OUR HEROES – THEIR STORIES

Military Cross winner, VX 11589 Captain Harry Dugald “Dug” Cullen, was one the Battalion’s bravest of the brave. Born at Corowa, Victoria, in November, 1918, the son of a local farmer and Boer War veteran, he enlisted in the Army in 1938 and was posted to the Darwin Mobile Force. When war broke out he wanted to join the 2nd A.I.F. but his commander refused the transfer. Doug and a mate, Norm Tinsley, decided to go A.W.O.L. and travelled to Melbourne where they enlisted under assumed names. Cullen chose William Douglas Copp, a relative of his mate. His military skills soon came to notice. He had been promoted to Staff Sergeant by the time he sailed to England in May, 1940. In England he was chosen for a short commissioning course and was a second lieutenant by July that year. Cullen showed outstanding leadership during the Syrian campaign against the Vichy French when he played a leading role in the Battalion’s two most spectacular victories of the entire war, one at Ferdisse and the other at Rachaya El Fokhar. His tactical skills played a major part in the victory at Ferdisse, on June 10, 1941, when 150 French infantry approached a position held by Copp’s vastly outnumbered 11 Platoon, B Company. Always cool under fire, Copp ordered his men to stop firing and instructed one section to stand up and move back to give the impression they were retreating. The rest of the Platoon lay in ambush behind rocks. Seeing men retreating, the French started to advance. When at close range Copp gave the order to open fire. William Crooks wrote in The Footsoldiers: “A whole line of probably 50 men went down like ninepins.” The French immediately withdrew. Eleven Platoon suffered no losses. The other spectacular victory near Rachaya El Fokhar came a week later when Gordon Bennett’s B Company, which included Copp’s 11 Platoon, ambushed and inflicted heavy losses on attacking French cavalry.

The dramatic scenes are depicted on the dust jacket of The Footsoldiers. Cullen continued serving as Lieutenant Doug Copp until after he was seriously wounded at the start of the Lae campaign when he finally admitted his real name was Dugald Cullen not Doug Copp, the name he had enlisted under after going A.W.O.L. from the Darwin Mobile Force.

He again showed outstanding courage and leadership during the Kokoda campaign where, still serving as Lieutenant Copp, he was second in charge of D Company, under Captain Trevor Clowes.

Captain Dugald Cullen (Copp).

In an interview after the war he said the hardest physical part of the campaign was having to cross the Owen Stanley Ranges in the mud, slush, rain and being constantly wet and cold at night. He said the hardest part of jungle fighting was not being able to see the enemy.

“You could hear them (the Japanese) and you would know somebody was in front of you, but you didn’t know how far in front or where they were. The Japanese were past masters at just digging a little hole and having their heads poking out of the top. They didn’t dig trenches like we did. They used to dig a straight hole like a posthole,” he said. Cullen became O.C. of C Company before Gona. The following day he also took over D Company after Captain Dugald Cullen (Copp).

Captain Tim Clowes was killed in action. By this time both companies had been drastically reduced in numbers because of battle casualties and the evacuation of hundreds of men stricken by disease.

Cullen himself was evacuated with malaria a few days before Gona fell to Australian and American forces in December, 1942. Promoted to Captain, but still being called Copp, he was O.C. of C Company for the Lae campaign, where again he showed outstanding leadership and courage, firstly during the rescues at the scene of the Liberator crash, and during the first few days of the assault to re-capture Lae for which he was awarded a Military Cross for gallantry above and beyond the call of duty.

Cullen was sitting on the running board of one of the trucks when the US Army Air Force Liberator bomber crashed into the convoy. The huge explosion that followed blew him into a nearby gully. He put his arms in front of his face to shield himself from the sheet of flames that momentarily engulfed the area.

He then rushed to help injured men, some on fire, out of the trucks. One of the injured was one of his C Company platoon leaders, Lieutenant Frank McTaggart, who had a severe head wound. Cullen hoisted McTaggart onto his shoulders and carried him to safety. Two acts of outstanding bravery and leadership when the Battalion went into action two days later down the Markham River Valley earned him the Military Cross.

The first was leading a bayonet charge against a Japanese machine gun position seven days after the Liberator crash. Two days after the bayonet charge C Company went to ground under heavy fire from a Japanese machine gun post. The Footsoldiers recorded: “Captain Cullen decided the best way to knock out the Japanese machine gun post was by turning a light machine gun on it. This however had to be done from five feet above the ground, as from ground level the slope and tick scrub precluded a visual sighting.” Calling for a Bren gun from the nearest section of 14 Platoon, he had the Bren man act in place of a tripod by placing the gun on his shoulder. Despite being exposed to return fire, Cullen, who could only see the tops of Japanese helmets, fired three magazines, putting the post out of action. However, in the process he was seriously wounded in the shoulder. It was Cullen’s last battle action.

He was repatriated to Australia. After recovering from his wound he attempted to re-join the Battalion by falsifying his medical documents, but was found out, and was marked unfit for active service. Now a Major he commanded a training Battalion for a time and was then an administration officer at the War Crimes Section in Singapore where he served until he was de-mobbed in November, 1946.

In civilian life Cullen, sold agricultural and farm equipment for various companies, including Ferguson, International Harvester and Caterpillar, became a sheep and cattle grazier in Victoria and, for a time ran a successful real estate business in Brisbane. In retirement, he and his wife, Barbara, lived in Brisbane. At the age of 64 he re-walked the Kokoda Trail. He was president of the Queensland Chapter of the 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion A.I.F. Association for 10 years and was made patron in 1994. He died in 2004, aged 85.