Where Army Men Toil

INDONESIA uses troops in New Guinea for civil duties—but so does Australia. The 21st Construc tion Squadron, of Victoria, recently completed 12 months’ work in the Sepik District building roads, bridges and airstrips, etc.

The 21st has now handed over to the 17th Squadron, from NSW. More than 200 men are involved, and the Army takes the view that they are getting valuable training besides doing important building work m the border areas.

The pictures here show the activities of the Army roadbuilders in the Sepik.

Above (top) is Bwana Tom, a staging camp on the new road to Passam, where forward engineers have lived recently while road-building. It is a few miles from the coast, but high in the Prince Alexander Mountains, where it is cold enough for blankets.

The lower picture above shows the main camp at Moem, where engineers building the Wewak-Lumi road and other Sepik projects have been quartered.

The camp is on the point of the Moem Peninsula, next to a new barracks for Pacific Islands Regiment troops.

This area was the scene of one of the last pushes against the Japanese in the New Guinea campaign, and the Army men have unearthed a lot of Japanese weapons, radios and vehicles there.

The field gun (top right) was found on a high point, about five miles from Wewak. With it is Captain Lou Shaw, an engineer of the 21st Construction Squadron.

The centre picture (right) shows the end of the road to Passam as it was when the 21st handed over to the 17th Squadron. Heavy rains had slowed progress by the 21st, and it had failed to achieve its aim of build ing the road right to Passam. The 17th is now accom modated at Passam.

The lower picture (right) shows Headman Sangeoei, of Koigen village, who gave the Army a hill of coral (seen in the background) to seal the road to Passam.

In return, Sangeoei asked the Army to build a road into his village to give access to the new highway.