Thank God Such Men Lived

BY KEN WRIGHT

‘For I am writing not history, and the truth is that the most brilliant exploits often tell us nothing of the virtues of the men who performed them, while on the other hand, a chance remark or a joke may reveal far more of a mans character than the mere feat of winning battles in which thousands fall or of the marshalling of great armies or laying siege to cities’ - Greek philosopher Plutarch, about 110 AD The Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse was erected by public subscription and by money from the Commonwealth of Australia in 1959 at Kalibobo Point in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Shaped like a rocket or a bomb, the 80-feet high reinforced concrete column has an attractive base surround and a cruciform pathway approach. This memorial lighthouse was also designed to be a practical navigational aid with provision for the installation of a powerful one million candlepower beam that would be visible up to ten miles out to sea. Part of the inscription on the dedication plate reads: ‘In honour and grateful memory of the Coastwatchers and of the loyal natives who assisted them in their heroic service behind enemy lines during the Second World War in providing intelligence vital to the conduct of Allied operations. Not only did the Coastwatchers transmit by means of teleradio from their jungle hideouts information which led to the sinking of numerous enemy warships but they were able to give timely warning of impending enemy air attacks. The contribution towards the Allied victory in the Pacific by a small body of men who constituted the Coastwatchers was out of all proportion to their numbers’. The concept of the Coastwatchers began in 1919 just after the end of World War I when the Royal Australian Navy selected unpaid civilians to be organised on a voluntary basis to report in time of war any unusual or suspicious events along the Australian coastline. This plan was quickly extended to include New Guinea [not Dutch New Guinea] as well as Papua and the Solomon Islands. Initially Coastwatchers in the Australian Territories were either owners or managers of plantations or officers of the Territories Administration. The man who was to do so much to ensure the success of the Coastwatcher concept, Eric Feldt, began his career as one of the first term cadets to enter the newly established Royal Australian Naval College at Geelong in Victoria in 1913.1 He resigned a few years later to work for the Australian government as a district officer in Papua New Guinea. As his association with the people and the land grew, he came

to know and understand the villagers, plantation managers and assorted government officials and they in turn came to know and trust him. With the outbreak of World War II against Nazi Germany in 1939, approximately 800 Coastwatchers were under the control of the Royal Australian Navy Intelligence Division. Eric Feldt, who was by now a Lieutenant Commander on the Navy’s emergency list, resigned his position as a District Officer, rejoined the Navy and was appointed Staff Officer in Intelligence at Port Moresby. His main duty was to organise and expand the civilian Coastwatchers. On 7 December 1941, in the United States, while negotiations to avoid a possible war in the Pacific were taking place between Japanese and American diplomats, Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo launched, without an official declaration of war, a carefully planned and well executed surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Planes from six aircraft carriers killed 2,350 Americans and severely crippled the US fleet. The Japanese then proceeded to expand their military dominance over Malaya, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, the Netherlands East Indies, Rabaul, Singapore and many of the islands in the South Pacific. Australia, along with other Allied nations was now at war with both Germany and Japan. With the Japanese almost on Australia’s doorstep and with Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt now in operational control of the Coastwatchers, many of the civilians opted to stay in New Guinea and become Coastwatchers rather than be evacuated as the Japanese war machine drew closer. As civilians, they were fully aware that, if they were caught, they would be treated as spies and possibly executed. The Coastwatchers were supplied with teleradios, a heavy unwieldy radio and telegraph combination set. It was battery operated with a voice range of around 650 km and a telegraph range of 950 km. The radio was sturdy and very efficient, but because of its weight, batteries, charging engine and benzine fuel, it needed several men to carry it. The Coastwatchers were trained in the use of the ‘Playfair’ code, a low grade cipher based on a list of key words. Later coders, trained at HMAS Cerberus Signal School near Victoria’s Westernport Bay, were drafted to parties of Coastwatchers and Australian Army commandos who operated as guerrillas. As an example, Naval Intelligence asked one Coastwatcher, Jack Read [seen here operating teleradio], for his wife to provide some key words for use with the Playfair code. ‘What was the name of your sister’s racehorse? ‘Rainbird’. ‘Where was your wife’s first teaching appointment’? ‘Deloraine.’ These would easily have been decoded by Japanese decoders within a week or two. They were acknowledged experts, so the code words were for immediate use only and not to be repeated. The key words had eight or more letters and included W, X, Y or Z if possible.2

