HONOURS AWARDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1943, Page 2

HONOURS AWARDED

TO AUSTRALIAN MILITARY LEADERS. SERVICES IN PACIFIC CAMPAIGNS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 30. Decorations which have been awarded to a number of Australian military leaders for their services in the New Guinea campaign and Timor guerrilla warfare and during the first bombing of Darwin have been announced by the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie. A knighthood has been conferred on Lieutenant-General Edmund Francis Herring, who has been created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division. The Knight Grand Cross of the same order has been awarded General Sir Thomas Blarney. Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Land Forces in the South-West Pacific.

General Herring’s citation records that “he rendered valuable service in restoring morale after the first enemy air raids on Darwin.” This is the first official hint of the plight of Darwin after the initial Japanese air raid there 15 months ago. General Herring is also described as “a most successful commander in the campaign which resulted in the decisive defeat of the Japanese forces in Papua.”

Major-General G. A. Vasey, who commanded the rapid Australian advance which forced the Japanese back across the Owen Stanley ranges, and Major-General C. A. Clowes, who commanded the Allied forces which defeated the Japanese at Milne Bay, arc among senior officers created Companion of the Order of the Bath.