"History May Have Been Changed"

Ter Sixteen Years, A Survivor Says:

If We Had Known Rabaul Was Expendable, "History May Have Been Changed"

By Gordon Thomas

It was on January 22, 1958, that I received a copy of Lionel Wigmore’s The Japanese Thrust, from the PIM with a note from editor Stuart Inder: “You might like to make some comments”.

' was on January 22, 1942, in Rabaul —16 years earlier to the day—and there were five of us ted around a table in the New inea Club. The time was 11 p.m. ■here were Acting-Administrator rold Page, Treasurer Orton msend, Magistrate Freddie atle, Chief Warden “Nobby” Clark I myself. We were discussing: at was the best thing to do now t the Jap forces were about to d? he Army had left the town; re was no line of retreat and it ; a case of “every man for him- The day before, the Army 1 informed the civilians to “re ie normal duties”, pinions between the five of us ied. (I did not know at the time b Harold Page had twice been ised permission by the Aus ian authorities to use the Nor ian freighter, Herstein for the pose of evacuating the civilians a Rabaul. It was six months later b he told me of this, when I saw in the “boob” just prior to the ing of Montevideo Maru with all >e Australian civilians who were sr seen again.) here was a pause in the dis ;ion while we sipped our drinks, n Orton, in his quiet way, re ked: “I suppose one day, after this is over, we will read in the * History what we should have e, and then know what is going all around us.” lot of ruddy good that is to low,” said “Nobby.” nd now . . . Sixteen years after ds I am turning the pages of history book to which Orton re ed, and I am reading about the igs we knew nought of at the *

A Transit Depot

think, somehow, that history tit have been changed had we ivn that Rabaul was classed as mdable, and that no effort was >e made to rescue the civilians ilan a line of retreat for our e of a few gallant men, with 3w strands of barbed-wire.

Earlier that day—in the after noon—the NG Club had been the general assembly point in the town for civilians.

It was here that Capt. “Taffy”

Williams, of the good ship Matafele, had come for last-minute supplies before sailing, and to collect any passengers desirous of making a break for freedom.

He was not rushed with passeng ers, with Jap warships hull-down on the horizon. The odds seemed stacked against a small coastal vessel reaching safety.

Nevertheless, he had a few optimists ready to take a chance.

One of them was Judge Bathgate, and another Paddy George, the auditor: and, while “Taffy” took in liquid stores for the voyage, Paddy was looking for a police-boy to shoot his Alsatian dog, which he would have to leave behind. There was no sign of a PB; and, months later, in a line of Jap Alsations, Paddy’s dog made one.

At the last moment the Skipper found he had no clearance to sail— the Customs Office just didn’t exist.

Chief Warden “Nobby” Clark came to the rescue and wrote out a chit

clearing the vessel, and all was well.

It was in the same NG Club that previously the Air Force chaps had gathered to make some last pur chases before making their way down the South Coast, where later they were picked up by a special air craft. But at the time the move ments of Lerew and his companions were shrouded in Security.

It is easy enough to criticise after an event. But the overall picture of Rabaul on the day or so before the final Jap invasion is not a happy one to recall: The bewildered whites, the near-panicking Asiatic men, women and children for whom no provision had been made what soever; and the negative attitude of the military command which had taken over control. The history tells us, now that the Army officers them selves were almost as much in the dark as the civilians.

A Myth Exploded

For a number of years, amongst a certain section, there has existed the impression that the Rabaul civilians who were placed aboard Montevideo Maru were never drowned in that vessel when it was torpedoed off Luzon, but had been put ashore shortly after departing from Rabaul, and later were executed- In the history there is no mention of this rumour at all, and it is well to have this myth exploded.

One explanation which I have heard, for the report, was that a wrist-w at c h belonging to WRC Accountant Thompson was found in a common grave on Matupi Island.

This is easily explained.

Thompson was a member of the Vic Pratt party brought into Rabaul about the end of July, 1942—over a month after the vessel had sailed- This party had been in hiding in a cave somewhere around Raniolo plantation; they had successfully evaded capture for six months.

I saw some of the party from a distance when they were brought in to Rabaul, and I later was informed by natives that they had been executed for not having surrendered earlier. The party consisted of Vic Pratt, Jack Marshall (of the Customs), A. A. Smith (North Coast), Frank Smith, Thompson and another whom it was thought might have been Tommy Goss.

One of these days we may be able to obtain a consolidated record of the whole New Guinea war years and thus have in one volume an overall picture of those dark days.

The Japanese Thrust gives the army record—and a very detailed account, too; but one needs Feldt’s Coast watchers and Selby’s Hell and High Fever, to round off the picture, to say nothing of the Navy histories and those of the Air Force.