Lieut. Andresen

KICKING impatient heels in the RAN hospital “Canonbury,” in Queens land, while getting rid of a fine collection of fever, is Lieutenant A. M.

Andresen, RANVR, who was mentioned in despatches for good work in that very hush-hush unit of the South-west Pacific war, the Allied Intelligence Bureau.

From February until October, 1942, Mr.

Andresen —a former resident of the Solo mons—was a civilian coast-watcher on Guadalcanal and, according to official records, “he carried out courageous patrols in close proximity to the Japs.’’

He then was taken into the Navy, and was sent into the enemy-occupied Russell Islands.

When the Americans came in and took the Russells, Lieut. Andresen moved over to Ysabel, where, to keep watch over the Jap flying-boat base at Rekata, he estab lished a camp only two miles away, and reported enemy movements yntil October, 1943. He spent 1944 mostly watching the enemy in Choiseul; and early in 1945 he was sent to do similar intelligence work in the Green Island-Emirau-New Han over areas. His courage and efficiency have been warmly praised.

His performance is typical of that of scores of men who did most difficult and dangerous work in the AIB, without any publicity or praise—in fact, until the war ended, few civilians had ever heard of the AINAIB.

Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Bentley recently returned to Suva, Fiji, .after a short holi day in New Zealand.