Ivor Hele 1945 art exhibition catalogue

Foreword

Captain Ivor Hele is a young South Australian who had many important achievements to his credit before this war began. He won the Melrose prize three times, the South Australian Centennial prize in 1936, and the New South Wales Sesquicentennial prize in 1938.

Enlisting as a private in the A.I.F., he went to the Middle East with the 2/48th Battalion and, though trained and ready to serve as an infantryman, he cherished the hope that he would get the opportunity to work as a war artist. This opportunity was given him by General Blamey early in 1941, and, after working with the Australian Forces in North Africa, he came back to Australia at the end of that year to complete a series of paintings in which he recorded his impressions of the war in Libya.

Captain Hele arrived in New Guinea in 1943, at a time when the Australians had taken the offensive against the Japanese. After recording the tremendous feat of the Australian army engineers in the construction of the Bulldog-Wau Road, he served with an independent company and an infantry battalion operating in the Bobdubi-Salamaua area. While in New Guinea, he made some sixty drawings, and six paintings in soils, and, on his return to Australia painted a series of pictures in which he sought to epitomize his impressions of these operations. The collection therefore illustrates the full range of work done by an artist during a tour of duty in the field as well as carefully considered works based on his field notes.

Catalogue

1. Medical Officer Treating Head Wound. Pencil. 14 x 9.
2. Assistant District Officer, A.N.G.A.U. Pencil. 13 x 9.
3. In From Patrol. Pencil. 22 x 15.
4. Malaria. Pencil. 22 x 15.
5. Arm Operation At A.D.S. Carbon. 24 x 15.
6. Moving Through Jungle. Pen and wash. 13 x 10.
7. Dead Jap In Foxhole. Conte. 14 x 11.
8. Jap Foxhole. Conte. 15 x 11.
9. Timbered Knoll, Jap Foxhole. Pencil. 15 x 11.
10. Enemy Dead In Foxhole. Pencil. 15 x 11.
11. Dead Japs. Pencil. 14 x 10.5.
12. Dead Jap, Vickers Ridge. Pen. 22 x 15.
13. Defensive Position, New Guinea. Carbon. 24 x 15.
14. Marara, Native Carrier. Crayon. 22 x 15.
15. Impup Of Bankora. Crayon. 22 x 15.
16. Kwila of Mari. Crayon. 22 x 15.
17. Intelligence Officer Searching Enemy Dead. Pen and wash. 7.5 x 5.5.
18. Burial, Timbered Knoll. Pen and wash. 10.5 x 7.5.
19. Burial Cortege. Pen and wash. 7.5 x 5.5.

...

The Bulldog-Wau Road

Built as an alternative supply route when the Japanese advance in 1942 threatened the Bulolo Valley, the Bulldog-Wau road is one of the greatest engineering feats of the New Guinea campaign. Through country almost unexplored, the Australian army engineers drove a road more than one hundred miles long, rising to seven thousand feet in its crossing of the Owen Stanley Ranges. For months they struggled against every difficulty of climate and terrain: a rainfall of three or four inches a day, tropical humidity in the foothills, and intensely cold nights at the higher altitudes. Construction was difficult in the slimy clay; landslides were frequent; and the grades encountered were all but impossible.

In spite of these conditions heavy road-making equipment was brought up the Lakekemu River to Bulldog, and the motor transport road began to replace the native pad. Bulldozers, power shovels, and graders cut their way through the jungle, and where they could not be used, the men swung their picks and shovels. It was heart-breaking work. A landslide might destroy the labour of weeks, or floods wash away bridgeworks, or foundations sink out of sight in the red clay. Malaria plagued the engineers, and on the mountain top carriers died of pneumonia.

Although the Allied attacks from the sea reduced its military importance, the road was an essential part of the Allied strategy and its completion in the face of difficulties is a tribute to the skill, ingenuity and endurance of the Australian engineers.

1. C.R.E. 14th Australian Division. Conte. 14 x 10.
2. Kai Timè. Pencil. 22 x 15.
3. "Bluey"-Australian Sapper. Pencil. 22 x 15.
4. Working On Sheer Rock Face. Pencil. 12 x 18.
5. Sapper At Work. Pencil. 15 x 11.
6. Sheer Rock Face. Pencil. 15 x 10.
7. Sappers On Rock Face. Pencil. 13 x 10.
8. Supply Tractor Bogged In Mud. Pen and wash. 14 x 13.

