“All is activity here and everyone walks around with guns.” This is how Sergeant Clarke first encountered the war in Papua and New Guinea.
The natural beauty of the area was for Clarke a consolation for the plague force mosquitoes and poor quality water. Clarke greatly involved himself in photography during the war and was particularly fond of taking photos at native missions. The well-laid out gravel paths, cut lawns and gardens of native flowers attracted his eye. Opportunities for photos with the pretty and usually giggling native girls were rarely missed.
In terms of his military duties Clarke was involved in a number of different tasks but these seem to have been interspersed with long stretches of the frustrating blight of "spine bashing", sitting around with nothing to do. Despite the immense risks to personal safety, not getting to fly seems to have upset Clarke. He greatly resented not getting to fly.
Clarke’s duties involved surveillance and patrolling. Day after day he would search for enemy vessels, but “[p]atrolling the sea morning and afternoon gets monotonous.” Clarke found it surprising “how the continual strain of searching the skies and oceans plays on your nerves; especially twisting and turning in the turret for hours at a time. The sudden appearance of a kite, though friendly shocks you suddenly. Flying loses its glamour in this area. It is just a nerve racking job, done continually over the sea, through storms and over high, mountain islands.” The monotony was occasionally broken by deployment to biscuit bombing for the land troops or night bombing raids over Buna.
In New Guinea the "flying men" faced the added danger of frequent and violent storms. Clarke was involuntarily forced by a rough storm that had damaged his plane to crash land into the sea. The force of the collision tore him loose from his moorings inside the plane and caused a head wound and torn shoulder muscles. Fortunately with the assistance of other members of the crew he was able to reach the emergency dinghy and, after a brief spell in the care of attentive and kind locals, was picked up by a P/T boat.
Unlike most of the land forces, Clarke was able to secure trips back to Australia during his service, this was due to the servicing needs of the plane. Although the trips were brief and functional they provided a brief respite that most land troops lacked. Clarke still had to endure the tropical conditions and the air raids though. He too had to shelter in the trenches while enemy planes attacked, “huddled, shivering in the trench. The bombs were hitting with terrible hardness and awful explosions gradually coming closer as the bombers passed over, until it seemed that we must cop the next one, but although very close the wave passed over and beyond us.” As the air raids became more familiar Clarke became rather blase about them. Sick of always ending up with wet clothes from the trenches, he and a mate decided the best way to get into a wet trench was nude. When the air raid began he and Perc “went out clothed in a tin hat”. This new lack of attire just made it easier to have a shower in the nightly rain.
(Source: Australian War Memorial PR01241)
Air campaign:
Overview text AS Gray Bill Garing J ClarkeClick images to enlarge.
AWM OG1466
AWM OG1532
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