1 NEW GUINEA INFANTRY BATTALION
The 1st New Guinea Infantry Battalion(1 NGIB) was one of four infantry battalions raised in New Guinea, 1 NGIB was formed in March 1944. The objectives of the new battalion were to be (a) Reconnaissance unit (b) Fighting unit and (c) Guerrilla unit.
Then subsequently:
1. To train new recruits and natives recruited in the field in the use of modern arms, rifle drill and the discipline necessary for a battalion to be efficient in action.
2. To learn the language of the Papuans and New Guineans and understand and teach people who did not have the same advantages[1].
The creation of the battalion did more than create a fighting unit, it helped unite people from 700 different tribal cultures and languages. During the war, 500 Australians and 3,850 Papuans and New Guineans served as members of the indigenous battalions. The European officers and NCO’S were selected on the basis of their battle experience, health, attitude and probable compatibility with native people. Its soldiers were primarily natives of New Guinea, under the command of Australian officers and NCOs. The New Guinea battalions each had an establishment of about 77 Europeans and 550 native soldiers. The CO of the Battalion was Lieutenant-Colonel Ben Dawson and from January 1945 was assisted by Major Alex Tolmer as 2IC, adjutant, intelligence officer, and quartermaster. Alex was acting CO from 24 April to 8 August 1945.
Ben was in the 2/22nd escape from New Britain. Alex and Ben remained firm friends for many years after their war service ended and they continued their informal contacts over the years in Sydney and rural NSW where Ben lived.
Although it was raised late in the war the Battalion was involved in every sphere of action in Papua, New Guinea, New Britain Island and Bougainville Island campaigns. Its roles included reconnaissance, harassment and mopping up operations. The battalion also detached guides to the Australian infantry battalions, earning a reputation of being able move silently through the bush and locate Japanese patrols and ambushes. For their battle activities in Papua and New Guinea they were given the name “Green Shadows”. The Japanese respected them for their ability to fade into and then appear from the jungle as if they were shadows.
In November 1944 the battalion began deploying its companies in support of combat operations.
In late 1943 US marines had invaded New Britain at the western end at Cape Gloucester and drove through the island in order to ensure the isolation of Japanese forces, which numbered some 89,000. On 4 November the Fifth Australian Division took over from the American 40th Division and General Sturdee established HQ at Jacquinot Bay.
B Company deployed there in November and was joined by D Company the following month. B Company was assigned the southern sector around Jacquinot Bay, patrolling towards Wide Bay in support of the 6th Brigade, while D Company undertook the drive on the northern coast towards Open Bay alongside the 36th Battalion as the Australians established a defensive line between Wide Bay and Open Bay, to confine the Japanese to their base around Rabaul. From March 1945, offensive operations were curtailed and largely focused upon collecting information.
Elsewhere, A Company was sent to Bougainville in November 1944, until May 1945 and was then sent to New Britain to join other elements of the Battalion. Meanwhile, C Company moved to Salamaua, New Guinea in November 1944, and carried out patrols looking for small pockets of Japanese resistance that had been left behind following the main operation to clear the area and in March 1945, the company was transferred to Jacquinot Bay to join the rest of the Battalion.
Arch Taylor was a gunner in the 2/22 at Rabaul and escaped New Britain with Alex on the yacht Lakatoi. He went on to become an instructor in Canungra and served as a sergeant in B Company 1 NGIB
Battalion headquarters arrived on New Britain in June 1945 and established itself around the Tol Plantation. During this time, the battalion was under the command of the 5th Division. On their arrival, A Company concentrated around Wide Bay with B Company, while C Company linked up with D Company at the Mavelo Plantation around Open Bay.
“A strip of ‘no-mans-land’ existed between the Allied occupied western area and the Japanese occupied Gazelle Peninsular, where the Australian native patrols waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. Extensive fighting took place in the Wide Bay and southern Gazelle Peninsula. The Japanese suffered severe casualties, and in one encounter lost 200 men when in a devastating search and sweep operation where a forest 300×400 yards was devastated by eighteen tons of high explosives in five minutes.” [2]
At this stage the Japanese were losing on all fronts and it seemed pointless to continue the advance further. “We were ordered to form a string of perimeters across the island and to remain where we were. During the following months the Japs made several attacks but were easily repulsed.”
These operations continued until the fighting came to an end in mid-August 1945. The final months of the battalion’s service on New Britain saw some unrest amongst the soldiers over pay and treatment, which later resulted in criticism from Alex about how the troops had been employed on New Britain. Following the end of the war the Battalion disbanded on 4 June 1946.
NEW BRITAIN CAMPAIGN – WAR’S BRAVEST BLUFF – The bravest bluff the Australians ever pulled off was the campaign in New Britain. 1,400 troops, two heavy guns and 7 Wirraways opposed the Japanese landing at Rabaul in January 1942. They failed inevitably. Since then their successors succeeded but the numerical odds were still against Australia. An Australian force of 8,000 under command of 5th Division “contained” 89,000 Japanese within narrow defences in which the enemy held three years supply of food and equipment. (Photo below Alex second on the left).
The New Britain campaign was one of the best-managed and most audacious Australian actions of the whole war – a classic case of a great deal being done by a very few[3].
FOOTNOTES:
[1] When Arch Taylor came to visit Alex at the Domain Aged Care centre on the Gold Coast in approximately 1995 they spoke in Pidgin English
[2] Hostages to Freedom, The Fall of Rabaul, by Peter Stone, page 333.
[3] Unofficial History of the 29/46th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF September 1939 – September 1945 / edited by Robert Charlott, page 147.