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Last battles

Mounted skin of a carrier pigeon. The Blue Bar cock carries an alumium ring on his right leg that is impressed '139:D [broad arrow]D:43:T'.

Carrier Pigeon DD43 T139, a veteran of 23 operational flights, flew 65 kilometres in 50 minutes through heavy rain and winds carrying a message requesting help. [AWM RELAWM30785]

During the last years of the war with Japan, thousands of Australian men and women served in Australia's largest military campaigns in the islands north of Australia: on the mainland of Papua New Guinea and its islands of Bougainville and New Britain, and in Borneo. Six Australian divisions, supported by the RAAF and the RAN, were in action against the Japanese and most Australians were confident that the Allies would be victorious.

In late 1944, the Australians took over former American bases in northern New Guinea, on Bougainville and on New Britain and the troops were determined to defeat the large numbers of Japanese forces which remained there. The Japanese, despite having been cut off from their supply base at Rabaul, and often having to rely on their own resources for survival, refused to concede defeat and they continued to fight the Australians in long and bloody battles.

Colonel Sybil Irving, Controller of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), inspects some of her 'girls' selected from thousands of applicants within the AWAS who were eager to serve overseas.
AWAS personnel disembarking from the MV Duntroon, about to leave landing barge at Milford Haven.
Signalwoman Laura Baker, Lance-Corporal P Leach and Signalwoman Joan Kessels rake leaves in the barracks compound. Lae, New Guinea 1945
Private Margaret McGee holds the special issue of the armed forces' newspaper Guinea Gold telling of Germany's surrender. Reading over her shoulder are Corporals Winifred Sheppard, Agnes Skinner and Violet Graham.
Sapper Joy Bailey plotting positions marked on aerial photographs onto maps and charts used by the First Australian Army
Colleagues, Corporal Eunice Coase and Private Willi Maas working in the No 3 Sub Depot office of the 4th Advanced Ordnance Depot
Lieutenant Sadie Budge, amenities officer, tests a hairdryer constructed by the Lae Base Workshops
Lieutenant-Colonel Margaret Spencer, senior officer, poses as Little Red Riding Hood at a party farewelling two officers heading home after the war ended
Lance-Corporal R Solomon and Sergeants J Harvey and Mary Brett serve up apple pie baked in a cookery and homecraft course run by the 'LAEWAS College'.
Circular Quay, Sydney 1946 Three AWAS waving to relatives from the windows of a bus.

In New Guinea, between November 1944 and August 1945 the 6th Division fought in the Aitape-Wewak region. On Bougainville, the Australian 3rd Division, together with troops from the 11th and 13th Brigades, conducted demanding patrols interspersed with some sharp fighting, including the bloody battles at Slater's Knoll in March and April in 1945. Meanwhile, the 5th Division undertook difficult operations on the island of New Britain, pushing the Japanese back towards Rabaul.

In 1945, Australian forces launched three military actions against Japanese-held Borneo: at Tarakan, at Labuan-Brunei Bay and at Balikpapan. These were the biggest and final Australian campaigns of World War II.

Since 1945 there has been much controversy about these final Australian campaigns in which more than 500 Australians died and over 1400 were wounded for little apparent strategic gain.

Sister Veronica Harbourd, Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service, painted against a tropical setting, Morotai, New Guinea
Sister Veronica Harbourd, RAAF Flying Sister, No 2 MAETU, Nora Heysen, 1945. [Oil on canvas 60.8 x 49 cm AWM ART24377]

The Nightingales of New Guinea

The Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service was founded in July 1940. RAAFNS nurses were posted to Medical Receiving Stations (MRS) and other units including hospitals at RAAF bases around Australia. Later during the war they served in receiving stations at Port Morseby, Milne Bay, Madang, Morotai Island and Labuan in Borneo.

Monitoring and tending to patients on a medivac flight with 1 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit, (MAETU) between New Guinea and
Monitoring and tending to patients on a medivac flight with 1 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit, (MAETU) between New Guinea and Australia. [AWM OG3345]

In February 1944 the RAAF started intensive training for nurses selected for Medical Air Evacuation Transport Units (MAETU). The women were subjected to tests in altitude physical-fatigue and instructed in water survival skills. The RAAF used Douglas C-47 aircraft for the evacuation flights and RAAFNS sisters were responsible for the loading and positioning of patients in strap-in litters as well as their medical care during the trip. The wounded and sick men were brought back to base hospitals in New Guinea or, if they required special treatment, they were flown to Australia. They also flew prisoners of war home from camps in South-East Asia after the Japanese surrender. Two of the MAETU sisters died in air accidents in New Guinea shortly after World War II.

Related content

Balikpapan, Borneo, July 1945. Sappers of the 2/4th Field Company preparing to blow up pipelines

Balikpapan, Borneo, July 1945. Sappers of the 2/4th Field Company preparing to blow up pipelines obstructing the movement of tanks supporting the advance of 2/10th Infantry Battalion in the oil refinery area. [AWM 128776]

Ratings of HMAS Australia carry on their shoulders a propeller and other souvenir parts from a Japanese kamikaze (suicide) aircraft on the deck of the ship. In the background can be seen officers and a civilian photographer preparing his equipment.

Naval ratings from HMAS Australia with a propeller and other souvenir pieces from a Japanese kamikaze (suicide) aircraft. [AWM 306770]

Nurse's white cotton veil embroidered with many coloured signatures of Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit (MAETU) nurses, pilots and AIF personnel.

Sister Joan Loutit who was based on Morotai donated her veil to the Australian War Memorial. The veil had been autographed by other members of MAETU: nurses, flight crew and members of the Second AIF. The key to the signatures indicates that the nurses' signatures are in blue, air crew in black, red, yellow and green and AIF signatures in brown.

[AWM REL25741]

Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi, Commander of the Japanese 18th Army in New Guinea handing his sword to Major General H Robertson, General Officer Commanding 6th Division. Cape Wom, New Guinea

On 13 September 1945, Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi, Commander of the Japanese 18th Army in New Guinea signed the unconditional surrender and handed his sword to Major General H Robertson, General Officer Commanding 6th Division. Cape Wom, New Guinea.

[AWM 019296]

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