By March 1942, Coastwatchers were positioned around the coasts of Papua New Guinea, the adjacent islands and the Solomon Islands and, as they were now operating in enemy held territory, it was recommended that they be appointed to naval rank although some opted to join the Army or the Air Force. This was not only for pay but primarily, as active serviceman, they would not be treated as spies but as prisoners of war. As it turned out, the subtle difference of being a serving member in the Australian military or a civilian meant nothing to the Japanese and those who were caught were, in most cases, shown no mercy and summarily executed. Throughout the war, the information transmitted to the Director of Naval Intelligence by the Coastwatchers was comprehensive and accurate, so there was little the Allies didn’t know about the strength and location of the enemy. Knowledge of the terrain in which they operated and the friendship and assistance of the local natives were the essential elements needed for the Coastwatchers to operate and evade Japanese patrols. In fact, without local native cooperation, it would have been very difficult if not impossible for the Coastwatchers to have achieved anywhere near the success they did. They were a mixed bag of soldiers, naval personnel, traders, planters, missionaries, colonial officials and locals. In most cases, they were thoroughly familiar with the area and many considered the South Pacific their home. Although it is undeniable that the contributions of all the men and few women Coastwatchers helped to ensure the eventual Allied victory, it is a sad fact that only a select few are remembered. The rest have faded into the background. The two Coastwatchers who are the most remembered are William John Read, better known as Jack Read, and Paul Edward Mason, who were stationed on the island of Bougainville during the period December 1941 to August 1942. 3 Paul Mason was completely different to Read. He was a short man, serious, slightly short-sighted, a little deaf and wore glasses. At the time he joined the service he was, at 41, rather old for the job he was to undertake. Nevertheless, he was tough, self- reliant, strong as an ox and a man of action; considered by others to be a loner. He had spent most of his life as a planter on Bougainville and knew the island inside out, understood the indigenous population and was an excellent radio technician. His reports were always pragmatic and to the point. Jack Read on the other hand was dark, wiry, brisk and gregarious and had arrived on Bougainville only a month before the Japanese. Read was so captivated by the sheer beauty of the islands that he always included descriptions of his surroundings in his reports even when the enemy was closing in. 4 Jack Read was born on 18 September 1905 and began his love of New Guinea and its people when he answered an advertisement for young men to join the Australian Administration as Patrol Officers. He sailed from Sydney on the SS Montoro 29 June 1929 arriving on 11 July as a 23 year old Cadet Patrol Officer. With public service approval, Jack had married Gwen Ballantyne just before he left for New Guinea. However, he didn’t know that the then New Guinea Administrator, Mr McNichol, had a policy of employing only unmarried cadets. The Commonwealth Public Service approval had over-ridden this policy, and Read had to be accepted. In order to force him to resign, Read was given the worst, most difficult jobs available but he thrived on them for two years.

From March to December 1931, Read was back in Sydney for training which included a course in tropical medicine. He then took four months leave before returning to New Guinea still as a cadet to a posting in the Sepik/Ambunti region during which time he contracted amoebic dysentery. From June to December 1933, his first posting as a qualified Patrol Officer was in Madang where he established the Bogia outpost. Three years later, he was promoted to the position of Assistant District Officer. From 1936-41 he was ADO in Madang, Wau and Lae. After further leave, he was back as ADO of Buka Island, before the outbreak of war with the Japanese. In 1939, when war with Nazi Germany began in Europe, Australia, along with other Commonwealth nations, joined the fight by declaring war on Germany. On the other side of the world, the Japanese began the war in the Pacific with the infamous bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i on 7 December 1941. Australia immediately declared war on Japan and, with the nation now at war on two fronts, the Australian Army assumed control of both New Guinea and Papua in February 1942. Most of the civil officers from both territories were posted to the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit [ANGAU]. Read was mobilised as a Sergeant in this unit. Lieutenant Commander Feldt knew both Read and Mason personally and asked them to join his Coastwatching organisation. Both agreed and became members of the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve: Read as a Lieutenant and Mason a Petty Officer, although later he also was made a Lieutenant. The Emperor’s Imperial armed forces had been extraordinarily successful. They had managed to occupy Thailand, Singapore, Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia and parts of Papua New Guinea all within a space of six months. In early July 1942, information about the construction of a large Japanese airstrip on the island of Guadalcanal hurried the American forces to move into the southern Solomons. On Bougainville, 400 miles north-west of Guadalcanal, Read was covering the northern end of the island, including the Buka Passage down to the main town of Kieta located halfway down the eastern coast. Mason covered the area to the south. On 7 August, 19,000 men mostly from the US 1st Marine Division began landing on Guadalcanal and nearby Tulagi. The small Japanese garrisons of 2,200 on Guadalcanal and 1,500 on Tulagi were taken completely by surprise and quickly scattered. They managed to regroup and cling to what little area they controlled with determination and tenacity.

