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ONE of the First Australians to confront the marauding Japanese as they advanced down the Kokoda Track in World War II has died in an Adelaide nursing home.

Les Arnel, 95, was one of just 12 remaining members of the famous 39th Battalion, the first to confront the Japanese in Papua New Guinea in July 1942, before he died at Highercombe Residential Care centre in Hope Valley on Saturday.

Mr Arnel’s daughter Cheryl Doherty said he was a kind and caring man who “just loved people”.
“He was very caring and made lots of acquaintances through talking about his war years,” Mrs Doherty said. “He was also involved in singing and lots of activities in the nursing home – he literally just loved people.”

The 39th Battalion is famous in Australian military folklore for being a rag-tag group of undertrained and undermanned men who delayed the Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track for critical days before reinforcements arrived at the Battle of Isurava. Mr Arnel was just 17 when he lobbed in Port Moresby in 1942.

He had lied about his age to get into the army.

He put up his hand to be a member of the first group of volunteers to traverse the Kokoda Track – the first white men to do so – in early July 1942, to confront the ravaging Japanese . Born in Ballarat and raised in Stawell, both in Victoria , Mr Arnel moved to South Australia after the war. He was the last remaining member of the 39th Battalion based in SA. There are now just 11 Kokoda veterans of the 39th still alive – three in Queensland and eight in Victoria . Mr Arnel leaves behind Cheryl, son-in-law Kevin, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren . His funeral will be at Modbury Church of Christ on Saturday at 2pm .


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