Connor, George – NX34870
Captain George Boyd Connor NX34870 enjoys an elite place in Australian military history as one of only three Australians ever awarded Russia’s highest military decoration, the Russian Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class.
An imposing figure, very strong and fi t, he showed outstanding bravery in the many battles he fought with the 2/33 Battalion, in Syria, on the Kokoda Trail and in the Ramu Valley campaign.
His highly-prized Russian medal was for exceptional action during the Syrian campaign, none braver than on the morning of June 8, 1941– the first day of the campaign – when his single-handed attack helped in the capture of a key Vichy French fort at Khiam. He was then a Lieutenant.
His citation read: “Both on the morning of the 8th June, and for the remainder of the campaign Lieutenant Connor, until his capture, showed natural leadership, devotion to duty and personal bravery.” Being taken prisoner, one of 26 2/33 soldiers captured during the Syria campaign, was one of his many harrowing war experiences. He was transported to France, but released when the Vichy French signed an Armistice.
After Syria, Connor was 2 i/c of D Company in the Owen Stanley campaign experiencing some of the worst of the fighting for nearly two months until wounded and evacuated on November 9, 1942 After the Liberator tragedy, he became O.C. of the re-established D Company and led it during the Ramu Valley offensive.
Born on November 8, 1919, George Connor grew up on his parents’ orchard and market garden at Lugarno on the southern outskirts of Sydney. Because there was no school nearby he was home-schooled with his two older sisters, With no other children living by they amused themselves after lessons by playing in the bush. At the age of nine, George was sent to board at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore) where he was given some discipline and could socialise with other boys.
He thrived at Shore. He became a popular student and excelled in sport, representing the school in rugby, cricket, rifle shooting and boxing. George was born with a deformity in his left ankle preventing full movement. He didn’t let this interfere with his sport, although it later affected his military career. At Shore, he joined the school cadet unit, became an officer and was a school leader.
Although not academically gifted, he matriculated at the end of 1938 and began studying Mining Engineering at Sydney University. He continued playing rugby at the highest level. He was a sergeant in the Sydney University Regiment Machine Gun Platoon when war was declared in September, 1939. George and two of his rugby teammates initially wanted to join the Air Force, but found that there was a long waiting list. Instead he enlisted in the Army in May, 1940, at Victoria Barracks, passing the medical, despite his ankle deformity.
George was sent to officer training and was appointed a lieutenant in the active Citizen Military Forces on June 21, 1940. At the end of this training camp he was interviewed as a potential officer for he 8th Division, but missed selection. He then spent the frustrating remainder of 1940 training recruits for active service.
The frustration finally ended on December 16, 1940, when he was assigned to the regular army as a Lieutenant in 2/33 Battalion. On the long voyage out to the Middle East, George earned his army nickname of “Punchy” when he entered a shipboard boxing competition.
He joined the battalion at Gaza on March 26, 1941, and was immediately sent to Cairo for more training. He rejoined the Battalion at the Mersa Matruh defensive line as commander of 9 Platoon, A Company.
Captain George Connor wearing his Russian Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class medal.
On May 25 the 2/33 moved north to the Palestine-Lebanon frontier in preparation for a potential attack. Dressed in civilian clothes, George and his company commander Tom Cotton together reconnoitered the route of the proposed advance across the frontier.
Just after midnight on June 8, 1941, George and his platoon crossed the frontier and, having encountered minor resistance, secured the bridge over the Hasbani River at Jisr by daybreak. The Battalion C.O. then ordered A Company to attack and capture Fort Khiam, a square stone and concrete compound with corner bastions, big enough to house about 200 troops, and situated on a commanding hilltop.
Under cover of mortar and machine gun fire, A Company advanced up a bare spur towards the fort and the French returned fire when they were about 300m away. George, leading his platoon, managed to reach one of the corner bastions and silenced it with a grenade, allowing his platoon to catch up.
He then clambered through the barbed wire and over the ten-foot wall and single -handedly attacked enemy troops in their barracks and in another corner bastion. He was joined by three members of his platoon and together they barricaded themselves in one of the bastions until they could break out through the wall under cover of darkness. The next day, Fort Khiam was captured without resistance. His bravery was recognised, belatedly, in 1944 when he was awarded the Russian decoration, one of only three Australians to receive it.
