MEN OF MORESBY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 117, 20 May 1942, Page 5

MEN OF MORESBY

BETWEEN BOMBINGS

STORIES GO THE ROUNDS

SYDNEY, May 14.

Between bombings there is time for yarn spinning around the army camps in Papua, and George H. Johnston, war correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, sent down a selection of stories going the rounds:—

He came from one of the western stations somewhere beyond Cloncurry, where for years he'd ridden the fences and branded cattle and had never thought about war. He was tanned to the colour of mahogany, and he sat on the clay-heap beside the slit trench squinting up into the clouded blue sky, where a formation of silvered Japanese bombers was lumbering through the cottonwool puffs of A.A. bursts.

He turned to the more slightly built youngster squatting beside him, a youth who a year before had been a clerk in a Melbourne shipping office. s

"They're coming right this way," he said, in a matter-offact tone. "Do you want to get down in the trencxi?"

. No, was the reply. "Just as soon sit here and watch them. Plenty of time to duck when you hear 'em whistling."

They peered upward in silence for a few minutes as the bombers whined overhead. Then the stockman spoke softly, almost as if he were muttering to himself:

"One of these days, vou little b s, we're going to have a crack at j'ou. Then look out . . They both rose, dusted the dry clay from their shorts and moved off. Two days later I saw them both again . . .

They were standing together in a matted tangle of tropical vegetation. Above their tensed bodies the snub muzzle of a machine-gun poked upward through the leaves. There was no sound, but the faint, far-off drone of aircraft and the nearer hum of insects. Then the whole world went mad . . .

Over the rounded top of a squat hill came the Japanese Zero fighters —five of them—diving down from 1500 ft at a speed close on 400 miles an hour, their snub-nosed engines and low. tapered wings giving them an appearance of terrifying invulnerability. Little yellow stabs of flame preceded by only a second or two the sharp clatter of cannon and heavy machine-guns. Ahead of the concealed machinegun positions the earth spurted up in tiny spouts of red dust. Over our heads the broad leaves, cut through by whizzing lead, fell from the branches. The two men in front stood at the gun, immobile like carved bronze statues. Suddenly there was a tautening of muscles, as arms moved with trained skill. The shattering roar of the gun was the S A^ nal for other Posts to open up. All round us the air vibratod with the roar of rapid-fire guns, the curious swish of bullets. In three seconds it was all over. Climbing almost perpendicularly, one of the Zero fighters -was streaking away over the hills. Another had bounced from the' ground and rocketed over our heads with a great spurt of flame spewing from the cockpit. We didn't see it crash, but we heard the rumbling explosion as it burst into a thousand pieces on a hill 600 yards behind. A great column of smoke rose from a stubby hill on our left, where another fighter had crashed in flames into scrub and hurled the body of the pilot 200 yards beyond. The fourth enemy fighter was streaking away for the mountains with a great trail of white smoke pouring from the tail. We couldn't see tbe machine, in

the excitement of the brief action it had got away. Two shot down in flames and one damaged for certain out of five planes ... It was good shooting.

The stockman turned from his gun and winked at me. "Not bad, eh?" he said. "I told you we'd do something when we got stuck into 'cm. Not bad for Chockos!"

Chockos," abbreviation of "Chocolate Soldiers," was the term applied to jftien called up under the Defence Act for compulsory service within Australian territories.

End of the Over

Let me give you another incident from the Moresby front to present this picture of the young defenders of the Papuan jungles. The scene was an A.A. station which had given the Japanese a lot of worry in preceding raids. This time the Japanese were perparing for their bombing run and it was evident that they would aim their sticks at the batteries. They were up above 20,000 ft and the bursts from the belching guns were pocking the sky all about them. They came in two waves— seven in one, eight in the other.

From the battery pit an officer chanted a cheerful commentary. It took me back several years to the green turf of the Melbourne cricket ground, and the great mass of spectators watching the white-flannelled figures. His words were punctuated by the crash of the guns. "End of the over. McCormick has been given the ball and is bowling from the pavilion end . . . whooooff He's running up to the wicket now, and it's a good one right . . . right on the leg stump. Oh, Leyland has pulled this one hard toward the ferfte

. . . whooooff, whoooff. running two. . . ."

They're

The whistle of the bombs interrupted him. The first one fell down the hill with a titanic roar, the next was nearer the battery, then everything was lost in a cataclysmic thunder as the stick of high explosives brcaketed the gun-post. Great clouds of earth sky-rocketed and huge columns of red dust and smoke belched upward amid the yellow flash of explosions. There were long seconds of anxious strained waiting in a silence broken only by the clatter of earth and debris" falling to the ground. Then the tin-hatted head of a dust-caked gunner rose cautiously above the sandbags. He looked round and grinned.

"Struth. sir, that must have been a googly!" he yelled. There was a roar of laughter. Then the guns opened up again on the homewardfleeing planes.

Spare the Eggs

Another memory of Moresby. The supply truck was pulled up at the side of the road. A young A.A.S.C. private was unloading stores for his camp. He reverently piled a case of eggs on his shoulder—the first eggs (fresh or otherwise) seen in Moresby for months. As he moved away from the truck the bombs began to fall. He walked on without looking up. Then one fell closer. It was still about 200 yards away, but even when they're that far off they sound as if they're going right for you! He looked up at the Japanese bombers and yelled out at the top of his voice: "You break one of these eggs and I'll come up and break your by neck,"" Two enlisted men, one American and one A.1.F., met in camp. The American pulled out a pair of dice and within a few minutes was teaching the Australian to shoot craps W hen the game ended the Australian understood the game, but had lost lb. The Aussie thought for a moment, dived into his pocket, and brought out two pennies. A crowd gathered as the pennies were tossed * n • air * Half an hour later the American and Australian parted. The American was lugubriously scratching. ,Ms head. The Australian was smiling. In his pocket he had his s£6, plus-22 dollars.