Anzac’s PNG marking

Weekender

By ELLEN TIAMU
ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance that commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping missions and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The first Anzac Day commemoration was held in these two countries on April 25 in 1916. Observed on April 25 every year, Anzac Day originally honoured the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought in Gallipoli in World War I.
Later, Anzac Day also served to commemorate the lives of Australians who died in the Second World War, and now the day has been broadened to include those who lost their lives in all Australian military and peacekeeping operations.
The dawn service observed on Anzac Day is said to have originated from a military routine with the half-light of dawn serving as one of the best times for launching an attack on the enemy. Likewise, dusk was also regarded in the same light, when the enemy might be retiring for the day and would be caught unawares.
PNG, or New Guinea as it was then known, was an unwitting comrade when the war reached its shores in the battle to take Australia. While our men did not have guns and bombs, didn’t have an inkling about planes and submarines, they volunteered to help. Without knowing what the war was about, many also sacrificed their lives to help their Anzac comrades. Their overseas brethrens didn’t know local terrain like they did.
They might have been on an army diet that was insufficient. Malaria was around then. But our men grew up with the bush. It was their sustenance and livelihood. They knew the sounds of the bush that could indicate a movement of people or the refreshing sound of a creek. These ‘bush men’ didn’t ask questions but dutifully got on with the job as they were told.
They were strong men who mainly used as carriers, transporting heavy loads, and even injured soldiers where it necessitated.
Many survived the war, many didn’t. In their small way, they were helping defend PNG. Our women and children were also casualties of war or suffered the indignities of those times. They also, should not be forgotten.
While most of PNG was still asleep early on Tuesday this week, many people in Rabaul, Lae, Port Moresby and a few other centres around the country were up and gathered, just as the Anzacs would have had, to prepare for another day of war.
This is a peacetime gathering, to mark the efforts of all Anzac soldiers, many of them very young, who had left the comforts of their families and homes to fight for their country. Many returned home in coffins draped with their national flag.
Others have not been found. Others returned home in one piece, but were never the same, physically or mentally.
The ceremony at the Bomana War Cemetery outside Port Moresby was packed with people on Tuesday. Vehicles spilled out onto the main road leading directly into Bomana CIS. There were more people from overseas as there were Papua New Guineans. For some of these visitors, it was a pilgrimage to visit the graves of loved ones who died on PNG soil.
The Bomana war cemetery contains 3838 Commonwealth burials from WWII. To this day, 701 graves are still unidentified. Secretary of the Port Moresby sub-branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia Brian Wareing said there are a further 440 servicemen from the UK, 6 from New Zealand and 39 Papua New Guineans rested there. The only female among the men, Sister Marie Craig, flew in and out of combat zones to tend to the wounded. On September 18, 1942, Marie and 27 patients and crew were flying from Indonesia to Horn Island in the Torres Strait. Their crashed plane was not found until 1970 and her remains brought to Bomana over a decade ago.
This year marks 101 years of Anzac Day tradition. This year marks 75 years of the PNG campaign. Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Governor-General Bob Dadae, Commander of the PNGDF, Chief of the Australian Army, diplomatic corp representatives, members of the Australian, New Zealand and PNG defence forces, members of RSL of Australia and it’s PNG sub-branch, Leader of the Australian Federation and families of veterans were among the hundreds who attended.
The VIPs included Australia’s Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Sir Peter Cosgrove paid tribute to those who served “in some of the worst conditions warfare can demand” in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
In his speech, he saluted World War II veterans who died during and after the war.
He especially made a mention of two young Australians who were killed in the battle to protect Port Moresby, Private Grenville Harold Lewis, a toymaker killed during a training exercise at 19, and Private Kenneth John Hastings, an Ipswich watchmaker, who was killed in action before he was 20.
“Many would fall here in the jungle, away from the wide brown land they loved, but were destined never to see again. There were heroes among them,” Cosgrove said.
“At a time when Singapore had fallen, and northern Australia was being bombed, the fighting here was crucial to halt the Japanese advance.”
The first light of the Anzac Day dawn light also brought light on the fact that the Governor-General’s uncle is among the hundreds of white tombstones at Bomana.
Sir Peter paid tribute to his uncle Bill, a flight sergeant with the RAAF Beaufighter unit.
“I never had the chance to meet the ‘boisterous and charismatic’ Tigers VFL football player, who had the club’s slogan ‘Tigers, eat ‘em alive’ painted on the side of his planes.”
In August 1943, his plane crashed near Goodenough Island in August 1943. He left behind his wife Dot and daughter Madeline.
Sir Peter praised the efforts of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, who worked along the Kokoda Track to help wounded Australian soldiers.
Bill Shorten also lauded Papua New Guineans for their part in the war.
“Each year, more and more Australians are coming to recognise the battles of the PNG campaign, from Milne Bay and Wau to Kokoda, as decisive moments in our nation’s history,” he said.
“In PNG, inexperienced and out-numbered Australians turned the tide against invasion. Ordinary people defended their homeland with acts of extraordinary courage.
“Spending Anzac Day in Papua New Guinea also reminds us of the gratitude Australians owe the locals, so many of whom risked their own lives as guides and stretcher-bearers.”
Lest we forget!