Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Papua New Guinea Post Courier (Port Moresby: 1969 -1981)
Fri 11 Dec 1970
Page 2
Manus story brought back some old memories

The article on Manus Island by my namesake, J. D., (Post-Courier, Dec 4), brought back memories.
I was in command of the small party of Australians and native police that landed at Momote, Hyane Harbor, Manus, on February 29, 1944.
Dick Booker, A. L. (Alf) Robinson and Ivan Hoggard were the other Australians and there were four native police.
We accompanied a squadron of the 1st U.S. Cavalry on the initial landing and after gaining a beachhead the rest of the 1st Cavalry Division landed. After taking the enemy. strip at Momote, the 77th Squadron RAAF, under Group Captain Gordon Steege, operated from there.
Paul Sebire, now District Officer at Port Moresby, and the, late Ian Louden were pilots in the 77th Squadron.
Alf Robinson and Dick Booker were awarded "Distinguished Conduct Medals for their part in the, fighting at Momote, Lorengau and Hauwei Island and Ivan Hoggard received the U.S. Bronze Star. Later my party received the U.S. Citation for its efforts.
After, the final defeat of the Japanese at Lorengau the Americans built up Seeadler Harbor into a first class naval base, which at its peak was reported to be two-thirds the size of Pearl Harbor.
There were cruiser and destroyer docks, wharves and tremendous shore installations.
Seeadler was one of the starting points for the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte, but with the departure of the great armada.
Manus reverted to its original calm. New Guinea was even denied the use of the tremendous amount of stores and equipment that was left behind for, in the following years, this was to be sold by America to the Chinese.
Alf Robinson, a former clerk in the New Guinea Administration, was a member of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles when the Japanese landed at Rabaul on January 23, 1942. With about 180 troops of the 2-22 Battalion he was later taken prisoner on the south coast of New Britain.
With the rest of the prisoners, Robinson was led out to be executed at Tol Plantation a few days later.
He managed to escape his guards by diving into the bush but his hands were still tied behind him and, unable to loosen the fish-line that bound them, Robinson suffered awful tortures as he wandered in the jungle for weeks.
Eventually, he was picked up by one of my patrols and Frank Holland brought him to me on the north coast of New Britain.
A brave man, Alf Robinson volunteered for the landing at Manus and so we met again.
As I say, he was awarded the DCM but he was not to survive the war long.
He was killed by natives in the Arawe area of New Britain in 1946.
The cheerful Ivan Hoggard, who was a member of the New Guinea Police Force in pre-war days, died at Port Moresby, I think in the early 1960s.
Dick Booker, once a plantation manager at Manus, now lives in Brisbane.
Group - Captain Steege, DSO, DFC, resigned from the RAAF in 1946 and joined the Administration as a cadet-patrol officer. After four years, in New Guinea, he returned to the RAAF and is now Air Commodore.
He visited his old friend, Clem Rich, at Goodenough, earlier this year.
Contrary to what "J.D." says, we managed to take half a dozen Japanese prisoners but three of them suicided before we could get them to Division HQ. The others were handed over to the Americans. There are still a few chaps around who were
with the ANGAU detachment at Manus, but they arrived a little later.
I refer to the landing party.
J.K. McCarthy
Port Moresby.

The Courier Mail (Brisbane, Qld: 1933 - 1954)
Mon 20 Dec 1948
Page 1
Jungle Murder Search

Sydney, Sunday.— An armed patrol is searching dense jungle near Poaang Village. New Britain, for natives involved in the murder of an Australian planter, Mr. Alfred L. Robinson, and eight native labourers employed by him. The External Territories Minister (Mr. Ward) said last night that he did not expect to receive further in
formation until the party returned from the jungle.

The Courier Mail (Brisbane, Qld: 1933-1954)
Fri 17 Dec 1948
Page 1
Murder by tomahawk

RABAUL, Dec 16 (A.A.P. Reuters). — Mr. Alfred L. Robinson, former assistant District Administration Officer in New Guinea, was murdered by a native who hit him on the back of the neck with a tomahawk.
The murder, it was revealed to-day, occurred last Sunday while Mr. Robinson was recruiting labour at Poaang village, on the Alimbit River, on the south coast of New Britain.
He had recruited eight natives, and gave them a tomahawk as a present. While he
was talking to the village head man, one of the natives he had recruited struck him on the nape of the neck with a tomahawk, killing him instantly.
CANBERRA, Thurs. — Mr. Robinson is the first European reported murdered by natives in New Guinea since the war. He was an officer in the New Guinea administration for 22 years, but resigned last April to accept private employment
On a plantation. His wife is living in Dalby (Queensland), and a son is in Brisbane.