SPLENDID RECORD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1943, Page 5

SPLENDID RECORD

VOLUNTEERS IN NEW

GUINEA

(By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyrioht.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 21. The first men to go out and fight for their homes on Australian territory, the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, today celebrated the first anniversary of their Call-up for full-time duty. The unit, which did magnificent work in the early days of the Japanese southward drive, has now been disbanded. At its peak the ufrit numbered more than 500, its members being scattered over a vast area in New Guinea and New Britain. Many have died or are prisoners of the Japanese, but some are still in action in jungle warfare. The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles were formed at Rabaul in September, 1039, with subsequent detachments on the New Guinea mainland at Lac, Salamaua, and Madang. The unit was mainly composed of returned soldiers from the last war, and men over the age for enlistmeht. Most of them had many years' experience of the territories in which they were stationed. On January 21 of last year, when the alarm was given in Rabaul that a Japanese invasion fleet was approachi ing, the unit took up full-time duty. The local detachment fought till all their ammunition was expended, only seven eventually escaping to Australia. In New Guinea the volunteer riflemen took charge of areas from which the civilian populations had been evacuated and they were the only Australian soldiers there when the Japanese landed some weeks later. In patrol activities they inflicted many casualties and gained vital information concerning the strength, armaments, and likely plans of the enemy. Today those members of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles who are still on active service are acting as guides, scouts, and liaison officers in the territories with which they are so familiar and their local knowledge has been a major factor in many of the jungle warfare successes scored against the Japanese.