THE KOKODA Number 137

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NUMBER 137
© Copyright After the Battle 2007
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CONTENTS
THE KOKODA TRAIL 2
WAR FILM
Kokoda — The Movie 22
GERMANY
Milag-Marlag POW
Camps at Westertimke 24
ITALY
The Fall of Rimini 43
Front Cover: Walking the Kokoda Trail. A group of
hikers toils up the historic track across the Owen
Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea, scene of bit-
ter fighting between the Australians and Japanese
in July-November 1942. (Phillip Bradley)
Centre Pages: Aerial reconnaissance photograph of
the Milag-Marlag naval POW complex at Wester-
timke in northern Germany taken by a photo recce
aircraft of the US 106th Group on April 14, 1945.
(Luftbilddatenbank Ing.-Büro Dr. Hans-Georg Carls)
Back Cover: Memorial plaques commemorating the
Canadian contribution to the breaching of the
AWM 027025

Gothic Line and the liberation of Rimini in Septem-

ber 1944. Beyond is the Porte d’Augusto, the ancient
city gate from Roman times. (Glenn Hodgson)
Acknowledgements: The Milag-Marlag story is
based to a large extent on Gabe Thomas’ excellent
book Milag. Captives of the Kriegsmarine. Mer-
chant Navy Prisoners of War, Germany 1939-1945, The fighting along the trail was hard and desperate and troops of both sides suffered
published by the Milag Prisoner of War Associa- equally from the hardships imposed by the climate and terrain. After advancing doggedly
tion in 1995. For further help with this story the for 51 days the Japanese troops came to within sight of their objective, Port Moresby, but
Editor would like to thank Jeff Smith and Frian Lit. then the Japanese high command decided to abandon the push, and ordered a with-
Photo Credits: ATL — Alexander Turnbull Library, drawal. The Australians followed on their heels but it took another 35 days of very heavy
Wellington; AWM — Australian War Memorial;
IWM — Imperial War Museum, London; NAC — fighting before they regained the northern end of the track and recaptured Kokoda. Army
National Archives of Canada; USNA — US photographer Thomas Fisher pictured Australian troops leading packhorses and mules
National Archives. down the precipitous curving track into Uberi valley at the beginning of the trail.

2
 Following the declaration of war in the
Pacific on December 7, 1941, the Japanese
armed forces carried out a remarkably swift
series of operations to establish a perimeter
of defence well away from the Japanese
homeland. A key bastion of that defensive
arc would be the main island of Papua and
New Guinea.
On January 21, 1942, only six weeks after
the start of the war, a Japanese force cap-
tured Rabaul (see After the Battle No. 133),
thus providing a vital anchorage and staging
post for further attacks against Papua and
New Guinea to the south and the Solomon
Islands to the south-east. Then on March 8, a
Japanese naval force landed at Lae and Sala-
maua, on the northern New Guinea coast-
line. Their aim was to establish an airbase
able to support the critical landing to be
made at Port Moresby. However a US car-
rier-based raid from the Lexington and
Yorktown sank three transport ships and
thus delayed the planned landing. It would
not be until May 7 that the Japanese invasion
convoy would sail from Rabaul for Port
Moresby. Again the two American aircraft
carriers played a vital role in stopping the
invasion, though both were badly damaged,
the Lexington sinking on May 8. But criti-
cally, the Japanese attack force returned to
Rabaul.
With their naval invasion force stymied,
and with the critical loss of most of their car-

AWM 027054
rier force at Midway in early June, the Japan-
ese command decided on June 14 that the
advance on Port Moresby would be under-
taken by a land force that would cross Papua
overland from north to south. On the night of For the heavily-laden troops, it was a matter of sheer determination to achieve the
July 21/22, Japanese landings took place at steep climbs and slippery descents of the trail, their toiling made even more strenuous
Gona, on the Papuan northern coast. The by the humid climate with its hot days and chilly nights, the torrential rain and mud,
landing force, the Yokohama Advance Butai, the wet boughs and vines, the mosquitoes and leeches, the malaria and dengue. Here
included Lieutenant-Colonel Moto Tsuka- men of the Australian 16th Brigade move up the trail in October 1942.
moto’s 1st Battalion from Colonel Masao
Kusunose’s 144th Regiment plus the 15th

THE KOKODA TRAIL

Independent Engineer Regiment, a company
from the 5th Sasebo Naval Landing Force
and attached artillery and pioneers.
A basic road wound its way south-west
from the Japanese beach-heads at Gona and
Buna to the small government station at
Kokoda. Here the mountains of the Owen
Stanley Range towered over the Yodda Val-
ley, barring any movement towards the south
trail meandered some 50 miles through the
jungle-covered mountain ranges until it
emerged at the Sogeri Plateau above Port
By Phillip Bradley
coast except by foot over what would Moresby. No more than a native track, its given scant consideration by the Australian
become known as the Kokoda Trail. The possible use as an invasion route had been command.

PHIL BRADLEY

Another group on the Kokoda Trail, August 2006. Our boys, the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Under the expert
author, Phil Bradley, joined nine high school students and guidance of Frank Taylor, from Kokoda Treks and Tours,
two teachers from London’s Dulwich College for the trek they experienced a remarkable journey in the footsteps of
along the historic track. The group made the expedition in history. The current trail follows a somewhat easier route
the spirit of one of Dulwich College’s most renowned old than that used in 1942.

3
 A Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB), com- For the Japanese troops moving south, the track began at Kokoda. From there the
prising 30 officers and 280 men under Major path leads along the western side of the Eora Creek valley, passing through the
Bill Watson, had been deployed between native villages of Deniki, Isurava and Alola, after which it crosses to the eastern side
Kokoda and the coast. The Papuans were of Eora Creek, and ascends to the first spur of the main range at 7,000 feet just before
reinforced by the Australian 39th Battalion, Templeton’s Crossing — a total climb of 5,500 feet in less than 20 miles. Just past
despatched from Port Moresby in early July. Templeton’s Crossing is the Gap, a broken, jungle-covered saddle in the main range,
The 39th was a militia battalion that had about 7,000 feet high at its central point, with higher mountains on either side. The
been raised for service in Australia (includ- trail runs about six miles across the gap over a muddy, broken track, in places just
ing Australian territories). This was distinct wide enough for one man to pass, and then goes downward to either Myola or Kagi,
from the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and on to Efogi, Menari, Nauro, Ioribaiwa, the Imita Range and Uberi, traversing
battalions that had been raised for service peaks 5,000 and 6,000 feet high and sharp east-west ridges with altitudes ranging
worldwide and considered the cream of the from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The southern edge of the Owen Stanley Range is at Ilolo and
Australian army. The 39th was commanded Koitaki, where the elevation is 2,000 feet. The distance between Kokoda and Ilolo is
by Lieutenant-Colonel William Owen, who only 50 miles as the crow flies but due to the mountainous climbs and descents the
had served with the AIF 2/22nd Battalion in actual distance to be covered by the troops was nearly twice as much.
Rabaul during the Japanese invasion. A
number of other AIF officers also came into
the battalion. Most of the men in the unit
were very young, with an average age under
20, and their proud commander later called
them his ‘pathetically young warriors’.
With native carriers helping, the first com-
pany from the 39th Battalion crossed the
Owen Stanley Range via the Kokoda Trail
and arrived in Kokoda on July 15. The carri-
ers were arranged by a Yodda Valley planta-
tion owner, Bert Keinzle, who would prove
to be the vital cog in organising the all-
important supply line for the Australians.
The first contact between the opposing
forces took place in the afternoon of July 23
when a PIB patrol encountered part of
Tsukamoto’s battalion just east of Awala,
approximately halfway between Kokoda and
the coast. Colonel Owen moved Captain
Sam Templeton’s B Company of the 39th
Battalion up to reinforce the PIB and form a
blocking position east of Gorari, some 20
miles east of Kokoda. On July 25 the Japan-
ese attacked and forced Templeton’s com-
AWM 013288

pany back towards Kokoda. Owen’s second

company, Captain Arthur Dean’s C Com-
pany, was still moving along the Kokoda
Trail and he therefore decided to have his
remaining two companies flown into The first Australian troops to experience the vagaries of operating along the trail
Kokoda. However, with only two aircraft were from the 39th Battalion, a militia unit, despatched north from Port Moresby on
available, only a platoon could be carried July 7 — two weeks before the Japanese landings — to reinforce the Papuan Infantry
and this joined Templeton’s men at Oivi on Battalion that was guarding the sector between Kokoda and the Papuan northern
July 26. Again the Japanese pressure forced shore. Their first contact with the Japanese occurred on July 24 near Gorari. This
the Australians back, this time leaving the picture of men of the 39th Battalion making their way back along the trail was taken
brave Templeton behind. in August 1942.

4
 TRACK TO PORT MORESBY

AIRFIELD

KOKODA VILLAGE

TRACK TO BUNA

USNA
Kokoda, from which the trail received its name, is a little village and a mountain airfield. By July 28 the Australians had been
set on a small plateau around 1,500 feet above sea level. It forced back to Kokoda, where they distributed their meagre
contained a Papuan Administration post, a rubber plantation forces in defensive positions around the plateau.

Owen now defended Kokoda with some July 30, Captain Dean arrived with C Com- mand of what was now termed Maroubra
80 men from the 39th Battalion and the PIB, pany and, two days later, Captain Noel Force. On the 6th, Captain Max Bidstrup
dispersed around the raised plateau of the Symington joined with A Company. To help arrived with 39th Battalion’s D Company.
administrative centre. In the early morning ease the supply situation, Bert Keinzle had Total Australian strength at Deniki was now
hours of July 29 the Japanese began their managed to open an air dropping zone at the 36 officers and 471 men and Cameron was
attack and, though it was repulsed, Colonel Myola grasslands. planning to retake Kokoda. Symington’s
Owen was shot and he later died. With Major On August 4, Lieutenant-Colonel Allan company managed to get into the town and
Watson now in command, the Australians Cameron, like Owen another veteran from on August 10 his men held a series of Japan-
pulled back into the mountains at Deniki. On the invasion of Rabaul, arrived to take com- ese attacks before withdrawing.

PHIL BRADLEY

The view from the plateau towards the airfield today. Lieu- hours of July 29, when a sharp engagement with the Japanese
tenant-Colonel William Owen, the commander of the 39th Bat- advanced units forced the Australians out of the village and
talion, was mortally wounded in this area in the early morning back into the mountains.

5
For the Australian troops moving north from Port Moresby, the The track then dropped 1,600 feet to Uberi only to rise again,
Kokoda Trail began just north of Ilolo plantation, the first climb 2,000 feet up the Imita Range, part of it up the infamous
taking them 1,200 feet up to Owers’ Corner, which lies at 2,000 ‘Golden Staircase’. Down from Imita it followed the course of a
feet. (Later during the campaign, Australian engineers pushed rushing stream for about three miles and then climbed out
the access road from Port Moresby north to Owers’ Corner, again across the 3,000-foot Ioribaiwa ridge and 3,800-foot
thus shortening the jungle footway by around three miles.) Maguli range to reach Nauro at 2,400 feet.

After Nauro, there were the ranges and gorges through Menari centre ridge of the Owen Stanley Range, where the track
and Efogi (where the track split, one route going through Kagi passed across the Gap at around 7,000 feet. It then dropped
and another through Myola) and the long upward climb to the sharply down to Templeton’s Crossing at Eora Creek.

6
From there the track followed the course of the Eora Creek, been used in many Australian history books, and was adopted
past the village of that name and then steadily downhill for by the Australian Army as an official battle honour for the units
about ten miles through Alola, Isurava and Deniki to Kokoda. that served in Papua in 1942. ‘Track’ comes from the language
Ever since the war there has been considerable debate about of the Australian bush, is used in the relevant volume of the
whether the historic path should be called the Kokoda Trail or official history, and is commonly used by veterans. Thus, both
the Kokoda Track. ‘Trail’ is probably of American origin but has are correct.

ISURAVA served throughout WW1, now shared the toil over command of Maroubra Force on
On August 13 the Japanese moved on of his men in this new war, so far removed August 23, although, due to the supply
Deniki and, though their attacks were again from any previous experience. His main con- issues, his two advance battalions remained
held, they came again the next day and cern was that, despite Keinzle’s sterling at Myola and his third, the 2/27th Battalion,
forced Colonel Cameron to pull his men efforts, there was a critical lack of the remained in Port Moresby. Potts had his
back to Isurava. There they dug in using their promised supply along the track. Potts took hands tied from the start.
bayonets and helmets. On the 16th a new
commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph
Honner, arrived at Isurava to take over the
39th Battalion. Honner had previously
served as a company commander with the
2/11th Battalion in the Middle East. He
found the 39th in poor shape, suffering from
a lack of food, sleep and shelter but could
only tell them that they had to stand and
fight.
Also on August 16, the first company of
the 53rd Battalion arrived at Alola, the sec-
ond company following on the next day. Like
the 39th, the 53rd was a militia battalion but
had spent most of its time in Port Moresby
unloading shipping and was not well trained.
The clashes at Kokoda had set off alarm bells
back at New Guinea Force HQ and
Brigadier Arnold Potts’ 21st Brigade from
the 7th Division AIF had been rapidly
despatched to Port Moresby, assembling at
the southern end of the Kokoda Trail by
August 15. Another AIF brigade, the 18th,
was sent to Milne Bay where another Japan-
ese landing was anticipated.
On August 15 Brigadier Potts had been
USNA

ordered to use his brigade (which comprised

the 2/14th, 2/16th and 2/27th Battalions) to
recapture Kokoda. The first of his battalions The native carriers, nicknamed the ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’, provided a priceless service
sent off along the track was Lieutenant- to the Australian army throughout the Kokoda Trail campaign and beyond. After
Colonel Arthur Key’s 2/14th Battalion. Car- bringing forward 40-pound supply loads over the diabolical track, the carriers would
rying loads of some 30 kilograms, the men set then take the wounded soldiers back. At the start of the campaign in August, the
off over the trail, beset by the poor track con- Australians controlled around 5,000 carriers and, by October, some 11,000 men
ditions, in particular the steepness of the though only 1,250 were forward of Myola. Given little more than basic food and occa-
climbs and descents and the incessant mud sional shelter, they gave their all, including hope to the wounded in their care. In this
that became worse as more men traversed picture, taken during the later coastal fighting, four native Papuans are carrying a
the path. The 2/16th Battalion followed two wounded soldier but along the rugged Kokoda Trail eight or more sure-footed
days later. The 46-year-old Potts, who had carriers were often required to traverse the treacherous climbs and descents.

7
 From August 19 to 21, the Japanese
landed the main body of Major-General
Tomitaro Horii’s Nankai Shitai, or South
Seas Detached Force, at Buna. The force
comprised the remaining two battalions of
the 144th Regiment, two battalions from
Colonel Kiyomi Yazawa’s 41st Regiment
plus significant artillery and support units.
The latter included 875 native carriers from
Rabaul and 400 horses. Lieutenant-Colonel
Genjiro Kuwada’s 3rd Battalion of the 144th
Regiment would join up with Tsukamoto’s
battalion in front of Isurava, while Major
Tadashi Horiye’s 2nd Battalion of the 144th
would advance along the east side of the
Eora Creek valley via Missima to Abuari.
On the morning of August 27, Potts
ordered the 53rd Battalion, now deployed
across the other side of Eora Creek at Abuari,
to retake Missima, further forward. During
the move, the battalion commander, Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Ken Ward, was ambushed and
killed. Having also failed to retake Missima, a

PHIL BRADLEY
concerned Potts pulled the 53rd back to

AWM P01637
defend Abuari and thus protect the critical
Alola and Isurava positions. At 1600 hours,
just as the first units of the 2/14th Battalion
were reaching the front line, the Japanese
attacked the 39th Battalion positions at Left: Private Bruce Kingsbury of the 2/14th Battalion, who won the Victoria Cross for
Isurava. Under heavy supporting fire, the action on August 29. By August 14, the Australians had been forced back to Isurava,
Japanese broke into Honner’s left flank, but where they built up a defensive position using the remnants of the 39th Battalion, who
swift counter-attacks restored the position held the line until relieved by the veteran 2/14th Battalion, lead elements of which
though the fighting went on through the night. began arriving on August 26. On the 29th, the Japanese attacked with such force that
On August 28, most of the 2/14th Battalion they succeeded in breaking through the 2/14th’s right flank. This created a serious
had moved into positions at Isurava, while threat to Battalion HQ and the whole battalion. The platoon on the flank was ordered
the 2/16th Battalion had reached Alola and to counter-attack and regain the position. Private Kingsbury, one of the few remaining
then moved across to Abuari. Most of the survivors of No. 9 Platoon, which had been in constant contact with the enemy since
ineffectual 53rd Battalion had withdrawn to August 27, volunteered to join them. In the counter-attack he rushed forward firing his
Alola. The following day, August 29, the Bren gun from the hip through terrific machine-gun fire, and succeeded in clearing a
Japanese again pressed hard at Isurava. Hav- path through the enemy for the platoon, a courageous action which made it possible to
ing lost his platoon commander, Corporal recapture the position. Continuing to sweep enemy positions with his fire and inflicting
Lindsay Bear took charge and rallied the an extremely high number of casualties on them, Kingsbury was then seen to fall to the
men, accounting for some 15 enemy soldiers ground shot dead by a bullet from a sniper. His posthumous Victoria Cross was the
himself with a Bren gun before being only one awarded during the Kokoda Trail campaign. Right: Kingsbury’s present-day
wounded. Still the Japanese came on. A grave at Bomana Cemetery outside Port Moresby.
party from HQ Company, led by Sergeant
Bob Thompson, went forward to restore the gun and firing it from the hip, wading into Kingsbury, the fallen hero later awarded his
line. Private Bruce Kingsbury was amongst the enemy line, clearing a path forward. The nation’s highest military honour, the Victoria
them, taking over the wounded Bear’s Bren position was restored but a sniper claimed Cross.

PHIL BRADLEY

The area where Kingsbury won his VC, looking east. The slope by a Japanese rifleman positioned on the rock. The information
to the right goes down to Eora Creek. Kingsbury was shot dead panel describes the action.

8
 PHIL BRADLEY
The daunting Eora Creek valley figured prominently in the Alola (where the two tracks joined) and Isurava (where the 2/14th
Kokoda Trail fighting. This is the view looking north along the Battalion fought) are on the left of the valley, Abuari (where the
jungle stream valley. There were tracks along both sides of 53rd Battalion and the 2/16th Battalion were deployed) on the
the canyon but the main trail followed the left (western) side. right. Note the steepness of the slope on the right.

On the left flank, Captain Claude Nye’s B ordered to withdraw. Unsure of the situation tion NCOs led the men out. Up on the main
Company faced continued assaults as the at Alola, the 2/16th men made their way up track, the 2/14th Battalion also raced to get
Japanese tried to get around the Australian Eora Creek in the night, each man holding back as the Japanese flanking moves came.
position on the high ground. The commander the bayonet scabbard of the man in front and The battalion commander, Lieutenant-
of Nye’s 10 Platoon, Lieutenant Harold rubbing fluorescent fungi onto his pack to Colonel Key, along with his staff, was cut off
‘Butch’ Bisset, was one of those to fall as he maintain contact. One of the intelligence sec- and never seen again.
moved among the forward positions. He
would die the next morning with his brother,
Captain Stan Bisset, the 2/14th Battalion
Intelligence Officer, by his side in the last
hours. Corporal Charlie McCallum, a Bren
on one hand, a Tommy gun in the other,
flailed the enemy, holding the line as his
comrades pulled back. Brigadier Potts sent a
company of the 53rd Battalion forward while
some of the relieved 39th Battalion platoons
returned to the front line of their own
accord. One of the 2/16th Battalion men
watched them head back into the fight:
‘When I saw those poor bastards, tottering
on their bleeding, swollen feet, turn round
and go straight back to Isurava, I knew they
were good.’
The Japanese were attacking at Isurava
with five battalions of fresh, top-line infantry
and Potts had to reconsider his position. Still
denied his third AIF battalion and adequate
supply, in part due to continuing concerns at
Milne Bay, Potts decided he needed to keep
his force intact between the Japanese and
Port Moresby. He withdrew the 2/14th Bat-
talion to the rest house area, halfway back to
Alola. The Japanese companies kept press-
PHIL BRADLEY

ing and, having now moved into Abuari, they

were firing with machine guns across the val-
ley into Alola village.
The 2/16th Battalion force under Major
Frank Sublet held the track down to Eora
Creek but, late on August 30, he too was A Bren and a Thompson gun recovered from the battlefield at Alola.

