‘Why did you choose to join the Army Air
Corps, Dan?’
‘It just sort of happened. The US government
has always tried to assimilate Indians into their white culture.
They took children away from their families and sent them to
boarding schools hoping to destroy our culture and our language.
I’ll never forget the day I was taken away. It was during the
Depression when the price of wool and livestock crashed and the
numbers of our sheep and cattle kept increasing. The government was
afraid we’d need more land to feed them, so to keep the numbers
down they made us sell much of our livestock to them. As I was
being driven away, the government men were shooting the sheep and
cattle they’d bought right in front of our eyes. I cried for a
hundred miles. I thought there must be a better way. I decided then
and there to get an education and help my people. I did well at
boarding school and was offered a place at a military school where
I could get a degree. Then this war came along soon after I
graduated. ’
A strong wind gust hit the jeep. For the fist
time Dan shivered, feeling the chill of the westerly. Faith took
off his leather jacket and gave it back to him. ‘Come on,’ she
said, ‘we’d better go home and have some hot cocoa or
something.’
Dan started the engine and pulled away from
the lookout. Comfortable with each other’s company without the need
for words, neither Dan nor Faith spoke as they drove down the
winding road off the mountain. As they approached the base, Faith
suddenly turned to Dan. ‘You said the Navajo have their own
language. Do you have an Indian name, Dan?’
‘Yes it’s Dan Toh-Ni-Lih. It’s Navajo for Dan
Running Water.’
Faith smiled. ‘Dan Tony Lee, I think it’s a
lovely name.’
Dan shrugged. ‘My mother and I use the name
Rivers now. The old Navajo names have been disappearing over the
years.’
‘Do you have any other family?’
‘No, my father died soon after I was born. I
have no brothers or sisters.’
‘So, your mother’s all alone? Where does she
live?’
‘In a small town called Gallup. I hope to
start a construction business there after the war. I bought her a
house there before I left for the Phillipines.’
For the next five days Dan and Faith spent
every evening together. The Sharkeys made him very welcome at their
home and Dan tried to return their hospitality by never arriving
empty handed. He took hard-to-get items like beer and spirits,
stockings, and sweets from the post exchange in the Brisbane
American Centre, a facility for American service personnel and
employees of the US government.
It was raining the morning Dan’s flight left
Archerfield for Iron Range. He and Faith held each other tightly
for as long as they could before take off. After the plane was
airborne, Faith stood on the tarmac under a leaden sky and waved
until the Dakota was swallowed up by the clouds. Then she turned
and hurried off towards Rocklea, anxious to reach the factory
before the start of her shift. As she picked her way through the
puddles on the rough gravel road beside the airfield, her thoughts
were of Dan and she paid no attention to a B-17, flanked by two
P-40 fighters, as they came in to land.
*
As soon as the engines of the B-17 shut down,
General Douglas MacArthur stepped out of the aircraft accompanied
by his young wife and small son. They were followed by General
Sutherland and what had become known as the ‘Bataan Gang’, the
Supreme Commander’s close circle of senior officers who had come to
Australia with him from the Philippines. The party climbed into
waiting staff cars and the motorcade drove off to the city centre
where most of the upper floors of Lennon’s, Brisbane’s finest
hotel, had been set aside for them.
Later in the day, MacArthur was driven a
short distance to a large building on Queen Street where his new
General Headquarters had been set up. After familiarizing himself
with the facility, where scores of military personnel were busy
unpacking stacks of containers from the old headquarters in
Melbourne, he summoned the Bataan Gang to his office.
‘Gentlemen,’ MacArthur said solemnly. ‘today
we have begun our journey back to the Philippines. Within days we
will start to take this war the rest of the way. Very soon we shall
be close enough to look the Jap in the eye. While Allied land and
air forces are driving him north-eastward from his positions in New
Guinea, two divisions of the United States Marine Corps are to land
at Guadalcanal and commence driving him out of the Solomon Islands.
He will withdraw on both fronts to his supply base at Rabaul in New
Britain. I can tell you now, there will be no rest until we have
pushed the Jap all the way back to Tokyo.’
