More than 600 coastwatchers served in Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific islands during World War II.
They were often cattle-station managers, missionaries and plantation managers stationed on remote islands. They played a key role in Australian military intelligence.
It was a lonely and dangerous job. The Japanese tortured and killed coastwatcher Percy Good, an elderly copra planter on Buka Island, off Bougainville. After Good's death, all civilian coastwatchers were enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy. It was believed this would protect them if they were captured.
Background
Watched and Warned and Died that We Might Live
[The epitaph on the Australian Coastwatchers Memorial at Madang]
After World War I, Captain Chapman James Clare of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) established the first coastwatching organisation. Clare believed Australia needed to develop a network of observers to monitor the remote coastline of Western Australia.
The coastwatchers on the northern and north-western coasts of Australia were usually cattle-station managers or missionaries who already lived and worked in the areas.
In New Guinea and Papua, civilian coastwatchers were usually plantation managers who had lived on the islands for some years. They had local contacts and knowledge. By the mid-1920s, their surveillance area included the Bismarck Archipelago.
Codename Ferdinand
During the war, the coastwatchers were administered by the RAN's Naval Intelligence Division. In 1939, Commander Rupert Basil Michel Long, the Director of Naval Intelligence in Melbourne, worked to close the gaps in the coastwatching service.
Long sent Commander Eric Feldt to take charge of intelligence in New Guinea. Feldt was a retired RAN officer with many years of experience in the New Guinea civil service. He knew the islanders, the planters and the government officials. They trusted him.
Feldt decided the Coastwatchers organisation needed a generic codename to distinguish the coastwatchers' activities from the other areas of naval intelligence also under his control. He was keen to choose a name that wouldn't indicate the nature of their activities to any casual listener. He chose the name Ferdinand after the bull in a popular children's classic, The Story of Ferdinand, first published in 1936.
I chose Ferdinand … who did not fight but sat under a tree and just smelled the flowers. It was meant as a reminder to Coastwatchers that it was not their duty to fight and so draw attention to themselves, but to sit circumspectly and unobtrusively, gathering information. Of course, like their titular prototype, they could fight if they were stung.
[Eric Feldt, The Coastwatchers, Melbourne, 1946, p 95]
When Japan entered the war, this screen of islands became the front line.
Coastwatchers in World War II
More than 600 coastwatchers served in Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific islands in World War II. They included 13 civilians, and personnel from:
- Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Women's Royal Australian Navy (WRAN)
- Australian Imperial Force (AIF)
- Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)
- British Solomon Islands Protectorate Defence Force
- US Marines and Army.
During the war, 38 coastwatchers died. They are not easy to identify on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. Their names are listed with their operational units and not as coastwatchers.
All 3 armed services supported the coastwatchers. Aircraft dropped their supplies. Submarines and patrol torpedo (PT) boats landed and removed them.
The help and loyalty of the local people were essential. They performed a vital role in guerrilla operations and intelligence-gathering.
Coastwatchers often had to move their camp to avoid the enemy finding them. Moving was hard because they needed between 12 and 16 carriers – usually local men – for their radios and equipment. The radios were powered by car batteries, charged by a petrol engine weighing 70 pounds (30 kg).
Coastwatchers needed local money to pay their carriers and buy food from villages. In The Coast Watchers, Commander Eric Feldt wrote that, on Bougainville, Lieutenant William John (Jack) Read even dynamited an office safe at Kieta when he needed funds.
Communications
The coastwatchers communicated by radio. They used existing radio installations or teleradios on loan from the Naval Board. They were given some instruction and a code with which to make reports on hostile movements and any high-value intelligence.
Most of the time, being a coastwatcher was a lonely and precarious existence.
In 1942, the Japanese captured, tortured and murdered civilian coastwatcher Percy Good. He was an elderly copra planter on Buka Island, off Bougainville. After his death, all civilian coastwatchers were enlisted into the RAN, mostly in the Volunteer Reserve. It was believed their combatant status would protect them from execution as spies if the enemy captured them. However, in many cases, it did not.