9
 Many of the most memorable images of the Kokoda Trail fighting were made by Aus-
tralian photographer/cinematographer Damien Parer (left). Appointed as Australia’s first
official photographer by the Department of Information (DOI), Parer sailed to the Middle
East with the first contingent of the Second AIF in January 1940 and spent the next year
photographing and filming Australians training for service and then in action during the
early victories in Libya, the fighting in Greece and Syria and at the siege of Tobruk.
Returning to Australia to cover the fighting in the Pacific, he arrived in New Guinea in
June 1942, and in August and September filmed the Australians fighting along the
Kokoda Trail. The eight-minute film he completed from the footage, Kokoda Front Line,
was recognised with an Academy Award in 1943. After completing another film on the
New Guinea fighting, Assault on Salamaua, and increasingly unhappy with DOI for its
parsimony and interference, Parer resigned his position with the department on August
24, 1943, and began working for Paramount News. He went on to cover American opera-
tions, and was killed by a Japanese machine-gunner while filming US Marines at Peleliu
(see After the Battle No. 78) in the Palau archipelago on September 16, 1944.
AWM 055163

Brigadier Potts pulled his force back to the

Eora Creek crossing and 2/16th Battalion’s
D Company held fast on the hill above the
village. They remained till the next morning,
taking a considerable toll on the Japanese,
who had rapidly moved forward. The Aus-
tralian rearguard was desperately trying to
give the native stretcher bearer teams time to
get the wounded back along the difficult
track. Three hundred carriers had to be sent
forward from Myola to bring out the 30-odd
stretcher cases. Many men who should have
been on stretchers chose to struggle back on
their own, aware of the shortage of carriers.

AWM 013257
Corporal Lindsay Bear was one of them,
even though he had a bullet in both ankles
and another in one of his knees. Bear could
only shuffle his way along, supported by his
one good leg and a wooden pole. He joined A Damien Parer photo taken at Eora Creek village on August 27, 1942 — the day the
up with Corporal Russ Fairburn, who had a Japanese launched their first attack on Isurava, four miles to the north. Australian
bullet lodged near his spine and together war correspondent Osmar White, who covered the battle for the Melbourne Herald,
they somehow made their way back. wrote: ‘I will never forget the scene as Eora came into sight halfway down the last
Another wounded man, one leg blown off ridge. Hundreds of men were standing about in mud that came up to their shins. The
below the knee, hobbled along the track. whole village, built of pandanus and grass, looked as if it were about to founder in
When offered a stretcher party he retorted: the sea of mud.’ Eora Creek village fell to the Japanese on August 30.
‘Get them for some other poor bastard!
There are plenty worse off than me.’ wounded. Also cut off, Captain Sydney ‘Ben’ unable to walk. Knowing that a stretcher
For many other badly wounded men still Buckler took charge of the wounded group, would take eight men to handle, Metson
in the front lines at Isurava, the situation was as well as 42 other men, and moved them refused to be carried and crawled his way
graver still. With the withdrawal order given, down into the thick jungle of the Eora Creek along behind Buckler’s party. Buckler sent
Lieutenant ‘Mocca’ Treacy of the 2/14th Bat- ravine. One of the wounded, Corporal John Lieutenant Treacy with two men to get help
talion organised stretchers to be built for the Metson, had been shot in the ankle and was from Myola but Treacy found progress diffi-
cult moving alongside the main track. It took
his group a week to reach Myola, by which
time the area had been abandoned by the
Australians. Treacy thereupon headed
south-east, reaching Dorobisolo on Septem-
ber 22.
Buckler waited five days for Treacy before
heading down Eora Creek to the Yodda Val-
ley, keeping well to the east of the Kokoda
Trail. After ten days, his group reached the
village of Sengai, south-east of Kokoda,
where it was decided to leave the wounded.
Private Tom Fletcher volunteered to stay
with the five wounded and two fever-ridden
men while Buckler led the rest back to Allied
lines. Before they left, Buckler’s men
paraded in front of the wounded. Following
the Kumusi River upstream, Buckler’s party
met American troops on September 28 near
Jaure. Supplied with food, they then climbed
over the Owen Stanley Range to Dorobisolo,
reaching it on September 30. After two more
days walking, the group of two officers and
PHIL BRADLEY

37 men carried out the last leg of its journey

down the Kemp Welsh River to Rigo using
ten crude river rafts, arriving on October 3.
Meanwhile there was a tragic finale for
Fletcher’s small party at Sengai. Their pres-
The comparison was taken from the track leading down into the village from Temple- ence at the village was betrayed to the Japan-
ton’s Crossing. Like before, Eora Creek is little more than a cluster of huts. ese and all were callously murdered.

10
 3-inch mortar fired into the Japanese posi-
tions ahead, the dull thuds echoing back
along the ridge. As the support fire ceased,
the line moved forward at a steady walking
pace, shouting and firing, trying to frighten
the enemy troops. Small-arms fire laced
through the undergrowth from both sides,
but with the benefit of dug-in positions, the
Japanese fire told. Though the Japanese
defenders were forced back into a narrow
enclave, they held the main attack along the
vital track. Some of Nye’s men made it
through but 17 men, including Nye himself,
were killed. On the left, Sublet also got some
men through, Bill Grayden amongst them.
Listening to the attack heading his way,
Brigadier Potts was heard to remark that the
intensity of the fire was far greater than that
he had heard at Gallipoli.
As a last resort to open the track, Potts
PETER BUCKLER had Captain Langridge attack with his D
Company from the brigade headquarters
AWM 013489

side. Using 18 Platoon, plus the men who had

earlier broken through, Langridge made the
assault. He led 18 Platoon forward on one
side of the track with Grayden and the
Left: Captain Sydney ‘Ben’ Buckler, the 23-year-old commander of A Company, 2/14th breakthrough remnants on the other. With
Battalion, pictured on his return to Allied lines, after leading 39 men on an epic five- the attackers exposed on the relatively open
week trek across the wilderness east of the Kokoda Trail. Cut off from his unit at ground before they entered the rainforest,
Isurava on August 30, Buckler’s party managed to escape through the jungle moving the stubborn Japanese defenders held the
within earshot of the Japanese positions for weeks, finally reaching friendly lines at assault, the brave Langridge being killed at
Rigo on October 3. Right: Sydney Buckler pictured at the Anzac Day parade in April the head of his men only a few paces from his
1990. Buckler died in February 1995. company’s position. Lieutenant Henry ‘Blue’
Lambert, one of Langridge’s platoon com-
BRIGADE HILL To break the Japanese hold on the track, manders, also fell. Captain David Kayler-
Brigadier Potts’ strategy was now one of three companies attacked back from the Thomson took over the remnants of D Com-
holding rearguard positions along the track pocket: Captain Claude Nye’s B Company of pany and was told, ‘the brigadier wants you
as he withdrew, intending to make a stand at the 2/14th, Captain Frank Sublet’s B Com- to try again.’ He replied: ‘I haven’t enough,
a suitable spot south of Myola. As they pany of the 2/16th and Captain Doug Gold- but I’ll try.’ He then turned to Alan Haddy,
moved back through Myola, the Australians smith’s C Company of the 2/16th. A Com- the company sergeant major, and said: ‘Well
destroyed the food and ammunition that pany of the 2/16th would support B this looks like good night nurse, good morn-
they could not carry. Still hounded by supply Company in the assault down the track. ing Jesus, Alan.’ ‘Well we can’t live forever,
difficulties and the need for his third battal- Lieutenant Bill Grayden commanded 15 Pla- boss’, Haddy replied. However, the new
ion, the 2/27th, Potts withdrew all the way toon, part of C Company, attacking on the attack was cancelled – Potts knew he had to
across the main range back to the high left flank. He watched as the forward troops keep his remnants between the Japanese and
ground above Efogi. Here, at Mission Ridge were deployed in an extended line, and how Menari for as long as possible to enable the
and Brigade Hill behind it, he deployed his they then waited beneath the steady rain rest of the brigade to withdraw. Potts pulled
three battalions to hold the Kokoda Trail with their groundsheets around their shoul- out at 2000 hours that night, single file down
and stop the Japanese advance. Potts posi- ders, their bayonets fixed to their rifles. A the trail to Menari.
tioned Lieutenant-Colonel Geoff Cooper’s
fresh 2/27th Battalion to hold Mission Ridge.
The 2/14th Battalion took up positions
astride the ridge behind Cooper, while, fur-
ther back, Potts spread out the 2/16th Battal-
ion along the ridgeline of Brigade Hill. On
the night of September 6/7, the forward
troops of the 2/27th watched the Japanese
columns move down Kagi Ridge from the
main range, using torches made from cap-
tured Australian insulation wire to light their
way. The Australians had nothing with the
range to fire on them.
The first Japanese attacks on Mission
Ridge came just before dawn on September
8, hitting Captain Charlie Sims’ A Company
of the 2/27th on the right flank. The attack
was supported by mountain gun artillery fire.
The entire company ammunition supply plus
the battalion and other company reserves
were used up in holding the enemy attack.
But even as the Australians reflected on
their success, the Japanese were making the
decisive move of the battle, a flanking
manoeuvre by three infantry companies
from Major Horiye’s 2nd Battalion of the
144th Regiment. They advanced undetected
around to the north of the Australian posi-
PHIL BRADLEY

tion and then up onto the ridge among the

strung-out 2/16th Battalion positions further
back on Brigade Hill, taking up a strong posi-
tion astride the track and cutting off almost
the entire 21st Brigade. It was an astonishing
move, totally out-manoeuvring the Aus- Having withdrawn from Isurava and Eora Creek, the Australians set up a new defen-
tralians. Potts had badly erred in under- sive position at Mission Ridge and Brigade Hill behind it, with the 2/27th Battalion
estimating his enemy and in not deploying occupying positions on the ridge. This is Mission Ridge seen from the east with New
suitable outposts on his vulnerable northern Efogi village in the foreground. The initial Japanese attack at dawn on September 8
flank. Only his brigade headquarters and came up the ridge from Old Efogi which was off to the right (outside the picture). The
Captain Brett Langridge’s D Company of 2/27th Battalion positions were near the top of the ridge. The Japanese surprise
the 2/16th remained outside the cut-off posi- flanking attack later in the day, which cut off most of 21st Brigade, went around the
tion. back of the feature.

11
 AWM 072329
The bodies of the Australian soldiers killed during the Brigade The view is along the crest towards Menari. The Japanese
Hill fighting were buried on a cleared stretch of land along the encircling movement that cut off the main force of 21st Brigade
top of the hill. This photo was taken in April 1944, prior to the came up the side of the ridge from the right in this general
relocation of the graves to Bomana Cemetery at Port Moresby. area.

STEVE DARMODY

Today the crest of Brigade Hill remains cleared and a memorial left). The positions of the original crosses are now marked by
plaque to the fallen was erected here in 1996 (visible on the sticks in the ground.

12
 AWM 013262
Damien Parer filmed native carriers crossing a creek on the is in Parer’s original footage. In some publications it has been
way back from the front line. This still photo is reproduced as it printed in reverse.

Cut off from the main track, the remainder

of 21st Brigade moved south through the
jungle, attempting to rejoin the Kokoda Trail
further back towards Menari and Nauro. The
2/14th and 2/16th Battalion remnants com-
bined under Lieutenant-Colonel Albert
Caro and made it back to Menari the next
day. Back on Brigade Hill, Captain Mert Lee
held a rearguard position with B Company of
the 2/27th Battalion, buying vital time for the
withdrawal, at one stage leading a brazen
counter-attack against the Japanese. Carry-
ing the brigade’s casualties out with them,
the 2/27th Battalion made slow progress and
were beaten to Nauro by the Japanese
advance. The battalion had taken seven
stretcher cases and nine walking wounded

PHIL BRADLEY
with them but the main force left them
behind on September 19. Corporal Johnny
Burns and Private Alf Zanker remained with
the wounded in the jungle east of Nauro, car-
ing for them for two weeks until help arrived
on October 2. The stretcher cases reached The likely location where Parer shot the scene — the Vabuiagi River crossing on the
the 2/4th Field Ambulance on the 9th. Menari side of Brigade Hill.
PHIL BRADLEY

VIC LEMON

In July 2004, Parer’s relatives and friends had a plaque in his Johnny Burns (left) and Alf Zanker (right), the two 2/27th Bat-
memory placed on one of the creek boulders. ‘His extraordi- talion medical orderlies who stayed with the stretcher cases
nary war photography helped forge the nation and remains as hidden in the jungle after the withdrawal from Brigade Hill, car-
an enduring Australian legacy.’ ing for them for two weeks until help arrived.

13
 Right: Finally relieved after weeks of fight-
ing in dense jungle, and having proven its
mettle at Gorari, Kokoda and Isurava, the
depleted 39th Battalion parade at Menari
before its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel
Ralph Honner, after their withdrawal in
early September. Lieutenant Sidney John-
son stands at the head of his ‘ragged
bloody heroes’. The men standing behind
him have been identified as (l.t.r) Arnie
Wallace, Bill Sanders, Harry Hodge, Kevin
Surtees, George Cudmore, George Puxley,
Kevin Whelan, Len Murrell, Dick Secker,
Neil Graham, Clive Gale and Jack Boland.
A sturdy walking stick was as vital as a
rifle on the Kokoda Trail.

IORIBAIWA
Brigadier Selwyn Porter took over com-
mand of Maroubra Force at Nauro on Sep-
tember 10. Porter decided that the next suit-
able defensive position on the Kokoda Trail
was back at Ioribaiwa Ridge. Fortunately,

AWM 013289
significant reinforcements were now arriving.
On September 11, Caro’s composite battal-
ion began to move back through Lieutenant-
Colonel Cameron’s newly arrived 3rd Battal-
ion, part of the 14th Brigade that had been
defending the Port Moresby coastline.
Then, on September 14, the 2/31st and
2/33rd Battalions from the 7th Division’s
25th Brigade deployed along Ioribaiwa
Ridge with the 2/25th Battalion in reserve
behind them. As his brigade went into the
line, Brigadier Ken Eather took over opera-
tional control of what was now, the ‘must
hold’ position in front of Port Moresby. With
four fresh battalions plus Caro’s composite
battalion, Eather had the strength to hold a
much-weakened Japanese force rapidly out-
running its supply lines.
An ambush position was set up at the for-
mer supply dump at Ofi Creek below Iori-
baiwa Ridge where the Australians knew the
Japanese troops would gather. Captain Ron
Christian’s 2/16th Battalion platoon sprung
the trap, causing considerable casualties
before pulling back to the heights above.

PHIL BRADLEY
Corporal Brian Maloney and Private John
Walker opened up with Bren guns from posi-
tions overlooking the crossing. Some 20 to 30
enemy soldiers fell before Christian’s
ambush party headed back to Ioribaiwa
Ridge. Menari village today, with Brigade Hill in the background.
The Japanese responded with deadly
mountain-gun fire onto the ridge. The Aus- along the crest, but the enemy shells were shell fragments raining down on the men
tralians thought they would be safe dug in directed into the tree foliage above them, the below. Lieutenant Bill Grayden, who had
survived the 2/16th Battalion counter-attack
on Brigade Hill, sheltered in a pit while shells
hit the trees above him. One of the bursts
caught Private Harry Whitfield, just eight
yards away from Grayden, across the fore-
head with a shell fragment, mortally wound-
ing him. Private John Baker was with Whit-
field in a trench and now moved behind a
tree with Private Charlie Lintott, who had
also been hit by shrapnel. Another burst
caught Lintott a second time and during a
lull in the shelling, Bill Grayden moved over
to bandage his wound. Grayden saw the flash
from the mountain gun down in the valley
and then he was blown sideways and down
the hill, his eardrums shattered. Baker and
Lintott were dead.
On September 15, the Japanese made their
push for Ioribaiwa Ridge but were foiled by
the staunch Australian defence. They came
again the next day, desperately attacking all
along the line. Again the Japanese made a
key move on the flank, infiltrating into some
unguarded 3rd Battalion positions. One of
the battalion’s platoons was busy digging in
at the time, apparently without sentries
posted and the Japanese got past them onto
PHIL BRADLEY

a dominant knoll. Captain Bert Madigan of

the 2/16th put in a counter-attack but was
wounded by a mountain-gun shell as the
attack stalled. From their high position on
the eastern flank, the Japanese now con-
Relics of the fighting at Menari. In the foreground is an Australian 2-inch mortar. trolled the ridge.

14
 AWM 026835
Native carriers crossing Ofi Creek, between Nauro and Ioribaiwa 2/16th Battalion carried out a successful ambush here during the
Ridge. The stream’s deep ravine created a formidable barrier. The Australian retreat to Ioribaiwa Ridge on September 14.

STEVE DARMODY

Truly accurate comparisons are very difficult in the jungle but boulders on the left confirm the correctness of the spot, as do
Steve Darmody achieved this remarkable one. The two large several other smaller stones on the riverbank.

15
 AWM 061957
Imita Ridge, the final ‘no further retreat’ position before Port abandon its drive on Port Moresby and ordered their forces on
Moresby, as seen from Owers’ Corner to the south. The Aus- the trail to pull out and withdraw to the north. Army photogra-
tralian forces pulling back from Ioribaiwa Ridge deployed here pher George Nicholson took this photo on December 16, 1943,
on September 17 fully expecting another Japanese assault, but when members of the Australian Military History Section vis-
it never came. The Japanese high command had decided to ited the spot.

Brigadiers Eather and Porter agreed that Japanese landing at Milne Bay, was certainly Australian commander-in-chief, General
the Australians should withdraw to Imita causing ructions at the headquarters of the Thomas Blamey, was ordered to New
Ridge if it was necessary and this intention supreme commander in the South-West Guinea, much to the chagrin of the New
was passed on to the divisional commander, Pacific Area, the American General Douglas Guinea Force commander, Lieutenant-Gen-
Major-General Arthur ‘Tubby’ Allen. Allen MacArthur. Ignorant of the scale of the eral Sydney Rowell. With considerable angst
told Eather to hold for as long as possible but Japanese threat and of the supply fiasco, between them, General Blamey replaced
the latter decided to withdraw to a firmer MacArthur blamed a lack of ‘aggressive Rowell with Lieutenant-General Ned Her-
base at Imita Ridge, deploying there by mid- leadership’ for the Australian position. The ring.
day on September 17. Another fresh battal-
ion, the 2/1st Pioneers, moved up to augment
the Australian force, now numbering a con-
siderable 2,500 fighting men. The 25-
pounder guns of the 14th Field Regiment
now also supported the Australian defence
from Owers’ Corner.
The units of 25th Brigade carried out
extensive patrolling of the area between
Ioribaiwa and Imita Ridges. Eather had no
intention of again being caught unaware by
the enemy. The patrols were of around 50
men with a good allocation of automatic
weapons. Private Norm Stokes was with one
of the 2/33rd Battalion patrols, intent on
ambushing any enemy advance. His com-
pany had left their positions on Ioribaiwa
Ridge with much noise and apparent confu-
sion but had not gone far, lying up in a kunai
grass patch just behind the ridge. Further for-
ward was an abandoned supply dump, any
remaining tinned food pierced by bayonet to
spoil the contents. C Company waited
throughout the night. The Japanese came the
next morning, setting up two machine guns,
the one on the right almost on top of a wait-
ing Australian infantryman. His burst of
PHIL BRADLEY

Tommy gun fire was the signal for the

ambush to be sprung. It was all over quickly,
a whistle blast signalling the Australian with-
drawal, without casualty. The Japanese came
no nearer to Port Moresby than that point.
The continuing withdrawal along the Our comparison was taken from a slightly higher position and shows the succession
Kokoda Trail, allied to the concerns over the of steep ridges over which the Kokoda Trail passed.