In response to the American landing, the same day Japanese Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa launched a bomber attack on the transport ships unloading troops and supplies. Fortunately for the Americans, Mason had signalled; ‘27 bombers headed south east’ giving the American time to prepare and, in the ensuing battle, 16 Japanese bombers were shot down. The following day it was Read’s turn to signal a warning; ‘45 bombers now going south east.’ Only eight returned. Lieutenant Commander Feldt wrote in his book, The Coast Watchers: ‘So secret was this organisation of Coastwatchers, operating behind enemy lines, that its existence was never admitted during the war. Few realised that when the first waves of US Marines landed on the bitterly contested beaches of Guadalcanal, Coastwatchers on Bougainville, New Georgia and other islands were sending warning signals two hours before impending enemy air raids.’ The euphoria of a victory by the Allied forces was about to be violently cut short. On 9 August at 1.38 am, Vice Admiral Mikawa with seven cruisers and a destroyer somehow managed to get unnoticed within striking distance of the American ships guarding the landing force. In what is known as the Battle of Savo Island, the Japanese, characterised by excellent gunnery and ship handling, in 32 minutes sank one Australian and four US heavy cruisers and damaged a fifth. One US destroyer was also lost. Fearing an Allied retaliatory air attack, Vice Admiral Mikawa broke off the engagement and headed for Rabaul leaving alone the thinly guarded transports. It was the most humiliating defeat ever suffered by the US Navy in a fair fight. Allied casualties totalled 1,270 officers and men killed and 709 wounded. By comparison, the Imperial Japanese Navy losses were 37 killed and 57 wounded. The only Japanese ship lost was a heavy cruiser, sunk by the American submarine S-44 on the journey to Rabaul. During the following weeks, the Japanese managed to send in scattered reinforcements and supplies to their small beleaguered force on Guadalcanal. This was mostly achieved by fast destroyers travelling at night down the 400 mile long waters between the Solomon Islands. The Americans described this method of delivering supplies as ‘The Tokyo Express’ doing a run down the ‘Slot’. Through most of October, despite Japanese attempts to retake lost ground, the Americans still owned most of Guadalcanal’s real estate. Near the end of October, in a desperate bid to remove the American forces from the island scheduled for November, Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka assembled a large Japanese naval force of troops and supplies in the Caroline Islands and began moving towards Guadalcanal. From their vantage points on Bougainville, Jack Read and Paul Mason independently radioed early warnings to the US Navy that a number of Japanese transports, tankers and a passenger liner escorted by destroyers were enroute towards Guadalcanal. Forewarned, US forces launched air and sea strikes against the enemy shipping resulting in a major defeat for the Japanese and shattering any hope of their retaking Guadalcanal. When the fog of war had lifted, the Japanese had only managed to land 2,000 of the original 15,000 troops and 260 cases of ammunition plus 1,500 bags of rice out of 10,000 tons of supplies. The tide of war in the Pacific was finally beginning to swing against them.

