breechblock. In order to prevent further damage, the crews had to satisfy themselves with merely tracking the weekly mail plane. They pretended to shoot it down twice every Saturday—once during itsapproach to Lakunai airdrome and again when the plane departed. The rest of the week, one of the young gunners (invariably the fellow with the most accumulated demerits) supplied the target by running back and forth while holding a model plane aloft on a length of bamboo. Naturally he was the butt of many jokes, and the militiamen as a group endured endless wisecracks from their AIF campmates.
The final component of Lark Force, the 17th Antitank Battery, was delivered to Rabaul by the Zealandia on September 29. Commanded by Captain Gwynne Matheson, the battery of eight 2-pounder guns was served by six officers and 104 men. Unfortunately, like the other components of Lark Force, the weapons had serious limitations. The only ammunition shipped with the guns was solid-steel shot—good for target practice but almost useless in battle—and there were only twenty rounds per gun.
With the arrival of the antitank battery, Lark Force was complete. In addition to the 2/22nd Infantry Battalion, the hodgepodge of support units brought the garrison’s total to approximately fourteen hundred men—and six nurses.
T HE MILITARY WORKDAY AT R ABAUL NORMALLY CONCLUDED WITH AN afternoon parade at 1600. Passes were usually available for those who wanted to leave camp, and if a bloke was lucky, he might get to accompany one of the nurses to a film at the Regent. Fraternization was frowned upon, but not everyone abided by the guidelines.“The nurses were not supposed to go out with the troops; we were only supposed to mix with the officers,” recalled Lorna Johnson. “But that never troubled Kay [Parker]. If she saw somebody that she liked, and he came up and asked her to the pictures, it didn’t matter if he was a private—she would go.”
Rabaul offered several attractions besides the theater. Troops who had never traveled far from home marveled at the shops in Chinatown, exotic beyond anything they had ever seen. In the center of the neighborhood was the “Bung,” a colorful, noisy market crowded with dark-skinned “marys” in Mother Hubbard blouses and bare-chested Tolai men wearing colorful sarongs around their hips. Rows of stalls were piled high with pineapples, coconuts, shellfish, betel nut, papaya, sugar cane, or fresh fish. Dogs scurried underfoot, and it was not unusual to see a domesticated fowl perched atop a mound of vegetables. Visiting the market for the first time, Private Pearson was enthralled by an old native woman who watched her stallwhile“sitting placidly by, smoking a filthy old pipe with the stem broken off near the bowl.” Pearson also admired the strength of the native women. They worked harder than the men, and he observed one Tolai woman who walked eleven miles while carrying a load of heavy wares “plus a picaninny on her hip.”
Sometimes the natives’ appearance and customs shocked the Australian soldiers. A great many of the adult Tolai had open sores on their legs and feet, and more than a few suffered from grotesque ailments such as elephantiasis or gout. Men and women alike chewed betel nut, the intoxicating juice of which stained their lips and teeth a hideous red. Wherever they congregated, the dirt around them was splotched with red spittle.
S OLDIERS WHO LACKED EITHER THE FUNDS OR THE INCLINATION TO VISIT Rabaul made their own entertainment in Malaguna Camp. The canteen offered Castlemaine Beer and Fosters Export Ale for a shilling a bottle (about fifteen cents in 1941), and if the beer wasn’t always cold, the men drank it anyway while playing two-up, their favorite coin game. Aussie soldiers had few equals when it came to gambling. They were known to wager on just about anything, from dice to cards to“which of two flies will rise first from the bar.”
Even when they weren’t
The final component of Lark Force, the 17th Antitank Battery, was delivered to Rabaul by the Zealandia on September 29. Commanded by Captain Gwynne Matheson, the battery of eight 2-pounder guns was served by six officers and 104 men. Unfortunately, like the other components of Lark Force, the weapons had serious limitations. The only ammunition shipped with the guns was solid-steel shot—good for target practice but almost useless in battle—and there were only twenty rounds per gun.
With the arrival of the antitank battery, Lark Force was complete. In addition to the 2/22nd Infantry Battalion, the hodgepodge of support units brought the garrison’s total to approximately fourteen hundred men—and six nurses.
T HE MILITARY WORKDAY AT R ABAUL NORMALLY CONCLUDED WITH AN afternoon parade at 1600. Passes were usually available for those who wanted to leave camp, and if a bloke was lucky, he might get to accompany one of the nurses to a film at the Regent. Fraternization was frowned upon, but not everyone abided by the guidelines.“The nurses were not supposed to go out with the troops; we were only supposed to mix with the officers,” recalled Lorna Johnson. “But that never troubled Kay [Parker]. If she saw somebody that she liked, and he came up and asked her to the pictures, it didn’t matter if he was a private—she would go.”
Rabaul offered several attractions besides the theater. Troops who had never traveled far from home marveled at the shops in Chinatown, exotic beyond anything they had ever seen. In the center of the neighborhood was the “Bung,” a colorful, noisy market crowded with dark-skinned “marys” in Mother Hubbard blouses and bare-chested Tolai men wearing colorful sarongs around their hips. Rows of stalls were piled high with pineapples, coconuts, shellfish, betel nut, papaya, sugar cane, or fresh fish. Dogs scurried underfoot, and it was not unusual to see a domesticated fowl perched atop a mound of vegetables. Visiting the market for the first time, Private Pearson was enthralled by an old native woman who watched her stallwhile“sitting placidly by, smoking a filthy old pipe with the stem broken off near the bowl.” Pearson also admired the strength of the native women. They worked harder than the men, and he observed one Tolai woman who walked eleven miles while carrying a load of heavy wares “plus a picaninny on her hip.”
Sometimes the natives’ appearance and customs shocked the Australian soldiers. A great many of the adult Tolai had open sores on their legs and feet, and more than a few suffered from grotesque ailments such as elephantiasis or gout. Men and women alike chewed betel nut, the intoxicating juice of which stained their lips and teeth a hideous red. Wherever they congregated, the dirt around them was splotched with red spittle.
S OLDIERS WHO LACKED EITHER THE FUNDS OR THE INCLINATION TO VISIT Rabaul made their own entertainment in Malaguna Camp. The canteen offered Castlemaine Beer and Fosters Export Ale for a shilling a bottle (about fifteen cents in 1941), and if the beer wasn’t always cold, the men drank it anyway while playing two-up, their favorite coin game. Aussie soldiers had few equals when it came to gambling. They were known to wager on just about anything, from dice to cards to“which of two flies will rise first from the bar.”
Even when they weren’t
Similar Books
