January-February - Air Defense Artillery

Airborne AAA in New Guine
By Captain Robert Marye, Coast Artillery Corps
In April of 1942 at Fort Bliss, Texas, volunteers "'ere
called for the formation of a group of Automatic \ Veapons
Batteries, Airborne; and from these volunteers, a group of
men were chosen to compose units which were to be subsequently
among the first to operate in the New Guinea
campaigns. One of these, the 709th, was commanded by
1st Lieut. Thomas H. Corey, with 2d Lieuts. \\Tm. Gribble,
Thomas J. Patton, Earl J. Carlson, and Robert Marye as
battery officers.
On June 27, 1942 we set up our bivouac near the Townsville,
Australia airport from which we were to jump off
later for Port l\loresby and Milne Ba)', New Guinea.
For six long weeks we lived a life of physical hardening,
of studying the possibilities of our weapons, and of our
men. Each day a twelve-mile hike through jungles and up
and down the sides of mountains served to remind us that
action was close at hand; that officers and men were in top
physical condition and no weaklings were left.
I\t the Townsville airstrip and seaplane base we practiced
loading our battery equipment on Sutherlands, on Catalinas
of the Australian Navy, and on U, S. Lockheed-Hudsons,
B-24's, B-I7's and C-47's. After a week of this work,
we considered ourselves well enough trained to meet any
loadino and unloading operations in which we might be
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called upon to engage, by day or by night. Su sequent
operations justified every hour we spent on this phase of
our work.
Along with the practice of loading and unloading, we
continued our 12-mile hikes, with full packs and equipment;
we fired thousands of rounds from our tommy guns
and small anns: and we were finally judged ready for combat.
With our period of waiting and training completed, on
17 August we were alerted, packed our equipment, and
prepared our men for take-off to battle. On the 17th, our
first two Sutherlands got off the waters of the harbor with
our battery commander, Capt. Corey, and two squads with
two .sO-caliber antiaircraft machine guns. Each man was
limited to 250 pounds of equipment including food, ammunition,
weapons and miscellaneous gear, which made it a
tight squeeze for some of the larger men. These first Sutherlands,
incidentally, were piloted b)' civilian pilots from one
of the Australian Air Lines, and the aircraft were unarmed.
At this time there was no great importance placed on how
men were brought to battle lines; we were needed, and
needed as quickly 3$ possible, hence none of us were surprised
to see a civilian ferrying service in operation.
The second Sutherland flying boat was loaded with another
squad and its guns and some extra supplies, and they
too skimmed off the peaceful waters of Townsville Harbor,
taking off for Carins, Australia, the next stop on the way to
Port Moresby.
At this time Port Moresby, New Guinea, was being subjected
to vicious Jap air raids, and to avoid being attacked
bv them on the way in, we left Carins in the ver\' earl\'
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afternoon. This timing would enable us to reach l\lor
in the late afternoon and slip into the harbor at d
which seemed the least active part of the day insofar
sneak raids were concerned ..
At Port j\ loresbv the batten' settled itself as comforta
as possible under ~ather trying conditions. Part of our
tery was still back at Townsville, so far as we knew, wait
for additional air transportation.
After a night at Moresb\' we were briefed and read,
leave. Again an early mo~ing take-off was ordered, '
the first two Sutherlands
in good shape.
got off between the take-off R
As luck would have it, however, the third Sutherla
in which I was traveling with part of the battery, rocke!
off a reef, and we had to pull up for an inspection of
sible damage to the hull of the plane, \\Te had not
damaged, luckily enough, and we were taking in no wat
Flares were liohted ~ a second time and we burst duo .
the ground fog, and off and up into the early morning,
The first two Sutherlands reached Milne Bay on sc
ule. \\Te unloaded by RAAF crash boats at Gilli Gilli wh
which was used in the prewar days as a trading post land'
for itinerant "luggers," the two-masted schooners wh'
plied the coast of New Guinea before the war.
The third Sutherland flying boat missed the Milne
landing in a heavy fog and we Hew up the coast, hop'
to see something which would put us on our course. Th
was no "beam" to follow and navigation was risky at
with the pilots depending more on instinct than directio
instmments. Eventually we spotted a "lugger" hugging
coast, and decided to drop down through a hole in the
to ask directions. \Ve swung in to a perfect landing, andiJ
boat put off from the lugger, with two natives and a ",hill
man aboard. The white man turned out to be an Austral'
government man who, it seemed to us, was taking chan
navigating his lugger in such dangerous waters. The n
ness of the Japs did not seem to bother him, however, a
he directed us to l\rlilne Bay, which we had passed in tit
fog, some sixty miles back. The Sutherland again roa
off, and up into the comparative safety of clouds and mi~
hoping to hit Milne Bay on the return trip. At least
were headed in the right direction this time!
\Ve swung into Milne Bay finally in the late aftern~
when the clouds parted momentarily, and we were all
lieved to see the docks at Gilli Gilli loom out of the gr
bmsh which surrounded the little harbors.
There are two seasons in New Guinea, the rainy seaS(
and the "wet" season. \Ve were in the middle of the rain,
season, and as we approached the dock to meet part of the
battery that preceded us, we found them a wet, sad and
sorry-looking crew. The night before they had been floode
out when the rain came in torrents, swept away their te~
and sent what sparse equipment they had floating off i
jungles or into the ocean. \Ve were treated to a sample
what they had the night before just as we got ashore,