The intelligence signalled from Bougainville by Read and Mason saved Guadalcanal and as the American Admiral William F Halsey later wrote: ‘Guadalcanal saved the Pacific.’ After the Japanese relief force had been decimated, both Read and Mason were surprised to hear that General Douglas MacArthur had awarded them the US Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of their efforts. February 1943 General Headquarters, South Pacific Area Office of the Commander-in-Chief ‘Dear Lieutenant Read; It gives me great pleasure to present to you the Distinguished Service Cross, which has been awarded you by the United States Government in recognition of your valorous service in the Southwest Pacific Area during the period from March 16,1942 to October 1, 1942. I extend to you my heartiest congratulations.’ Most cordially, Douglas MacArthur. Whilst deserved accolades are written about the exploits of Lieutenants Read and Mason, sometimes overlooked by historians is that they were supported by members of No 1 Independent Company, Australia’s early experimentation with British style commandos. These men, after completing their training on Victoria’s rugged coastline at Wilson’s Promontory on 7 July 1941, were sent to Kavieng on New Ireland for additional training while they became used to life in the tropics. The meagre force of about 250 men was then split into sections and sent to several smaller outposts. Some went to Manus, Namatanai, Buka, Tulagi and Vila in the New Hebrides. In October, No 3 Section under the leadership of a young Lieutenant, Jack Mackie, was ordered to Buka Island to relieve No 9 Section guarding the airstrip. Life at the camp was quiet and, as far as army life can be, enjoyable. That was until news arrived about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. From this point on, guard duty became a serious business. On 2 January 1942, Lieutenant Mackie received orders to prepare the airfield for demolition but available explosives were insufficient to do much damage. Two days later, reports came through that Japanese planes were attacking Rabaul. On 21 January, four Japanese aircraft carriers arrived near New Ireland and two carriers Kagi and Akagi launched an attack by 60 bombers escorted by 40 fighters on Kavieng. By late afternoon, Kavieng was almost a ghost town as most of the population decided they would be much safer somewhere else. The following day Japanese forces captured both Rabaul and Kavieng. Most of the soldiers from the isolated parties of No 1 Independent Company were either overrun or forced to retire to safer locations. The troops were untried, and had been thrown into a battle they could not win and used in roles they were not trained nor equipped for. Despite these limitations, their actual battle casualties were light. About 130 soldiers from No 1 Independent Company attempted to escape from Kavieng on the motor vessel Induna Star but were later captured and sent to Rabaul. These men were among the 1,053 prisoners of war killed on 1 July 1942 when the Montevideo Maru, enroute to HainanIsland, was torpedoed by the submarine USS

Sturgeon off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines. Meanwhile, captured Allied officers transported in another ship to POW camps in Japan arrived without mishap. Lieutenant Mackie and his men carried out their orders and blew up parts of the Buka airfield with what little explosives they had and withdrew further inland. Not long after, Japanese forces landed on the island and occupied the airstrip and the surrounding area. They set up guns and searchlights on Sohano, located in the western entrance to Buka Passage, effectively trapping Lieutenant Mackie and the men of No 3 Section. In a letter sent to the Deputy Supervising Intelligence Officer in Lunga in early 1943, Lieutenant Read describes the events which lead to the soldiers of No 3 Section finally being able to leave Buka and suggests the successful rescue was due to the bravery of one man. ‘I desire to endorse my signal of December 1942 in which I recommended that Usaia Sotutu, a Fijian, who was deserving of a decoration for service. The following is a brief outline of his history during the tenure of our coast watching organisation in Bougainville. His courage, initiative and loyalty first came to notice in April 1942. During March of that year, Lieutenant JH Mackie with a party of AIF personnel was manning a teleradio coast watching station on the east coast of Buka Island. This party was precariously cut off by the Japanese occupation of Buka Passage on 30 March 1942. Their location was betrayed to the enemy by hostile natives. On his own initiative, Usaia Sotutu made contact with the party. He secreted them and fed them for some time until he was able to get them across the passage under cover of night to the comparative safety of Bougainville. Each individual member of that party stated without reserve that only the presence and ingenuity of this Fijian enabled their inexperience of local conditions to win through.’ Private Andy McNab was a member of No 3 Section at the time and recalled: ‘The villagers hid us in their huts, cooked up a feed of chicken and kau kau [sweet potato] and made a present of the meal to us. It was delicious. Finally at dusk, we decided to take the bit in our teeth and go. There was a light breeze so we hoisted a sail and Usaia, Jack, Harry, Snow and I all paddled with our hearts in our mouths and our eyes swivelling in all directions. I thought we were travelling at our maximum speed, but as we passed Sohano we saw a light flashing around where the guns and searchlights were situated. At that point, the speed of the canoe doubled in a very quick time. ‘To our great relief we got past safely and made Saposa Island near Soroken, where we transferred to a canoe with a native crew. We passengers had to sit in a precise position and not move about, and with a dozen paddlers, a very fast voyage was assured. Some of Usaia’s native scouts had been sent ahead and they reported that the way was clear. We had done what seemed impossible and escaped from Buka.’ 5 No 3 Section was able to establish itself on Bougainville and throughout the bloody battles by the Americans to hold Guadalcanal; they supported the Coastwatchers in their role. Again from Read’s December signal. ‘Usaia Sotutu is 41 years of age. For some twenty years prior to the Japanese invasion of Bougainville, he was in the service of the Methodist Mission Society there. Those years enabled him to acquire an intimate knowledge of the geography of the whole island and its native peoples from Buka to

