FEATS OF VALOUR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21064, 8 April 1943, Page 3

FEATS OF VALOUR

AMERICAN OFFICER GALLANTRY IN PAPUA LINK WITH AUSTRALIA (10.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, April 8. In 1931, Mr. Hermann Bottchcr left Singleton, New South Wales and went to America. He could speak only halting English. To-day, Captain Hermann Bot teller. D.S.C. and Purple Heart of the United States Army, is back in Singleton on convalescent leave. He is the first man in the American forces i:i the south-west Pacific area to be promoted from sergeant to captain on the field of br.“.lc. Captain Be ■ teller came to Australia from Germany in 1929 when he was 20 years old. In 1937 he sailed from America for Spain to fight in the International Brigade, winning the Cruz De Valor at Bacelona. Back in America, ho enlisted again the day after Pearl Harbour.

The last days of 1942 found Serjeant Bottcher in the fighting around Buna. Throughout the campaign he performed prodigious feats of valour and was mainly instrumental in dividing the Japanese forces by cutting a passage to the beach. For a whole week i small parly under his command fought off vastly superior numbers of the enemy, inflicting heavy casualties. He was promoted in the field and recommended for the decorations vdiich he now holds. Subsequently wounded in the fighting. Captain Bottcher contracted malaria after he reache ! the Australian mai nl and. One of his outstanding impre- sins of the Buna fighting was the way the Australians shared their comfort; and parcels with the Americans. Captain Hottcher’s father, fighting with, the German forces, was killed in France by Australians in the last war.