Papua’s overlooked legacy: The AMF as a learning institution

As the preceding chapters vividly demonstrate, the Papuan campaign was an ordeal for the men of the Australian Military Forces (AMF). They confronted a fanatical enemy in an alien environment and struggled to cope with both. As war correspondent Osmar White wrote in his classic Green Armour (1945), ‘They were more than half afraid of the country. You could see that in their movements, in their whole attitude. They were more afraid of the country than the Japanese.’ The campaign was pervaded by a sense of what at best could be called urgency, at worst panic, as senior Allied commanders grappled for a way to stem, and to turn back, the seemingly relentless advance of the enemy while being jostled from the rear by an anxious and inexperienced Australian Government. Operations were characterised by confusion, ad hockery, and decision-making often based on desperation rather than considered military judgement; success was founded on courage and bloody-minded endurance rather than tactical sophistication. At the beachheads in early 1943, the Japanese were finally bludgeoned into submission by a disease-ridden army, but the casualties demonstrated at just what cost in bloody-minded endurance. As Lieutenant Colonel Geoff Cooper, the 2/27th Battalion’s commanding officer at Gona, observed: ‘There’s a funny old belief … that determination can win any battle. Unfortunately the chap who thought it out hadn’t seen machine gun bullets by the millions that lay men out.’ By the end of 1943, however, the AMF had strung together an impressive series of victories, liberating much of Australian-mandated New Guinea and contributing materially to General Douglas MacArthur’s Cartwheel operations to isolate Rabaul and set the conditions for the advance on the Philippines. Indeed, the benefits of Australian experience were eagerly sought by its allies. Reporting to London on 31 October 1943, Major General John Lethbridge, who headed a British mission to investigate the types of organisation and equipment required to fight the Japanese, observed: The Australians have seen more fighting against the Japanese than anybody else, and are morally absolutely on top. They are confident, man for man, they can beat the Japanese anywhere, and at any time. Their ideas on training are eminently sound, and they have all the facilities for training large numbers. I am convinced that very serious consideration should be given to using existing Australian experiences and facilities for training British instructors for British troops in jungle warfare.