Buin. Also he built up a very large following of native communities that had become converted to the Methodist faith. ‘These factors enabled him to operate over a long period an espionage system without which we would have been ignorant of much of the intelligence information that emanated from the various coast watching stations of Bougainville. In the course of his religious duties amongst the natives he preached sermons the text of which was loyalty to the British Empire; and this avenue of propaganda undoubtedly retarded the spread of pro-Japanese influence in so much as our coast watching organisation was able to carry on for a longer period than would otherwise have been possible.’ ‘On one occasion, though serving us solely in a voluntary capacity and with no hope of monetary compensation, he ignored a written offer from the O.C. Japanese Forces at Buka Passage of a safe conduct in return for allegiance to the enemy. He knew full well that his action jeopardised the lives of himself and his family. His whole service has been one of an outstanding example of loyalty. ‘His family was evacuated to Fiji early this year. He himself left with the last party to be evacuated from Bougainville on 28 July 1943. He will return to Suva in the near future where his Excellency the Governor of Fiji, Sir Philip Mitchell, is arranging for his post dated enlistment in the Fijian Forces.’ - [Signed] WJ.Read Lieut. RANVR.6 Included amongst Read’s personal papers was also a citation about Womaru, Read’s native servant and scout. The citation has neither date nor indication as to who wrote it but it does illustrate evidence of great loyalty. ‘Womaru, a native of Manam Island, New Guinea, was employed at Buka Passage at the time of the Japanese invasion of Bougainville in March 1942. He then joined the Allied Intelligence Bureau Coast watching Organisation there, and from this time until the evacuation of the organisation, enforced by enemy action in August 43. Womaru performed outstanding service as an armed scout, carrier and guard in protection of the main team and its teleradio equipment against enemy raiding parties. On the night of 11 June 1943 the part under command of Lt W.J.Read RANVR was attacked by a large Japanese guerrilla force guided by hostile natives at Aita in central Bougainville. At that time Womaru in company with Sgt Yauwika and Signaller Falls were guarding a vital approach 50 yards distant from the camp as an additional pre-caution against possible surprise attack.’ ‘At dusk Womaru, on his own initiative, proceeded a few yards ahead of the guard post and placed several dried bamboo sticks at knee height along the track. At 9pm the stealthy approach of the enemy along the track was frustrated by the forward elements contacting the bamboo sticks and thus divulging their presence. Momaru challenged and receiving no reply, the guard opened fire in the darkness down the