16
 PHIL BRADLEY
AWM P02423

On September 28 the Australian 25th Brigade counter- Phil Bradley took his comparison on the south slope of Imita
attacked, starting the Australian offensive to regain the terri- Ridge. This is the first major climb when travelling north along
tory lost. Here two native carriers and a member of 2/4th Field the Kokoda Trail. Walking the historic trail is today rapidly
Ambulance climb the so-called ‘Golden Staircase’ rising becoming more popular. While there were only 67 travellers in
towards Imita Ridge. More than 1,000 steps were cut into the 2001 there were 3,750 in 2005. To regulate and exploit the
ridge’s south slope. Each was battened at its edge by a rough increasing trekking activity, the PNG government in 2002 set
log, which was sometimes broken and often slippery with a up the Kokoda Track Authority. It charges foreigners $87 and
coating of mud. In climbing the stairs, soldiers had to lift their students or children $44 for a permit to walk the trail. The rev-
leg over the log and put their foot down on the step behind in enues are to be shared equally between the Authority and the
what was frequently a puddle of mud and water up to six provincial governments of Kokoda and Koiari, the former using
inches deep. The official caption of this photo taken by A. F. it for rangers and the track’s upkeep, and the latter to spend it
Hobson in October 1942 states that the carriers are climbing on health care and education for the tribes along the route.
the stairs towards Ioribaiwa, the next ridge to the north, and it However, much of the funds for the provincial governments
is possible that the photo was taken on the south slope of that are lost through corruption and, bereft of their support money,
hill, where another 4,000 stairs were cut into a much steeper the landowners have repeatedly threatened to close the track if
gradient than at Imita Ridge (see the relief sketch of the two things did not improve. In 2005 the Authority raised $300,000
ridges on page 6). from trekking permit fees.

THE JAPANESE WITHDRAWAL rier system or the possibility of air supply, considerable army and naval resources to
With the Australians now defending the everything had to be manhandled forward by Guadalcanal, it was possible they would win
final key ridge position in front of Port the troops and, by mid-September, the that battle and then be in a position to
Moresby, more patrols went out to deter- Japanese soldiers were starving and very low resume the attack on Port Moresby.
mine where the Japanese would attack. on ammunition. However, the Japanese MacArthur stated his concerns on October
Apart from some minor clashes in no man’s command never had an issue with sending 17: ‘It is now necessary to prepare for possi-
land, there was no further action and, on half-starved, ill-supplied troops into battle. ble disaster in the Solomons’.
September 25, Brigadier Eather began to The decision to withdraw had been made at a As with the earlier fighting, the key to a
probe forward. On the 28th he attacked strategic level. The fighting at Guadalcanal successful move across the Kokoda Trail
Ioribaiwa Ridge only to find the Japanese in the Solomon Islands (see After the Battle would be supply. When the 3rd Battalion
had left. On the 30th, 2/25th Battalion No. 108) had taken its toll on the Japanese reached Nauro, two companies were tasked
patrols entered Nauro and also found it resources and the landing at Milne Bay on with clearing suitable air-dropping grounds
unoccupied. The Japanese had gone, aban- the southern Papuan coast had been in the Brown Valley. The first drops took
doning their attack on Port Moresby when repulsed. Reinforcements and supplies place at Nauro on October 4, though the
they were on the very doorstep. The 3rd Bat- would now be sent to Guadalcanal as the recovery rate was always a problem. As the
talion found evidence that some 2,000 Japan- first priority; Port Moresby would have to Australians moved north along the Kokoda
ese troops had occupied the area between wait. Trail, other dropping grounds were con-
Ioribaiwa and Nauro. With similar numbers From General Horii’s force, two battalions structed at Menari and Efogi.
and in prepared positions on dominant ter- of Colonel Yazawa’s 41st Regiment were the The Australians did not catch up with the
rain, the Australians may well have held any first to withdraw on September 16, followed Japanese rearguard until after they had
attack on Imita Ridge, but it would have by the three battalions of the 144th Regi- crossed the main range and were approach-
been a very bloody affair. ment on September 26. A rearguard force ing Templeton’s Crossing. It was now Octo-
The Japanese decision to withdraw had based around the 2nd Battalion of the 41st ber 8 and Brigadier Eather would need to
come about for a number of reasons. Chief Regiment would delay the Australians dur- move his battalions forward to engage the
among them had been the delays and losses ing the withdrawal. Japanese. At the same time, Brigadier John
that had been imposed on the Japanese force With the Japanese force in retreat, Gener- Lloyd’s 16th Brigade was advancing up the
during the fighting withdrawal of the Aus- als MacArthur and Blamey pushed hard for track from Port Moresby. Lloyd had passed
tralians back from Kokoda. As the Japanese the Australians to retake Kokoda and then General MacArthur at Owers’ Corner and
advanced, their supply lines increased, and drive the Japanese out of Papua as soon as been told, ‘the eyes of the Western world are
then failed. Without an effective native car- possible. With the Japanese now directing upon you’. If nothing else, Lloyd knew his

17
 Right: A C-47 of the US Fifth Air Force
dropping food supplies on a cleared space
in the Brown River valley at Nauro during
the advance of the 25th Brigade in Octo-
ber. The Fifth Air Force, part of South-
West Pacific Theatre and responsible for
supporting both the New Guinea and
Guadalcanal operations, initially had only
the 21st and 22nd Troop Carrier
Squadrons for transport and supply
duties. Their combined strength at the
start of the Kokoda counter-offensive was
41 C-47s but, due to lack of maintenance
personnel, only 26 of these were opera-
tional. A new troop carrier squadron, the
6th with 13 C-47s, touched down at
Ward’s Drome in Port Moresby on Octo-
ber 14 — the first such squadron to fly
across the Pacific from the United States
— and an additional squadron, the 33rd,
would arrive later on. (The four squadrons
were formed into the 374th Troop Carrier
Group on November 12). However, sup-
plying the various land forces by air
remained a major problem. Cargo para-
chutes and containers were scarce and
normally reserved for ammunition, med-
ical supplies and bottled liquids. Rations,
clothing and individual equipment were
wrapped in sacking or blankets that did
little to absorb the impact of the drop.
Osmar White wrote: ‘It was fascinating to

AWM 027019
watch cases of bully beef explode as they
hit ground. The gold-coloured tins scat-
tered like shrapnel.’
brigade had great expectations on it. The
Japanese rearguard held the Australians
until October 15 before pulling back along
the track where more fighting took place.
Meanwhile, General Blamey was getting
impatient with the 7th Division’s comman-
der, Major-General Allen. On October 21,
General MacArthur added his comments in
his own message to Allen: ‘Progress on the
trail is NOT repeat NOT satisfactory’. Allen
had moved his HQ forward to Myola and
had deployed three battalions, the maximum
he could supply. He now moved Lloyd’s 16th
Brigade (comprising 2/1st, 2/2nd and 2/3rd
Battalions) up to relieve Eather’s tiring 25th
Brigade. The 25th Brigade casualties starkly
illustrate the difficulties of warfare along the
Kokoda Trail. In their month’s fighting the
brigade had lost 68 men killed, 135 wounded
and a staggering 771 men sick.
AWM 027083

On October 20, the day it moved into the

front line, Lieutenant-Colonel Cedric
Edgar’s 2/2nd Battalion made its first
attacks. The Australians soon discovered
The road back. Looking north from Nauro across the Brown River valley towards the how skilful the Japanese were at using the
Menari plateau and on to Efogi in October 1942. Osmar White wrote: ‘Blue valley terrain and camouflaging their positions. The
after blue valley. Ridge and valley, and valley and ridge. Mile upon endless mile of first the forward troops knew of the enemy
hills seen from open patches of grassland.’ presence was when a devastating blast of
small-arms fire opened upon them. That
night the Japanese force moved further back
and took up new positions for the following
day. They formed up on what was perhaps
the best defensive position on the Kokoda
Trail, the steep ridge on the northern side of
Eora Creek, able to bring enfilade fire,
including artillery, along the approach track
from Templeton’s Crossing. The Japanese
commander, Colonel Masao Kusunose, had
mustered the remnants of his 144th Regi-
ment here, and though considerably weak-
ened, it contained a nucleus of very experi-
enced and determined troops.
The 16th Brigade reached Eora Creek on
October 22, taking up positions on Bare
Ridge, on the southern side of the ravine,
opposite the Japanese fortress. The Japanese
defenders opened fire on the exposed Aus-
PHIL BRADLEY

tralians, wounding the 2/3rd Battalion com-

mander, Lieutenant-Colonel John Steven-
son. Brigadier Lloyd decided to split
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Cullen’s 2/1st Bat-
talion and attack from two directions.
The same ridges and valleys, blue in the early morning mist, in August 2006. The sup- Though the Japanese positions commanded
ply dropping took place along the valley to the right. the creek crossings, Lloyd wanted them, so

18
 PHIL BRADLEY
Left: Troops of the 2/25th and 2/33rd Battalions, heading for
Menari, cross the Brown River below Nauro in October 1942.
AWM 027060

Above: Sixty-four years on, members of Phil Bradley’s hiking

party find that a sturdy log still provides the best means of
crossing the watercourse.
he directed Cullen to move across the thus saving the platoon. Meanwhile, Lieu- 3-inch mortar that began firing on the Japan-
bridges and then attack up the main track tenant Jim McCloy’s platoon had found a ese positions on the 26th was also knocked
into the teeth of the enemy defence. Captain spur and had succeeded in getting forward out soon thereafter by well-directed enemy
Basil Catterns’ B Company got the thankless up the incline to the left of the track, though mountain-gun fire. Another 3-inch mortar
task. Captain Barclay was killed during this move. blew up the next day, when a bomb went off
The battalion’s two other companies were McCloy could hear Sanderson’s flanking prematurely. (The bomb had come from an
sent across Eora Creek further upstream attack further west but the two platoons he air resupply.) During the night of October
with orders to climb a steep spur up onto the now commanded could not move from their 26/27, heavy rain made Eora Creek a flood
high ground and attack the western flank of tenuous position below the Japanese posi- and washed out the bridges making supply
the Japanese position. Captains Alex tions. even harder. On the same day, Japanese
Sanderson and Arch Simpson led the compa- With McCloy having cleared the way, Cap- reinforcements arrived. General Horii knew
nies and it was planned that they would tain Catterns now took his B Company he commanded the best defensive position
attack at the same time as Cullen’s men. straight up the ridge, digging in no more than along the Kokoda Trail and wished to delay
Unfortunately for Sanderson, two of his 30 yards below the Japanese positions, pro- the Australians for as long as possible.
company’s platoons and all of Simpson’s tected from direct rifle fire but under con- Brigadier Lloyd finally realised that he had
company failed to find their way up onto the stant grenade attack. The bravest of the men to get stronger forces onto the high ground to
heights. This was not surprising given that a went back down the slope and across Eora turn the Japanese western flank. The 2/3rd
waterfall had to be negotiated as well as the Creek each night to get food and ammuni- Battalion, now under the command of Major
thick scrub. Though Sanderson had only the tion. A Vickers gun was brought forward Ian Hutchison, made the wide flanking move
17 men from Lieutenant Keith Johnston’s along Bare Ridge on October 25 but dawn across Eora Creek, as Sanderson had earlier
platoon with him, he led them into an attack brought the enemy artillery into action and a done. A company from the 2/2nd Battalion
on the Japanese flank. The platoon was then direct hit destroyed the gun position. A under Captain Bruce Brock was also
counter-attacked and surrounded and only
four men survived. When Sanderson’s body
was later found, it was ringed by some 300
spent shells from a German Mauser pistol
that he had obtained during earlier service in
the Middle East.
Meanwhile the first men made their way
across the bridges over Eora Creek on the
night of October 22/23. The patrol, led by
Lieutenant Ken Burke, was caught by Japan-
ese machine-gun fire and suffered 13 casual-
ties. But Brigadier Lloyd wanted the bridges
taken so Colonel Cullen decided to do it
himself. Together with his adjutant, Captain
Geoff Cox, he crawled over the bridge and
through the dead bodies from Burke’s foray
to find the enemy machine-gunner gone. He
quickly ordered Captain Peter Barclay’s
company to descend Bare Ridge and cross
the bridges. Most of Barclay’s men made it
across to the north bank but, hemmed in at
the base of a ravine, the company’s problems
were only beginning. The breaking dawn
revealed that Lieutenant Bill Politt’s pla-
toon, in trying to stay to the right of the
PHIL BRADLEY

track, was trapped between the river and a

sheer rock wall. The trail here traverses a
steep slope and there is no feasible alterna-
tive to it. The Japanese defenders dropped
grenades down onto Politt’s men until
Lance-Corporal James Hunt managed to get The Japanese defence position above the Eora Creek ravine. It was precipitously steep
up the slope and shoot two enemy soldiers, and muddy, with mountain guns, mortars and machine guns deployed in support.

19
 AWM 013572
Major-General George Vasey, commander of the Australian The ceremony signalled the end of the Kokoda Trail campaign
7th Division, raises the flag over Kokoda on November 3, 1942. but much fighting lay ahead at the Japanese beach-heads.

attached. Hutchison took his force even fur- in front of Kokoda, but the Australian divi- guard back from Eora Creek, entering Alola
ther out to the north and, on October 27 and sion commander, General Allen, had been on the afternoon of October 30. After the
28, attacked the Japanese western flank in relieved of his command, a victim of General 2/2nd Battalion secured the bridge across
three columns, each of some 200 men, keep- MacArthur’s opinion that progress was Eora Creek to Abuari, Lloyd’s 16th Brigade
ing 300 yards apart. Corporal Lester Pett was unsatisfactory. The 224 soldiers of Lloyd’s pushed east through Abuari. Meanwhile
in the forefront of the attack, wiping out four brigade who had been killed or wounded in Eather’s 25th Brigade moved north via
enemy bunkers as the Australians unhinged the attack on the Japanese Gibraltar at Eora Deniki heading for Kokoda and troops from
the Japanese right flank. Catterns’ men rose Creek belied MacArthur’s criticism. On the 2/31st Battalion entered the abandoned
from their positions on the front slope and October 28, Major-General George Vasey town on November 2. The Japanese rear-
stormed over the crest to find the enemy was flown in to Myola to replace Allen. guard had left two days previously. Just after
gone. Lieutenant-Colonel Cullen’s 2/1st Battal- 1100 hours on November 3, General Vasey
The Australians had broken the Japanese ion took up the pursuit of the Japanese rear- hoisted the Australian flag above Kokoda.

PHIL BRADLEY

The flagpole site at Kokoda, pictured by Phil Bradley in August bronze plaques dedicated to all those who fell in the campaign;
2006. The white memorial stones on the open green carry to the native carriers; and to the Australian units that served.

20
 In 1943, a memorial cairn was set up at
Sogeri, near the southern start of the
Kokoda Trail. It reads: ‘In memory of the
officers, NCOs & men of the Australian
Military Forces who gave their lives on
the Kokoda Track, Jul — Nov 1942. To
strive, to seek, to find & not to yield.’ This
photo was taken in October 1944. The
road off to the left is the beginning of the
‘Snake Road’ built by the Australians in
late 1942 that leads to the start of the
Kokoda Trail at Owers’ Corner.

The Kokoda Trail campaign was over but

General Vasey continued to drive Brigadier
Lloyd forward to reach the coast as soon as
possible. On the day that Kokoda fell,
Lloyd’s men had contacted the Japanese
rearguard at Oivi, some ten miles further
east towards the coast, the brigadier himself
coming under fire. The Australians crossed

AWM 076622
the Kumusi River on November 15 and had
made the first contact with the Japanese
coastal positions by the 18th. Other Allied
troops had also been sea and air lifted into
the area. But a great deal of costly fighting
lay ahead before the Japanese beach-heads
at Buna, Gona and Sanananda would be
eliminated.
On November 9, General Blamey addres-
sed the troops of the 21st Brigade at the
Koitaki cricket ground, just east of Sogeri.
In an unfortunate choice of words, he stated
that ‘it’s not the man with the gun that gets
shot, it’s the rabbit that is running away’.
The assembled men took great offence at
the remark. Blamey later tried to explain
his choice of words to Brigadier Ivan
Dougherty, then in command of the 21st
Brigade, but the damage had been done. He
never again held the respect of the Aus-
tralian soldiery.
One group of men who gained the utmost
respect of the Australian soldiers was the
native carriers, the ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’.

PHIL BRADLEY
Without their help in bringing forward the
supplies, the Kokoda Trail campaign could
never have been fought. But it was their self-
less dedication as stretcher bearers that for-
ever would be remembered by all those who
fought and were wounded. Now located in a neat little park, the memorial itself remains unchanged.
PHIL BRADLEY

The McDonald’s Corner memorial, at the

location where the wartime Kokoda Trail
PHIL BRADLEY

began at Ilolo (before the access road

from Sogeri was pushed through to
Owers’ Corner). The place got its name
from PJ McDonald who ran a rubber plan-
tation here in 1942. The memorial was
built in 1967, for the 25th anniversary pil- The memorial to the Kokoda campaign at Isurava, looking north-east along the Eora
grimage of the 39th Battalion veterans. Creek valley. The four pillars of the memorial acknowledge Courage, Endurance, Mate-
The rifle and tin hat are original, formerly ship and Sacrifice. The memorial was opened in August 2002 by the Prime Ministers of
issued to PJ McDonald. Australia, John Howard, and Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare.

21
 JASIN bOLAND
The movie Kokoda, released in 2006, is a clear reflection of the World War, which is generally regarded as a defining moment
growing interest in Australia for the savage campaign fought in Australia’s coming of age, but in recent years awareness of
in the jungles of New Guinea. For decades Kokoda was over- Kokoda has increased greatly and the battle is now looked
shadowed by Gallipoli, the disastrous campaign of the First upon as another crucial event in the nation’s history.

KOKODA – THE MOVIE

Alister Grierson, who graduated from the
Australian Film, Television and Radio
School (AFRTS) in 2004 made an impressive
debut directing his first feature film Kokoda,
a moving commemoration of a harrowing
campaign by Australian troops during
WWII. The principal crew that he assembled
were all students together at the school, so
for most of them this was also their debut.
Kokoda track were the untrained and ill-
equipped militia of the 39th Battalion Aus-
tralian Infantry. Often never having held a
By Gail Parker
Grierson co-wrote the script with John rifle before, and with an average age of 18 to called them ‘chocos’ — ‘chocolate soldiers’
Lonie, who teaches scriptwriting at the 19, these volunteers and conscripts were pri- — who would melt in the heat of battle. In
AFTRS. Produced by Leesa Kahn and Catri- marily engaged for ancillary services such as the event they earned the respect of every-
ona Hughes of GFN Productions, the film building roads. Instead they were sent in to one by demonstrating courage and determi-
was shot on a low budget in 28 days in south- mount an offensive against the Japanese nation, staying on to fight after their relief
ern Queensland. until they could be relieved by Australian arrived in the face of Japanese forces who
Working with Grierson on the film was Imperial Force units. Regulars scornfully outnumbered the Australians ten to one.
Jules O’Loughlin a free-lance director of
photography based in Sydney who began his
career in the arts 15 years previously as a
stills photographer, now having a portfolio of
some 3,000 photographs taken in over 40
countries throughout Asia, Central America
and the Middle East. O’Loughlin then pur-
sued a career in cinematography and after
gaining entry into the AFRTS, he shot over
15 short films and documentaries. Kokoda
was also his first full-length feature film.
Only Shane Bourne, who plays the doctor,
and William McInnes, portraying the
colonel, were well-known actors, the remain-
der of the cast comprising Jack Finsterer and
Simon Stone (brothers Jack and Max
Scholt), Travis McMahon (Darko), Luke
Ford (Burke), Tom Budge (Johnno), Steve
Le Marquand (Sam), Angus Sampson (Dan),
Christopher Baker (Blue), Ewen Leslie
JASIN bOLAND

(Wilstead) and Ben Barrack as the lieu-

tenant were relatively unknown actors.
Kokoda is a film made as a commemora-
tive tribute to Australian fighting forces in
1942. It centres on a fictional small patrol cut
off behind enemy lines from supplies and Kokoda tells the story of a patrol of the 39th Battalion that is cut off behind enemy
communications, attempting to rejoin their lines in the run-up to the Isurava battle of August 1942. This publicity shot lines up
battalion in the lead-up to the decisive battle the cast. Standing at rear: Christopher Baker (Blue) and an unnamed soldier. Middle
at Isurava, a village on the Kokoda Trail in row: Travis McMahon (Darko), Angus Sampson (Dan), Jack Finsterer (Jack Scholt),
Papua New Guinea. Among those who par- Ewen Leslie (Wilstead), Steve Le Marquand (Sam). Front row: Tom Budge (Johnno),
ticularly distinguished themselves on the Simon Stone (Max Scholt) and Luke Ford (Burke).

