OFFICIAL Commando News Magazine Edition 15 2023

officers looking for recruits for a "special mission".
Conditions of acceptance were at that time rather rigid
in that one had to be a bushman, able to live off the
land, be one hundred per cent fit and single.
Captain Spencer Chapman and Captain Mike
Calvert had escaped from France with the British
expeditionary force at the Dunkirk evacuation and were
selected to come to Australia and form commando
units.
Their names would be well known to most members
of our Association especially the earlier units, and they
both became famous soldiers in Malaya and Burma.
This is not surprising as they were both highly
trained very tough buddies, extremely fit and set
standards of physical toughness few could follow after
numerous notorious escapades during the war in South
East Asia they both returned to England where they
wrote the most fascinating books about their wartime
experiences. Chapman wrote "The Jungle is Neutral"
while Calvert wrote "Prisoners of Hope". Both very
exciting stories and you should read them.
Now back to my introduction to the Promontory.
There were three of us as an advance party dumped in
the scrub just this side of the Darby River Bridge, from
memory it was my birthday — 5 th April 1941.
There was Butch Horgan, Dennis Warner (later to
become a well-known war correspondent) and myself.
We were all from the 8 th Div. Cav. and felt rather
neglected after the army truck had dumped our tent
and rations in the small open space in the scrub then
cleared out.
I was down there recently, and it hasn't changed
much in fifty years.
At that time the Promontory was virtually
uninhabited and in its natural state. It was a national
park with a ranger at Darby River and two lighthouse
keepers thirty kilometres further along a walking track.
Our camp was started at Darby, which was some 65
kms from the nearest town, Foster, by a very rough
gravel road and thus we felt the isolation and
depression that resulted.
To make the situation a lot worse the season broke
and the wild gales plus seven inches of rain that came
in off the Southern Ocean contributed to our misery.
Our tent blew to glory, our swags were saturated, and
tucker mostly ruined so little wonder Butch and Dennis
blew through.
They got back to the unit at Balcombe, were
received with open arms and sailed to the Middle East
a couple of weeks later.
I decided to "stick", and a few days later Chapman
and Calvert arrived with a large contingent of the first
company.
At first it was a tent camp at the Darby River site, but
building of a permanent camp there and at Tidal River
together with a vehicle road to link them was going
ahead apace.
One thing I cannot forget was the daylight swim, we
were all subjected to, either dive from the bridge into
that black uninviting river or run the five hundred
metres then into the raging Southern Ocean.
Our English officers appeared to enjoy the
experience although by this time it was into a very wet
cold winter.
What a great destroyer of sexual fantasies it was for
those inclined that way.
With ten hours of training each day we soon
became very fit and some of our wilder exploits when
we hit Fish Creek or Foster on the rare weekend breaks
are definitely best forgotten.
When the road to No. 1 camp on the hill this side of
Tidal River was trafficable and the camp built, we
moved in and advanced our training.
One exercise I well remember was hiking with Ralph
Kelly and ‘Screamer’ Heatherington to the lighthouse
and then along the east coast to Sealers Cove and
back to camp. This unchartered route climbing over
miles of basalt rocks was a very hazardous experience
and took us four days.
Another exercise that comes to mind was the
regular early morning run up to the Trig Point on Mount
Oberon and back. I did this P.T. exercise many times
with my good friend 'Wato' whom a lot of you will
remember from No. 1 Company and later in New
Guinea with, I think, No.5.
We held the record for this climb for some months
until the New Zealanders followed us into the camp.
Our time was 1 hour 55 minutes up and back. I
wouldn't like to do it now!!
After several months of toughening up and training
in the ways of commandos together with the
cementing of our establishment as No. 1 Independent
Company, we were alerted to the fact that we were not
going to finish our training in Scotland as had been
originally planned but in fact we were off to the Pacific
Islands.
Intelligence information indicated correctly that the
Japs were coming into the war and our unit was to be
directed there as an intelligence screen for the western
Pacific islands.
As history relates, the spread of our nine sections
throughout many islands from Manus in the north to
Vila (in the New Hebrides) in the south, sealed the
doom of our company. Sections of 21 men had only a
minimal effect on the monstrous enemy force that
descended on the islands during the Coral Sea Battle.
No. 1 Section was stationed at Tulagi in the Solomons
at the time and after a few exciting days we were
instructed to escape.
Some of us were lucky and got out by island
hopping in small boats, but not so fortunate were
those further north in the vicinity of Rabaul where
escape was extremely difficult.
And so now having revived a few memories I will
look forward to the reunion and 50th Anniversary at
Tidal River in November this year, where I look forward
to meeting some of one's greatest mates ever.
oOo
48 COMMANDO ~ The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association ~ Edition 15 I 2023