track. The enemy replied immediately with a heavy fuselage of automatic fire. The trio replied with rifle fire and grenades and against unknown odds regardless of their own safety. ‘Womaru and his two companions held up the enemy advance for some minutes, retreating only after all their ammunition and grenades had run out. This action held up the enemy sufficiently to enable all personnel in the camp to escape without causality. The enemy strength was later ascertained to have been 80 Japanese with some 200 hostile natives. The enemy retired leaving 2 Japanese killed outright, another who died of wounds the following day and carrying another wounded on a stretcher. All inflicted by the three guards.’ ‘By his constant display of initiative and courage under fire, loyalty and devotion to duty during the period of Japanese occupation of Bougainville, Womaru contributed greatly to the morale of his party.’ Throughout the time Lieutenant Mackie and the men of No 3 Section were on Bougainville, they gave support to both Read and Mason carrying out reconnaissance and protection for the Coastwatchers. Unfortunately, there was growing resentment between Lieutenant Mackie and Lieutenant Read, with the latter eventually exerting his nominal superior rank to try and take control of No 3 Section. In 1943, Read was formally given command over Mackie and his men. There were at least two possible causes contributing to this resentment. One was that Read had spent 12 years living in New Guinea but was new to Bougainville, arriving there on 27 November 1941. The second was the fact that he was not a ‘real’ member of the armed forces. He had been promoted to a service rank in the hope he would not be treated as a spy if captured by the Japanese. Private McNab from No 3 Section recalled he saw Read [left] only twice and that the poor opinion Read had of No 3 Section was certainly refuted by the 14 decorations Section members had been awarded by war’s end. McNabb commented: ‘I think we can discard his opinion! He was a funny fellow; most of the civilians though scattered about, generally lived with someone else for company, but Read was always on his own. I think he was disliked and did not seem to get on with anybody. He had his police boys but even a couple of them left him to join us.’ If Lieutenant Mackie and his men were resentful of Read’s attempted takeover of the leadership of 3 Section, there was also no respect for Mason. Although there was little said during the period on Bougainville, Mason wrote many detrimental comments about the section that were published after the war expressing his exasperation at what he considered soldiers who were inexperienced and less resourceful. It’s only conjecture but Mason possibly developed a degree of self importance from his undoubted capabilities despite a few minor infirmities. This may

have caused him to become a little self opinionated and intolerant, which may have interfered with his judgement of others. Even if Mason’s opinions of the soldiers were valid, this does not excuse his lack of judgement in allowing publication of his personal thoughts about the men who risked their lives the same as he did and suffered the same terrible conditions he did. McNab’s thoughts on Mason were unflattering to say the least. ‘Imagine the relatives of our men, reading that garbage and having to believe it because that was only his account of the events. Mason’s personal opinions about Lieutenant Jack Mackie’s team remain just that; personal opinions. They were not substantiated as 26 members of the Independent Company were highly decorated by the Americans including Silver Stars for a job well done. Interestingly, the Australian Military gave no awards. 7 The Americans at least recognised, in some measure, the fibre of the members of the Independent Company. ‘It was the material on which to build an Australian Commando tradition.’8 One of the essential elements contributing to the continuing survival and operation of the Coastwatchers and commandos were the islanders who remained loyal to the Allies. As the war progressed and the Japanese tightened their stranglehold on the occupied areas, friendly natives became fewer and fewer. The Japanese tried various tactics to halt the Coastwatchers’ activities. Three methods that were reasonably successful were to torture, kill or bribe the local natives. Under such circumstances, many people succumbed to the pressure and turned against the Coastwatchers and their loyal natives. The other enemy was the jungle. At times, it was a thick mass of tangled vines, slippery mud and steep hills with the constant presence of mosquitoes and rain followed by more rain. Through resourcefulness, an element of good luck and local native help, most managed to stay one step ahead of a ruthless enemy and survived. But many Coastwatchers and their supporting natives were not so fortunate. The figures are approximate but at war’s end, 27 Coast watchers and 20 islanders with the Coastwatchers were killed, with 18 Europeans and 40 islanders captured. Overall, between themselves and guerrilla forces they organised, they accounted for 5,414 enemy dead, 1,492 wounded and 74 captured. They also rescued 75 POW’s, 321 airmen, 280 naval personnel, 190 missionaries and civilians and 260 Asians, as well as a number of a large number of native refugees. After the war, the Coastwatchers filtered quietly back into civilian life. The majority assumed the same low profile they had as fighters and were hardly ever seen at Anzac Day marches and, if they did go to the Returned Services League for the traditional drinks, remembering mates and yarn swapping, they most likely kept quiet. And what of Paul Mason and Jack Read? Did they go quietly or did fate have other plans for them. Mason became a self-confident celebrity, married 30 year old Noelle Taylor, an arts graduate in psychology and a journalist in Rabaul, in 1947. They returned to Mason’s beloved Inus Plantation on Bougainville and ran both the plantation and a retail store very successfully. Mason entered politics in the Territory’s reconstructed Legislative Council but in early1972 returned to Australia after realising the inevitability of early national independence. Mason was disillusioned with what he thought the future of territory would be and wanted no part in it. On the 31 December that year he died in Brisbane

