Dick had been to Manus twice before, so it was not a new experience. Jim Devitt and Ron Faulks met him at Momote air strip and settled him in. Ron said “There is not much time Dick, I have planned a company patrol due to leave in a few days. We are going to do a ‘cloverleaf’ type operation. We will all travel on the ‘Mobile refrigeration lighter’ commanded by Lieutenant ‘Fearless’ Fagen RAN to Lorengau and do an assault landing, establish a company beachhead and from it 4 Platoon will follow the North Beach to a track going inland. 5 Platoon will go South to the southern beach and go a similar distance to another track going inland. 6 Platoon will follow a track made by the Japanese to a grid reference then work around to the South. All platoons will move to an RV at a village on the (something) river where you will establish your headquarters. Jim Devitt will bring re-supply. When concentrated, the company will then walk back to Nutt Point via the bridge over the Loniu Passage. You can clean up a bit then non-tactically I want the Company to march back through Momote with bagpipe and drum to show the flag”. Ron left to finish packing while Dick and Jim went over the fine detail. “Some rehearsals need to be done.” said Dick as he met with all officers and NCOs to make sure everybody knew what had to be done.
The company signaller came rushing up with the news that on the next plane, a new platoon commander would arrive, and he did. Enter stage left, Lieutenant Brian William Howard, Class of 1959, bearing the nickname of “Horrible” shortened to ‘Hori”. He had come to the regiment following a conversation between the Director of Infantry and Colonel Norrie: “Find me a number 7“. So almost immediately he was sent to Manus because it was the off season for footie. The Colonel wanted him back for the next footie season. Apparently, there were some bets going on at the Papuan Hotel and there were a few bucks riding on wins. Work that out for yourself. Hori settled in and met his platoon. Without a word of Melanesian but showing a ton of guts, Hori impressed himself on the platoon. Events would show that they would follow him down a gun barrel. Rehearsals done, the company marched over to the wharf and loaded by platoon in the order of disembarkation. A string of whale boats were towed by the grey supply ship that maybe had a name, but it was never revealed. It was a floating refrigerator. The company filed on to the whale boats and the first platoon off made it to shore and occupied a defensive position. In no time at all everybody was ashore, and the signal was given to go off in the separate directions. The company commander hoped he would see them again someday.
With his small party of the CSM, signalman, batman, with the piper and bugler acting as local protection, the commander found an old track made by the Yanks and avoiding the local villages, made his way to the RV about central in the Island. A suitable site was found adjacent to the river (name forgotten) and he and the signaller climbed up a steep hill to establish communications with Jim Devitt. By a miracle Jim answered on first transmission, remarkable because there were few people who had any confidence in the Radio A 510. A ‘end fed’ aerial worked fine at first but later the sig put up the ‘di-pole’ one and it was better for most of the day. Late in the afternoon atmospherics took over and communication was so difficult, almost approaching impossible. The late afternoon ‘sked’ picked up Howard and Chipman but no word from Lunney. The days went past, and Dick was sick of climbing up the steep slope. The signalman had found a few friends (or they found him) and he became a source of fresh bananas and mouli limes (known as ‘sopura’ in Papua). They made a good drink to supplement the ad hoc ration pack of rice, bully beef and dog biscuits. There were no ration packs in those days. Rice was carried in mortar barrel cap protectors that had been found in some ordinance store somewhere. Rice had to be kept dry or it went off quickly.
At the appointed time for RV, Chipman came in first with Howard on his tail. No Lunney in sight. A day passed before he showed up with all the excuses under the sun. The other two gave him a rough time. The company commander chose to let him sort himself out. If he was going to be a PIR Platoon Commander, he had a way to go. The return to Loniu was by single file. There really wasn’t any choice, the big deep dark jungle was too impenetrable. Ten days of filth was washed away at the Loniu Passage and an inspection showed that the lads had done their best. The CSM looked away when he reported the company was ready to move – you can’t please a good CSM can you? Jim had arrived with some treats and the lads were glad to get some wheatmeal biscuits and fresh water. Four cans of beer disappeared like a flash of lightning.
Des Middis took a few pioneers and went over to the defunct Mokerang Airstrip. There he produced three fire lanes with mechanically disappearing targets. He had conned the ‘pussers’ over at the naval workshop to produce nylon cord, pulleys and a bank of levers that controlled the lifting and lowering of the figure targets. Des made several firing points to minimise boredom and give variety. All officers and the CQMS went over to christen it when it was finished. It was a huge success, and it was claimed to be the first “Trainfire” range in Australia. While Jungle Training Centre at Canungra had some ingenious ‘snap shooting’ galleries, this was a bit different. The platoons were fed through with concurrent training going on with retraining of sighting skills. Many PIs had difficulty – sometimes choosing the foresight protectors to acquire the target often mixing it up with the foresight. Once that fault was sorted out, the number of hits increased dramatically. The CSM was truly happy with his month’s work.
Some weekends when things were under control, a few officers did a two-fathom dive school at HMAS Tarangau. To test their skill, a bomb crater was found off the coast. A new world opened up. One or two of them became spear fishermen and tried their luck with little result. Mostly, the swimmers just swam about and were amazed at the beauty and what the silent underwater world was. Luck ran out a bit when Jim Devitt became eye ball to eye ball with a large shark. He proved that swimming backwards with flippers is easy if you really want to.
