foster, Victoria. Located in the Gold Coast hinterland below the Beachmont plateau that stretches towards Tamborine Mountain, the establishment was located amidst thick rainforest and steep, razor-back country. Staffed by instructors that had experienced combat the centre housed 2000 and each week a total of 500 personnel marched out to join the infantry battalions fighting in New Guinea
new guinea again
On 20 July 1944 Alex re-joined the 2/4th prior to going again to New Guinea. The Battalion embarked Cairns on 28 October and disembarked Aitape on 1 November.
The Australian portion of the Aitape-Wewak campaign took place in northern New Guinea between November 1944 and August 1945. Aitape had been occupied by the Japanese in 1942. Recaptured by an American landing on 22 April 1944, it was developed as a base area to support the continuing drive towards the Philippines. In order to free American troops for the Philippine operations, defence of the area was passed to Australian forces. Troops of the 3rd Base Sub Area and the 6th Division began progressively relieving the Americans from early October 1944.
Although their primary role was the defence of the base facilities at Aitape, Australian commanders opted to advance to the east of Aitape, towards Wewak, to destroy the remnants of the Japanese 18th Army. The 18th Army had sustained heavy losses as a result of Australian operations in the Salamaua hinterland, on the Huon Peninsula, and in the Finisterre Mountains. After preliminary patrolling by the 2/6th Cavalry (Commando) Regiment, the Australian advance by the brigades of the 6th Division began in December 1944. It had two axes – one along the coast towards the Japanese base at Wewak, and the other into the Torricelli Mountains, aimed at the area around Maprik used for the gardening and foraging upon which the Japanese force depended for its sustenance.
The resulting operations were characterised by prolonged small-scale patrolling, often in particularly arduous conditions. Assaults, when they occurred, were similarly small-scale – company attacks being the largest conducted in most instances. Constrained by supply difficulties, progress was slow but steady. The coast was occupied on 16 March 1945, and Maprik was secured on 23 April. Wewak fell on 10 May. The remaining Japanese bastion in the area remained in the Prince Alexander Mountains to the south of Wewak. Operations there were still continuing there when the war ended in August. Australian casualties in the campaign amounted to 442 killed and 1,141 wounded. Over 9,000 Japanese were killed and 269 became prisoners of war.
Alex served with the 2/4th in this campaign from 1 November 1944 to 26 January 1945 when he was transferred to the 1st New Guinea Battalion
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