Nauru Occupied by Australians
pp. 9-10 · Read in the full issue
Australians
A SMALL Australian force of 250 sailed from Bougainville on September 9 to recover the important phosphate island of Nauru (Mandated Territory on the Equator).
Nauru was occupied by the Japanese about April, 1942.
Escorted by the Australian frigate “Diamantina,” two river class ships carried occupying troops from the 31st/51st Battalion.
Surrender negotiations were carried out on board the “Diamantina” by' Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, and the Japs surrendered on September 13.
The Japanese garrison on Nauru will be evacuated to Bougainville. Many have died from malnutrition and dysen tery. Horrible conditions reigned. The Japs killed and ate their weaker men.
Eleven doctors and 50 medical personnel are included in the garrison force, which carries a large quantity of medical supplies for Europeans, natives, and the Japanese.
A search is being made for European personnel left on the island in 1942, and believed to include the Nauru Adminis trator (Lieut.-Colonel F. R. C. Chalmers), Father Aloysius Kayser, Father Elivaz, Dr. Bernard Quinn, dispenser Wilfred Shugg, and British Prosphate Commission personnel W. H. Soyle and F. F. Harmer.
All these people were given a chance to leave Nauru in March, 1942, but they preferred to remain behind and try to protect the natives.
Rabaul is a Wreck
MEN of the Australian 11th Division landed in Rabaul oh Monday, Sep tember 10.
The first man into Rabaul —after the harbour had been mine-swept and before the formal surrender —was Captain Bryce Morris, RAN. He landed on Friday, Sep tember 7, got a Jap car and inspected the town. This is his report:— “What used to be the town area is overgrown with jungle 20 to 30 feet high.
Not one building is standing, unless you include one or two shanties resembling dog kennels that the Japs have built.
“All I could see were a few feet of walls of an old bank and the foundations of buildings I think were Burns Philp’s store and warehouse.
“The wharves were completely de molished and the whole foreshore is littered with wrecks, from large steamers to little boats.
“Practically the whole population of Japanese and natives had gone under ground against bombing, and lived in miles and miles of tunnels.”
When Captain Morris stepped ashore he saw a group of eight white prisoners standing behind some Jap soldiers. When the Japs tried to prevent him speaking to the prisoners, Morris replied that he was giving orders.
He gave the prisoners cigarettes and left an officer to care for them. Later,
HMAS “Vendetta” took the prisoners to Jacquinot Bay.
A report (as yet unconfirmed) says that the eight prisoners included Gordon Thomas (newspaper editor), Rundnagel, and his son, E. Till (Bainings), McKech nie (engineer from Pondo), J. H. Ellis (electrician), A. D. Creswick (public works mechanic).