Also in 1942, when US General Douglas MacArthur became Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South-West Pacific Area, coastwatchers became part of the Allied Intelligence Bureau. They came under the direct command of General Headquarters.
By then, there were more than 100 teleradios, all linked to receiving stations in larger centres: either Port Moresby (Papua), Rabaul (New Britain), Tulagi (Solomon Islands) or Vila (New Hebrides, now Vanuatu). They used a special, rarely used frequency to avoid attracting attention.
Most of the teleradio sets the coastwatchers used were Type 3B. They had a transmitter, a receiver and a loudspeaker, transported in 3 metal boxes measuring 60 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm.
The original AWA Teleradio 3A was designed and introduced into service in 1935 and continued until 1940. It was made specifically for tropical, jungle and island use. It was commonly used for civil and domestic communication but was adopted by coastwatchers and spotters because army radios were unavailable.
The Type 3A was Papua and New Guinea's equivalent of Australia's pedal wireless, a pedal-powered radio transmitter and receiver designed in 1927 for use in remote Australia. Some early Type 3A sets were available with pedal generators. The Type 3A was superseded by the Type 3B in 1940 and the Type 3BZ in 1942.
People with teleradios transmitted messages in the Playfair Royal Naval code. But the 100 or so others without teleradios could only pass a message to Naval Intelligence by sending a runner to the nearest radio base, sometimes days away.
Later in 1942, the Navy replaced the 'Playfair' code with a high-grade cipher code that cryptographers specifically devised for Ferdinand operations. It was called the 'Bull' code.
Identifying ships and sending signals
One of the coastwatchers' main duties was to identify the different types of Japanese ships. As coastwatcher Corporal Doug 'Slim' Otton, 1st Independent Company, explained:
… We were dropped an identification sheet of Jap ships and we got pretty good at it. We were complimented on it in the end that we were able to identify Jap ships pretty well. And you know, when you're looking at sixty-odd ships and they were all types and then you've got to describe, say, two Natori class cruisers and Congo-class battleships and, you know, they all had their various names and they were very sleek looking ships …
[Doug 'Slim' Otton, AWM Murdoch Sound Archive No:S00596]
Sub Lieutenant Paul Edward (PE) Allen Mason, based on Bougainville, missed out on receiving one of the Japanese ship silhouette sheets. Instead, in his next supply drop, he received photographs of pages of Jane's Fighting Ships, an annual reference book of all the world's warships. When the Japanese tried to recapture Guadalcanal in November, Mason's report on 10 November 1942 advised that:
At least 61 ships this area, viz. 2 Nati, 1 Aoba, 1 Mogami, 1 Kiso, 1 Tatuta, 2 sloops, 33 destroyers, 17 cargo, 2 tankers, 1 passenger line of 8,000 tons.
[Eric Feldt, The Coastwatchers, p 121]
Another signal from Mason transmitted intelligence gleaned from locals who would work for the Japanese and then return to Mason with their information:
Our scouts being employed Kahili aerodrome state aerodrome is expected to be completed in a week's time. Many hundreds of natives being forced to work on aerodrome. 27 lorries, 6 motor cars, 10 horses, 6 motor cycles, 4 tractors and aerodrome working equipment at Kahili. Stores and fuel under tarpaulins spread along foreshore from mouth of Ugumo River to mouth of Moliko River. Two anti-aircraft guns near mouth of Ugumo River in fuel and ammunition dump and one anti-aircraft gun on north-western boundary of aerodrome. Wireless station on beach in front of aerodrome, also eight new iron buildings. Priests and nuns interned in iron buildings on beach. Enemy troops in green uniforms with anchor badge on arm and on white hat. Scouts state about 440 enemy troops but coolies too numerous to count. Weather too hazy to observe ships to-day. 0320Z 23rd (September 1942)
[Eric Feldt, The Coastwatchers, p 168 to 169]
Supply drops
Listen to Les Williams discussing supplies. No: S00959, Murdoch Sound Archive, AWM]
The Coastwatchers organisation had several supply problems. Naval stores didn't carry articles that could be traded with the locals, such as twist tobacco, knives, calico or beads. The coastwatchers arranged to get these items by parachute. Mail, maps and radio parts were also dropped by parachute. It was a tricky form of supply.
