Don Bowen
Posts: 8183
Joined: 7/13/2000 From: Georgetown, Texas, USA Status: offline
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There were two "native" combat units in New Guinea. The Papuan Infantry Battalion was formed in New Guinea in 1940. It had Australian Officers and few Australian NCOs but was primarily made up of New Guinea native troops. It was a light-infantry formation and performed primarily scouting functions along the North Coast of Papua and the Kokoda Track. They were also pressed into service as carriers as only the Papuan Natives could manhandle a load over the Papuan terrain. The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles was a local defense force (militia in the true sense of the word) formed primarily from returned soldiers (discharged veterans). It also was formed in 1940 and had a nominal strength of 23 Officers and 482 other ranks. Officially a Battalion, with three rifle companies, a Machine Gun company, and Headquarters - it had units at Rabaul, Wau, Salamaua, Lae, Madang, and Kavieng. Note that there were also small sections of the 2/1st Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force, in several of these same locations. The Independent Companies were commando-type organizations that functioned quite like the Green Berets. Once the home areas of the NGVR were overrun the units performed deep reconnaissance and occasional raids on Japanese installations. Some NGVR units were with Kanga Force (which was formed around the 2/5th Independent Company, AIF). There were also Native troop formations on Fiji (including some crack units) and on Samoa but that is outside the scope of Uncommon Valor (waiting for WITP). Don
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