IN 1942, a 20-year-old from Balranald joined the army and headed to war in Papua New Guinea. This week will see the short life of that soldier, Richard Smith, remembered in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial.
Here, journalist EMMA MANSER tells his story.
BALRANALD lad Richard ‘Dickie’ Smith was a 20-year-old shop assistant at Ernest Cornish’s grocery store when he enlisted to fight in World War II.
The story goes that Richard initially had plans to enlist with the air force, however a turn of events saw him join the army where he was assigned to an infantry battalion.
Lark Force — the 2/22 Infantry Battalion of the 8th Division — was deployed to Rabaul and Kavieng in Papua New Guinea to defend strategically important harbours and airfields.
It had one of the highest percentage of deaths of all infantry battalions in the history of the Australian Army.
Within a year of Richard arriving in Rabaul, the first big attack hit.
It was to be the first Australian territory to be bombed during World War II.
A major attack on January 20, 1942, saw nearly all aircraft at the base destroyed in less than seven minutes. Further efforts to protect the location were unsuccessful and the base was overwhelmed three days later.
With no contingency plans in place for the 1400-strong force, the commanding officer declared ‘every man for himself’, with many survivors fleeing to the Baining Mountains and then following the coast toward the south of the island.
No official attempt was made to rescue infantry survivors of the Battle of Rabaul, and while some were captured and executed by the Japanese, an independent rescue was co-ordinated more than 10 weeks later.
After 11 weeks traipsing through the unyielding Papua New Guinean jungle, 400 troops and 60 civilians were rescued.
All were suffering from malaria, exhaustion, infected wounds, exposure, stress, and malnutrition from a lack of familiarity with traditional New Guinean foods.
“Uncle Dickie was one of the few who managed to escape through the jungle,” relative Judith Skousen says.
“He had malaria for years.
“If you look at his military record he was in and out of hospital all the time with malaria.
“Those years of going to Papua New Guinea took their toll — as they did on all of them.”
Judith is related to the Balranald veteran through her grandfather Jack Costelloe, Richard’s half-brother.
Sadly, very little else is known about Richard, except for a few stories passed down from living relatives who knew him.
“He was just a young fellow and he did have a sweetheart,” Judith says.
“The story goes that he wanted to marry her, the army weren’t too keen on that.
“But by all accounts he was a nice guy and a well-liked young man.
“That is all we know about him really because he was so young.”
He spent a year recovering from the PNG ordeal, suffering recurring attacks of malaria.
Eventually he was reassigned, transferring to the elite 2/7 Commando Squadron training on the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, in July 1944.
In October 1944, he returned to fight in Papua New Guinea with his squadron advancing east towards the main Japanese base at Wewak.
Many in Australia believed this phase of the operation in New Guinea was unnecessary and held the potential for high casualties.
In January 1945, near Walum Village in the foothills of the Torricelli Mountains, Richard received a mortal head-wound in action.
He was returned to Australia, and died two months later, aged 25.
Richard’s story will be told at a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra tomorrow (Tuesday).
“They do a Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial every day, and next Tuesday Uncle Dickie will have his moment… he will be remembered properly,” Judith says.
“In Canberra, I think it is more about having his war service being recognised.
“Instead of being a list of names, [veterans] are now being recognised as individuals. So many young men went off and died and there is no memory of them.
“Not a lot of people realise it is not too glamorous to go away to war.
“All of these people were just local guys — farmers. It is about finding out what really happened.”
The story of Balranald veteran Trooper Richard ‘Dickie’ Smith will be told at the Australian War Memorial tomorrow afternoon. It will be streamed live online at live.awm.gov.au from 4.55pm.
