"SATURDAY SOLDIERS"
HOME GUARD IN NEW GUINEA
FOUGHT WELL AT it A HAUL Marly in the war New Guinea civilians formed a volunteer rillc corps of GO members, called "Saturday Afternoon Soldiers," because they followed their usual avocations during the week and trained on Saturdays and Sundays. When Japan invaded Rabaul, 17 of them undertook to resist one landing Avhich threatened a road along which a sorely-pressed Australian force was retiring. "We had a mortar," said one of Hum, "and we did pretty good work with it while 200 of the Japs landed. We had two Viekers guns but one of Ihem wasn't much good and when they blew us oil' the beach with their cannon and mortars and bombs from their planes, we could only use our rilles. W r e held them up for an hour and a half and by that time practically all the Ausr tralians had passed behind us. It was hot while it lasted and L still can't understand how we all got away with only one man wounded."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19420731.2.7
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 85, 31 July 1942, Page 2
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175"SATURDAY SOLDIERS" Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 85, 31 July 1942, Page 2
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