There was a polite round of applause then
General Sutherland spoke: ‘Gentlemen, you will need some time to
get settled into these new headquarters. Kindly do that as quickly
as possible. The day after tomorrow at eight hundred hours, you are
all required to be present in the operations room for a general
briefing on the Allied offensive. General Blamey and senior members
of the Australian Command who have also moved their headquarters to
Brisbane, will also be in attendance. That will be all.’
Two lays later, at 8 a.m. on July 22, a
grim-faced Douglas MacArthur walked into the operations room at
headquarters. He was followed by his deputy, General Sir Thomas
Blamey. The portly Australian general was also ashen-faced.
MacArthur strode directly to a huge map of the world which almost
filled one entire wall of the operations room. Blamey stood off to
one side as MacArthur addressed the large contingent of senior
Allied officers.
‘Gentlemen, we have just received a signal
from Port Moresby. Overnight a large Japanese invasion force landed
in Papua, two hundred miles south-east of their existing positions
in the Trust Territory of New Guinea.’ There was a loud murmur of
consternation as MacArthur turned to the map and pointed to the
huge island of New Guinea above Australia’s northern coast. The
General indicated a spot on the north coast of a peninsular which
formed part of the Australian Territory of Papua. ‘They landed here
at Buna and Gona. We don’t yet know their exact strength, but we do
know it’s in the thousands. There’s only a handful of poorly
trained and under-equipped Militia in the area who can’t put up any
real resistance. Already the invasion force is pressing inland.
General Blamey believes they will fight their way down from the
north to south coast of the peninsular on the Kokoda Track over the
Owen Stanley Mountain Range and attempt to capture the airfields at
Kokoda and Port Moresby.’
MacArthur turned to Blamey who took his cue
to address the officers.
‘
The Kokoda Track’ Blamey said gravely,
‘has been in use for hundreds of years by native tribes. Its first
travelers somehow beat a hundred mile long footpath from coast to
coast through unbelievably difficult terrain. It is nothing more
than a three foot wide trail in places and passes through almost
impenetrable jungle. The village of Kokoda is at about the midway
point where the track rises over a series of densely-treed ridges
and deep gorges to a height of seven thousand feet to the summit of
the Owen Stanley Mountain Range. The ground is so thick with roots
and fallen vines, and rises so steeply, that steps have to be
hacked in it in order to climb to the summit. Combine all these
difficulties with heavy rainfall, almost unbearable humidity during
the day, biting cold at night, and infestation by snakes and other
dangerous creatures and you have a picture of the Kokoda Track at
its most hospitable.’
Blamey paused for a moment and folded his
arms across his chest. ‘We in the Australian Command,’ he
continued, ‘have always believed that it would be sheer lunacy for
the Japs to consider it as an access route to Port Moresby. Not
only is the terrain impossible but there is also the problem of
keeping combat troops supplied. The only possible way is by using
hundreds of native carriers, who of course, in addition to carrying
military supplies, need to carry their own requirements. That’s why
we have always believed an enemy advance down the Kokoda Track
would be a pointless exercise. However, in light of yesterday’s
landing we can only conclude that perhaps we were wrong.’
Blamey stepped back and MacArthur spoke
again.
‘
Gentlemen, since the Australian withdrawal
from Tulagi in the British Solomons and Rabaul in New Britain, the
only offshore airfields capable of supporting squadron-strength
Allied air power are located at Port Moresby and three small
fighter strips presently under construction at Milne Bay, two
hundred and fifty miles away on the extreme south-east tip of the
peninsula.’ MacArthur’s eyes slowly roamed over the assembled
officers. ‘Gentlemen, I can only say that if we allow the Japanese
to take those strategic air bases, Australia is lost and perhaps
even the war. We must do everything possible to halt the Japanese
advance over the Kokoda Track and to accelerate the expansion of
the Papuan airfields to facilitate more aircraft
.’