A week after helping capture Fort Khiam, George himself was captured near the fort when he and a driver stumbled into an enemy-held area following 36 sleepless hours of confused fighting around Ferdisse. He was reported as “Missing believed Wounded”. He was transported via Beirut, Aleppo, Athens, Yugoslavia and Germany to Toulon, France and imprisoned there until released as a condition of the July 13 Armistice. He returned to the 2/33 Battalion on August 15 at Beirut where they were on garrison duty.
Following the Battalion’s return to Australia in March, 1942, to prepare for the Owen Stanley campaign, George found that his ankle deformity severely hampered his ability to go on long marches. He was assigned to the Bren gun carrier platoon. Upon discovering that the carriers would be staying behind to defend Port Moresby, George tried hard to find a posting at the front line and, eventually, became a spare officer-cum-batman-cum-runner to the Battalion C.O. Alf Buttrose.
When one of the other officers fell ill, George was given a posting as 2i/c of D Company, commanded by Captain Trevor Clowes and was with them as they harassed the retreating Japanese from Myola to Gorari. Approaching Gorari, George was wounded in the arm and leg by shrapnel from a mortar round and had a day’s march back to Kokoda for treatment.
He was evacuated to hospital in Port Moresby and eventually to Australia in January 1943 with the rest of the Battalion.
For the Lae and Ramu offensives, George was again assigned to the 7th Division carrier company because of his ankle, and expected to remain in Port Moresby. However, the Liberator crash at Jackson’s Field on September 7, 1943, that killed and wounded many of his old compatriots from D Company, changed that. Perhaps feeling survivor’s guilt, but mainly wanting to help, he volunteered three days later to assist raising another D Company. He was promoted to Captain and appointed 2i/c to Captain Kevin Power. The reformed D Company rejoined the 2/33 on October 8 at Kiagulin in the Ramu Valley where Lt. Col. Tom Cotton appointed George as O.C. D Company.
For the rest of the Ramu offensive, D Company participated in attacks on various Japanese defensive positions and, although the Battalion as a whole distinguished itself, George was devastated to have two men killed and 31 injured during D Company’s attack at the Knoll. He felt personal responsibility for the lives of all the men under him. George’s ankle continued to cause him pain on the long patrols through difficult tropical conditions, but he saw out the Ramu offensive and returned to Australia with the Battalion in February, 1944. He came up before a Medical Board in October, 1944.
Because of his ankle, he was graded A2, so could no longer serve in the front line. The war seemed to be nearly over so he asked to be discharged to resume his university studies. At the end of the war, as 2/33 servicemen returned George made a point of welcoming the troopships that landed in Sydney.
One of his last Battalion tasks was to arrange the marriage in Sydney of Lt. Col. Tom Cotton to his fiancé Pam Levett-Scrivener in April 1946. George was best man and his sisters were bridesmaids.
George continued to play sport for Sydney University at the elite level, and graduated with a degree in Mining and Metallurgy at the end of 1947.
After a 12-month engagement, in December 1948, George married Sybil Whiting. The couple moved to Broken Hill in 1949 where George was employed as a Mining Engineer by the Zinc Corporation, a subsidiary of C.R.A. They had two sons and a daughter, all born in Broken Hill.
George applied what he had learned at school and in the Army to his work environment, and rose steadily through the management structure to reach General Manager of C.R.A.’s Broken Hill operations in 1971. He was active in Legacy from about 1960, participated in remembrance celebrations and kept contact with a few Army friends. Like other veterans, he rarely talked about his wartime experiences, and never about the bad ones.
In June 1980, he retired from the Broken Hill mines after almost 33 years and moved to Bowral, N.S.W. He played golf and bridge, listened to opera, gardened and travelled around Australia in retirement. Sybil died at Bowral in 1995. George stayed there, living independently until October 2010, when he moved to Foresters Beach, N.S.W. to live with his daughter Cath.
In 2002, the 60th anniversary of the Kokoda Campaign, George was one of ten veterans from around Australia who were invited to attend the dedication of a memorial to those who served in the campaign, at Isurava in Papua New Guinea. He was the only representative from the 2/33 Battalion. It was the first time George had returned to Papua New Guinea since the war. It brought back many memories. He visited the Bomana War Cemetery where George particularly wanted to find the graves of some of his friends from the 2/33 Battalion who were killed in the Liberator crash.
He died peacefully at Erina on May 20, 2014, aged 94, and was cremated.