Parachutes were scarce due to a shortage of silk, and planes were needed for operational tasks. The RAAF had to design and manufacture a parachute of artificial silk for the coastwatchers.
Supplies were dropped around the full moon. The place and time of the drop would be arranged by signalling. Ideally, the site would be an open space, clear of hills. Fires would be prepared, ready to be lit once the coastwatcher heard the aircraft engines. The Catalina flying-boat pilot would fly back and forth, dropping a parachute of supplies on each run.
It didn't always work according to plan.
In May 1942, at Guadalcanal, Sub Lieutenant PE Mason asked that supplies – food and trading items – be dropped to him. The pilot of the plane sent to make the night-time drop couldn't find Mason. He dropped the supplies 70 miles (110 km) from Mason's location. After he received the signalled advice, Mason made his way to the drop site on foot and by borrowed bicycle. Unable to find the drop, he returned to his post, empty-handed after a 220 km trip. He received a successful drop containing food and mail some days later.
Neither were supply drops without risk for the aircrew. In his report from central Bougainville, Flight Lieutenant Norman C Sandford, a RAAF officer serving with the Allied Intelligence Bureau, described a supply drop that went badly wrong on 19 December 1944:
On 19 December, Lieut. Bridge was asked to prepare to receive a drop on the following day. A RNZAF (Royal New Zealand Air Force) Venture circled the area at 9.5am [sic]. The first run was made from the main range over the dropsite towards the sea but no cargo was released. The pilot then came in from the lower end of the valley and made his run towards the mountains. The aircraft made a good approach with wheels down and bomb bay doors open but cargo did not start to drop until the aircraft was over 400 yards (365 metres) past the drop site. The cargo continued to fall in separate bundles for some time and no attempt seemed to be made to retract the wheels despite the fact that the aircraft was heading towards the main range at low altitude. The aircraft rose at the last moment and appeared to clear the range but suddenly the starboard wing rose sharply and the aircraft disappeared from sight. Shortly afterwards I heard the crash and almost immediately a dense black column of smoke appeared. I immediately took a bearing on the smoke then called to Lieutenant Bridge, who had remained in the camp area and so had not witnessed the crash that the aircraft had crashed some 3 or 4 miles (approximately 5-6 km) away on bearing 26oM. 2WA was advised and PB's were instructed to proceed with all speed possible to the scene of the crash. A second party under Sergeant McPhee was formed to take food and medicines to and bring out any survivors. At 11.20 hours a note was received from the latter party advising that two of the airmen – Hobbs and Murphy – had been killed and that the others – Scarlett, Nuttal and Gardiner – were badly injured. 2WA was advised and a doctor and drugs were requested. The rescue party arrived back at Aita at 18.00 hours with Nuttal, Gardiner and the body of Scarlett who had died as a result of extensive 3rd degree burns. Nuttal was the more seriously injured of the two survivors and, despite all we could do he died from shock consequent to extensive burns at 22.30 hours.
Gardiner, suffering from a fractured femur, burns and shock became delirious at 23.30 but responded to treatment and by morning I was able to pronounce him out of danger. On 21st December 1944 in response to a suggestion from DSIO Nor Sols Lieut. Bridge gave order that a small strip would be cleared and local natives were recruited to prepare the site selected. A burial party was sent to the scene of the crash to bury Hobbs and Murphy and salvage what confidential documents might be in the aircraft and ensure that the I.F.F. equipment was destroyed.
Scarlett and Nuttal were buried at Kushi village under a grove of breadfruit trees. On my return to the area in January 1945 I had two hardwood crosses suitably inscribed and erected over their graves.