22
The movie contains numerous scenes that vividly portray the (left), the toils and fears of the ordinary soldier and the suffer-
difficulties of jungle fighting, the ferocity of nightly combat ing of the wounded (right).

The film title also represents the closest important in bringing home to them exactly the film hammers home its harrowing
Australia came to being invaded by the what these men went through in the jungle of account of a time spent in this hell-like situa-
Japanese and a gruesome theatre of war that Papua. tion.
defines the WWII Australian fighting spirit A similar area of dense jungle terrain was One point of interest is that William
just as Gallipoli does for WWI. Papua’s infa- found on and around Mount Tambourine McInnes (the colonel) played his part for
mous jungle terrain makes it the most diffi- near Brisbane. Located nearby is the Canun- free. ‘I suppose in a minor way,’ he said,
cult battleground on earth and it is featured gra Military Area which dates back to the ‘doing this part is like tipping my hat to my
as prominently and graphically as any char- Second World War when the base was estab- father’s generation. It’s only a day’s work
acter in this film. lished to train soldiers in jungle warfare tech- and I decided to donate my fee to the ser-
Clearly captured on the screen is the con- niques. It now houses the headquarters of viceman’s charity Legacy. So at least some-
trast in the chaotic crashing progress of the the Australian Defence Intelligence Training one will get something out of it.’
inexperienced Australian patrol as opposed Centre. Filming commenced on September Kokoda has received several nominations
to the Japanese who appear camouflaged, 29, 2005 and finished on November 4. and awards. The Australian Film Institute
stealthily silent and deadly, their faces Having decided to film the movie largely nominated Phil Eagles for the best costume
unseen, therefore shown as an inpersonal with hand-held cameras, which gives the award, and Phil Stuart-Jones for design and
enemy. impression that the viewer is almost an best visual effects. The Film Critics Circle of
Prior to filming the cast spent an intense unseen member of the patrol, cinematogra- Australia nominated Jules O’Loughlin for the
period at a boot camp on reduced rations pher O’Loughlin comments that the physical best cinematography and he was also nomi-
while being immersed in visual and reading challenge of having to hold and carry around nated for the same award at the Inside Film
material relevant to the script. They were a heavy camera while moving around with Awards in 2006. Likewise, Adrian Rostirolla
also introduced to rifle practice and the actors on steep slopes and rocky terrain was nominated for best editing and Nicholas
patrolling by the SAS. The actors were also was extremely tiring. McCallum for best production design. And in
given the opportunity to meet with some The setting is vivid including the malarial April 2007 Kokoda was awarded the Special
members of the original 39th Battalion, nightmares of Jack Scholt and the dysentery Jury Award at the WorldFest-Houston Inter-
many of them claiming that this was most and illness experienced by many others as national Film Festival.

The movie’s final sequence includes a recreation of the famous Battalion parading in front of their commander, Lieutenant-
picture (see page 14) of the weary survivors of the depleted 39th Colonel Ralph Honner, played by William McInnes (right).

23
 IWM BU4666
From 1941 to 1945, the small village of Westertimke in northern Marlag (Marine-Lager) for captured personnel of the Royal Navy.
Germany was the location of a complex of prisoner of war camps Milag on average held between 2,700 and 4,200 internees, and
known as Milag-Marlag. Although generally named as one, and Marlag about 1,000 to 1,500, but numbers would rise consider-
both reserved for naval POWs, the two camps housed two dis- ably in the closing months of the war. This is the main camp road
tinctly different categories of prisoners. Milag (short for Marine- of Milag, pictured by British Army photographer Sergeant John
Internierten-Lager) was for captured Merchant Navy seamen and Gordon on the day of the camp’s liberation, April 28, 1945.

MILAG-MARLAG POW CAMPS AT WESTERTIMKE

Westertimke is a small village in northern
Germany. It lies some 30 kilometres north-
west of Bremen on the road to Hamburg,
personnel captured by the Germans were ini-
tially concentrated in Stalag X-B at Sand-
bostel, south of Bremervörde, in two special
By Karel Margry
between Tarmstedt and Zeven, in flat, rather compounds known as Ilag (Internierungs- filed by the Protective Power (Switzerland)
desolate and relatively infertile sandy land Lager) 10 and Marlag (Marine-Lager), both with the German government regarding the
dotted with pine-tree woods and agricultural created in April 1941. However, with the overfilling of the two compounds, in the sum-
villages. From July 1941 to April 1945 the vil- number of naval prisoners increasing rapidly mer of 1941 the Germans agreed to create
lage was the location of two large prisoner of (by July 1941 there were over 2,000 inmates two special camps for them at Westertimke,
war camps, containing two different cate- in the Ilag compound and some 1,800 in the 20 kilometres away to the south.
gories of naval POWs. One camp, the Marlag one), and as a result of complaints
Marine-Lager (Navy Camp) — or Marlag for
short — was for captured Royal Navy per-
sonnel; the other, the Marine-Internierten-
Lager (Naval Internees Camp) — or Milag
— was for captured Merchant Navy seamen.
During the Second World War, over 5,000
merchant seamen from more than 320 ships
were captured by the Axis forces, and they
formed a special category of prisoners. Mer- WESTERTIMKE
chant sailors were civilians, not soldiers, and
under the Hague Convention they should
have been treated as civilian non-combatants
and returned home. However, naturally
reluctant to do so lest they would crew other
merchant ships or join the Armed Forces, the
Germans argued that since Allied merchant
ships were armed, their crews could not be
regarded as non-combatants. However, as
they were not members of the Armed Forces
either, they could not be given full POW sta-
tus, and so the Germans created a new class
of prisoners: the Naval Civilian Internee.
In actual fact, not all personnel aboard
merchant vessels were civilians. During the
war, British merchant ships were armed to
defend themselves against enemy attacks,
and the personnel manning the guns on these
DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant
Ship) vessels were members of the Armed
Services. However, the Germans kept the
crews of merchant ships together and the
captured DEMS gunners were incarcerated
with their Merchant Navy crewmates.
Allied merchant seamen and Royal Navy Westertimke lay some 30 kilometres north-east of Bremen, on the road to Zeven.

24
 LAGER III

LAGER IV

Westertimke

Skagerrak-Strasse
INDER-LAGER

DULAG

MILAG

trasse
Dönitz-S

MARLAG O M sports grounds

MILAG NORD The Milag-Marlag camp complex, begun in 1941 and subsequently added to, in its
In July-August 1941, an advance working final form consisted of six lagers: Milag, for Merchant Marine personnel; Marlag, for
party from Sandbostel’s Ilag compound — Royal Navy personnel; Milag (Inder), for Indian seamen of the Merchant Navy; Dulag
made up of strong ratings, ship’s carpenters, (Durchgangs-Lager), used as an interrogation and transit compound; Stabslager
petty officers and several chief officers, (Lager III), living quarters for the German administrative personnel; and Wache (Lager
under the command of Captain Lewis (com- IV), living quarters for the German camp guard. Compare this plan with the Allied
mander of the SS Stanpark, sunk by the aerial reconnaissance photo (overleaf) taken on April 14, 1945.
Admiral Scheer on January 19, 1941) — was
sent to Westertimke, their task being to con- ning around the inside about four metres 164 prisoners were working on Milag. Con-
vert a disused Luftwaffe training establish- from the main fence. Four watchtowers were struction continued all through the winter,
ment into a prison camp. The Luftwaffe erected, one on each corner of the camp, in which was particularly wet and cold.
camp was on a plot of land immediately which the Germans placed machine guns and By February 1942 the camp had more or
south of the village, just across the main road searchlights. To obstruct the view from and less attained its final form. It consisted of
that passes the village. When the party into the camp, woven matting covers were some 36 sturdily-built barrack blocks, which
arrived at the new location, after an exhaust- erected on the outside wire along the side of included some 24 accommodation huts, an
ing forced march, they found only six rather the camp nearest Skagerrak Road. admin block, a camp hospital, a central
dilapidated huts — four accommodation bar- Starting in October, the men began con- kitchen, two dining and recreation barracks
racks, a toilet block and a washroom — struction of additional barracks. These were (one for officers, one for ratings), a post and
arranged in a square around an open parade in fact the old barracks from their own Sand- parcels block, and several washrooms and
ground. bostel compound. The huts there were dis- toilets. A sports field was contained within
Once recovered from the foot journey, the mantled, transported to Westertimke by the camp’s perimeter. A large water-filled
men’s first task was to fence themselves in. lorry and re-assembled. As each barrack at hole in the ground, which had been found on
Fences, gates and watchtowers all had to be Sandbostel was taken away, its occupants fol- site and included in the enclosure, had
constructed from timber cut from the local lowed behind. Some parties were taken by become the camp fire-pond. Camp roads
woods. They erected a five-metre-high dou- lorry, but most had to walk the 20 kilome- were eventually built by the POWs using
ble barbed-wire outer fence with a single- tres. By Christmas 1941, a second construc- rubble supplied by the Germans from air
strand warning-wire on shorter stakes run- tion gang had arrived from Sandbostel and raids on Bremen.
MILAG POW ASSN

ATB

The Kommandantur, the camp commander’s office, was Today, only a handful of the original camp buildings survive
located on Skagerrak Road opposite Milag’s main gate. A and the Kommandantur is one of them. Considerably
side extension contained a jail with a few cells. revamped, it is now a nice little villa at No. 20 Sandstrasse.

25
 northern edge of the village, and known as
Lager III and Lager IV.
When Milag was first formed, Captain
Lewis was elected by camp vote to be Senior
Confidence Officer (SCO), to act as go-
between for the Germans and the prisoners,
with Captain Alfred Hill assisting as Camp
Leader (Ratings). Later, with the camp so
much expanded, a Management Committee
was formed to run the internal administra-
tion of the camp. Elected by camp vote, it
was made up of Captains Hill, Andrew
Cavaye and Robert Findlay-Notman.
When, a few months later, Lewis was dis-
missed by the Germans and sent to another
camp, Captain Findlay-Norman was appoin-
ted to take his place as Senior Confidence
Officer. Although the prisoners had had no
say in his appointment, Notman was gener-
ally respected by his fellow inmates as well as
by the Germans and, although not popular,
proved to be an effective administrator and
fair and trustworthy SCO. Under Notman’s
leadership, the Central Committee con-
trolled various departments, responsible for
MILAG POW ASSN

such activities as lavatory and washroom

cleaning, camp kitchen, hospital, Red Cross
parcel distribution, etc. The committee’s
Camp Office was first located in part of the
kitchen hut, but later moved to Block No. 9.
In 1943, Captain Hill was dismissed as
The camp’s main gate, across the road from the Kommandantur. Camp Leader (Ratings) and replaced by
Captain Cavaye. Many inmates judged
Running parallel to the camp’s north- Assisting the camp commanders of both Cavaye, who had previously acted as camp
south axis and connecting with the main road Milag and Marlag were two security officers, interpreter, to be too pro-German for their
was Skagerrak Road and off this was the Oberleutnant Güssefeld and his assistant liking.
German Kommandantur office, opposite the Oberfeldwebel (later Oberleutnant) Schoof. The prisoners held in Milag comprised
main gate. Running at right angles to this Their job was to keep track of what was many different nationalities. Britain’s
road was Dönitz-Strasse, which led to the going on in the camps, locate any clandestine wartime merchant fleet contained men from
Marlag camp, and off this were the fuel and radios and prevent escape attempts. Güsse- every corner of the empire and beyond:
other stores, the camp vegetable garden and feld, who spoke good English, could be seen Britons, Canadians, Australians, but also
a brick-built shower block, which both camps snooping around the camp at all hours. The Indians, Burmese, Chinese, seamen from
shared. Milag-Marlag staff further included a sup- Egypt, Malta, Aden, Goa, etc. Added to
The accommodation huts in the prisoners plies officer, Inspector Heuken; a medical these came the sailors of captured merchant
compound each contained 14 rooms, five officer, Stabsarzt Dr Trautmann; and an eco- ships from Allied countries: Norwegian,
large ones on each side of a central corridor nomic officer, Korvettenkapitän Müller. Dutch, Greek, American, etc. In all, some 29
and four much smaller end rooms. Fitted out The German guards at Milag were Kriegs- nationalities were represented in Milag. The
with double-tier bunks, two wooden tables, marine servicemen on temporary leave from mixture of so many nationalities and races
benches to sit on and a cast-iron coal stove, active duty but, from 1944, they were mostly from all over the world gave the camp a
the larger rooms accommodated 22 men in replaced by older or disabled Kriegsmarine flavour and character unknown in any of the
the ratings’ barracks and 16 to 18 men in the ratings. The majority of these treated their other prisoner of war camps. All nationalities
officers’ barracks. The smaller rooms housed charges with sympathy and understanding, were put together in the same barracks,
only four men. Eagerly sought after, the lat- although there were always one or two mean except for the Indians and Chinese who were
ter were mostly occupied by barrack cap- ones among them. The guards were housed housed in a separate hut, No. 36. The Ameri-
tains, committee men and camp workers in at two smaller camps, built a few hundred cans, never more than 71, were all together
the ratings’ huts and by Captains and Chief metres away along the main road at the in Block No. 35.
Engineers in the officers’ huts. Each ratings’
hut thus contained some 235 men, each offi-
cers’ hut some 175, the camp’s total capacity
being some 5,300.
Like Stalag X-B at Sandbostel, the prison
camps at Westertimke fell under the overall
jurisdiction of the Kommandeur der Kriegs-
gefangenen (Commander of POWs) in
Wehrkreis X (Army Home District X). How-
ever, being naval camps, they were run by
the Kriegsmarine. Overall commander of the
Milag-Marlag complex was Korvetten-
kapitän Horst Schüre, and from March 1944
Fregattenkapitän Schmidt. Each camp had
its own commander, known as the Lager-
offizier (Camp Officer).
Milag’s first camp commandant was a man
named Prüsch. An officer in the peacetime
German merchant navy with a reserve com-
mission, he had served on passenger liners
and cruise ships. A snob, who liked to show
off his connections with British and Prussian
aristocracy, he was nicknamed ‘Jimmy
Sauerkraut’ by the prisoners. Prüsch was
replaced by Major Henzell of the German
MILAG POW ASSN

Marines and he in turn was replaced on May

19, 1944 by Kapitänleutnant (later Korvet-
tenkapitän) Walter Rogge, who would
remain camp commandant until the end of
ATB

the war. An honest man with a good sense of

humour, who treated the prisoners fairly and
at times ignored orders from higher up if he A Merchant Marine POW and a Kriegs- All that remains to mark the spot of the
found them too harsh, he was much marine camp guard smile for the camera camp gate today is an unobtrusive track
respected by the prisoners. near the gate. leading into the trees.

26
MILAG POW ASSN

MILAG POW ASSN

Captain Robert Findlay-Notman, Senior Muster on the parade ground square in the ratings’ compound. Taking the prisoner
British Officer in Milag from 1941 to 1945. count from the roll-call leader is what looks like a Kapitän zur See, identity unknown.

For most of its existence the Milag camp

held between 2,700 and 4,200 internees,
although the occupancy would swell to
nearly twice that number in the closing
months of the war. As the war went on, some
groups departed, and others arrived.
On April 6, 1942, a group of 167 Norwe-
gians arrived in the camp. The crews of five
Norwegian merchant ships interned in neu-
tral Sweden at the beginning of the war
(beefed up with numerous evaders from
Gestapo arrest), they had tried to escape to
Britain on the night of March 31/April 1 with
five other ships (Operation ‘Performance’)
and, on detection, had scuttled their vessels
rather than let them fall into enemy hands.
The Germans had declared them ‘pirates’
and were going to put them on trial and
Milag was only an intermediate stage of their
deadly journey. They were kept in a separate
barracks, No. 24, initially cordoned off from
the rest of the camp with barbed wire. Arriv-

ATB
ing with the Norwegian sailors were six Nor-
wegian women and a little Norwegian girl
(locked up in the admin block), and a group The northern half of what was the Milag camp has since the war been developed into
of 56 British, mostly volunteers from the a housing estate, occupied by nice bungalows and villas. This is the site of the parade
1939-40 Winter War in Finland who had ground as seen from the same direction today.
since been interned in Sweden and had tried
to escape on board the Norwegian ships. Roll-calls were held at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and domestic duty at the nearby military bar-
On February 3, 1943, 163 of the Norwe- 6 p.m. At first there was only one roll-call for racks, but most men were sent to labour at
gians (one had escaped, the women and the the whole camp, but as the camp population local farms, planting crops, bringing in the
girl had been sent to a camp at Bieberach in grew, the muster was divided up in three sec- harvest, milking the cows, etc. The latter jobs
November 1942, one man was away in a TB tions, one for the officers and two for the rat- were eagerly sought after for it gave the best
sanatorium, and two were in the camp hospi- ings, and each handled by a section of guards opportunity to scavenge some extra food.
tal, and were kept hidden there by the hospi- under its own Feldwebel. Food supplied by the Germans was the
tal staff until liberation) were removed from The 1929 Geneva Convention stipulated same as in other POW camps and consisted
Milag, being taken first to Rendsberg prison the rules under which military POWs could of two slices of bread and a mug of Ersatz
and later, after their trial, to jails at Sonnen- be made to work by their captors and also coffee in the morning, a bowl of watery soup
burg and Berlin-Tegel, going on to various how they should get money in order to be made out of potatoes or turnips at noon, and
concentration camps later on. In all, 43 of able to buy things. Officer POWs were enti- three potatoes in the evening. Sometimes a
them would die in imprisonment, and many tled to receive a regular allowance but were small amount of margarine, a teaspoon of
would come out so weak that they died exempt from work (although they were free jam or a small piece of cheese was issued
shortly after liberation. to volunteer for work in order to gain extra with the bread, and about once a month a bit
In mid-1943, 32 Irish seamen were sent wages) but other ranks had no choice and of horsemeat and some sugar.
from Milag to a labour camp at Bremen- had to work for their Lagergeld (camp This meagre diet was hardly sufficient to
Farge (where five of them would die from money). Being civilians, not soldiers, mer- sustain a man and therefore the main focus of
typhus in March 1944). chant seamen officially fell outside these thought in the camp, overriding most other
In September 1943 a new group of prison- rules, but as far as work and pay was con- subjects, was the arrival or non-arrival of Red
ers arrived in Milag: some 90 Italian mer- cerned the Germans treated them as if they Cross parcels. Red Cross packages on aver-
chant seamen — masters, chief officers and were ordinary POWs. A day’s work earned a age provided up to 80 per cent of the camp’s
chief engineers — who had refused to sail prisoner 40 pfennig. food. Parcels were prepared by the various
from Italian ports and join the retreating Scores of inmates acquired regular jobs national Red Cross societies and sent in bulk
German forces when Italy dropped out of inside the camp, such as working in the to the International Red Cross Commission
the war. On arrival in the camp they were kitchen, the parcels office or the camp (IRCC) in Geneva for onward transport to
terrified by the possibility of reprisals from administration, but many other jobs were the German authorities. Until August 1940, it
their former enemies, but they soon found assigned on a day-to-day basis. Working par- was vitally important for a seaman’s capture
that they were accepted as just another ties were selected at the morning roll-call, to be reported to the IRCC for, until then,
group of victims from the war. and divided into a morning and an afternoon parcels were addressed to individual POWs.
Daily life in Milag was little different from shift. A sizable number of prisoners were put After that date, parcels were sent in bulk rel-
that in normal POW camps, every day having to work on labour details outside the camp. ative to the number of inmates in a camp. The
a routine of roll-calls, work details, food Some men loaded trucks at the railway sta- Germans always did their utmost to see to it
hand-outs, and long spates of boredom. tion, others dug ditches, cut wood, or did that the parcels came through and, although

27
 WESTERTIMKE

DULAG

TO POW
CEMETERY

SHOWER
BLOCK

MILAG

MARLAG
MILAG POW ASSN

MILAG POW ASSN

The whole camp was surrounded by a 18-foot-high double Especially during winter the camp took on a bleak and muddy
barbed-wire fence. A single-strand warning wire ran along the appearance. This is the view from Barrack No. 26. The huts
inside of the main fence, about 15 feet away from it. across the road are Nos. 19, 18 and 3.

