Remembering the war in New Guinea
2nd Field Survey Company (Overview text)
Module name: Setting (Australian perspective)
This page was contributed by Dr Chris Clark (Australian War Memorial)
In May 1944 a 20-man party from the 2nd Field Survey Company, then based in Queensland, had proceeded to Merauke in Dutch New Guinea under Lieutenant Alan Wood, to relieve a detachment from the 5th Field Survey Company which had been there since September 1942. The 2nd Company detachment stayed only four months, returning to Australia early in September.
No.1 Section of the Company, comprising three officers and 48 other ranks under Captain O.G.F. Ward, was despatched to Lae in December that same year. After both the 3rd Field Survey Company and 2/1st Army Topographical Survey Company went back to Australia in April–May 1944, Ward’s section remained the only Australian survey unit in New Guinea.
Eventually, in October 1944, No.3 Section under Captain J.K.C. Herridge also went to Lae, after Headquarters, First Army, moved there to take control of the Australian operational zone. That same month No.1 Section was ordered to Torokino, Bougainville, to meet the survey needs of II Australian Corps.
Meanwhile, No.3 Section was required to send detachments to the Wide Bay area of New Britain and to Wewak, on the north-west of New Guinea. The latter group, under Warrant Officer Geoff Foxall, worked on updating provisional one-inch-to-one-mile maps produced by American units from air photographs and drawing 1:25,000 scale maps. It was recalled once the 6th Army Topographical Survey Company reached the Lae area in April 1945.
On Bougainville, No.1 Section replaced an American survey unit, the 670th Engineer Topographic Company, which had made little progress in providing map coverage of the island. As the Australian unit lacked any reproduction facilities, it was forced to use the 2nd Company drawing section at Lae and to send its material for reproduction all the way back to Australia.
Following the arrival of the 6th Company in New Guinea, No.1 Section was progressively relieved by No.3 Section from Lae, which continued the mapping program. Despite the small size of the survey presence, and limited resources, the section on Bougainville still managed to produce 63 of the 106 coloured sheets that eventually covered the island.