{"id":3278,"date":"2017-09-08T13:43:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T13:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=3278"},"modified":"2017-09-08T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T13:43:42","slug":"the-capture-of-new-guinea-naas-mans-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/the-capture-of-new-guinea-naas-mans-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"THE CAPTURE OF NEW GUINEA. NAAS MAN’S EXPERIENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kildare Observer\u00a0<\/em>15 May 1915<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Boundary of Civilisation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naas Man\u2019s Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Story of the Capture of New Guinea<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back from the borders of civilisation with experiences such as fall to the lot of young men of twenty-two, Mr. Peter Lawler, youngest son of Mrs. Lawler, Halverstown, Naas, told me a story during the week, which, for thrills, and as a veracious account of the conquest of the only bit of German territory that has yet fallen to the gun of the British troops during the present war, will be found as interesting as any narrated within the past twelve months. It is a plain, unembroidered story, full of incident and information of the happenings in far-away New Guinea \u2013 German New Guinea \u2013 dating from the outbreak of war, the tale of how the wings of the Germans were clipped by the sealing up of some of their sources of supply for coal for their ships in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lawlor, who is an electrical engineer by profession, left his home for New Zealand some four years ago.\u00a0 In New Zealand he only remained for twelve months, and as he there developed rheumatics he left for Australia on the advice of his doctor.\u00a0 Here his worth was soon recognised and within twelve months of his arrival he had secured an important and much coveted position on the electrical engineering staff of the National Insurance Company.\u00a0 This position he left in August last to join the first Australian Naval and Military Expedition.\u00a0 And reference to this fact justifies the introduction of a remark which Mr. Lawler dropped in the course of our conversation.\u00a0 \u201cThe Colonies,\u201d he said, seem to me to be much more patriotic at the present time than the old country.\u00a0 Why, there everybody rushed to the army to help the Empire when the trouble commenced.\u00a0 Here it seems to require a lot of coaxing to induce men to join. Sydney alone sent sixty thousand men to the colours, and that is something to the credit of a new country.\u201d\u00a0 But to begin the story \u2013:<\/p>\n

\u201cThree days after England declared war on Germany,\u201d said Mr. Lawler, \u201cthey called for volunteers in Sydney.\u00a0 They were looking for marines, but though I was not a marine, I offered myself and was accepted.\u00a0 Altogether on the first call they got 700 marines and ex-soldiers, and with this batch<\/p>\n

I WAS SENT OFF<\/p>\n

five days afterwards in H.M.S. Berrima<\/em> \u2013 which was a P. and O. liner that had been converted into a troopship. Our destination was secret, but proved to be New Guinea.\u00a0 People at home don\u2019t seem to know much about what happened out there, but elsewhere it was regarded as a very important feather in the British cap that we should have so promptly succeeded.\u00a0 However, that is by the way, and may I say for the information of those whose geographical knowledge has become rusty that New Guinea is an island lying to the north of Australia.\u00a0 Having left Sydney, we went along the Australian coast to Palm Island, where we landed and had a fortnight\u2019s training.\u00a0 Meanwhile the battleship Australia<\/em> had gone to look for the German fleet, which was known to be in the Pacific.\u00a0 When she returned to Palm Island we \u2013 the Australian fleet accompanied us \u2013 moved on to the island of New Guinea, where we landed at Herbertshohe in New Britain. New Britain was at that time a German possession, having been ceded by Britain from some other place and Herbertshohe was a German garrison town.\u00a0 About twelve miles inland from Herbertshohe was a wireless station, which is<\/p>\n

THE STRONGEST IN THE PACIFIC.<\/p>\n

This station we got orders to dismantle, about 100 of us being detailed for the work. We started at 4 o\u2019clock in the morning.\u00a0 I may mention that marching with the troops through the plantations with the sun 120 in the shade and laden with equipment weighing about 110lbs is no joke.\u00a0 Added to this the additional consideration that there is no water to be had.\u00a0 Troops marching there have to carry sufficient water for their needs with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout six miles from the wireless station, that is a mile or so from the first trench of which I shall tell you in a moment, we had a bit of a surprise.\u00a0 One of our men noticed a German soldier in a tree and about to fire.\u00a0 He was well up in the tree and one of our men anticipated his intention and fired on him, wounding him in the wrist, and leaving him helpless \u2013 his hand was shattered.\u00a0 It was a lucky thing for us for upon reaching the wounded German and examining the tree we found that there was an electrical contrivance set up in it with a switch.\u00a0 It was connected with<\/p>\n