disruptions and delays at times caused great block, where the men were showered and pital facilities also served the Royal Navy
hardship (the winter of 1942/43 was especially examined for lice while their clothes were prisoners at Marlag.
difficult when for several months no parcels being sterilised in an oven. Considering the malnutrition, poor sani-
arrived), in general there was little evidence The Milag camp hospital started out fairly tation and overcrowding, the general health
of theft or tampering. In addition to nutri- primitive with only one small ill-equipped of the Milag inmates remained compara-
tious food stuffs, including luxuries such as operating room for emergency cases. The tively good. The greatest threat to physical
tins of real coffee and bars of chocolate, the hospital initially was in charge of Doctors well-being was tuberculosis, an infection
parcels contained cigarettes, books, games, Karel Sperber, Peter Brownlees and Mitra that has a greater spread among sailors.
musical instruments, and useful stationary Mrityunjoy. In November 1942, Dr Sperber, Aware of the problem, between February
such as letter paper and camp diaries. Even a Czech Jew, was removed from Milag and and May 1943 the camp doctors carried out
the packaging material — the plywood crates taken to the concentration camp part of a mass X-Ray screening of all 3,000 inmates,
in which the parcels were sent and the strings Sandbostel. His place as the camp’s Chief which revealed several cases of TB that
and cardboard of the parcels — found many Doctor was taken by Major Robert Harvey, could then be separated for treatment. The
different uses in the camp. RAMC. Under his leadership, the hospital camp hospital had its own tuberculosis
In addition to Red Cross parcels, relatives was enlarged in a new barrack where it even- ward, but the more serious cases were sent
were allowed to send one letter and one par- tually comprised a reasonably well-equipped to the POW sanatoria at Reserve-Lazarett
cel, not heavier than 12lbs, per month. These operating theatre, a general ward, two small Königswartha or Reserve-Lazarett Elster-
were forwarded to the Red Cross who added isolation rooms, a consultation room, rooms horst. Skin diseases were treated at Oflag
an extra slab of chocolate before sealing the for doctors, a dental surgery (the domain of IX-A/Z Rotenburg and there was a school
parcels. In general, private parcels took Captain Julius Green), a laboratory (led by for blind POWs at Kloster Haina near Bad
longer to reach the prisoners and were more Captain A. D. V. Aldridge, RAMC), a stor- Wildungen.
likely to disappear in transit. The Germans age room, and an attached galley and bath- Although the diet was sometimes near
issued no clothing to the POWs and, with room. A fine surgeon himself, Harvey car- starvation, no inmate of Milag died of
their garments and shoes slowly disintegrat- ried out numerous successful operations, hunger. Most deaths were caused by TB,
ing as time wore on, many prisoners wrote including many appendix removals and her- cancer or heart disease. One man, First
home asking for pieces of clothing to be sent nia repairs. Assisting Harvey as surgeons Radio Officer Walter Skett, was murdered
and many a private parcel contained warm were Dr Brownlees, Lieutenant Hugh by a German camp guard on the night of
cardigans, socks and underwear. Singer, RNZN, and Lieutenant Commander May 13/14, 1942. Whilst on his way to his
Prisoners on outside working parties natu- Knight, RNVR, while Brian Singleton, a usual trading with a German guard after
rally took any opportunity to forage for food. First Radio Officer, assisted as anaesthetist. lights out, Skett was shot without warning by
They stole potatoes or sugar beet from fields Dr Green, the dentist, extracted over 10,000 a guard on watch at the kitchen hut, then,
or clamps and bartered eggs or sausages with teeth from Milag seamen and manufactured while lying on the ground wounded, killed
villagers or guards in exchange for soap, ciga- about 900 sets of false teeth. The Milag hos- with a second rifle shot.
rettes or chocolate from the Red Cross
parcels. These outside acquisitions were for-
bidden and anyone caught bringing goods
into the camp risked a stint in the punish-
ment cell. Some guards were known to turn a
blind eye to such smuggling but most prison-
ers took the safe course and ate the food raw
wherever found.
Like most POW camps, Milag had no
sewage or drainage system and the lavatory
cesspits had to be emptied manually, the liq-
uid being hand-pumped into a wagon-
mounted tank called the ‘Smelly Nellie’ and
then released onto the fields outside the
camp as fertiliser, and the solid waste being
scooped out and deposited into the ‘Seven-
Funneler’ (a cart holding seven barrels). A
job disliked by everybody, it was naturally
used to punish offenders against camp rules
or, if none were available, assigned to those
arriving last at roll-call.
MILAG POW ASSN

Despite regular cleaning, the lavatories

became infested with flies in the summer,
which, together with the regular plague of
sand flies, caused misery in many a barrack.
Every summer the huts would be evacuated
and fumigated with sulphur, but they were
never entirely without bugs. Every couple of ‘Smelly Nellie’, the wagon-mounted tank used to dispose of the liquid from the camp
months the whole camp would be formed lavatory cesspits. Being detailed to the latrine gang was generally considered to be
into groups and taken to the nearby shower one of the most unpleasant chores in the camp.

30
Right: The small cemetery created for
inmates of both Milag and Marlag lay
just about 300 yards west of the latter
(see the aerial on pages 28-29). This is its
wooden lattice lynch gate, built by a
POW work detail. The cemetery had two
plots, a Christian one on the left and an
Indian (Muslim) one on the right. A small
stone chapel was built at the end of the
central lane.

To bury the dead from both Marlag and

Milag, a small cemetery was set up in a plot
on the far side of Marlag. Between January
1942 and April 1945, 40 men were buried
there, 36 of them British Merchant Navy sea-
men.
Milag’s camp population included various

MILAG POW ASSN

Catholic and Salvation Army missionaries,
taken prisoner as passengers, and these
attended to the spiritual needs of the
inmates. One Army padre, the Rev. White,
came from another camp to assist Anglican
Padre E. Ball and Brigadier Best of the Sal-
vation Army. After many requests had been
turned down, the clergymen finally secured
permission to turn one of the empty barracks
into permanent chapels, the Catholic and
Anglican congregations each getting a sepa-
rate room. In the Catholic end, a chapel ded-
icated to Stella Maris, Our Lady of the Sea,
was set up in July 1942, embellished with
paintings of the Sainte, coloured window
panes, wood-carved altar rails, a Sanctuary
lamp, etc. Two masses were held every day,
as well as evening prayers. The Brothers of
the Sacred Heart conducted baptisms and
gave religious instruction to a number of
converts.
Milag’s camp canteen, located at one end
of the ratings’ dining and recreation bar-
racks, was run by John (‘Jet’) Watson.
Allowed out under guard to visit suppliers,
and through some astute buying, Watson
managed to keep the canteen reasonably
well stocked with fresh fruit, eggs, beer, non-

ATB
alcoholic Brauser beer, lemonade, tobacco,
matches, toilet paper and a wide range of
other necessities which the prisoners could Above: Today a large villa occupies the
buy with their Lagergeld (camp money). site of the cemetery. Remarkably
In addition to the beers and soda available enough, the small chapel survives intact
from the canteen, the inmates consumed inside the house, the whole structure
considerable quantities of ‘hootch’ — home- having been incorporated into its
made alcohol. It was usually made from kitchen. Right: A small plaque mounted
sugar beet smuggled in by outside working on the entrance post recalls the site’s
parties, plus raisins and prunes from Red former use. After the war, the 40 sailors
Cross parcels and distilled in improvised and merchant seamen men buried in the
stills, usually made from beer barrels stolen POW cemetery were transferred to the
from the canteen. Hootch was a commodity Becklingen CWGC War Cemetery located
that could be drunk, sold or used in barter- some 65 kilometres to the south-east

ATB
ing. Brewing was forbidden and the guards near Soltau on Lüneburg Heath.
would confiscate any still they could find, but
the practice could never be erased. Some
prisoners drank too much and became thor-
oughly drunk. Those making a nuisance of
themselves risked a couple of days in the
camp prison. Despite warnings from the
camp medical officers, consumption of badly
distilled alcohol caused several disasters,
men being paralysed or blinded by its poison
or even dying from it.
Milag’s camp theatre was of a level
attained by few other POW theatres during
the war. The Merchant Navy Theatre, or
MNT as it was known, was founded by Cyril
Mann and Bill Campelton, who had already
set up a theatre at Sandbostel. Their first
production, which premiered on December
24, 1940, was Aladdin’s Lamp. Milag’s the-
atre crew included several professional
entertainers from the pre-war entertainment
world, such as actor Milo Lewis, harmonica
Right: The interior of the camp’s Stella
Maris Roman Catholic Chapel. The draw-
MILAG POW ASSN

ing comes from the camp diary of Brother

Joseph Henry (Joseph Laflamme), one of
the Sacred Heart missionaries imprisoned
in Milag, who was the choir master of the
chapel.

31
 player Tommy Reilly and Vic Hammett and
his band (all of them trapped and interned in
Germany at the beginning of the war), the
18-man Orama Band from the Orient Line
troopship Orama, sunk off Narvik on June 8,
1940, Shakespearian actor Henry Mollison,
etc. There was so much talent in the camp
that the MNT boasted some 200 members
divided over three companies, each with its
own producer. Under Mollison’s and Lewis’
direction, the MNT went from strength to
strength. Originally, rehearsals and perfor-
mances took place at one end of the officers’
galley, where an existing small stage was
extended and improved, but in early 1943 the

MILAG POW ASSN

prisoners secured permission to turn Barrack
No. 27, an empty hut in the ratings’ com-
pound, into a permanent theatre. Built by
the available ships’ carpenters and electri-
cians, and festively opened on April 19, 1943,
it included a stage, complete with floods and
spotlights and orchestra pit; a props room; The Orama Band, one of Milag’s professional musical groups, on stage in the camp
hairdressing room; box office; and an audito- theatre in barrack No. 27. The whole 18-man orchestra was captured when the troop-
rium with 352 seats. In all, between Decem- ship Orama was sunk off Narvik on June 8, 1940.
ber 1940 and April 1945, the MNT staged 49
productions. The German camp authorities, Milag also featured a camp cinema. Known camp. Football was the most popular game,
realising the value of having so many men as the Nimmodeon, after its enthusiastic man- fielding ten clubs, each with first, second and
channel their energies in harmless activities ager Robert Nimmo, it showed movies and third division teams, whose matches drew
good for camp morale, allowed actors, set newsreels rented, together with a projector, large crowds of spectators. There were also
makers and stagehands to be absent from from the Germans. Tickets were five pfennig. three cricket leagues, each having its first,
roll-calls. Screenings were initially in the officers’ din- second and third team; a league of eight
In addition to the MNT, there were other ing hall, but in October 1943 the cinema took baseball teams, made up of American sea-
groups providing entertainment for the pris- over the galley barrack vacated by the Indian men with an odd British player thrown in;
oners: the Chordites male voice choir, led by seamen after their transfer to the Inder-Lager and a league of five rugby teams. Teams
Jimmy Rapp, which grew from 8 to 45 singers (see below). Between October 1943 and Feb- were named after well-known clubs in each
and included a large Welsh contingent; the ruary 1945, a total of 24 sound films were sport, and there were tournaments, derby
Skylarks concert party, led by Micky Marks shown there, most of them German-lan- matches and the occasional match against
on piano and with coloured guitarist Joe guage, but four of them in English. teams from Marlag. There were a number of
Lyons, James McBride on accordion and The Milag Sports Association organised professional and amateur boxers in Milag
Dave French on trumpet; and the Plantation various sporting activities on the flat open and boxing tournaments were started in the
Choir guitar quartet led by Carlos de Pass. sports ground at the southern end of the summer of 1942, first in the open air and
later on in the camp theatre block. In winter,
prisoners even went ice skating. Under the
direction of one of the Canadian prisoners,
they produced home-made skates. A part of
the sports ground was encircled by low
bunds, flooded by means of irrigation pipes,
and turned into an ice rink large enough to
hold ice-hockey matches.
More intellectual activities were provided
by the Camp Library, led by Second Officer
W. G. Ellis, and stocked with books sent by
the Red Cross, the YMCA and other agen-
cies and with books received by individual
prisoners and then donated to the library.
To keep the men busy, senior officers held
classes in several sea-going skills, such as
MILAG POW ASSN

navigation, cargo handling, engineering,

mathematics, preparing applicants for Board
of Trade examinations. Text books and
examination papers were obtained via the
Red Cross, and many men sat and passed
written parts of the examinations for higher
POWs skating on the camp’s fire-pond located between Barracks Nos. 35 and 36. grade officers’ certificates while at Milag.
MILAG POW ASSN

ATB

Later a larger ice rink, large enough to hold ice-hockey Today the location of the fire-pond is marked by a shallow depres-
matches, was created by flooding the open plot behind Barrack sion in the ground, heavily overgrown. The fire-pond and ice rink
No. 35. See the plan opposite. are both visible in the aerial on pages 28-29.

32
 In the evenings, the schoolroom barracks
took on a completely different role and
became a gambling casino. The camp’s
Entertainments Committee rented out tables
to enterprising individuals and groups. Gam-
bling games included poker, fan-tan,
roulette, wheels of fortune, and even a horse-
racing game, the latter consisting of model
horses being moved across a table race-track
at the throw of dice. The game was run by
the Milag Jockey Commission. Bets could be
placed with six Tote clerks, odds were
shown, and all bets were recorded by a team
of cashiers, who calculated the odds to be
paid. A percentage of the Tote profits were
put in a Red Cross Fund. Many of the prison-
ers regarded the Lagergeld as ‘Monopoly
money’ and, not realising that the money
paid out by the Germans would later be
deducted from their Ministry of War Trans-
port seaman’s back pay, squandered large
amounts of it with betting and gambling.
Unlike Armed Forces POWs, Merchant
Navy POWs did not fall under an overall rule
of strict military-style discipline. Crews,
whilst on ship, obeyed their officers but, once
ashore, had no obligation to do so. Order in
the camp was kept by mutual agreement.
However, discipline in Milag was certainly
different from that maintained in Marlag.
Merchant seamen have always included a
complement of rough characters and this
affected social and moral conventions in the
camp. Fights and brawls among inmates,
drunkenness, undesirable activities such as N
gambling and clandestine alcohol-distilling,
were phenomena that occurred in every
camp, but appear to have been distinctly
more frequent in Milag. Reports of homo-
sexual activity being rife in the camp and
even rumours of the existence of a homo-
sexual brothel in one of the huts, although
difficult to substantiate, may indicate a cer-
tain moral laxity. The camp population cer-
tainly included a ‘criminal element’, who car-
ried out nightly break-ins on the parcels hut
or raided the gambling room, seizing all the
money on the table. The senior officers and

MILAG POW ASSN

Central Commission did their best to main-
tain discipline and order, and the prisoners
themselves punished anyone caught stealing
from fellow-inmates with a good beating, but
the evil and abuse could never be altogether
expunged.
Beginning in 1942, the Germans initiated A sketch plan of Milag drawn up in 1945. Compare with the aerial on pages 28-29.
efforts to persuade British POWs to turn
traitor and join a unit on the German side — obstruct their efforts, ordering leaflets to be to join a group of 4,200 British POWs from
the British Free Corps. The man behind the handed in and warning that he would report various other camps to be repatriated
Corps was a British turncoat, John Amery any traitor to the British authorities. Despite through Sweden. That same month, four
(renegade son of Leopold Amery, then Sec- his admonitions, Minchin and Berry managed men were released via Spain. In March 1944
retary of State for India and Burma). Despite to recruit two more men in May 1944: Ronald five Indian seamen were exchanged through
German support, the widespread distribution Voysey, a cabin-boy from the British Advo- Ankara in Turkey, and on May 13, 28 men
of propaganda leaflets among POWs, and cate, and Herbert Rowlands, an oiler from left to be repatriated through Spain. A final
intensive recruiting drives, the scheme never the Orama. In June they returned to Milag to repatriation occurred on January 13, 1945,
really got off the ground and the British Free pick up two more recruits, Dennis ‘Blondie’ when 80 disabled seamen and 64 American
Corps remained a paper unit with very few Leister and Eric Pleasants. The latter were captains, officers and ratings from Milag and
members. In order to lure more POWs into not merchant seamen, but small-time crooks other camps left to be released through
joining the Corps, the Germans created spe- from the Channel Islands, who had been Switzerland. In all, between 1941 and 1945,
cial ‘holiday camps’ where men would be arrested by the Germans and, pretending to 517 men were returned home from Milag in
sent for a month, enjoy good treatment and be merchant seamen, had been sent on to at least eight group repatriations and
food, and hopefully be seduced to change Milag in early 1944. exchanges or individual releases.
sides. A number of Milag inmates took During the war there were several repatri- With so many radio officers and wireless
clever advantage of this scheme, pretending ations of elderly, disabled and physically or operators present in the camp, it is not sur-
an interest in joining, benefiting from a few mentally unfit prisoners from Milag. Such prising that several illicit radios were con-
weeks of luxury, then ‘changing their minds’ repatriations, regulated by Article 86 of the structed. Frederick Warner, Radio Officer of
and be returned to Milag without prejudice. Geneva Convention, were carried out the British Strength, had been on the Mar-
Of the about 70 men finally enlisted into through the International Red Cross and coni development staff and he built numer-
the Free Corps, seven were merchant seamen candidates had to be examined and approved ous ultra-short-wave receivers and even,
or men who came from Milag. The first was by a Mixed (German-Swiss) Medical Com- shortly before liberation, a transmitter.
Kenneth Berry, a 17-year-old sailor captured mission, which visited the camp on various Quartz crystals were obtained from either
on the Cymbeline, recruited by Amery him- but infrequent occasions. There were also a the coal supplies or from the ashes strewn on
self in early 1943. Two others were Alfred few exchanges of fit, healthy men against the camp pathways. At one time there were
Minchin, an Able Seaman from the Empire captured Germans. apparently 17 home-made sets in the camp.
Ranger, and Fred Lewis who left Milag for The first exchange from Milag took place One was secretly passed to Marlag in March
the Stalag III-D/517 ‘holiday camp’ at Gens- in March 1943, when 24 cabin and mess- 1944. The best set was a mains-powered
hagen in May 1943 and then volunteered in room boys were returned home via Jeddah in Volkssender (People’s Radio), stolen from
July. Minchin and Berry later returned to Saudi Arabia. On June 21, 103 healthy sea- the village doctor in 1943 and kept hidden in
Westertimke several times as recruiters hop- men left on an exchange through Portugal the camp library. Being able to listen to the
ing to enlist others. Captain Notman, the and on October 16 a party of 50 elderly and BBC kept the prisoners informed about the
Senior Confidence Officer, did his best to some seriously-wounded inmates departed progress of the war.

33
ATB

ATB
Left: In addition to the Kommandantur, six more of the original houses, now used as homes and modernised beyond all recogni-
camp buildings survive, but they are not grouped together or easy tion. This is what used to be Block No. 13, today No. 7 Im Bogen.
to find. Hidden among the villas in the housing estate that today Right: The adjoining house, formerly Block No. 13a, now No. 9 Im
occupies the northern half of the camp are two former wash- Bogen.

Despite German postal censorship, consid-

erable information regarding Milag reached
Britain through written correspondence. Cap-
tain Green, the camp dentist, who had con-
nections with British Intelligence, included
coded messages in his letters home. Captain
Notman, the Senior Confidence Officer,
appears to have had secret communications
with the British authorities as well. MI9, the
secret service created in 1940 to help soldiers
evade or escape, and other intelligence agen-
cies, communicated with the prisoners
through coded messages in letters (although
most of these went to Marlag rather than to
Milag) and through coded messages in BBC
broadcasts.
All through the war, there were various
escape attempts from Milag, either by indi-
viduals or by groups, but few were successful.
Shortly after their arrival in April 1942, the
Norwegian seamen captured during Opera-
tion ‘Performance’ began a tunnel hoping to
escape before they were transferred else-
where. The tunnel started in Barrack No. 19
(to where the Norwegians had temporarily
been moved), but it was discovered after a
week and before digging got very far.
One of the Norwegians, Ordinary Seaman
ATB

Einar Sørensen from the Buccaneer, made a

successful escape in August, jumping from a
Above: Tucked away inside the copse that now covers the southern half of the camp train near Berlin that was carrying him from
are two more of the wash-houses. This is Block No. 31, now also in use as a dwelling. Milag to a security camp and reaching Eng-
Below: Block No. 32, partly lived-in, partly used for storage. land in September 1942.
ATB

34
 JEFFREY SMITH
In June 2004, ex-Milag prisoners George Smith and Ken Fuller others of the crew, they spent the rest of the war as POWs,
returned to Germany, accompanied by George’s nephew Jef- first at Sandbostel and then at Westertimke. George was a
frey Smith, to visit the sites of their wartime imprisonment. member of the original working party that started construction
George, aged 16 in 1940, and Ken, 18, had been ships mates of the camp in the summer of 1941. Here (L-R) George, Ken and
aboard the troop-carrying ship Orama, sunk off Narvik by the Jeffrey pose in front of Block No. 32, one of the buildings that
Admiral Hipper on June 8, 1940. Captured together with 278 George helped to erect.