and his ashes were transported back to his plantation and placed in a memorial near the house. Sadly, the Inus homestead was burned to the ground by Bougainville insurgents in 1990. Read wasn’t going to sit quietly in a rocking chair and watch the grass grow either. He continued to serve as a Lieutenant in the RANVR in Brisbane until a request came from the Army that he be seconded to ANGAU with the rank of Captain. He felt the position needed a higher rank and held off accepting until the Army granted him a commission as Major. It was only a secondment; he never left the navy. Major Read returned to serve on Bougainville until demobilisation in June 1946. Now a civilian, he was then appointed District Officer of New Ireland. Read finally decided to take long service leave and retired at the end of 1950 and lived in Heathmont, a suburb of Melbourne. Being a man who loved New Guinea, Read was easily lured back into the Public Service as a Native Land Titles Commissioner in Rabaul. He had a brief spell in Madang, about four months in Rabaul and 18 months in New Ireland prior to his second, and this time permanent, retirement in December 1976. Returning to Australia, he lived in Dandenong, a suburb of Melbourne, with his wife Gwen and his sister in law, Jess Davidson. Even in retirement, Read’s life was never dull. Something was always going on. In May 1982, he received an unusual letter dated 27 April from the Americal Division Veterans Association in Boston, Massachusetts. Dear Mr Read; Mr Mark Durley of Santa Maria, California has written and asked that you be named an Honorary Member of the Americal Division Veterans Association in view of your services as a Coast watcher on Bougainville during the time our division was fighting there and earlier when we were on Guadalcanal. 9 We will be honoured instead, if you will accept Life Membership, as he proposes, as a Full Member of our Association. Those of us who served during those years in World War 2 in the South Pacific will forever be in your debt for the courageous acts of self sacrifice you and your fellow Coast watchers underwent daily in keeping up the air raid and naval warning systems which gave us time to prepare for Japanese assaults. We are proud to have you as a fellow member of the Association. William.L.Dunphy, National Commander Honoured by the invitation, Read responded to Mr Dunphy referring to the Coastwatchers’ role in these terms: ‘Dear Mr Dunphy, I feel extremely honoured to be acceptable as a fellow member of your Association, and I’m also greatly indebted to Mark Durley for having quite unexpectedly promulgated my membership. On the score of your letter’s kindly reference to Coastwatching contribution in the Solomons, I’d like to quote a few words from Commander Eric Feldt’s book ‘The Coast Watchers.’ ‘Wars are won only by fighting, a truth too often forgotten. No claim is made by the Coastwatchers to have done more than to put the fighting man in a position of advantage.’ Read was also to learn that in the US Marines Memorial Club in Sutter Street San Francisco there is a theatre in which two seats have a dedication plaque. One plaque is