A LAND MINE,<\/p>\n

and portion of our little army had already crossed the mine, which was a trench across the road filled with iron bolts and other metal and a lot of explosives. A touch of the switch and we should have been blown sky high, but the lucky shot of our comrade prevented this.\u00a0 The man told us afterwards that he had been posted there to explode the mine as we crossed it with our 12-pounder.\u00a0 Later on we exploded it ourselves as an experiment and you never saw anything like the upheaval of earth there was.\u00a0 Bolts, earth and stones were hurled into the elements, and trees in the vicinity uprooted by the violence of the shock. Some time later we found another mine, but having seen the havoc produced by the first explosion we didn\u2019t explode this.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 5 miles from the wireless station, which it was our duty to tackle, we came across the first trench.\u00a0 It was occupied entirely by n****** \u2013 about 400 of them, native police.\u00a0 The<\/p>\n

N******* OPENED FIRE ON US<\/p>\n

and we lost ten men. We were forced to take shelter as they entirely outnumbered us and were no mean shots.\u00a0 Later we had 150 reinforcements.\u00a0 This was about 8 o\u2019clock in the morning, and at 3 o\u2019clock that afternoon after a stiff fight we had that trench.\u00a0 We had brought our 12-pounder gun to bear upon the n******.\u00a0 The n****** does not mind rifle shooting; he can stand that allright [sic], but the big gun is too much for his nerves.\u00a0 Those of the n****** who hadn\u2019t deserted the trench and cleared off to other trenches in the rear chucked up the sponge when the heavy gun had fired some shots on the trench and we took 150 prisoners, disarmed them and packed them back to Herbertshohe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to the second line of trenches about 5 o\u2019clock in the afternoon.\u00a0 This was occupied by a mixture of n****** and German soldiers.\u00a0 We opened fire with the 12-pounder and in the attack lost pretty heavily ourselves.\u00a0 Somewhere about 8 o\u2019clock in the evening that trench fell to us also, and we took about 40 n****** prisoner.\u00a0 It was dark by this time and the n****** managed to give us the slip and get away through the scrub.\u00a0 We then marched on the last trench, which lay between us and the wireless station.\u00a0 We found on approaching the trench that<\/p>\n

IT WAS OCCUPIED BY GERMAN SOLDIERS.<\/p>\n

There were no n****** there. We rested without attacking and at 4 o\u2019clock in the morning the Germans opened fire on us.\u00a0 We returned the fire and for about two hours the racket went on in pretty lively fashion.\u00a0 We had previously entrenched ourselves during the night.\u00a0 I should have told you that our little force was composed of all tough old soldiers, with the exception of six green ones like myself.\u00a0 Every time a German head came over the trench we popped at it until about 7 o\u2019clock when<\/p>\n

UP WENT THEIR WHITE FLAG.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t advance at once fearing this was a ruse and that their intention was to get us out of our trench so as to have a fling at us. When we did advance on the trench we found it deserted save for the bodies of some 10 dead Germans and some wounded.\u00a0 The Germans had retreated to a place called Tomo, about 19 miles the other side of the wireless station.\u00a0 We dismantled the wireless station and proceeded to pick up any wounded there were \u2013 24 Germans and about 50 of our own men.\u00a0 We had to carry the wounded back to Herbertshohe, which was a terrible job, as we had nothing to eat since we left the morning before, and our water supplies had long being consumed.\u00a0 We left a garrison of 120 men in Herbertshohe and went about the troopship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe landed again at a place called Rebaul, 250 miles from Herbertshohe on the same island.\u00a0 Rebaul is the capital of the island and was<\/p>\n

AN IMPORTANT GERMAN COALING STATION.<\/p>\n

They had thousands of tons of coal stacked there for their warships. As we entered Rebaul they flew the white flag and surrendered, and we hoisted our flag and read the proclamation.\u00a0 We marched through the town in company with a lot of men off the Australian warships, and met with no opposition.\u00a0 At 5 o\u2019clock in the afternoon we returned to the ship, when a despatch rider reached our colonel to inform us the Germans were showing fight at Tomo \u2013 the place to which they retreated from the wireless station.\u00a0 Two hundred men, amongst whom I found myself, were sent back to Herbertshohe on the Sydney<\/em>, which as you may remember was<\/p>\n

