ACHING TO HAVE A GO

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 123, 27 May 1942, Page 6

ACHING TO HAVE A GO

TROOPS IN NEW GUINEA

'Outwardly the men in New Guinea don t seem to take the war very seriously. The camp bakery has an ornate sign outside urging the troops to "Deal at the BombHappy Bakers.' A hessiamcovered camp kitchen bears the legend, "All Night Cabaret: Wine and Dine till Dawn.' They call each other Chocko, and they have a song called 'The Bludgers of Papua,' which goes to the tune of 'The L,ily of Luguna,' and laments the fact that they've been caught by the war after having C A° m , e this t0 dodge the war. And they speak with jocular confidence of the medal that's to be struck for them after the war—the Cross of Papua, which will be notable for its yellow ribbon. Then thev sit down and sing the old Great War song, 'J want to Go Home,' in lugubrious tones. But these are the same men who grumbled very little at hardships in the toughest and loneliest of all Australian war stations, and these are the men who for weeks have been aching to have a go at the Japs. They stood by the guns in the face of sticks of great bombs falling all around them. They have stood up with their machine-guns to Japanese fighters diving down on them at 400 miles on hour with machine-guns and cannons blazing. And these are the men who laugh at the description of tneir outpost as the Tobruk of the r acific . . . but who know the description to be true.'WThe New Guinea correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald.