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Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels was the name given by Australian soldiers to Papua New Guinean war carriers who, during World War II, were recruited or forced into service to bring supplies up to the front and carry injured Australian troops down the Kokoda trail during the Kokoda Campaign. "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" was originally used by British soldiers in the 19th century as a name for Hadendoa warriors on the Red Sea coast of the Sudan, and referred to their elaborate butter-matted hairstyles.
In 1942, during the Pacific invasion, the Japanese had built up a force of 13,500 in the Gona region of Papua with the intention of invading Port Moresby. The key to the offensive was an overland trail across the Owen Stanley Ranges. The trail ranged from the small village of Buna on the north coast of Papua and went up the slopes through Gorari and Oivi to Kokoda. The trail was approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) long, folded into a series of ridges, rising higher and to 2,100 metres (6,900 ft) and then declining again to 900 metres (3,000 ft). It was covered in thick jungle, short trees and tall trees tangled with vines.
In June 1942, Australian Major General Basil Morris issued an "Employment of Natives Order"[ citation needed ], which allowed native Papuans to be recruited as carriers for three years. Between August and December that year, around 16,000 Papuans were recruited, often with false promises such as a shorter period of service or a less difficult working condition. [1] In some occasions, the Papuans were forced into service. [2]
On 29 August 1942, the Japanese task force broke through the Australian line forcing the Australians to retreat further back to Templeton's Crossing. Eventually, the Australians were forced to retreat to Myola. Six hundred and fifty Australians died in the campaign. It is speculated that this number would have been much larger without the Papuans' service. [3] As one Australian digger has noted:
They carried stretchers over seemingly impassable barriers, with the patient reasonably comfortable. The care they give to the patient is magnificent. If night finds the stretcher still on the track, they will find a level spot and build a shelter over the patient. They will make him as comfortable as possible fetch him water and feed him if food is available, regardless of their own needs. They sleep four each side of the stretcher and if the patient moves or requires any attention during the night, this is given instantly. These were the deeds of the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" – for us!
No known injured soldier that was still alive was ever abandoned by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, even during heavy combat. In July 2007, grandsons of Australian World War II soldiers and grandsons of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels took part in the "Kokoda Challenge". [4] The last Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel from the Kokoda Track area, Faole Bokoi, died aged 91 in 2016. He was appointed the Village Constable of his village, Manari, in the 1950s and had visited Australia as a guest of the Returned Services League in his later years. [5] The last Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel was Havala Laula [6] who died on 24 December 2017. [7]
In June 2008, Australian senator Guy Barnett called for his country's Parliament to give official recognition to Papua New Guineans' courage and contributions to the war effort.
I was stunned to learn that Australia has not officially recognised these wonderful PNG nationals who saved the lives of Australian servicemen. They carried stretchers, stores and sometimes wounded diggers directly on their shoulders over some of the toughest terrain in the world. Without them I think the Kokoda campaign would have been far more difficult than it was. [8]
In 2009, the Australian government began awarding the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Commemorative Medallion' to living Papua New Guineans who assisted the Australian war effort, usually bringing survivors and their families to Port Moresby for ceremonial presentations. Australian veterans generally complained that the recognition was too little, too late. [9]
The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced to about 50,000–60,000 years ago, when people first migrated towards the Australian continent. The written history began when European navigators first sighted New Guinea in the early part of the 17th century.
The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the annexation but in 1884 a protectorate was proclaimed over the territory, then called "British New Guinea". There is a certain ambiguity about the exact date on which the entire territory was annexed by the British. The Papua Act 1905 recites that this happened "on or about" 4 September 1888. On 18 March 1902, the Territory was placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia. Resolutions of acceptance were passed by the Commonwealth Parliament, which accepted the territory under the name of Papua.
The Kokoda Track or Trail is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs 96 kilometres (60 mi) overland – 60 kilometres (37 mi) in a straight line – through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The track was the location of the 1942 World War II battle between Japanese and Allied – primarily Australian – forces in what was then the Australian territory of Papua.
Maroubra Force was the name given to the ad hoc Australian infantry force that defended Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from the Japanese, and was involved in the Kokoda Track Campaign of the Pacific War, World War II. The force was established by the Allies under the codename "Maroubra", referring to the troops in the forward area, it was one of many units forming the body of the New Guinea Force, the main Allied army formation in the South West Pacific Area during 1942.
The Royal Pacific Islands Regiment (RPIR) is an infantry regiment of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). The regiment is descended from the Australian Army infantry battalions formed from native soldiers and Australian officers and non-commissioned officers in the territories of Papua and New Guinea during World War II to help fight against the Japanese. Disbanded after the war, the regiment was re-raised in 1951 as part of the Australian Army and continued to serve until Papua New Guinea gained its independence in 1975, when it became part of the PNGDF. Today, the RPIR consists of two battalions and has seen active service in Vanuatu, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.
Kokoda is a station town in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. It is famous as the northern end of the Kokoda Track, site of the eponymous Kokoda Track campaign of World War II. In that campaign, it had strategic significance because it had the only airfield along the Track. In the decades preceding, it had been a foothills settlement near the gold fields.
Tourism in Papua New Guinea is a fledgling industry but there are attractions for the potential visitor which include culture, markets, festivals, diving, surfing, hiking, fishing and the unique flora and fauna. Papua New Guinea receives an increasing number of visitors each year, with approximately 184,000 international arrivals in 2015.
The Kokoda Track campaign or Kokoda Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua. It was primarily a land battle, between the Japanese South Seas Detachment under Major General Tomitarō Horii and Australian and Papuan land forces under command of New Guinea Force. The Japanese objective was to seize Port Moresby by an overland advance from the north coast, following the Kokoda Track over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, as part of a strategy to isolate Australia from the United States.
"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" is a poem by the English author and poet Rudyard Kipling, published in 1892 as part of Barrack Room Ballads. It describes the respect of the ordinary British soldier for the bravery of the Hadendoa warriors who fought the British army in the Sudan and Eritrea.
The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the name of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. That administrative union was renamed as Papua New Guinea in 1971. Notwithstanding that it was part of an administrative union, the Territory of New Guinea at all times retained a distinct legal status and identity until the advent of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR) was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was initially raised as a unit of the Militia from white Australian and European expatriates in New Guinea upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, before being activated for full-time service following the Japanese landings in early 1942. NGVR personnel then helped rescue survivors of Lark Force from Rabaul in February and March 1942. Between March and May, the NGVR monitored the Japanese bases which had been established in the Huon Gulf region, being the only Allied force in the area until the arrival of Kanga Force at Wau in May. The battalion subsequently established observation posts overlooking the main approaches and reported on Japanese movements.
The Kapa Kapa Trail is a steep, little-used mountain trail that stretches from the Kapa Kapa village on the south coast of Papua New Guinea, across the extremely rugged Owen Stanley Range, to the vicinity of Jaure on the north side of the Peninsula. Also known as the Kapa Kapa-Jaure Track, the trail is parallel to but 48 kilometres (30 mi) southeast of the better-known and more accessible Kokoda Track. The 84-mile-long (135 km) Kapa Kapa Track is half again as long as the 135-mile-long (217 km) Kokoda Track. At its highest elevation of 2,700 metres (8,900 ft), it is 510 metres (1,670 ft) higher than the Kokoda Track's highest point. Total ascent and descent is around 17,000 metres (56,000 ft). Because the track is very steep, difficult, and unimproved, it has been hiked by very few non-native individuals.
New Guinea Force was a military command unit for Australian, United States and native troops from the Territories of Papua and New Guinea serving in the New Guinea campaign during World War II. Formed in April 1942, when the Australian First Army was formed from the Australian I Corps after it returned from the Middle East, it was responsible for planning and directing all operations within the territory up until October 1944. General Headquarters Southwest Pacific Area Operational Instruction No.7 of 25 May 1942, issued by Commander-Allied-Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, placed all Australian and US Army, Air Force and Navy Forces in the Port Moresby Area under the control of New Guinea Force. Over the course of its existence, New Guinea Force was commanded by some of the Australian Army's most notable commanders, including Sydney Rowell, Sir Edmund Herring and Sir Leslie Morshead.
The Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) was a unit of the Australian Army raised in the Territory of Papua for service during the Second World War. Formed in early 1940 in Port Moresby to help defend the territory in the event of a Japanese invasion, its soldiers were primarily Papuan natives led by Australian officers and non-commissioned officers. Following the outbreak of the Pacific War, the PIB served in many of the Allied campaigns in New Guinea; however, due to the nature of its role its sub-units mainly operated separately, attached to larger Australian and US Army units and formations. Slow in forming, the first members of the PIB were not officially posted in until March 1941. By 1942 it consisted of only three companies, all of which were under-strength and poorly equipped. It was subsequently employed on scouting, reconnaissance and surveillance patrols against the Japanese, where the natural bushcraft of its native soldiers could be used to their advantage. The PIB was sent forward in June 1942 to patrol the northern coast of Papua and was dispersed over a wide area. These small parties were the first to make contact with the Imperial Japanese forces upon their landing in Papua, before participating in the Kokoda Track campaign. As part of Maroubra Force, the PIB fought alongside the Australian 39th Battalion at Kokoda, Deniki, and Isurava as the Japanese forced them back along the Kokoda track, but was withdrawn before the campaign finally turned in favour of the Australians.
Isurava is a small town in Papua New Guinea, located in Oro Province, on the Kokoda Track. It is the site of the Battle of Isurava that occurred over the period 26 to 31 August 1942, as Australian forces were being pushed back toward Port Moresby by the advancing Japanese. The present site is to the north of the wartime village. It is the site of the Isurava Memorial, constructed in 2002 in remembrance of all those Australians and Papua New Guineans who fought and those who died on the Kokoda Track in 1942.
Sohe District is a district of the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Kokoda. The population was 86,547 at the 2011 census.
The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway is a walking track and war memorial located in the suburb of Concord West, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located along Brays Bay on the Parramatta River, and is a unique tribute to the Australian troops who fought in the World War II Papua-New Guinea campaign of July 1942 till November 1942.
The Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF) is an international aid organisation working in Papua New Guinea. The foundation was established in 2003 and supports the indigenous people of that country. The Foundation provides education, health, and community service programmes such as disaster relief, microbusiness promotion and sustainable ecotourism.
During the Second World War, Allied logistics in Papua played a crucial role in bringing the Kokoda Track campaign to a successful conclusion. "The great problem of warfare in the Pacific", General Douglas MacArthur declared, "is to move forces into contact and maintain them. Victory is dependent upon solution to the logistic problem."
Sogeri National High School is a school situated in Sogeri in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It was the country's first national high school and it educates students from all over the country in Forms 5 and 6, prior to their going on to tertiary education. Many of PNG's leading politicians, administrators, business people and academics have been educated at the school. It was described by the country's first prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, himself a former pupil, as "the school that shaped the nation".
