Coastwatcher SBLT Rev W. G. G. Wiedemann, RANVR, enlisted direct into the service from his Victorian parish, to provide on-the-spot information for the planned Allied landing at Cape Gloucester. Wiedemann wrote: ‘I was in the Parish of Kilmore, VIC, and they wanted anyone who had been on Cape Gloucester. They could not find anyone, so the Sixth Army got in touch with me, and we did a terrain study in Melbourne. Then, the next thing they wanted was for me to join up with the Marines as a civilian. Just as they were getting that through, they decided it would be better if I went up with the Marines as a combatant, and it was necessary for me to have a commission to move among the big fellows, generals, etc., so they thought of the Navy. They got busy and got things moving, so that I was able to commission, and was attached to HMAS LONSDALE for convenience sake. That was going on when we sailed on 26 September, 1943. I was brought into the RAN on 21 October, 1943’.