Between March and August 1943, the By December 1944, Milag contained some huts dilapidated; the lighting and fuel supply,
inhabitants of Barrack No. 16, led by Second 4,200 nationals of 26 different countries, of which had both always been poor, had dete-
Engineer John Morris, dug an escape tunnel. all ranks from captains to stokers, as well as a riorated still further. When the pumps for the
Starting at one end of the hut and about 160 few passengers from sunken vessels. Condi- camp water supply broke down, water had to
feet long, it ended in a potato field some 35 tions in the camp were slowly getting worse. be carried into the camp from nearly a kilo-
feet beyond the wire. A group of inmates Beds and bedding had become short and the metre away.
called ‘The Thugs’ gathered clothes, food,
information and maps for the potential
escapees, trained them to be physically fit,
and coached them on what to expect once
out. On the night of August 6/7, 12 men
made a successful escape through the tunnel.
Their absence was discovered the following
afternoon, and all men were caught within
two weeks, most having got no further than
15 kilometres from the camp. Recaptured
escapees were punished with three weeks
solitary confinement, followed by transfer to
a tighter-security camp.
A second tunnel was begun in April 1944.
It started in a rabbit hutch that was set into
the ground, a sliding panel in the rear wall
giving access to a small chamber that was the
start of the tunnel proper. Ready in August,
it was 120 feet long. On the night of August
18/19, five men escaped through it. Again,
the tunnel was discovered before it could be
used again, and all the escapees were soon
recaptured.
JEFFREY SMITH

As far as is known only one man made a

successful ‘home run’ from Milag itself. In
August 1943, Arthur H. (‘Dicky’) Bird, Third
Mate of the Australind, after carefully plan-
ning and preparing his escape all by himself,
made off from his farm work detail, took Ken and George at another of the original buildings surviving today: the shower block,
three days to walk to the small port town of located midway between Milag and Marlag along what was then known as Dönitz-
Harburg on the Elbe, convinced some Strasse (see the aerial photo on pages 28-29). POWs of both camps were taken here on a
Swedish sailors to smuggle him aboard their rotation basis and in groups to shower and have their clothes deloused. After the war it
ship, and successfully reached the safety of was turned into a canteen for personnel of the Timke-Kaserne (the old Marlag camp
Sweden where he reported to the British turned Bundeswehr barracks) but today it is privately owned and stands empty. (Ken
Legation in Stockholm. Fuller passed away on May 18, 2005.)

35
 Greek and other Allied navies. Part of one
hut was occupied in the latter days by Free
French Navy personnel. In September 1943 a
few Italian Navy officers arrived, taken pris-
oner after the surrender of Italy. In Septem-
ber 1944, 400 civilians from Ilag Giromagny
in the south of France took over a number of
unoccupied huts adjacent to those of the
remaining ratings.
Naval prisoners had a long record of
escape activity and the searches of the camp
by German security personnel were always
severe. Marlag became somewhat notorious
for the number of escape attempts made
from it. An escape committee under Com-
mander Beale received valuable help from
England. Escape equipment, sent by MI9
and hidden in seemingly innocent private
parcels, began to arrive in Marlag in July
1942. The list of items sent between then and
April 1945 included two tiny radios, com-
passes, foreign currency, two cameras, a
typewriter, date stamps, 283 maps and plans,
135 forged passes and a large supply of files
and hacksaw blades.
The biggest escape attempt was via a tun-
nel (named ‘Mabel’) dug underneath one of
the wooden huts in the ‘O’ compound, the
exit to be a few yards outside the outer wire
fence. The few men who got out were soon
recaptured.
One of the more legendary escapes was
performed by Lieutenant David James. Not-
ing the bewildering number of uniforms to
be seen in wartime Germany, James decided
to escape in full naval uniform, carrying a
Bulgarian naval identity card in the name of
‘I. Bagerov’ — ‘a name no doubt not chosen
The Marlag camp for captured Royal Navy personnel, located less than half a mile at random! James slipped away from a
south-west of Milag. It was divided into two compounds, ‘M’ (for Mannschaften (rat- bathing parade on December 9, 1943, his
ings) but later given to petty officers and leading hands) and ‘O’ (for officers), the two place being taken by ‘Albert RN’, a dummy
parts being separated by a section which contained the camp’s main gate, its Kom- made by Lieutenant Robert Staines and cap-
mandantur and administrative block, and a large coal dump. tured war artist John Worsley. In a lavatory,
James changed into his smartest kit, which
MARLAG NORD brick-built shower block along Dönitz- his family had sent him, and got as far as the
The Marlag camp for Royal Navy person- Strasse; Milag’s camp hospital, and the camp dock gates at the Baltic port of Lübeck
nel was built at the same time and in the cemetery. before being recaptured. After a spell in soli-
same way as Milag, a workforce from the The German commandant in charge of tary, he performed the same trick — this
Marlag compound at Sandbostel arriving in Marlag (‘O’ and ‘M’) was Kapitänleutnant time disguised as a Swedish sailor — and
June 1941 to expand and fence in an existing Backhausen. Senior British Officer was Cap- made his way to Danzig, where he was smug-
camp of Westertimke’s Luftwaffe training tain D. Graham Wilson, commander of the gled aboard a Swedish ship that took him to
airfield. Located on the same side of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Vandyk, sunk Stockholm. James was the only man to make
main road as Milag, but a bit further to the off Narvik on June 10, 1940. For Marlag ‘O’ a successful ‘home run’ from Marlag.
west and further away from the road, its it was Lieutenant Commander Jackson and, Among those held at Marlag were three
north-eastern corner was only 300 metres for ‘M’, Chief Petty Officer Graham, both holders of the Victoria Cross: Lieutenant
from the south-western corner of Milag. Of submariners. The sick bay was in the hands Commander Stephen Beattie, awarded the
about the same size as Milag, it consisted of of Lieutenant Commander Knight. VC for his role in the St Nazaire raid on the
two compounds, one for the officers (Marlag By February 1943, there were some 150 night of March 27/28, 1942 (see After the Bat-
‘O’) and one for the other ranks (Marlag officers and 50 orderlies in Marlag ‘O’, and tle No. 59), and Lieutenants Donald
‘M’), the two sections separated by a 100- about 650 chief petty officers, petty officers Cameron and Godfrey Place, given the
yard-wide internal gap, which comprised the and leading hands in Marlag ‘M’. These award for their midget submarine attack on
German compound and a large coal dump. included quite a few members of the Ameri- the Tirpitz on September 22, 1943 (see After
Naval ratings were used by the Germans in can, Canadian, Australian, Norwegian, the Battle No. 17).
the construction of the camps and, for a while,
in farming and forestry work in the neighbour-
hood, but gradually they were all transferred
to Lamsdorf, Stalag VIII-B, and other stalags,
from where they would be assigned to working
parties. The last went in mid-September 1942.
Two days after this, all remaining personnel in
Marlag ‘M’ — petty officers and leading hands
— were moved over to ‘O’ compound, whilst
wash-houses and other buildings were still to
be completed. They were with the officers for
almost two months, until November 12, by
which time ‘M’ compound was ready and they
were returned.
In its final form, the camp comprised 31
barracks. Compound ‘O’ had ten barrack
blocks: three accommodation huts (two for
the officers and one for the orderlies), a
kitchen/dining hall, a wash-house, a lavatory
block, a sick bay, canteen, theatre (also used
for religious services and classes) and a spare
ATB

hut. Also included in this enclosure were a

fire-pond and a football pitch. Compound
‘M’ had 13 larger huts (ten of them accom- When it became a Bundeswehr military barracks in 1963, the Marlag site changed its
modation blocks) and eight smaller huts. appearance considerably, many of the wartime huts being pulled down and other
Marlag was organised in the same way as more-permanent buildings erected in their place. This is the main entrance as it
Milag and shared several facilities with it: the looked when we photographed it in 1975.

36
ATB

ATB
Left: Closed by the Bundeswehr in 1996, the former military POW camp still stand, like this one – the wash-house, in the
domain is now a fledgling industrial estate known as the Timke- centre of what was once Compound ‘O’. Right: The kitchen/
Park. However, a few stone-built structures from the original dining room block in the north-west corner of Compound ‘O’.

DULAG NORD INDER-LAGER and rice, filed protests with the Swiss Pro-
Some 300 yards west of Milag, along In September 1943, the Germans decided tecting Power, and even wrote to the Grand
Dönitz-Strasse and opposite the shower to separate the 630-odd Indian, Adenese, Mufti of Darul-Alum Deoband, asking for a
block, was a further, much smaller POW Burmese and Chinese seamen in Milag from relaxation of religious rules, in vain as it
camp — Durchgangslager Nord (Transit the other prisoners. They were put in a turned out. The inhabitants of the Inder-
Camp North), or Dulag Nord for short. Like newly-erected camp, located in the woods on Lager fared badly from a scarcity of Red
all Dulags, it was used for receiving, register- the other side of Westertimke, and which Cross parcels and letters from home, and
ing and interrogating new prisoners. The was known as Lager III or the Inder-Lager their contact with their families was further
bombing of the original Dulag Nord at Wil- (Indians Camp). It was a self-sufficient camp, handicapped by the German decree in July
helmshaven in February 1942 had caused the with its own canteen and theatre, but without 1944 that all letters home should be written
facility to be transferred to Westertimke. It a hospital, sick inmates being treated at in English.
was here that the about 200 Army Comman- Milag’s hospital. Chief Officer Herbert Not surprisingly, the death rate among the
dos and Royal Navy men captured after the Jones, a Brit who could speak Hindustani, Indians was higher than among Europeans.
St Nazaire raid were initially imprisoned. volunteered to leave Milag and join the Indi- Of the 40 deaths recorded among the naval
Arriving on April 8, 1942, they were kept ans as their Confidence Officer. prisoners at Westertimke, ten were men
here until the Germans decided to break In general the inhabitants of the Inder- from the Inder-Lager. The number of
them up, Navy and Army personnel, officers Lager were worse off than their European inmates in the small camp decreased further
and men, each being sent to separate camps. fellow-prisoners. Not accustomed to the cold for several other reasons too. In May 1944,
The Norwegians from Operation ‘Perfor- climate of northern Germany, they suffered 48 Chinese seamen were removed from the
mance’ were also kept here for a while. Offi- more from the lack of food, fuel and suffi- Inder-Lager to a special work camp for
cially no contact was allowed between those cient clothing. Being mostly of Muslim faith, Chinese internees in Hamburg-Wilhelms-
in the Dulag and the other two camps but their religion forbade them to eat the non- burg. An unknown number of them died
surreptitious semaphore signalling enabled Halal meat provided by the Germans (a from the harsh forced labour they were sub-
prisoners passing the Dulag to communicate deficit that could hardly be compensated by jected to there. A number of pro-German
with those inside. Milag-Marlag prisoners the few camp-bred chickens and rabbits) and Indian seamen were transferred to Königs-
sentenced to solitary confinement were required them to observe Ramadan and pray brück to join the Free Indian Legion. By late
locked up in Dulag’s barbed-wire-enclosed five times daily. Jones pleaded with the Ger- 1944 there were 538 inmates left in the Inder-
two-cell prison block. man camp authorities for extra blankets, fuel Lager.

ATB

From September 1943, the Indian, Adenese, Burmese and main road just west of the village (see the plan on page 25), but
Chinese seamen in Milag were put in a separate little camp of today no trace of it can be found. However the farm nearest to
their own, called the Inder-Lager. Comprising four accom- its site still has what clearly appears to be a section of an
modation huts, it was located on the Westertimke side of the original camp hut.

37
 Right: By April 1945, with the western
Allied Armies streaming across north-
west Germany, the inmates of Milag-
Marlag were daily expecting their libera-
tion. On April 24 the British Guards
Armoured Division reached the town of
Zeven, just 13 kilometres east of Wester-
timke. Associated Press photographer
Worth pictured a Bren carrier and
infantrymen of the Welsh Guards advanc-
ing through the town. Two days later the
Guards dispatched a tank/ infantry force
westwards with the specific mission of
liberating the POWs at Westertimke.

LIBERATION

IWM AP277867
By early 1945, with the tide of war running
against Germany, conditions in Milag-Mar-
lag became more difficult. The winter of
1944/45 was severe, with freezing tempera-
tures, cold winds and snow covering the
camp. Red Cross parcels had stopped coming
through, increasing hunger and deprivation
among the inmates.
In early February, new prisoners began
arriving in the Westertimke camps, adding to
the overcrowding. The first new arrivals were
groups of Bulgarian and Rumanian POWs,
marched here from camps further to the east
lest they fall in the hands of the advancing
Soviet armies. On February 4, 1,916 RAF
officers, evacuated from Stalag Luft 3 at
Sagan (see After the Battle No. 87) on January
28, entered Milag-Marlag, followed later in
the evening by another group of 1,050. To
house the new arrivals, the Royal Navy men
in Marlag ‘M’ were moved at short notice
into Marlag ‘O’ or Milag, freeing their own
compound for the RAF men. In Milag the
church, library and school barracks had to be

ATB
reverted to accommodation blocks to house
the newcomers. The next day, February 5, the
Germans cut the food rations by 25 per cent. Looking east along Bäckerstrasse in Zeven today. The timber-framed house in the left
With over 3,000 extra mouths to feed, background survives to form a link with the past.
near-starvation reigned in the camps until
March 5 when a consignment of Red Cross By the first week of April, the distant rumble Senior British Officers at Milag and Marlag
food parcels finally reached Westertimke to of artillery gunfire could be heard. The Ger- that the Germans intended to evacuate all
somewhat alleviate the situation. In late mans knew the end was coming too. There Armed Services POWs — the Royal Navy
March, having heard that the western Allies were no more roll-calls and all working par- and RAF prisoners — on foot to Lübeck,
were across the Rhine, Milag’s parcels com- ties had stopped. emptying Marlag and Dulag and leaving
mittee decided to hand out an extra issue of On April 7, the 38 Irish seamen who had Milag and the Inder-Lager to be handed over
parcels from the emergency supply. been taken away from Milag to work at Bre- to the Allies. Most of the existing guards
By early April 1945, the Allied armies in men-Farge two years ago, returned to the were taken away and replaced by some 50
the west had advanced well into Germany camp. others, mostly elderly men, who were
and were approaching Bremen (see After the On April 9, great excitement engulfed the ordered to stay and surrender the merchant
Battle No. 135). Through their secret radios, camps when the inmates noticed that the navy prisoners.
the inmates of the Westertimke camps were guards and machine guns from the watch- However the German evacuation plans
well informed about the progress of the war towers had disappeared. That afternoon, turned into a dismal failure. With the regular
and knew that liberation could not be far off. Korvettenkapitän Schmidt informed the guards gone, hundreds of Marlag inmates left
LUFTBILDDATENBANK ING.-BURO DR. CALIS

MILAG POW ASSN

Fearing strafing attacks from friendly fighter-bombers the pris- On April 24, camp commandant Walter Rogge and his supplies
oners had already made sure that the Allied pilots would officer, Inspector Heuken, left Milag-Marlag to contact the
recognise the camps as housing prisoners of war. After the British under a white flag. They carried a letter from General-
Royal Navy prisoners had been marched out of Marlag on the leutnant Eberhard Rodt of the 15. Panzergrenadier-Division,
10th, those that remained behind painted ‘POW GONE N-E’ in proposing a truce so that the POWs could be evacuated out of
big white letters on the roof of the huts in Marlag ‘O’, and the fighting zone. Here Rogge (in front) and Heuken, both
‘MERCHANT NAVY STILL HERE’ on the roofs in Milag. A photo blindfolded, are being escorted to 32nd Guards Brigade HQ.
recce aircraft of the US 106th Group photographed the camps However, their proposal was turned down and both men
and the painted roofs on April 14. ended up being prisoners of the Guards.

38
 IWM BU4656
During the night of April 27/28, the Welsh and Scots Guards Sergeant Gordon arrived to picture the freed camps. His first
reached Westertimke and liberated Milag and Marlag. The fol- shot was taken from the guard tower in Milag’s north-west cor-
lowing morning British Army Film and Photo Unit photographer ner overlooking the parade ground in the officers’ compound.
their camp during the night and hid in the On April 16, the Marlag and Dulag com- and the Guards Armoured Division. Over
woods. Others entered Milag and were hid- pounds filled up again, a contingent of 1,940 the next few days, several parties of British
den there by their fellow-prisoners. Some French and Polish POWs and another of soldiers, captured in the fighting, were
even received help from the local villagers 1,800 American POWs crowding into the for- brought into the small Dulag camp. Some
and found hiding places at neighbouring mer and about 275 newly-captured British were wounded and were transferred to the
farms. At Marlag’s morning roll-call the fol- soldiers from Sandbostel under Major Har- Milag hospital. On the 24th, the Komman-
lowing day, April 10, only 187 of the 670 court entering the latter. Milag’s camp com- dantur compound and Lagers III and IV
inmates from ‘M’ compound turned up. Most mander, Korvettenkapitän Rogge, assumed were turned into a field hospital for wounded
of Marlag’s inmates — including Captain command of all Westertimke camps, which German soldiers.
Wilson, the Senior British Officer — were by now contained some 8,000 prisoners. He That day the Guards Armoured, after
rescued from the march, only a small contin- reassured Captains Wilson and Notman that heavy fighting, captured the town of Zeven,
gent leaving under Captain Baker that after- he did not intend any further evacuations only 13 kilometres east of Westertimke. On
noon. Just a few kilometres out, near the and would stay until he could hand over the the 26th, the division’s 32nd Guards Brigade
town of Zeven, the prisoners column was prisoners. despatched the Scots-Welsh Guards Group
accidentally strafed by a pair of P-47 Thun- However, by April 19, with the front mov- on a foray to the west, their orders being to
derbolts, killing two Naval officers and ing from Bremen to Hamburg, it looked as if seize the high ground north of Westertimke
wounding several men. (The column would the prisoners would be caught up in the fight- and liberate the POW camps that were
eventually arrive at the Bad Schwartau ing. The 15. Panzergrenadier-Division moved known to be in the village. The Guards met
artillery barracks, north-west of Lübeck, on into the area and began preparing for heavy opposition along the road all day but
April 23, where they would be liberated.) defence. In direct contravention of the by nightfall had reached the village of Oster-
On April 11, the Marlag men who had Geneva Convention, tanks, self-propelled timke, just four kilometres from Wester-
evaded the evacuation painted ‘POW guns and troops took up position in the timke
GONE NORTH-EAST’ in big white letters immediate surroundings of the camps. With Meanwhile there had been developments
on the roof of their huts, then vacated Mar- worries mounting, the POWs dug slit at Milag-Marlag. During the morning, the
lag and transferred themselves to Milag. To trenches on the parade ground and in the German guards surrendered to Captain Wil-
avoid further accidental strafing by friendly sports field, and Captain Wilson formed a son. Then at 1 p.m. Korvettenkapitän Rogge
aircraft, the Milag inmates painted ‘MER- Royal Marine guard who began a permanent and his supplies officer, Inspector Heuken —
CHANT NAVY PRISONERS STILL patrol of the perimeter, both to prevent Ger- at the request of Generalleutnant Eberhard
HERE’ on their barrack roofs. man front-line troops from moving into the Rodt of the 15. Panzergrenadier-Division —
On April 14, delegates from the Swiss camp and to keep inmates from leaving it. left Milag to contact the British under a
Embassy and the Red Cross visited the The Allied formations advancing towards white flag. They carried a letter from Rodt
camp. Westertimke were the 53rd (Welsh) Division proposing a ten-hour truce, to begin at 3 p.m.

