Submitted by Common-Breakfast-245 t3_10pexeg in OldSchoolCool
My Pop arrived Papua New Guinea during World WW2, in an attempt to hold back the Japanese invasion from getting to Australia.
He was shot 4 times and left for dead.
He had his beloved cigarettes, but no way to light them until this very moment.
After recovering enough to get back into battle, he returned to Australia and had 6 more children.
One which was my father.
I assume he was in the army? Was he one of the “Ghost mountain boys”?
Australian 2nd/27th Infantry Battalion.
Never heard of him being referred to as "Ghost Mountain Boys"
If you haven’t PLEASE read the book called the Ghost Mountain Boys. It’s all about the troops that served in that campaign. I bet your father was among them. His name might even be mentioned.
Really?!
I'll check it out!
It was always difficult getting info from Pop about the campaign, as he was very reluctant (understandably) to talk about it.
Prepare yourself. Those guys went through some of the most difficult conditions of the whole war. If your father was where I suspect he was he’s a hero just for making it out. One question, does your family come from the upper Midwest by chance? I only ask because a lot of the troops sent to Papua were from Michigan, Minnesota & Wisconsin.
Australia. I remember pop saying "The Yanks were useless because the didn't understand the bush". Referring to the lack of experience in the extremely hot weather and rugged terrain. Pop grew up in a part of Australia that regularly experienced 40 degrees Celsius days.
Wow that’s cool. So your pops was likely alongside those guys. Enduring the same hardships. It’s a crazy story. How crossing the island to defend Port Moresby they had to cross malaria ridden jungles from hell then cross over a 10,000 ft mountain range with ice, snow and freezing temps. Then back down into a ferocious battle so sick and weary they could barely fight.
I was under the impression OP was Australian, as he was referring to the natives as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Boys.
I think that’s mentioned in the book too. But the book is really great describing the conditions and hardships. Great read.
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Fuzzy wuzzy angels? What is that... like a platoon in the army or something?
It was the nick name the Aussie troops gave natives of Papua New Guinea.
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My great uncle rests in a war cemetery in PNG. He was an engineer and was killed when making a bridge. Ifd love to go over one day and pay my respect to him.
Just listened to like 20 hours of Dan Carlin’s Harbour History Podcast detailing the war with the Japanese. Crazy shit! Sounds like the worst place to fight.
Could you please shoot me a link.
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zanne61 t1_j6k51kn wrote
My dad from USA was in Papua New Guinea at the same time. I have several pictures but he worked in electronics and did not see violence