inscribed Jack Read Lt. RANVR, DSC [US] Coastwatcher. The other inscription is dedicated to PE Mason Lt. RANVR, DSC [US] Coastwatcher. The plaques were paid for by Mr Durley. This and the Americal Division’s life membership show that the Coastwatchers were certainly not forgotten by the American marines even 40 years later. Read, getting on in years and wanting to be closer to his only daughter Judy, moved to the city of Ballarat in Victoria in 1988 and lived comfortably with his faithful companion ‘Hawke’, an aging Australian terrier. In 1989 Read received another unexpected letter dated 13 September. ‘Dear Mr Read, I am a Sister of Saint Joseph of Orange, California and I was in the group whom you kindly helped on the famous Nautilus submarine trip [1942 New Years Eve.] We were four Sisters from this area of California and now my three companions are in Heaven. Most of the Marist Missionary sisters are in the Eastern States and scattered around. You and all of the kind Coast watchers certainly performed many good deeds and assisted so many people during those war years. I pray often for you and for all the Coast watchers and the brave men of the South Pacific area. Your help and advice during those years was a wonderful gift to us all. The sisters here still ask about those years and they all join in sending you much gratitude and prayerful remembrances and for saving us from the enemy. Gratefully yours, Sister M. Irene Alton. God bless you and all Coastwatchers. Sister Irene’s letter was referring to the USS submarine Nautilus which was tasked with the evacuation organised by Read of 29 assorted civilians and members of the American Marist religious order on Bougainville. Sister Irene was one of 14 sisters to be evacuated in the early morning of 31 December 1942. Before the Nautilus departed, Reads party was given two accumulators for the teleradio and some personal firearms arranged by Lieutenant Commander Mackenzie at DNI headquarters and quite unexpectedly several packages of mixed stores and medicines. It was much later when the contents were examined ashore that they were surprised to find the packages were not official ones but personal gifts from the submarines crew. These were greatly appreciated. During April 1992 Jack Read was very honoured to be invited along with other surviving Coastwatchers to a commemoration ceremony at HMAS Cerberus the Flinders Naval Depot in Western Port Bay in Victoria for the dedication of an oil painting depicting him observing and reporting the Japanese fleet as it sails south enroute to attack Guadalcanal. The painting and an accompying dedication are mounted on the bulkhead of the Communications School section. The ceremony was organised by the Naval Association’s Victorian Branch and sadly, Jack Read was the only Coastwatcher present. Read’s daughter Judy, her husband, and Read’s nephew Geoff Davidson were present as were some Naval Association members, one of the commandos and a coding expert who had served with him on Bougainville. The event introduced an award – The Coastwatchers Award – to be presented to the best first year signals recruit. Unfortunately, this was the last function Read would attend as he became very ill and bedridden. The following month, on 29 June 1992, Read died aged 86. It was exactly 63 years from the start of his relationship with New Guinea.

Sister Irene also wrote a letter to Private Alexander McNabb of No 3 Independent Company dated 15 September 1993. ‘I was glad to hear from a World War 2 faithful Coast Watcher of Bougainville Island after 50 years. Many thanks to you and all the other 25 Australian Commandos who performed so much patient watching and constant reporting. I remember you often in prayers of thanksgiving. You did so much to help win the awful war and you helped our group in so many ways. May God bless you and all of the wonderful Australian Coastwatchers.’ Every single one of that unique group of Coastwatchers was collectively responsible for placing the Allied forces in a position of advantage over the enemy. If it wasn’t for their determination and courage and that of the local people in the areas they operated in, who knows how the war would have finished. Thank God such men lived.

Footnotes 1-Now at Jervis Bay-New South Wales.

2- The examples of key words were provided by Jack Read’s wife Gwen.

3-One notable woman was Ruby Olive Boye-Jones, the wife of a of a timber company manager who operated a radio on Vanikoro. Mrs Boye acted as a transmission link when it was difficult to send signals to Naval Intelligence on Vila from the Coast watcher on Malaita. Mrs Boye was later appointed Honorary Third Officer, WRANS and awarded the British Empire Medal

4- Brown. Heather. The Australian Magazine, August 22-23, 1992.

5- McNab. Alexander. ‘We Were The First.’ Page 100. Australian Military History Publications. Loftus, NSW, Australia. 1998.

6- Usaia Sotutu returned to Fiji and became a Chaplin in the Fiji Military Forces and returned to Bougainville in 1946.Ill health forced his return to Fiji and a career with the church until he retired in 1956. He died in 1983.

7- This was not an isolated case. For some reason, the Australian Government during World War Two was very tardy with its awards and decorations.

8- Daily Mirror, Sydney, Australia. 16 August, 1978.

9- Mark Durley served with the Americal Division which fought alongside the US Marines on Guadalcanal, and was the only US Army group accepted as Honorary Marines.

Special thanks to Judith Eugenie Fairhurst [nee Read] for permission to use material from her father’s private papers and photographs. Geoff Davidson for his valuable assistance in supplying additional material about his uncle, Jack Read. Alexander [Sandy] McNab for permission to quote from his book