[National Archives of Australia, NAA: B3476, 37A 'Report by Flight Lieutenant N.C. Sandford, 2 DK Patrol, Central Sector, Bougainville Island, 12.1.44 – 18.6.45']
Sandford's report continues that attempts to build an airstrip and problems with aircraft led to Gardiner, now the only crash survivor, being evacuated on foot. On 28 December, a stretcher party carried him overland from Aita to Kurnaio Mission, where a barge transported him to Torokina. The party arrived on 1 January 1945, and Sergeant Gardiner was flown to New Zealand the following day.
Experiences of coastwatchers
[img https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C47205 alt text="Studio portrait of a smiling young man dressed in a sailor's uniform and cap" <caption>Royal Australian Navy (RAN) coastwatcher Leading Telegraphist Roy Woodroofe was based on Anir Island, off the south-east coast of New Ireland. Woodroofe is believed to have been executed by the Japanese on 8 October 1942. AWM P00871.011</caption>
Cornelius Page at Tabar Island
By the end of March, Page was a dot in a Japanese-held ocean…
[Eric Feldt, The Coastwatchers, p 75]
Cornelius (Con) Page was one of many coastwatchers who risked his life transmitting reports of Japanese movements. Page was born in Sydney and moved to New Guinea at 19. He bought a plantation in Rabaul and began coastwatching duties at 30, when Japan entered the war.
Page liked and trusted by the locals. He is credited with making the first enemy sighting by a coastwatcher in the Bismarck Archipelago. He spotted Japanese planes en route to observe Rabaul on 9 December 1941. As they passed overhead, he reported their numbers to Naval Intelligence.
Pages' plantation was raided after the fall of Rabaul. Intelligence Headquarters in Townsville signalled him to bury his radio and leave the island for somewhere safer. Page refused to leave. His wife Ansin Bulu was a Tabar islander, and he regarded the islanders as his people. He was then ordered to cease transmissions to avoid attracting enemy attention.
As a civilian coastwatcher, Page was not paid for his services. Belatedly, he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RANVR), but nothing could save him. As the Japanese moved in, the islanders turned against him. The RAAF continued to drop supplies and radio parts but attempts to evacuate him failed. He refused to leave or to silence his radio.
On 12 June 1942, Page signalled for assistance:
SOS Japanese landed Monday. Am hunted by dogs, natives, machine guns. Japanese left last night Thursday. They will return with more troops. Only chance flying boat land on west side where there is small island and sandpit.
[AWM 124 2/3 The Stubborn Coastwatcher – Cornelius Lyons Page]
At dusk on 16 June, a flying-boat was sent to rescue Page. The pilot searched the beach thoroughly but saw no sign of the coastwatcher and turned back to Cairns.
It's assumed that a captured document, the diary of a Japanese soldier who was a member of Kure No. 3 Special Landing Party from April to August 1942, refers to the capture of Page and a fellow planter, Talmage, in June 1942. According to this document, the Japanese searched for the coastwatchers between 13 and 20 June. They were probably not captured until after the RAAF's unsuccessful search.
There is some discrepancy about the date on which Page was executed. It's believed he was executed in the company of 2 other coastwatchers captured on New Ireland. Some accounts suggest it was as late as September, but the Roll of Honour lists his date of death as 21 July 1942.
Two years after Page's death, Sub Lieutenant Stanley Bell RANVR visited the Tabar Group, then on the outskirts of Japanese-held territory in New Guinea under siege from the Allies. The Japanese had just released Page's wife, Ansin Bulu. She came to Bell with a crumpled and dirty scrap of paper she had managed to carry during years of imprisonment. In a barely legible pencilled scrawl, Page had written:
To CO Allied Forces
For Lieut-Commander E. A. Feldt, R.A.N.
From Sub-Lieutenant C.L. Page R.A.N.V.R.
9th July. [sic]
Re the female Ansin Bulu,
Nakapur Village,
Simberi Island.
This female has been in my service 7 years. Has been of great value to me since Jan. Japs looted all she owned value A£50, put her in prison and God knows what else. Her crime was she stuck. Sir, please do your best for her.
