Australian Withdrawal
After four days of almost constant fighting, the Australians were forced to withdraw under the relentless weight of the Japanese numbers. On the night of August 29, the Diggers withdrew from Isurava back down the Track to Templeton’s Crossing.
They began a telling series of hit-and-run guerrilla attacks at the pursuing Japanese, inflicting casualties at the rate of ten to one before withdrawing again under cover of their mates to a pre-chosen position further down the Track.
Lt Colonel Phil Rhoden sums up:
“We mauled them and caused them to stop, think and regroup. They gave us time and the chance to resupply. But they had no plans for resupply. They came out of Gona-Buna, their beachheads, with twelve days’ supply, thinking it was a walkover. They got to Isurava and only had eight days. Then they had four days. That was their undoing.”
The Aussie knew that every day they could hold up the Japanese advance would make it harder for the invaders. Conversely, each day gave the Australians more time for their reinforcements and resupplies back at Port Moresby.
Perhaps the best example of the spirit of the Diggers during the withdrawal came from a group separated from the main body of the defenders after Isurava. About 50 men, three officers and 47 other ranks, found themselves behind enemy lines during the confusion of the withdrawal. Under the command of Captain Sydney Hamilton ‘Ben’ Buckler, they began a six week odyssey to skirt around the Japanese and regain their own lines.
The party was slowed down by a group of wounded – four stretcher cases, three walking wounded and the remarkable Corporal John Metson.
“He’d been shot in both ankles but he refused to let his mates carry him. He knew how much energy was needed to carry stretchers through the thick jungle, a task made even more onerous because Buckler’s party had to avoid the Track and travel through the jungle for fear of running into the enemy. So John Metson wrapped a torn blanket around his knees and hands and he crawled. For three weeks he cheerfully crawled through the jungle, ignoring the growing pain in his shattered ankles and the damage to his hands, knees and legs as he kept up with his mates in the cloying mud and torrential rain. He was a constant inspiration to the others in the party as they lived off the land and avoided Japanese patrols before reaching a friendly village called Sangai on September 20 1942.” ( from The Spirit of The Digger)
Buckler was forced to leave John Metson and the other wounded at the village to give the main group a chance of making it to safety. Buckler ordered his party to ‘present arms’ in salute to the wounded before reluctantly leading the rest back to the Australian lines down a parallel track to the Kokoda Track and, finally, by raft down the Kemp-Walsh River.
Unfortunately, when a rescue party returned to Sangai village for the wounded, they found they’d been betrayed and massacred. John Metson won him the British Empire Medal – and a place in the annals of the Digger.