1. Levering Rock With Crowbar. Pen and wash. 9.5 x 9.5.
2. Working On Bulldog Road. Pen and wash. 20 x 14.
3. Cutting Bench Round Sheer Rock Face. Conte. 22 x 15.
4. Hand Drilling. Conte. 18 x 13.
5. Near Fox's Camp-Bullgod Road. Oil. 23 x 19.
6. Black Cat Mountain. Oil. 22.75 x 18.75.
7. Bulolo Landscape. Oil. 22.75 x 18.75.
8. Bulldog-Wau Road. Oil. 22.75 x 18.75.
9. Mossy Forest. Oil. 23 x 19.

Independent Company Series

From Wau to Salamaua the Japanese were driven back in a campaign as hard as any in New Guinea. Well armed, frequently reinforced, and skilled in the preparation of defensive positions on the razor-back ridges, they were hardly more formidable than the tropical jungle. The Australians were wet for weeks at a time in the steaming rain clouds: the native tracks were knee-deep in mud; malaria and other tropical disease were a constant danger.

Fighting patrols moved between green walls which completely hid enemy activity. No one knew if the next bend concealed a sniper, an ambush party, or a booby trap, and this risk increased as our troops followed the retreating Japanese. But the Australians were quick to turn the enemy's own weapons against him. Patrols set booby traps even in the Japanese camps; raiding parties disorganised their supply lines; the swiftness and silence with which the Australian ambushes struck helped to destroy Japanese morale.

Fighting was not the only task. Supply lines had to be maintained, dropping grounds for food and ammunition prepared, and wounded and sick treated and evacuated, no easy task when men had to be carried over miles of difficult jungle tracks by native bearers, or make their own way back when they were walking wounded.

In this series of sketches, made when he was with the 2/3rd Independent Company, Captain Hele shows scenes typical of those hard days when the Australians were closing in for the final blow which was to reduce Salamaua and clear the way for the attack on Huon Gulf.

1. Killed In Action-N.C.O. Of 2/3rd Independent Company, Timbered Knoll. Content. 22 x 15.
2. Australian Infantryman. Pencil. 22 x 15.
3. Commando Officer. Pencil. 22 x 15.
4. Australian Signaller. Crayon. 22 x 15.
5. Commandos. Conte. 23 x 15.
6. Commando Leader. Conte. 14 x 11.
7. Soldier On Timbered Knoll. Pencil. 15 x 8.
8. Gun Pit, Namling Ridge. Pencil. 22 x 15.
9. Sniper Cleaning Rifle, Namling Ridge. Pnecil. 22 x 15.
10. Australian Soldier. Crayon. 15 x 11.
11. Commandos Resting Before Namling Ridge. Pencil. 14 x 11.
12. Issuing Bandoliers And Grenades, Namling Ridge. Pen. 14 x 10.

Action Series

In this series of oils the artist has endeavoured to depict the sequence of events in a jungle operation against two Japanese positions, "Timbered Knoll" and "Old Vickers", in the Bobduni area on 28th-29th July, 1943.

The first picture shows the 2/3rd Independent Company forming up behind Namling Ridge early in the morning, prior to assaulting Timbered Knoll. This is followed by two depicting early phases of the 58th/59th Battalion's attack on Old Vickers. After the objectives had been gained the wounded were collected, and a member of the 58th/59th is seen awaiting the arrival of stretcher-bearers.

During the consolidation the enemy dead were removed from their foxholes and later in the day, as rain and evening mist were coming down, the Australian dead were brought in for burial. The final picture shows three walking wounded of the Independent Company making their painful way back to base after several days in the jungle.

1. Moving Up On To Namling Ridge. Oil. 36 x 30.
2. Moving Through Artillery Smoke, Bobdubi Ridge. Oil. 23 x 19.
3. Grenade Throwing, Bobdubi Ridge. Oil. 23 x 19.
4. Hauling Dead Japs From Foxholes. Oil. 36 x 30.
5. Stretcher Case Awaiting Bearers, Old Vickers. Oil. 36 x 30.
6. Battle Burial Of Three N.C.O.s. Oil. 36 x 30.
7. Carrying N.C.O. To Burial. Oil. 23 x 19.
8. Walking Wounded, Missim Track. Oil. 36 x 30.

Copyright

Copyright Expired - Public Domain