- Author
- A.N. Other
- Subjects
- History - WW2
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2024 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
A beacon to mariner and pilot alike, the lighthouse at
Madang Harbour is a unique memorial to 36 gallant men.
By Walter Brooksbank
We have previously met LCDR Walter Hugh Brooksbank MM RANVR (1895-1981) in the December 2023 and June 2024 editions of this magazine. As before, this story was provided by his grandson Tim Proust from an original unpublished family history prepared by his grandfather. Walter Brooksbank joined the AIF as a private during WWI and was later commissioned and awarded the Military Medal. Between wars he was a civilian member of the fledgling Department of Naval Intelligence and involved in the establishment of the Coastwatching organisation.
Once every three minutes between dusk and dawn, floodlights at the southern entrance to Madang Harbour throw up a stark shape symbolic of the Torch of Freedom. A trick of light and shadow vests it with appearance of an incandescent mantle. By day it can be seen that the shape is a lighthouse of most unusual design. It stands on Kalibobo Point, within a mile of Madang township and adds charm to the natural beauty which makes Madang one of the most attractive parts of New Guinea. Yet more important than charm and beauty, the significance of the lighthouse reaches out across the Pacific.
The Coast Watchers Light, as it has been called, is a memorial to the 36 men who lost their lives during the Second World War while working for the Allies in transmitting intelligence from their jungle hideouts.
Naturally, the activities of the coast watchers were kept secret during the war; but what has been published since has deservedly brought them widespread admiration. Not only did they transmit information which led to the sinking of many Japanese men-of-war, they provided information about the approach of enemy aircraft which led to the destruction of many aircraft and greatly reduced our casualties.
Often, the coast watchers were pursued by Japanese patrols. Though pushed about from pillar to post, they succeeded in retrieving, and later bringing back to safety, many allied airmen shot down over enemy-occupied territory. Theirs was a lonely job. It demanded the exercise of much courage and physical endurance. Except where it was found practicable for allied aircraft to drop supplies to them at night, they were compelled to live on the products of the jungle.
Originally, it was intended that they would not play a massive role and not seek combat with the enemy. This policy was reversed when the Allies had gained command of the sea and the war had become more or less static. By this time the natives attached to coast watching parties had become thoroughly proficient in the use of firearms, including automatic weapons, and they developed into fine guerilla forces. How effective they became is illustrated by the fact that coast watchers killed 5500 of the enemy.
The Coast Watchers Light was constructed from funds provided, as a result of public subscription, by the Coast Watchers Memorial Committee and the Commonwealth Government. The Government, while committed to putting up a lighthouse at Madang, would have built one of a purely utilitarian character but thankfully this was not to pass.
The lighthouse itself was erected by Boulder Constructions Pty Ltd of Killara, NSW, to the basic design of Mr. G.J. Laycock, Director of Commonwealth Lighthouses. It is a white reinforced concrete tower 80 feet (25 m) high, surmounted by ornamental metal-work enclosing a searchlight-type rotating light. The whole structure, standing 90 feet (27 m) high is designed to symbolize the Torch of Freedom. As a member of the committee established for the erection of the lighthouse I went to visit Gordon Laycock and he was so caught up with enthusiasm for such a wonderful idea that he also joined the committee and provided invaluable inspiration and support.
The tree-lined roadway leading to it has been renamed Coast Watchers Avenue. The immediate approach within its enclosed grounds – which are open to the general public day and night – is by the main arm of a cruciform pathway. Between sunset and sunrise the column is lit from four flood lighting units at ground level which are switched on for about 30 seconds every three minutes. An imposing enough structure in the daytime, the lighthouse is an even more impressive sight at night.
At its foot (of terrazzo with red granite finish) are three bronze memorial plaques. One bears the names and ranks of the 36 fallen coast watchers; another describes briefly the work of the war time coast watchers; and the third pays tribute in pidgin English to the loyal natives upon whom the coast watchers so much depended in their operations. Some parts of it should be intelligible to the average person:
Belong holim nem belong AIB (Allied Intelligence Bureau). Ol I pastlain nau ol I mekim narakain wok long war. I hait long bus, long mauntein, kolotsu long namail belong Japan.
Ol I gilasim manua sip nau balus nau ol salim tok long in Longwei long wailis. Ol bihan I harim nau I ken redi kwik. Planti manua, sip, balus belong Japan I lus long wok belong man belong AIB. Nem belong ol I no ken lus.