A visit by General Daly came over the sked soon after and frantic preparation began. The quarter guard had to be perfect. The camp was to be immaculate. Interesting training to be planned and rehearsed and a formal dinner including the NOIC, and the Captain of HMAS Tarangau, Commander Gillow would be invited to make a table of eight. Jim planned a menu helped by Lt Comd Brooker the Supply Officer. Ssgt Cameron, CQMS went to Lorengau to see what he could find. A visit to the Trade Store at Mokerang was more productive and a succulent spread looked to be well in hand. Lt Howard and his picked men performed beautifully at Momote air strip and General Daly spoke to a few men whom he recognised. They were bursting with pride on return to camp. The GOC was accommodated at the Ward Room in a VIP suite so he wasn’t seen until the next day. He had a briefing on the company patrol and a general look around the prepared training groups. He had seen all that stuff before.
The next day he was taken out to Mokerang to see the Trainfire range. His interest quickened at the new contrivance. Des Middis was quick to answer all the questions which were many. General Daly had been encouraged to dress in Greens, so he was not averse to adopting a lying position. Loaded up, he watched his front no doubt having done this sort of thing at Canungra. Up came the targets and he only missed one. Another go and he missed one again. A third go and he got the lot which resulted in much clapping by the several duty men standing by to “patch out”. The CSM and Company Commander had a turn and even the 2i/c sent a few down range. Then the party moved to the other firing positions. The day wore on. A departure had been planned for about four o’clock, but the General was having too much fun. He was not going to move anywhere – he was having a day off being a General and only reluctantly when advised of the time, he recalled that he was due to speak to the ‘pussers’ at five.
The dinner went well the next night, the General was relaxed and engaged all the platoon commanders in conversation one on one while Dick, Jim and the navy planned a pre-Christmas Party at Nutt Point. It was to be a ‘thank you’ for all the kindnesses the Army had received. Because he was due to leave the next day the general and the sailors left at a reasonable time. The five officers invited the CSM and CQMS over to finish up the goodies.
Several days later Dick got a call from Taurama that the CO wanted to talk to him. Sunray came on the air and said that Dick was going overseas. “I am overseas, sir”. The reply came back “You are going to Hawaii, that is the proper overseas.” Detail came out that he had been re-posted to be an exchange officer to the US Army. It was to be a year duration and unaccompanied. Digesting this, Dick came to the decision that he would refuse. There had been too much separation over the last three years and while his marriage was strong, he knew that Lyndall would be greatly disappointed if she and the kids were not to go. Next day Dick asked for the Adjutant to come on the radio. Wal took the problem in hand, had a talk with Lyndall then signalled the Directorate of Infantry with the problem. The D Inf came back the next day saying that they had had no idea that Flint was married. Directorate records had only begun in 1955, on his transfer from the Armoured Corps and they had never said anything. Their advice was that he had been married on enlistment and they thought that CARO would have had the record forwarded. Army Headquarters (AHQ) as it was known then wired the Australian Embassy in Washington to contact the Pentagon to enquire if a family could accompany a nominated officer to the 25th US Division in Hawaii. All was agreed with a “With pleasure” note, so the information went back over the tortuous links all the way back to Nutt Point. A heave of relief followed.
But the next day the CO was on the air again. “Dick, there has been a riot in Murray Barracks. Many PIs have been involved. The RP&NGC have been issued with boots, PIR has heard about it and questions were asked as to why PIR didn’t get any. Issue of boots was unfortunately refused with the excuse that the Army need PIs to be barefooted to preserve the prehensile nature of the feet in jungle path conditions. Dick, you are to be replaced by a Major Maurice Pears MC who will arrive in your area soon. I am accelerating the arrival of Captain Digger Campbell to conduct the handover of the camp for the incoming A Company under Major P. G. Latham who is due in your area next month. You are to be the second member of the courts martial to try the men arrested for several charges including assault on the current DAQMG, HQ Area Command. I want you to get back to Taurama as quickly as you can.”
The end of Dick’s command so soon was a great disappointment. While it was nearly finished, there were a few more things that he wanted to do. He held a parade of B Company and told them what had happened at Taurama and told them that B Company was not to think like that. Being mutinous was a terrible thing for an Army to be involved in and it was not B Company’s style to even think about it. There was a bit of muttering but later several men asked to see him, and they were mainly lower ranks and privates. The spokesman was Lance Corporal Utiam from Kandrian. He spoke firmly saying that the “Masta” should not worry about B Company; that they felt that it was those HQ Company big mouths that had caused the riot and rifle company men would never think like that. Dick thanked them and Utiam went on to say that on the next Saturday the company would have a Sing Sing to farewell namba wan bilong B Company. Without drawing another breath, Utiam continued “Could you buy a couple of pigs for us?” with an innocent look on his face. The celebration went for most of the night, Jim Devitt had been put in the know and had already found some pigs, pineapples, yams and other goodies. Top Sergeant Lafe and Dick went out to Momote to meet Mauri Pears. The handover was swift, and the flight home was in the next week.

Vol 7: Judgement Day …