THE SHIP THAT SANK THE EMDEN.<\/em><\/p>\n

We reached Herbertshohe about 12 o\u2019clock that night and anchored outside, as there are no wharves there. We were sent to the shore in boats, and when the boat stranded we had to wade the rest of the way.\u00a0 We slept on the sands in our kits that night, and at 4 o\u2019clock in the morning we marched for Tomo.\u00a0 The Sydney<\/em> kept up a steady bombardment over our heads, but Tomo being so far inland, of course, it could not be shelled from the sea.\u00a0 The Germans, however, reckoned that no white men could march from Herbertshohe to Tomo in one day.\u00a0 However, we did it in a forced march and got to Tomo about 3.30 in the afternoon, dragging our 12-pounder after us.\u00a0 The Germans did not expect us that day.\u00a0 They drink a terrible lot of beer, believing that it keeps off the malaria, and when we reached Tomo they were<\/p>\n

HAVING A GOOD \u201cBOOSE\u201d UP.<\/p>\n

There were only about twenty Germans in the trenches with the n******. But what a trench that was!\u00a0 We found it quite impervious to our shells.\u00a0 After firing four shots Colonel Watson, our commander, ordered us to retire, as it was not possible to take the trench that night in the darkness.\u00a0 We were ordered to retreat to our base, which had been made about four miles back.\u00a0 On our march back a German soldier on horseback overtook us and told us his Government [sic]\u00a0wished to confer with our commander with regard to making peace.\u00a0 Our colonel told him through our interpreter, a Frenchman \u2013 for the fellow pretended he could speak no English \u2013 to tell his Governor to bring in his men and surrender [the] next day, that that was the only peace he could make.\u00a0 We marched back to Herbertshohe that night, and next day the German Governor came in with 400 German troops and 500 n****** and surrendered.\u00a0 The Germans were put on the Berrima<\/em> and sent back to Sydney.\u00a0 We took the rifles from the n******,<\/p>\n

GAVE THEM TINS OF BULLY BEEF<\/p>\n

and sent them back to the bush again, as they were harmless without their German masters.<\/p>\n

We returned to Rebaul, where there was a garrison of 300 Australian troops, and we proceeded to a place called Madang [sic] on the mainland of New Guinea.\u00a0 The German Governor had, of course, surrendered Mandang amongst the other places, but some troops there held out on their own, but their numbers were small and they surrendered without much trouble.\u00a0 We left a garrison of 150 men there.\u00a0 We next went to the Solomon Islands \u2013 Kieta \u2013 where there were only about fifty Germans, and they surrendered.\u00a0 After that we returned to Rebaul, arriving there just at the beginning of the malaria season, which sets in about Christmas.\u00a0 We lost a lot of men there through fever.<\/p>\n

After that we were sent to New Ireland.\u00a0 There were six Germans on the island who had not come in.\u00a0 Information of this was given to us by<\/p>\n

AN ENGLISH MISSIONARY.<\/p>\n

The Germans got to know that he gave the information, and when he went back they flogged him, but they paid for it afterwards. The garrison came to relieve us on 1st February and we left Rebaul for Sydney on the 18th February, this is about 400 of us who were left out of 1,500 between fever and bullets.\u00a0 We had spent six months in New Guinea and around it, and the work and climate told so much on us that hardly one of us was<\/p>\n

STRONG ENOUGH TO LIFT A RIFLE<\/p>\n

when we reached Sydney.<\/p>\n

I should have told you that Rebaul, Kieta and Mandang were important German coaling stations, and as they were taken by us the Germans had nowhere to go for coal but to Chili [sic].\u00a0 The Australian fleet followed them there only to find that they had cleared round by Cape Horn, where they were met by the British fleet at Falkland Island and were sunk.<\/p>\n

Arrived at Sydney our little force was examined and the doctors said we would be unfit for service for nine months owing to the hardships we had endured.\u00a0 I thought I would come home for a while.<\/p>\n

I WAS THE ONLY IRISHMAN<\/p>\n

amongst the force, as far as I know, and I believe I am the only one that has yet reached England after the New Guinea expedition.\u00a0 We were a small force, but we did some useful work, and many a poor fellow who left Sydney with me gave up his life in the doing.\u00a0 I escaped without a scratch, and was also extremely lucky in escaping the fever which played havoc with our men.<\/p>\n

Back from the boundary of civilisation? concluded Mr. Lawler, referring to my comment, \u201cThat\u2019s quite true, for we were quite close to the cannibal country.\u00a0 I should like to tell you something another time about the n****** and their lives and habits.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it will interest you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> Typed as in the original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kildare Observer\u00a015 May 1915 From the Boundary of Civilisation Naas Man\u2019s Experience The Story of the Capture of New Guinea Back from the borders of civilisation with experiences such as fall to the lot of young men of twenty-two, Mr. Peter Lawler, youngest son of Mrs. Lawler, Halverstown, Naas, told me a story during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspaper-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}