Right: On April 19, with liberation still

over a week away and with the situation
at Milag-Marlag becoming more chaotic
by the day, Captain Graham Wilson, the
Senior British Officer of Marlag, had
formed a number of reliable Royal
Marine prisoners into a guard who
began a permanent patrol of the perime-
ter, both to prevent German troops from
moving into the camp and to keep
inmates from leaving it. The Royal
Marines were able to maintain at least
some order and discipline. On the 28th,
with actual liberation having come, Sub-
Lieutenant Micky Wynn of IS9 (WEA)
Team No. 4, who had arrived with the
Guards to regulate matters in the camp,
issued the Marines with rifles from the
German guardroom and instructed them
IWM BU4657

to mount an armed guard over the camp.

Here the RM party marches off to take up
their posts.

39
 IWM BU4658
and to be used to move the 8,000 prisoners A large group of happy prisoners look up to Sergeant Gordon as he pictures them
through the lines and out of the danger zone. from the roof of the Parcels Office overlooking the roll-call square in the ratings’ com-
Regarding the proposal as just a ruse to gain pound. The huts in the background are Nos. 4 (left) and 3 (right), with Nos. 29 and 28
time, Brigadier George Johnson of the 32nd visible in between.
Brigade turned it down on the spot. Despite
their protests, Rogge and Heuken were not dropped a message telling the inmates to stay squadron into the village, finding it devoid of
allowed to return, but detained as prisoners clear of the officers’ compound at the north- enemy troops. Shortly after midnight, No. 13
at the Guards Divisional HQ. ern end of the camp, as the British attack Troop made contact with the Milag POWs,
Next morning, April 27, the Guards would come in from that direction. Many placing their tanks at each corner of the
resumed their advance. Fierce fighting took POWs took refuge in the trenches dug in the camp. Shortly after, a Scots Guards patrol
place for possession of Kirchtimke, the last football field at the other end of the camp. reached Marlag. The hurrahs and cheers of
village before Westertimke, with many Late in the afternoon the Guards the freed inmates rang through the night.
British tanks being blown up on mines. Back despatched a tank/infantry force (No. 3 Liberation had come.
at Milag-Marlag, it was clear to the prisoners Squadron of the 2nd Welsh Guards and Travelling with the Guards was an MI9
the German troops had little eye for the pro- G Company of the 2nd Scots Guards) for the field party, IS9 (WEA) Team No. 4, led by
tected status of the camps: tanks took up final push to Westertimke. Reaching Lager Squadron Leader John Evans and Sub-Lieu-
position along its eastern side, mortars and IV, which the Guards knew to be the camp tenant Michael (‘Micky’) Wynn, whose task it
Nebelwerfer multi-barrelled rocket launch- housing the German guards, the tanks set was to take charge of the Westertimke camps
ers were firing from close by, and an artillery most of the huts on fire with their Besa guns after liberation, interview and debrief the for-
observer was making ready to use one of the and the artillery shelled the village, after mer prisoners, and arrest any Germans guilty
guard towers until called off by one of the which the infantry rushed the camp. The of war crimes. Evans, a famous cricketer, had
German camp officers. In the afternoon a Germans had gone. By now it was dark. Cau- himself escaped from a German POW camp
Allied light aircraft flew over the camp and tiously, Major C. A. La T. Leatham led his in the First World War, and his 1921 book
about his exploit, The Escaping Club, had
widened his fame. Wynn, a Naval officer who
had been captured at St Nazaire (where he
had commanded MTB 74 and lost an eye),
had himself been imprisoned at Dulag and
Marlag. Sent on to Oflag IV-C at Colditz (see
After the Battle No. 63) in January 1943, and
repatriated in January 1945, he was on a per-
sonal mission as well: he had vowed to return
to Milag-Marlag to release the man who had
saved his life at St Nazaire, his Chief Motor
Mechanic Bill Lovegrove.

Left: Watched by some 5,000 freed prison-

ers, the Red and White Ensigns (brought
to the camp by Sub-Lieutenant Wynn for
just this occasion) are hoisted up the flag-
staffs on the parade ground. The formal
liberation ceremony was attended by
Major-General Allan Adair of the Guards
Armoured Division, Brigadier George
Johnson of the 32nd Guards Brigade and
Lieutenant-Colonel James Windsor-Lewis
MILAG POW ASSN

of the 2nd Welsh Guards, the comman-

ders responsible for the camp’s deliver-
ance, who can be seen standing in front
of the flag-staffs. The hut in the back-
ground is No. 9, the Parcels Office.

40
 Arriving at 6.30 p.m. on the 28th, Wynn’s
first essential was to restore order and disci-
pline, and stop the looting inside and outside
the camp to which many inmates had taken.
He decreed that from now on there was to be
only one camp exit — the main gate — and,
procuring 39 rifles from the German guard-
room, instructed a party of reliable prisoners,
mostly RN Marines, to mount guard over the
camp. Over the next few days, with the help
of the ex-prisoners, he found and arrested
many of the German camp officers and
NCOs, including the security officers, Güsse-
feld and Schoof.
At 11 a.m. there was a formal liberation
ceremony on the parade ground. In the pres-
ence of Major-General Allan Adair of the
Guards Armoured Division, Brigadier John-
son of the 32nd Guards Brigade and Lieu-
tenant-Colonel James Windsor-Lewis of the
2nd Welsh Guards, the Red and White
Ensigns which Lieutenant Wynn had
brought with him were hoisted up the flag-

IWM BU4665
staffs amid cheers from a crowd of some
5,000 prisoners. Captain Wilson formally
thanked the Guards for liberating Milag-
Marlag and then formally handed over to
Lieutenant-Colonel Appleby of the Prison- Going through the camp, Sergeant Gordon came across part of the crew of the steam
ers of War Exchange Unit (PWX). trawler Caldew, the very first civilian ship’s crew to be captured during the war and also
The following day, April 29, a convoy of 40 the only British fishermen who were POWs in the war. Owned by the Saint Andrew¹s
Army lorries arrived to start the first 1,200 Steam Fishing Co Ltd and sailing from Fleetwood, their ship had been sunk off the Faroe
prisoners on their journey home. The men Islands by gun-fire from U-33 on September 24, 1939. The crew was picked up by the
were sorted out, the patients from the camp Swedish steamer Kronprinsessan Margareta, which in turn was stopped by the German
hospital and those that had been prisoner destroyer Friedrich Ihn three days later, and the Caldew men had spent the next five
longest going first. The first convoy pulled years and seven months in captivity, first at Sandbostel and later at Milag. As they were
out at 5 p.m., the lorries taking the men to fishermen, not merchant seamen, their families back home had been in a particularly dif-
the airfield at Diepholz from where Ameri- ficult predicament, receiving no financial support from their employer, nor from the Min-
can C-47s flew them to Brussels. From there, istry of War Transport when they agreed to take over liability for paying the wages of
RAF Lancaster bombers took them to Eng- captured merchant sailors — a matter which had been a cause of great worry to the
land. Over the next two weeks, the camp was incarcerated crew. From left to right are: Mate Albert Cooke, Chief Engineer Thomas
gradually emptied, some men flying out from Payne, Bosun Charles Ellis, Deckhands Harold Ashwell, George Triffett and Alec Mulhol-
Tarmstedt instead of Diepholz. land and Fireman Hector Pearson. Absent from the picture are the ship’s captain Skipper
In the days after liberation, the PWX Unit Thomas Kane, Second Engineer Fredrick Rowe and Deckhand George Brooks, who had
had a difficult time keeping control of the been exchanged for German prisoners in Lisbon in June 1943, and Cook John Shutterlin,
prisoners. The Royal Navy and RAF contin- who had been repatriated via Gibraltar in January 1945.
gents maintained excellent discipline, but the
Merchant Navy men were out of control. sight-seeing the battleground, looting the vehicles. They also disarmed the Marines
They passed in and out of the camp at will Kommandantur buildings and farms, and guarding the food stores and took away the
through the many holes made in the wire, touring the neighbourhood in ‘liberated’ remaining Red Cross parcels.

IWM BU4662

Gordon also pictured another group who were an anomaly in this evacuated from Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan in Poland, had arrived at
naval camp: a party of RAF prisoners. Nearly 3,000 RAF men, Milag-Marlag in early February 1945.

41
 IWM BU4668
AFTER THE WAR Climbing the guard tower in Milag’s south-west corner, Sergeant Gordon took this shot
Even as the naval prisoners were being down Skagerrak-Strasse. On the right are is the ratings’ compound, with Barrack No. 23
evacuated, the officers’ compounds of both closest to the camera and No. 20 further down. The open space in between had earlier
Milag and Marlag were taken into use as been occupied by huts Nos. 21 and 22 but these had been removed by April 1945. As the
POW cages for German prisoners, Marlag aerial on pages 28-29 shows, the prisoners had used the plot to dig slit trenches. Note the
‘O’ being turned into Civil Internment Camp wording painted on the roof of No. 20. On the left of Skagerrak-Strasse, visible further in
No. 9 detaining Germans suspected of war the distance, are the workshops and the stores hut. Westertimke village lies beyond the
crimes. Among them for one day, May 22, trees.
was an as yet unrecognised Reichsführer-SS
Heinrich Himmler after he had been
arrested near Bremervörde (see After the
Battle No. 14).
In 1946 Marlag’s deserted ‘M’ compound
served as a realistic film set for the Ealing
Studios POW movie The Captive Heart,
directed by Basil Dearden. Meanwhile,
Milag had become a youth punishment
camp. From 1952 to 1961 the huts housed
German refugees from the eastern provinces.
In 1963 the former Marlag became a mili-
tary barracks, the Timke-Kaserne, home of
Flak-Raketen-Bataillon 31. Over the years,
several new buildings were added to it before
it was relinquished by the Bundeswehr in
1996. Today it is an industrial estate known
as the Timke-Park. Several of the old bar-
racks buildings have been pulled down, but
among those still standing are some of the
original Marlag structures, notably the wash-
ATB
house and the canteen block.
The site of Milag has changed out of all
recognition since the war. The officers’ com- The stores hut is the only wooden camp structure that survives to this day. Part of it
pound at the northern end is now a housing is now an abode, the rest is used for storage. The track going off to the left leads to
estate while the ratings’ part has become the shower block.
fully overgrown with trees and bushes. All
the accommodation huts have gone, and
there is not even a trace of their foundations
to be found in the underbrush. However, a
few of the more permanent camp buildings
survive: the Kommandantur office (now a
family bungalow); the German stores hut
next to it (one part used as dwelling, the rest
as storage space); the brick-built shower
block along what used to be Dönitz-Strasse
(now empty), and four of the camp’s wash-
rooms: two in the officers’ compound (both
now small bungalows absorbed into the
housing estate) and two in the ratings’ part
(nicely tucked away among the trees).
On April 28, 2005 — the 60th anniversary
of the camps’ liberation — the Milag POW
ATB

Association erected a small memorial at a

spot beside the former Kommandantur and
opposite what used to be the main gate. Left and above: The memorial unveiled
Mounting a silver plaque with a plan of by the Milag POW Association on the
Milag, it reminds passers-by that this was 60th anniversary of the camp’s libera-
once the site of a naval prisoner-of-war tion. It stands between the former Kom-
ATB

camp. mandantur villa and the stores hut.

42
 IWM C4879
Before the Second World War Rimini was a highly sought after the San Fortunato ridge, and the Greeks and New Zealanders,
resort on the Adriatic coast of Italy. In September 1944 it was along the coast, were competing for the honour of getting
highly sought after for another reason. The Allies, then strug- there first, the latter won. Rimini was heavily bombed before
gling through the Gothic Line, saw it as the key to the the entry of ground troops and many of its buildings and most
Romagna, the plains of which they considered ideal tank coun- of its bridges were destroyed. Only one bridge survived, the
try, if they could only get there before the autumn rains. During Ponte di Tiberio over a branch of the Marecchia river that ran
the final stages of the assault the Canadians, coming by way of through the middle of the town, seen here in mid-distance.

The capture of Florence and the crossing

of the Arno river at the beginning of August
1944 (see After the Battle No. 129) finally
brought the Allies in Italy up against the
Gothic Line along its entire length.
Conceived as one of their main defensive
positions in the autumn of 1943, the
Germans had abandoned work on it when
bolder strategy employed by General-
THE FALL OF RIMINI By Jeffrey Plowman and Glenn Hodgson
feldmarschall Albert Kesselring, the
Oberbefehlshaber Südwest (Commander-in-
Chief South-West), at Cassino and Anzio in
the south had paid off. Work on it had
hastily recommenced in June 1944 as a result
of the Allies’ rapid thrust north and, while
still incomplete, it was particularly
formidable on the western coastal strip,
through the central mountain passes of the
RIMINI
central Apennines and on the Adriatic coast.
The challenge for the Allies was to reach
the plains beyond the Apennines before the
autumn rains arrived. If they could achieve
that, they would be able to use their superior
mobility and firepower to push towards the
River Po and, possibly, beyond. General
Harold Alexander, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Allied Armies in Italy, had originally
intended for the main weight of his next
thrust to be made through the centre but, GREEK
after persuasion from the commander of BRIGADE
British Eighth Army, Lieutenant-General
Oliver Leese, decided to switch it to the
Adriatic. There were several reasons for
this. The Allied requirements for the
invasion of southern France (see After the
Battle No. 110) had robbed him of his best
mountain troops, the French Corps. In
addition by switching to the eastern coastal
section his troops would be fighting in more
familiar terrain and could exploit their
advantage in tanks, guns and aircraft.

Right: The attack on Rimini was part of a

larger offensive by the Canadian Corps
and British V Corps.

43
 IWM C4681
Prior to taking the town itself, the Greeks and New Zealanders some five kilometres south of the city. The buildings and hangars
had to take Rimini airfield, located alongside the coastal highway in the foreground were scene to some of the fiercest fighting.

THE ASSAULT ON THE GOTHIC LINE THE CAPTURE OF RIMINI AIRFIELD the early stages of the fighting, the 3rd Greek
The Allied assault on the Gothic line was The 2nd New Zealand Division Mountain Brigade, commanded by Colonel
finally launched on August 25, when troops (commanded by Brigadier Stephen Weir who Thrassivoulos Tsakalotos, was placed under
of the Eighth Army crossed the Metauro had taken over after Lieutenant-General the division’s umbrella, as a result of the
river and, immediately, entered into Bernard Freyberg had been injured in an request of the Greek government. It was not
something of a vacuum. As it so happened, aircraft crash on September 3) was switched until September 13 that the New Zealanders
the LXXVI. Panzerkorps of the German 10. over to the Adriatic coast at the end of came under operational command of the
Armee had chosen this moment to regroup August but did not take part in the assault of Canadian Corps, though they were not
and had withdrawn from the outer works of the Gothic Line in that sector, as it was part of committed immediately. Instead, to give them
the Gothic Line, thus missing the full weight the corps de chasse. Based at Iesi throughout experience, the Greek Mountain Brigade was
of the opening thrust of the Allied assault.
When they did finally find out about the
Allied intentions three days later, when a
copy of Leese’s message to his troops fell
into their hands, the Canadian and British
troops were already across the Foglia river
and well into the, still incomplete, and barely
manned defences. Many minefields had
been found to be still set at safe, while some
of the much-feared Panther turrets had not
even been mounted, some being found still
sitting on their transportation trailers.
Though the LXXVI. Panzerkorps reacted
swiftly by transferring two divisions, it was
too late to save the Gothic Line.
Unfortunately for the Eighth Army this
success could not be maintained. Between
September 5 and 7 the weather turned against
them and torrential rain turned the dust to
the familiar clinging mud. The Eighth Army
was forced to pause for several days to allow
it to prepare a set-piece assault on the next
obstacle, the Coriano ridge, a pause which
also allowed the Germans to transfer the
equivalent of five divisions to the Adriatic
sector. The assault on the Coriano feature
began on the night of September 12/13 and it
finally fell two days later to converging
thrusts from the Canadian Corps on the right
and British V Corps on the left. But the most
desperate German resistance was left for the
San Fortunato ridge, which only fell after
three days fighting, thus opening the way to
Rimini and the plains beyond.

Right: This map from the Greek official

history, although with Greek lettering,
gives a good overview of the operations
south of the city.

44
ordered forward to clear the approaches to
the Marano river. As an introduction to battle
it was probably an unfortunate choice.
Sending a unit more experienced in mountain
warfare into battle along the coastal flats was
bad enough but they were also up against the
veteran 1. Fallschirmjäger-Division (General-
major Richard Heidrich). In addition, while
the latter may have been below strength in
infantry, they were nearly up to full strength
in artillery. Canadian intelligence reports
indicated that they were backed up by the 1.
Kompanie of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 525 with
two Nashorns and two Sturmgeschütze IIIs,

ATL DA7590
plus 11 Tigers from the 2. Kompanie of
schwere Panzer-Abteilung 504. Also present
was the 162. (Turkistan) Infanterie-Division
(Generalleutnant Ralph von Heygendorff ),
comprising Caucasian and Slavic Russians Critical to the defence of the aerodrome was this Panther turret on its northern end,
who had volunteered to fight with the which held a commanding view of, not only the entire airfield, but the lower slopes of
Germans. the San Fortunato ridge as well. It was finally knocked out on September 17 by a
The initial attack was to be made against Sherman commanded by Lieutenant Phil Collins of C Squadron, 18th Armoured Regi-
two hamlets known as Monaldini and ment. Using the cover of smoke laid down by artillery fire Collins’ tank crept up to a
Monticelli, south of the Marano river. The house adjoining the airfield and opened rapid fire on the turret, damaging the gun
attack was launched at 2 a.m. on September and eventually forcing its crew to abandon it. Collins later received a Military Cross
14 through rolling farmland replete with for this action.
farmhouses, orchards and copses, all
extensively fortified with trenches and talion. Fighter-bombers flew in to attack the centre the 1st Battalion was unable to
machine-gun posts. In addition there were airfield but, just short of it, the Greeks were advance much further. The airfield was
concrete machine-gun bunkers or dug-in forced to go to ground by bazooka and heavily mined and there was another Panther
tank turrets at each set of crossroads. The machine-gun fire. Their supporting tanks, turret at the other end with a commanding
Greeks found movement at night difficult after blasting holes in houses as they field of fire over the whole area.
and were eventually repulsed with heavy advanced, also ran into trouble. Directly to The situation remained the same on
losses, losing a third of the troops engaged the left of the airfield a self-propelled gun September 17, with the Greeks slowly
since the action began. opened fire, along with a Panther turret. pushing forward on the right, while around
This failure prompted an immediate Sergeant Peter Wood’s tank from No. 10 3.30 p.m. the other battalion on the left
rethink of the strategy. The 22nd NZ Troop was hit and brewed up, three of the captured one of the airport buildings but
Battalion along with some 17-pounders from crew killed outright. Lieutenant Phil Collins were pinned down. The problem lay with the
33rd Battery, 7th NZ Anti-tank Regiment put down a smoke screen to hide his other Panther turret at the far end of the airfield.
had been in reserve behind the Greeks. Thus tanks then dragged the wounded Woods It was not only affecting the Greek attack,
No. 1 Company of the 22nd Battalion was from the burning tank. The only other the Canadians assaulting San Martino on the
detached and immediately sent forward to survivor, Trooper Doug Bull, got out left were also losing tanks to it and the brew-
support the Greeks and a few hours later B through his hatch and made his way back on ups could be seen from the airfield. An air
Squadron of the 20th NZ Armoured foot to their Regimental Aid Post. The strike was called on it but the six aircraft that
Regiment arrived. Thus reinforced, the Germans started to pull out on the left and delivered the attack all missed, while the 25-
attack was resumed that evening with more Collins and his other tanks moved in that pounder fire called down on it had little
success, in an almost textbook fashion. With direction to encourage them. Nothing more effect. It was left to Lieutenant Collins of
the infantry from 22nd Battalion providing was heard from the self-propelled gun and No. 10 Troop to come up with a solution of
support for the tanks, they followed the the Panther turret could not be reached his own. A diversion was set up at the south
Greeks through vineyards and dust-covered before nightfall but its crew later evacuated end of the field with another tank, while
farm buildings into Monaldini. The hamlet it and blew it up. 25-pounders covered the Panther turret with
fell after a short sharp attack, being On September 16 the advance continued smoke. In the meantime Collins’ tank,
defended only by a couple of Spandaus and on the left as the 3rd Greek Battalion stripped of all essential gear and loaded to
a few infantry. After Monaldini was secured captured two further small settlements. The capacity with armour-piercing shells, set off
the force turned its attention to Monticelli, 2nd Battalion on the right with No. 9 Troop around the west side of the airfield. After
from which the German defenders withdrew in support began to systematically clear the following a tree-bordered lane and through
as the tanks and infantry approached. south edge of the cemetery, linking up with vines and scrub, they took up position
The advance continued the following the 1st Battalion at the south-west corner. alongside a house. When the smoke over the
morning, September 15, the airfield at Rimini The failure of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Panther turret cleared they poured round
being the next objective for the 1st Greek to cross the Marano river meant that the after round into it, putting the gun out of
Battalion. The Marano was crossed around 10 Greeks and New Zealanders had to secure action and then knocking chunks of metal
a.m. and in the afternoon C Squadron of the their right flank with their carriers. In the off the turret until the crew abandoned it.
18th Armoured Regiment came forward to
replace the tanks of the 20th Armoured
Regiment. For the renewed attack No. 11
Troop was assigned to support the 3rd Greek
Battalion on the left in its attack on the
hamlet of Casalecchio, which consisted of just
a church with a couple of houses nearby.
During the morning the German defenders
had given the Greeks trouble but with
support from No. 11 Troop they took it with
no difficulty at all. A few paratroopers held
out in the church but were quickly dislodged
when the tanks came forward.
On the right flank, No. 9 Troop supported
the 2nd Greek Battalion but there was
practically no liaison between the Greeks and
the tanks, plus they ran into more serious
opposition. Here the area was strongly held
with garrisons in the hangars, airfield
buildings and houses on the seaward side of
the road, all backed up by a Panther turret.
This broke up the infantry attack before it got
JIM SLOAN

very far and it soon bogged down. To make

matters worse their supporting tanks were
further back, still in heavily vegetated country
short of the airfield.
In the centre things initially went better The crew and tank that took the gun out. Top (L-R): Troopers Jim Sloan, Maurice
for No. 10 Troop supporting the 1st Bat- Wooley and Lieutenant Collins; bottom: Troopers Pete Dodonski and Doug Rutherford.

