Australians in the War

SIR: It was good to read Peter Ryan (March 2008), in response to Max Hastings’ Nemesis. Like Ryan I found the chapter on the Australians incomprehensible. Hastings was able to deal fairly with the Japanese!

There was for someone with my background an added irony, that while proclaiming 1944-45 as the “most inglorious of Australia’s history as a fighting nation”, Hastings could not even put Rabaul in his Brief Chronology at the end of Nemesis. The first mention of the Japanese invasion of New Guinea is February 3, 1942, under the heading “Japanese bombers attack Port Moresby, New Guinea” (sic: Port Moresby was the capital of Papua, a separate colony). The planes bombing Moresby were based at Rabaul, from Rabaul the Japanese fleet sailed, with transports, to the battle of the Coral Sea, and from Rabaul their troops left for the Owen Stanley Range.

Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, capital of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, was governed by Australia for the League of Nations. The fall of Rabaul, on January 23, 1942—it fell before Singapore—with its strategic harbour, two airports and wireless station, can be regarded as the greatest catastrophe in purely Australian history: no other nation was involved in the actual surrender. The Rabaul debacle was redeemed for Australia by the extraordinary self-sacrifice, courage and will to survive shown by individual Australians, civilian and military.

The strange role the Americans played in Rabaul before 1942 is seldom realised. The Australian government, instead of fortifying Rabaul, agreed to spend £666,500 on behalf of the United States to further develop New Caledonia. At the beginning of the war there had also been discussions with the Americans about developing Rabaul as a naval base. When this was summarily set aside by the Americans, Rabaul was left almost defenceless

My book Masked Eden: A History of the Australians in New Guinea, gives a detailed account, with much primary source material, of the fall of Rabaul. Masked Eden documents too just how much the Australians were doing in spite of MacArthur’s edicts. Peter Ryan mentions the Coast Watchers, who were at work throughout the war in New Guinea. So too were others. The Australian New Guinea Administration Unit (ANGAU) was formed in 1943 and men like Stan McCosker, my father, having escaped from Rabaul, joined this organisation. During the following years, he and other former residents of the islands worked in danger zones and reoccupied areas. They transported New Guineans to safe places, reorganised communities and helped many in need of medical aid and assistance after Japanese occupation. They also harried the enemy.

One wonders what Hastings would have made of Stan McCosker if a certain batch of telegrams had survived. McCosker sent telegrams to American generals in New Guinea headquarters telling them what he thought of their handling of Australian and American forces. After the first few, a mate of McCosker’s would destroy these notes before any American read them. This First World War veteran returned to New Britain in 1946 and rebuilt our destroyed plantation. He was no bludger!

Other men from the Australian Intelligence Unit (AIB), closely linked with the Coast Watchers, were working behind enemy lines in New Britain, living in constant fear of discovery, almost certain torture and death. They were helped by loyal New Guineans—including my father’s boss boy. This man, Rombin, hid a US airman from the Japanese for six months before getting him safely to an AIB party. Rombin and other New Guineans, contrary to American promises, were never rewarded by them after the war.

AIB and ANGAU men were, like the British, making sure they regained control over their old colony in the face of American antagonism. Surely Hastings would agree these Australians were making the best use of the limited opportunities available to them and went far beyond any “mopping up” role assigned them by the Americans. The welcome given by New Guineans in Rabaul to the returning Australians after Japan surrendered demonstrated this. Anne McCosker, Weymouth, England.