Sub-Lieutenant C.L. Page[AWM 124 2/3]
Con Page was Mentioned in Dispatches 'for special services in the South West Pacific'. His name is included under HMAS Brisbane on Panel 1 of the World War II Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial.
Leigh Vial in New Guinea
Flight Lieutenant Leigh Vial RAAF was evacuated from Rabaul as a civilian. He was adamant that he wished to return to New Britain as a coastwatcher.
Obtaining a commission in the Royal Australian Navy was so a slow process, so Vial was accepted as a pilot officer with the RAAF and sent to Salamaua as a coastwatcher.
Vial became known as ‘the golden voice’ as he reported enemy activity for 6 months from his post in the hills overlooking the airfield. He was awarded the united States Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).
Later, while stationed at Port Moresby, Vial wrote and distributed propaganda leaflets for the Far Easter Liaison Office (FELO). The pamphlets were written in 7 languages and carried various messages:
- urging Japanese soldiers to surrender
- asking New Guineans to inform the Allies of the whereabouts of sick and wounded enemy
- providing news of Allied victories.
Vial sometimes flew in the aircraft that dropped the leaflets. During one of these flights on 30 April 1943, he was killed when the Liberator aircraft crashed in the Medang-Wewak area.
Alan Kyle and Gregory Benham at New Ireland
On New Ireland, 2 civilian coastwatchers - Alan Kyle and Gregory Benham - used their launch to send planters and missionaries to safety but decided to stay themselves. They held out until May, receiving supplies by air but then missed a submarine rendezvous.
On 3 July 1942, Submarine S-38 left Brisbane to try another rendezvous with Kyle, Benham and Roy Woodroffe, an Anir Island coastwatcher. A former plantation manager, Flying Officer Cecil John Trevalyn (CJT) Mason, who went to make contact with the coastwatchers, paddled ashore to meet Woodroffe and did not reappear. The submarine waited another 4 nights, but none of the coastwatchers made contact.
It was later discovered that they had all been captured within hours of their rendezvous time with the submarine. Since the submarine was not attacked, it was assumed that none of the 4 had talked under Japanese torture. Nothing more is known of their fate.
According to DVA's Nominal Roll, Kyle and Benham died on 1 September 1942 and Woodroffe and Mason on 8 October 1942.
Behind the lines on Solomons Islands
Several coastwatchers were placed strategically behind Japanese lines in Solomon Islands.
For 17 months, Sergeant Yauwiga worked behind Japanese lines in Solomon Islands, forming a vital link in the coastwatchers’ chain. He worked with 2 well-known coastwatchers:
- Lieutenant Jack Read RAN
- Sub Lieutenant PE Mason RANVR.
Yauwiga was a member of a United States forces party, which landed on Torokina and Bougainville. He was credited with being remarkably brave and influential over the regular carriers.
During the latter stages of the war, Yauwiga, now promoted to Sergeant Major, devised a campaign of rumour and subversion that led the Japanese to execute 10 of their own leading kempis (spies). Yauwiga arrested another 30 spies, thus destroying the Japanese network on Bougainville.
In June 1945, Yauwiga was injured by a faulty grenade, which exploded as he pulled the pin out. His left hand was blown off, one eye was destroyed, and the other damaged. Yauwiga was evacuated and flown to Brisbane for emergency surgery. Surgeons saved the sight of the damaged eye, but his personal loss and his loss to the operation were considerable.
Former plantation owner, Sub Lieutenant PE Mason, RANVR, was based in the south of Bougainville and Lieutenant Jack Read in Northern Bougainville.
On Guadalcanal were Lieutenant Donald Smith Macfarlan and Sub-Lieutenant Rhoades. Rhoades was the manager of Burns Philp’s copra and rubber plantation on the northwest coast of the island and a former member of the 1st Light Horse Regiment in the First Australian Imperial Force in World War I.
The coastwatchers and the Japanese were aware of each other, and the Japanese made several attempts to capture the coastwatchers, even landing an occupation force with dogs on Bougainville.