The free translation of the last part of the inscription is ‘May their names never be forgotten’. And certainly, natives were very much in evidence at the impressive, colourful ceremony on August 15, 1959 for the official opening of the Coast Watchers Light. Love of ceremonial is deep-rooted in the heart of the New Guinea native. Among the crowd of 6000 people, one section watched the inspection of the combined guard of honour with keen appreciation. This was composed of members of the ship’s company of HMAS Swan which paid a special visit to Madang for the occasion, the Madang detachment of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, the Papua New Guinea Native Division of the RAN, and the Royal Papua New Guinea Native Constabulary.
Although there was no local publicity, news of an approaching ceremony had travelled on the native grapevine. Setting out early in the morning in their much diversified sartorial splendour, some of the natives padded their barefooted way from places up to 20 miles (32 km) and more inland. The ceremony was charged with drama. It was timed to end at the fall of dusk, when the Minister for the Navy (Senator Gorton) would use a switch turn on both the lighthouse’s functional light and the floodlights. Senator Gorton timed his address to the minute.
Among the spectators proudly displaying their war medals were some thirty specially chosen natives. They had been brought to Madang as a gesture of appreciation for their meritorious service in coast watching. Conspicuous among them by the loss of one eye and of his left hand, sat probably the greatest and toughest hero of them all, Sergeant-Major Yauwika. Of splendid physique and possessing a shrewdness combined with, somewhat strangely, a strong sense of humour, he was a strength to one of the most notable of the Coastwatchers, Lieutenant-Commander Jack Read, in the vital work he carried out on Bougainville Island. Particularly, he provided early warning of the approach of Japanese aircraft in their sorties directed at Guadalcanal where, at a most critical stage in the Pacific campaign, the United States Marines were hanging on by the proverbial shoestring.
An example of Yauwika’s courage and initiative was his conduct during a surprise night attack on Read’s temporary camp by a strong Japanese force, when the party narrowly escaped with their lives. Yauwika was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He now lives in comfortable retirement in the region of Wewak, where in post-war times he had sawmilling and jeep-transport interests.
Speakers at the ceremony included Captain I.H. McDonald, RAN, Chairman of the Coast Watchers Memorial Committee, acting as Master of Ceremonies, the Administrator of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (Brigadier D.M. Cleland CBE), and Commander Eric Feldt, OBE, RAN, author of that admirable book, The Coast Watchers, who gave vital service in directing the field activities of the Coastwatchers.
Appropriately, Commander Feldt was given the honour of unveiling the memorial plaque containing the list of the fallen Coastwatchers. In a voice trembling with emotion, he paid his tribute to the loss of men so well known to him personally, some of whom met their death in circumstances too tragic to contemplate. Tape recordings of the ceremony (a striking feature was the superb performance of the two native buglers) and interviews with Coastwatchers were made by the wartime Director of Naval Intelligence (the late Commander R.B.M. Long, OBE, RAN) and micro-groove records were prepared from them as a permanent record.
In the severe earth tremor which shook Madang on November 21, the Coast Watchers Light was unaffected – a tribute to its builders and, in particular, to Mr A. Howey, the foreman in charge of its construction, who, together with all those concerned in it and inspired by its special nature, had carried out the construction work with so much devotion.
And so there continues to stand at Madang a structure which is quite a unique memorial – and a fitting one. For as in the case of the Coastwatchers it commemorates, it is performing a vital service, not only to passing shipping but also as a beacon for aircraft.
The deeds of the Coastwatchers, that courageous and colourful band of men, drawn mainly from plantation owners and managers and patrol officers of the islands’ administrations, are but one phase in the history of the war in the Pacific. The immensity and distinctive features, differing as they do from the pattern of the war in Europe, have scarcely been touched on by historians, hidebound, as so many of them are prone to be, by European tradition and practice.
The extensive use of aircraft carriers, involving the development of new techniques; the many special operations of that superbly organised, entirely self-contained amphibious assault force, the United States Marines; the terribly demanding nature of jungle warfare (the jungle being a formidable enough enemy in itself). These are only some of the features of the war in the Pacific, of that huge expanse of the globe hardly touched before in the whole of history by a war of any major proportions.
Some day, maybe, the sight of the Coast Watchers Light may inspire a historian to really get to grips with the subject and present the Pacific war in its true perspective and accord it the place in history it really merits.