*
When Dan arrived back at Iron Range, he found
the first operational aircraft had arrived at the field during his
absence. After enjoying the comforts of Brisbane for almost a week,
Dan had been loath to return to the wilderness outpost. The worst
part was being separated from Faith, just when he had got to know
her so much better and wanted nothing more in the world than to be
with her. After a few days he was elated when he was told to report
to the CO for details of a transfer out. But his hopes of a quick
return to Brisbane were soon dashed.
‘The Japs are getting closer, Captain,’ the
CO said. ‘They bombed Townsville last night and all hell has broken
loose over there in Papua. MacArthur’s screaming for more engineer
officers to be sent to Milne Bay to supervise airfield work. We can
only spare one man from Iron Range. Two RAAF fighter squadrons
equipped with Kittyhawks landed there a few hours ago. They expect
enemy action very soon, and because of that I’m sending you because
you have combat experience. You’ll be flying a P-40 over to Milne
Bay at first light tomorrow.’
Dan took off just after dawn. He held a
single compass bearing for the three hundred mile flight over the
Coral Sea. Just over an hour later he was over the wide expanse of
Milne Bay in Papua. Minutes later he saw a cluster of villages
nestled in the jungle on a narrow strip of swampy land between the
base of heavily treed mountains and the sea. Near the villages he
saw three airstrips, which the CO at Iron Range had told him, were
being constructed by an American engineering battalion. When he
made a slow low pass to identify himself, he saw just one of the
muddy strips was operational and it was covered with sheets of
perforated steel to assist take-offs and landings. Dan banked away,
then came in again and set the Kitty hawk down.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
The moment Weasel had been dreading finally
arrived. During their weeks at Ingleburn, the Nackeroos had
received training and instruction in every facet of the difficult
and dangerous work that lay ahead of them in the Top End, except
one. The word around the camp was that it was just a matter of days
before the Nackeroos were to travel to the force’s permanent
headquarters in Katherine in the Northern Territory. Weasel had all
but pushed the horror of having to ride a horse out of his mind,
when one day his entire section was ordered to report to the horse
paddock.
There were more than thirty horses in the
paddock and a humorless ex-Light Horse sergeant stood waiting to
see how well they could ride. Weasel was one of the first to be
given a saddle and bridle and told to catch a horse, saddle up and
mount it. He noted warily how experienced horsemen went about it,
then laid the bridle over his arm and went looking for a quiet
horse. The first one just walked away when he approached. The
second stayed put, but snorted and trotted off when Weasel, holding
the bridle backwards and upside down, tried to ram the bit between
its teeth.
Eventually the exasperated sergeant saddled
up a mount, gave Weasel a leg-up, then stood back with a group of
old hands to watch the fun. When the confused horse bolted, leaving
Weasel sitting on his backside in the dust, no one laughed harder
than Joe. But his laughter ended abruptly when the next name the
sergeant called was his. After a dismal attempt at riding by Joe,
he and Weasel spent the next four days in the horse paddock with an
instructor who taught them the rudiments of horsemanship.
On the fifth morning the whole force was
assembled and told that the first contingent of two hundred and
fifty Nackeroos would depart for Katherine the next day. They were
to travel first by train to Mount Isa in Queensland, via Brisbane
and Townsville, then continue on by truck to the Northern
Territory. Everyone was glad to hear that at last they were on
their way to the Top End. But the best news of all was that they
were to receive a full month’s pay in advance and also get three
days leave in Brisbane before carrying on to Mount Isa.
Joe was elated. The leave in Brisbane would
give him time to visit his aunt and uncle in New Farm and hopefully
get some news of Faith.
*
The Nackeroos left Sydney aboard a
troop train in the darkness of the early morning. While the eager
young soldiers fought each other for window seats at the start of
the long journey north, dawn was already breaking fifteen hundred
miles to the north-east where a much more deadly battle had just
begun in the British Solomon Islands. As the sun lumbered up over
the horizon, a massive armada of transport vessels prepared to land
almost twenty thousand soldiers of the 1st Division, United States
Marine Corps on the island of Guadalcanal, code-named
Cactus Island
by the US
command.