During the attack on Guadalcanal, both Read and Mason were instructed to move inland and to maintain radio silence unless there was an emergency. During the Battle of Guadalcanal, they were able to warn Allied forces of approaching Japanese ships and planes.
Keith McCarthy at Talesea
At Talesea in New Britain, Kevin McCarthy organised the escape and rescue of numerous civilians and servicemen.
After the attack on Rabaul in December 1941, McCarthy disabled 3 airstrips near his post at Talasea. Unable to contact the Rabaul administration, McCarthy loaded civilian escapees who were beginning to collect at Talasea onto his launch. Then he set off down the coast to rescue another group of escapees 100 km further down the coast.
He was able to dispatch the groups on a heavily loaded launch to Salamaua before he went to reconnoitre Rabaul. During his reconnoitre, he encountered many 2nd AIF stragglers who had managed to escape from Rabaul. McCarthy tried to organise their rescue through a coastwatch radio at Gasmata, opposite Talasea on the south coast of New Britain.
There were Japanese ships offshore, and their presence was reported to Australia by the young Sydney boy staffing the radio there. The Australian radio service broadcast the message to the world, and the Japanese promptly landed at Gasmata, capturing Mitchell, the radio operator and 2 other men. All 3 men went to an unknown death.
McCarthy then oversaw ‘a little Dunkirk for New Britain’ as a motley fleet of small craft staffed by islanders, government officials and missionaries ferried the soldiers safely to the Tobriand Islands. The ragged troops finally reached Australia on 28 March 1942, one month after the fall of Rabaul.
McCarthy received an MBE for his role in their rescue.
New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company
As well as the Coastwatchers organisation, there was also a small Australian army signals unit. The New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company (NGAWW) operated between February 1942 and 1945.
In October 1942, the unit was officially renamed 'New Guinea Air Warning Wireless (Independent) Company' as part of the New Guinea Force. In October 1943, it became part of the Corps of Signals.
These 'spotters' served as signallers in the valleys, the highlands and around the coastline of New Guinea and nearby islands. All members of the unit were volunteers. The unit colour patch was a double diamond, the 'independent' unit (later 'commando') insignia.
At its height in late 1944, the NGAWW had over 150 outposts behind enemy lines in Papua and New Guinea.
The unit was disbanded in 1945, and its members have been commemorated with a plaque on the grounds of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Commemoration of coastwatchers
A memorial lighthouse was erected at Madang in 1959, on Papua New Guinea’s north coast, to honour the coastwatchers.
The memorial plaque bears the names of coastwatchers killed in enemy-occupied territory while risking their lives in the execution of their duties. The plaque also bears this inscription:
They watched and warned and died that we might live.
The memorial commemorates all those who carried out lonely and dangerous duties and all the local people who supported them.
The light was officially switched on for the first time on 15 August 1959 by Senator John Gorton, Minister for the Navy, in the presence of Commander Eric Feldt, dignitaries and local residents.
Sources
- DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs) (2022), Coastwatchers played a vital role in the Pacific war, DVA Anzac Portal, accessed 2 December 2022, https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/stories/australians-wartime/coastwatchers-played-vital-role-pacific-war
- DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs) (2019), Cornelius 'Con' Page, DVA Anzac Portal, accessed 2 December 2022, https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/resources/coastwatchers-1941-1945/cornelius-con-page
- DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs) (2019), Supply drops, DVA Anzac Portal, accessed 2 December 2022, https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/resources/coastwatchers-1941-1945/supply-drops
- DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs) (2020), The Coastwatchers 1941-1945, DVA Anzac Portal, accessed 2 December 2022, https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/world-war-ii-1939-1945/resources/coastwatchers-1941-1945
- Feldt, Eric (1946), The Coastwatchers, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
- Powell, Alan (1996), War by Stealth: Australians and the Allied Intelligence Bureau 1942-1945, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South.
Glossary
- cipher
- civilian
- enlist in
- guerrilla
- propaganda
- rendezvous
- teleradio