45
 Right: Rimini town fell on September 21.
That day British Army photographer
Sergeant Menzies arrived to document
the capture of this important objective
and his first shot showed some Greek
soldiers gathered around a wrecked
church on the outskirts. According to
the official caption, the building was
bombed and shelled while being used as
an observation post by the Germans.

THE ALLIES ENTER RIMINI

With the turret gone the Canadians and
Greeks were able to commence their
advance on September 18, along with C
Squadron, 19th Armoured Regiment, for
support. During the afternoon the drive
resumed and by dusk they had cleared the
airfield. Some progress was made the next
day, September 19, during which No. 9
Troop under 2nd Lieutenant Graeme Brown
dislodged some machine-gun and sniper
posts in the hospital buildings lining the
coast road. On September 20, the 3rd Greek
Battalion attacked the town of Santa Maria,
while the 2nd Greek Battalion swung its
right flank northwards and, after over-
coming strong opposition, secured the main
building of the Ospedalletto Camsco.
Moving forward on a road inland from the
Rimini airfield one of the tanks of No. 11
Troop came up against another anti-tank

IWM NA 18878
gun pointing straight at it. Throwing the
tank into full reverse its crew backed behind
a house before the gun got a shot in, only to
find themselves coming under attention
from a haystack in a nearby field that was
observed to be swinging round towards
them! Second Lieutenant Chris Cross’s tank
put a smoke shell into the stack revealing a
Panther turret under it. Their accompanying
Greek infantry took the crew prisoner. That
evening the 5th NZ Brigade came forward to
occupy the area between the airfield and the
Marano river, while the Canadians on the
left finally took the San Fortunato ridge.
Later that night the fine, but overcast,
weather gave way to heavy rain.
Earlier that evening No. 11 Troop under
Lieutenant Cross rounded up some
Turkoman prisoners, who were able to
confirm that the Germans had withdrawn
beyond Rimini. So it was that, before dawn
on September 21, Cross and 2nd Lieutenant

GLENN HODGSON
Arthur Maurice set off for a reconnaissance
Right: Glenn Hodgson found that church
was the Maria della Colonella along the
Via Flaminia, the main road into town.

of Rimini. They followed Route 16 and then

turned off along the Via XX Settembre as far
as the Ausa river, where they found the
bridge there damaged but not demolished.
They crossed into the rubble-strewn Corso
d’Augusto and on towards the centre of the
city, searching out a way forward for the
tanks. They then retraced their steps meeting
some Italian civilians on the way back, who
confirmed that the Germans had left.
No. 11 Troop immediately set off, while
Cross guided 2nd Lieutenant Frank Avery
and Sergeant Mick Kenny of No. 8 Platoon,
22nd Battalion, along the same route to the
Ausa and arranged for them to meet the
tanks in the Piazza Cavour. The platoon
immediately set off for the piazza, arriving
there at 6.30 a.m. The tanks in the meantime
made straight for the Ausa, the troop
Left: Two days later, one of the New
Zealand official photographers, George
Kaye, took this shot of Greek soldiers
which, according to the caption, showed
them marching out of Rimini on their
way north in pursuit of the retreating
enemy. Given that they are actually
ATL DA7595

going past the Maria della Colonella in a

southerly direction one cannot help but
think that the photograph was posed.

46
 GLENN HODGSON
IWM NA18781

Sergeant Menzies next pictured a crew from No. 12 Troop, After the war the channel of the Ausa was filled in (the river
19th NZ Armoured Regiment, digging around the suspension being presumably piped underground) and today the area is a
of their bogged Sherman in order to free it from the bank of the series of public parks, the one in which the tank came to grief
Ausa river. Towering in the background is the Arco d’Augusto, being known as the Parco Alcide Cervi. Glenn took his compar-
the city gate begun by Roman emperor Augustus in 14 A.D. ison from the cycleway that runs through the park. The Arco
and completed under his successor Tiberius 13 years later. d’Augusto forms an easy reference point.

commander’s tank succeeding in crossing it, While this was going on Lieutenant on appreciating its historical significance, had
after charging down into the water and up Maurice found that the Via XX Settembre ordered the charges to be left undetonated.)
the other side. The remaining two tanks got bridge would take the weight of his scout car Maurice, in the company of Cross and a
bogged but were soon winched out by the and, accompanied by a Greek carrier, pushed Canadian engineer, then made his way on
first tank. They then followed the on to find that the 1900-year-old Ponte di foot onto the main channel of the Marecchia
Mercantino-Marecchia tramway into the Tiberio was still intact. There were still river and established that the Route 16 bridge
Piazza Cavour, meeting up with No. 8 demolition charges in place but these were was down and there was no immediate
Platoon whereupon they drove up the steps quickly removed and Brigade Headquarters crossing place for the tanks. They were soon
of the Palazzo dell’Arengo and parked notified. (In fact the bridge owed its survival pinned down by Spandau fire from the
under the portico. to the action of a German commander who, opposite bank but managed to get away.

GLENN HODGSON
IWM NA18782

Left: Menzies next followed a patrol from the 3rd Greek Moun- look like they have been asked by the photographer to enliven
tain Brigade entering the city through the same arch. The men his shot. Right: The Via XX Settembre becomes the Corso
are not wearing any weapons or webbing and they definitely d’Augusto at this point.

47
 IWM NA18783
Above: The same patrol approaching what was in 1944 the Below: Piazza Giulio Cesare was renamed Piazza Tre Martiri
Piazza Giulio Cesare. The town was heavily shelled and dive- after the war in memory of three partisans that were hung
bombed during the battle and the effect of the bombardments there by the Germans. The bell tower on the right is the Torre
is clearly visible. dell’Orologio.

GLENN HODGSON

48
 Right: Taking leave of his Greek extras,
Menzies next photographed the
bombed Tempio Malatestiano cathedral
on Via IV Novembre. Rimini’s impor-
tance as the junction of the main coastal
railway with the line from Bologna and
the industrial north had made the town
the object of frequent air bombard-
ments. These raids killed upwards of
1,000 townspeople and caused wide-
spread material damage — both in the
old medieval city and in the newer area
between the railway and the sea. Fur-
ther harm came from Allied field artillery
and naval guns. German engineers con-
tributed to the destruction in 1943 by
levelling wide areas on the seaward side
of the city in order to provide fields of
fire for their coastal batteries, and in
September 1944 demolishing the Ausa
and Marecchia bridges and blasting
buildings into the main thoroughfares in
order to hinder Eighth Army’s advance.
From these various causes some 75 per
cent of Rimini’s buildings, many of them
famous historic monuments, ended up
razed or damaged beyond repair. Appar-
ently feeling a need to excuse for the
destruction of this architectural trea-
sure, the official caption for this picture

IWM NA18789
again emphasised that ‘during the battle
for the town, the enemy were using the
cathedral for a number of purposes,
including OP work from the tower.’
GLENN HODGSON

The church (above), a memorial to the

Malatesta family who had ruled Rimini in
the 15th century and a religious site
since before the 13th century, has been

GLENN HODGSON
restored with meticulous care and atten-
tion to detail. Right: The absence of the
roof in the wartime picture initially
fooled Glenn as he thought it had been
taken outside.

GLENN HODGSON
IWM NA18790

Left: The completely destroyed altar in the cathedral. Above:

Now restored to its former glory.

49
 Right: After entering Rimini No. 11 Troop
of the 19th Armoured Regiment drove
into the Piazza Cavour, the site of the
local government buildings, and up the
steps of the 13th-century Palazzo del-
l’Arengo to take shelter from airbursts
under its portico, their march order being
Lieutenant Cross’s tank The Lame Duck,
followed by Discord and Maleesh. While
there, an unnamed Canadian photogra-
pher captured this view of Corporal Frank
Harvey on radio in Discord watched on by
Trooper Nick Styles. Apparently the rest
of the troop was off looting!

In the meantime the Greek Brigade set off

at 6.45 a.m. with orders for the 2nd Battalion
to take the eastern part of Rimini, the 1st
Battalion to bypass the town to the west,
while the 3rd Battalion was to make for the
centre of the town. The latter arrived in the
Piazza Cavour around 7.30 a.m., some 15
minutes after the tanks, where they were
greeted by the mayor of Rimini and
immediately began to hoist flags around the
city. (In a pleasing gesture the Greeks later in
the day asked the Canadians for a Canadian
flag to fly beside the Greek one from the
town hall. When no Union Jack or Canadian
ensign could be found, an Auxiliary Services
red banner was used.) Following this success,
No. 12 Troop was sent in to provide
additional support for No. 11 Troop, however
one tank got so badly bogged trying to cross
the Ausa that it had to be left till the next
day. The other two tanks drove into the town
and joined No. 11 Troop in the Piazza
Cavour. While this was going on the 2nd
Greek Battalion on the right had entered the
modern area of the city, on the coastal side of
the main railway line. Their supporting tanks
from Nos. 9 and 10 Troops were initially held
up after losing one tank on a mine but
managed to get forward after the squadron
commander found the bridge nearest the
coast could carry tanks. After this both
battalions pressed on to the Marecchia river.

GLENN HODGSON
Right: Today the palazzo is much as it
was in 1944 and there is no sign of
where the tanks climbed up onto the
portico.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF GREECE

GLENN HODGSON

More Allied troops pictured in the Piazza Cavour. The same spot beside the square’s ornamental fountain.

50
‘Canadian and Greek troops entering Rimini by way of the only unblown bridge’ says the official caption to this Canadian photograph.

GLENN HODGSON

The picture in fact shows the Ponte di Tiberio, the bridge just but leaving the city. Of Roman times, begun under Emperor
north of the old city and crossing the southern arm of the Augustus and finished under Tiberius in 21 A.D., the bridge
Marecchia river. Glenn found that the shot was looking north- was saved from demolition by a German commander who
ward, which means that the troops are actually not entering realised its historical significance.

51
 GLENN HODGSON
ATL DA7641

George Kaye pictured the Ponte di Tiberio on September 30. Perfect comparison taken by Glenn Hodgson in April 2006.

ATL DA7640
By September 30 Allied engineers had constructed a Bailey Ottobre, the second road that leads out of the old city to the
bridge to replace the broken road bridge that lies downstream north. Kaye photographed the broken bridge and the Bailey
from the Ponte di Tiberio, the Ponte di Mille on the Viale 28 from the Ponte di Tiberio.

GLENN HODGSON

After the war the southern arm of the Marecchia was closed off Tiberio. The river’s old outlet to the sea is now used by locals
and today ends in a lagoon on the western side of the Ponte di as an anchorage for their pleasure craft.

52
Right: Some 400 metres north of the
Ponte di Tiberio the engineers had also
built two Bailey bridges across the
northern, main arm of the Marecchia,
adjacent to the demolished bridge on the
main road out of the city, which at this
point is named the Via XXII Settembre.
After an initial crossing place was bull-
dozed to allow tanks to cross, construc-
tion of more substantial bridges had
commenced to serve the New Zealand
Division as they continued their drive
north. The demolished bridge was used
as a basis for a high-level Bailey, while a
low-level Bailey was constructed for
tanks. The view is towards the south
bank, so the lorries taking the lower Bai-
ley (just visible on the extreme right) are
returning to Rimini.

IWM NA19045
On September 27 and 28 a heavy gale
swept the Rimini area, flooding the
Marecchia. The following day, AFPU
photographer Sergeant Levy pictured
the swollen river swirling along and
around the bridges.

The earlier discovery, that the Ponte di

Tiberio was intact, forced a change of plan:
4th NZ Armoured Brigade was now to push
on into the Romagna with all possible speed.
Thus early in the afternoon C Squadron, 19th
Armoured Regiment, and No. 1 Company,
22nd Battalion, crossed the Ponte di Tiberio
and drove up to the north branch of the
Marecchia river where they engaged German
positions on the north bank. At 7 p.m. that
evening the infantry began to wade across the
river and soon became involved in some
GLENN HODGSON

intense fighting with German paratroopers on

the other side. While they were doing that,
6th NZ Field Company started bulldozing a
crossing place for the tanks, completing it
later that night. The next morning around
2.30 a.m. C Squadron crossed it and joined
the infantry. By first light the bridgehead Today a new permanent bridge replaces the pair of wartime Baileys. The Via XXII
across the Marecchia was firmly established. Settembre is the continuation of the two roads from the Ponte di Tiberio and the
Thus the battle for Rimini was over and that Ponte di Mille, which converge and join just south of here. The distinctive house on
for the Romagna had begun. the south bank survives, albeit somewhat dwarfed by the high-rise building behind.

53
 ATL DA7637
The following day, when George Kaye photographed the same two bridges, the water had already begun to subside.

The idea for this article arose while Jeff

Plowman and I (Glenn Hodgson) were both
employed at the same scientific research
organisation in New Zealand. A change in
direction led me to apply for redundancy and
take the opportunity of spending some time in
Europe. The suggestion by Jeff that I might
like to do a little research in Rimini was
eagerly accepted by myself and thus the
project was born. Two years later, after the
exchange of numerous e-mails, with copious
images and maps, I found myself in Rimini

GLENN HODGSON
with my partner Erin.
Rimini was, and still is, a popular beach
and holiday resort on the Adriatic coast of
Italy. I arrived in April 2006, not the height of
the tourist season, but it was busy
nonetheless. Armed with only a smattering of
Italian, our first port of call was the local Just north of here along the main road lies Celle, scene of fierce fighting between the
information office, where their staff managed 22nd NZ Battalion and elements of the 1. Fallschirmjäger-Division.
to identify over half the photographs I had.
On their advice I returned early on my pictures. This was a feeling that continued for heavily bogged tank in front of a large
second morning to talk to Bertha, a Rimini the following half hour as she suddenly archway/gate. He asked where I got it from,
native who had lived through the years of closed her booth and dragged me across the to which I replied ‘a friend acquired it from
conflict, and now sold bus tickets from the road to talk to some elderly gentlemen the Imperial War Museum in London’. He
kiosk outside the Information Centre. Bertha standing outside a café. Fortuitously, one of chuckled and casually told me he had the
was an exceptionally strong personality who, the gentlemen, Rossi, turned out to be a original photograph on a wall at his home.
after accepting my stuttered explanation in mixture of shopkeeper and local historian Over the next couple of hours Erin and I
Italian, pored over the pictures I handed her. and was able to provide invaluable assistance were treated to the most generous display of
In a matter of seconds she transformed from and recollections. After several minutes of hospitality, imparting of knowledge and
a loud, gesticulating Italian senior citizen to a animated conversation over the pictures, experience, of pride in one’s home, and of
woman entranced by the images, her scrutiny Rossi led us to his shop where his son showed honest emotion that one could ever hope to
so intense it seemed she was back in the an interest in one in particular: an image of a find. We followed Rossi out of his shop and to GLENN HODGSON
ATL DA6696

About a kilometre upstream from the pair of Bailey bridges on This is not an exact comparison but was chosen to show the
the main road, the New Zealand engineers constructed yet a distinctive outline of the hill in the background, on which is
further high-level Bailey over the Marecchia using the piers and located the independent kingdom of San Marino. The bridge in
abutments of another wrecked bridge. This too was pho- this picture is on the Via Nuovo Circonvallazione, the city’s
tographed by George Kaye. modern-day bypass road.

54
 his home a few streets away where we were
privileged to see the pride he held for his city.
Furnishing his home in every available
position were artefacts of Rimini’s history
from centuries ago through to today. Leaving
his home, Rossi escorted us personally around
the city and recounted, often in single words,
what had happened and where. The words
‘bombidartto’ (bombed) and ‘distrutto’
(destroyed) were repeated with frightening
regularity.
Of particular interest were Rossi’s
comments about the main square in Rimini,
which in the pre-war years had been known
as Piazza Giuglio Cesare (Julius Caesar
Square), yet on all the present-day maps it
was named Piazza Tre Martiri (Three
Martyrs Square). Rossi explained the reason
for this, and enriched the facts with his own
supplementary commentary. During the Nazi
occupation the Germans had executed by
public hanging three local men (Italian
partisans) in the square. Whether their deaths
had inspired some sort of covert organisation,
resistance or uprising amongst the local
population was not clear, but their deaths had
been significant enough to rename the square
in the subsequent years. What made the story
stand out for me was when Rossi proffered
that the three men had been ‘banditi‘ —
bandits/(petty) criminals — and dismissed The Piazza Giulio Cesare was renamed Piazza Tre Martiri after the war in memory of
them out of hand with a good deal of three partisans that were hung there by the Germans on August 16, 1944 — five
contempt in his voice as he did so. What was weeks before the city’s liberation.
fascinating was that in times of war, even
disreputable men could become heroes —
men who would probably have been
condemned within society outside of wartime,
were remembered in history as martyrs by the
same society when their lives were taken by
the invading force. Either that or Rossi had
had some experience with those men all those
years ago and he still bore a grudge.
Rossi concluded his tour in the piazza by
directing us to a bookshop that contained a
local section with a selection of books
covering the history of the war in Rimini. We
exited the shop and farewelled Rossi, grateful
for the unique experience and indebted to
him for his generous assistance.
I got down to business the following day,
covering a large area of the city by foot and
bicycle, following in the footsteps of the
various Allied photographers and matching
up their pictures
I don’t expect I’ll meet Bertha or Rossi
again, but the experience I had in their hands,
in their Rimini is one that I will carry for life.

GLENN HODGSON
I felt an intimate attachment to the city when
we left. They had honoured the lives given by
others in the fight for their region, and I hope
my account of our experiences there plays
some small part in remembering not only the
soldiers who fought there, but the locals as
well who had just as big a part in the history. This arrangement of paving stones in the piazza marks the spot where it happened.
GLENN HODGSON

GLENN HODGSON

Plaque in the Piazza Cavour erected in 1979 to mark the 35th In the public park near the Arco d’Augusto is a memorial to the
anniversary of the liberation. ‘To remember for all times the Canadians who breached the Gothic Line and contributed to
soldiers from various continents, the partisans and the civilians the liberation of Rimini. The Canadian unit that operated clos-
who in the autumn of 1944 gave their precious live in this land est to the town was the 48th Highlanders of Canada. No men-
for liberty and democracy.’ tion of the Greeks or New Zealanders though!

55