NEW GUINEA HEROES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22474, 8 January 1943, Page 4

NEW GUINEA HEROES

Much Needed Spell

Some Australian troops who fought the Japanese from lorabaiwa Ridge to Gona have been flown back from the front and are having a holiday at a picturesque rest camp in the southern foothills of the Owen Stanley Range, reports Charles Buttrose, the war correspondent in New Guinea of the “ Sydney Morning Herald.”

From their camp there is a splendid view of the magnificent range, but the troops say this is the prime example of distance lending enchantment to the view, and that they cannot see anything beautiful about the Owen Stanleys.

For more than a week now many men have been coming back each day. It is not difficult to pick those who have been back for four or five days from the most recent arrivals. Good food, rest, and comfortable beds have changed the appearance of the tired soldiers quickly.

Not one of the men is sick or wounded. They are just fagged out. Most of them have lost weight. One lieutenant-colonel took off nearly three stone. A young Queensland captain, however, told me that he had put on 81b in a week at the rest camp. The main diet of the men for the past two months has been bully beef and biscuits. They say that what they missed most from their diet was bread.

At the rest camp they are getting fresh meat, plenty of bread, fresh fruit and vegetables. They have been issued with new clothes. Picture shows and other entertainments have been organised for them. The soldiers say they have learned a lot about the Japanese, and now believe that they can teach other Australian soldiers tricks they have learned which will enable them to out-smart the Japanese when they meet them.

Many recommendations for awards have been made for the units to which the men at the rest camp belong. One young soldier, who seems likely to have his bravery recognised, made a specialty of wriggling his way to Japanese weapon pits and cleaning them out. His officer told me that for three days in succession this soldier had cleaned out an average of three pits with grenades, and sometimes the bayonet.

“On the fourth day I asked him how he felt about doing a bit more cleaning out,” the officer said, "and he replied: ‘Look, I feel a bit like a rest to-day. Let me have a let-up, and I will dig out a heap of the blanks for you to-morrow ’.”

In between sleeping and eating, the troops are spending a good deal of their time writing letters to their people in Australia.