OUR HEROES – THEIR STORIES

Like so many children, NX105044 Francis Henry Mawson had a tough life growing up during the Great Depression. He was born on November 26, 1918, at Newtown, but during the Depression spent his childhood living in nearby Paddington and Darlinghurst, two of Sydney’s most poverty stricken suburbs. He passed his Qualifying Certificate at Fort Street School but left at the age of 12 to help support his family. He got a job as a delivery boy with a menswear store, mainly delivering pressed suits in flat cardboard boxes that he used to balance on the handlebars of his bike. He later became a valued employee of the store as a presser and cutter of men’s suits.

Harry, as he came to be known, was a champion flyweight and bantamweight boxer with the Paddington Police Boys Club. One opponent he knocked out, Tommy Morse, later became a world champion.

He answered the call to arms within weeks of the outbreak of World War II, enlisting in the Militia on January 5, 1940, aged 21. While training at Ingleburn Army Camp he met his wife-to-be, Enid Hunt. He recalled one occasion he was walking to the railway station to visit Enid when a Brigadier General stopped his car. “Let me give you a lift soldier,” he said. Harry declined. He was AWL and didn’t have a leave pass.

Another time when he went AWL to visit Enid at Coogee, Japanese subs shelled Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. It was June 7, 1943. He raced back to camp thinking he would be missed. Everyone was asleep. While training in Sydney he was promoted to Lance Corporal and then Corporal, but requested to be transferred from the Militia to the A.I.F. so he could serve overseas.

Because of his Militia experience he was used to train troops, but loved driving Bren Gun Carriers which led to him being transferred to the 2/33rd’s 2 Platoon Headquarters Company.

On receiving orders he was to be sent overseas, he and Enid married on October 31, 1942, so she could be listed as his next of kin. They had a four-day honeymoon at Manly.

Harry’s destination was Port Moresby. He was one of 300 replacements for the 2/33rd Battalion which had suffered heavy losses on the Kokoda Trail, and was fighting a pitched battle against the Japanese at Gona.

Fortunately for Harry and the others, the battalion, down to fewer than 140 exhausted men out of the original 625 who had started on the Kokoda campaign 98 days earlier, was withdrawn from action the same day the reinforcements arrived, December 7, 1942.

Before returning to Queensland, Harry and the others were sent to climb Imita Ridge and the infamous Golden Staircase as a jungle training exercise. It raised great admiration for the men who had made the arduous climb the first time in battle conditions fighting the enemy.

Harry returned to Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands in March, 1943. He was undergoing further training in preparation for the attack to re-capture Lae from the Japanese when a bizarre accident put him in hospital.

Frank Mawson.

On July 1, 1943, he was using a petrol iron in a Salvation Army hut when someone walked in and lit a cigarette. The explosion caused him serious second degree burns to the face and right arm.

He spent weeks recovering in the 2/2nd General Hospital at Rocky Creek. Before returning to New Guinea on August 20, 1943, his HQ Company represented the battalion in a parade before the Minister for the Army, Frank Forde.

Luck was on Harry’s side a number of times during the war. His first lucky escape was in the Liberator crash 17 days after returning to Port Moresby for the start of the Lae campaign.

At 4am on September 7, 1943, he was sitting on the tailgate of one of the trucks in the convoy parked at the end of Port Moresby’s Jackson’s airfield when he saw the US Army Air Force Liberator in flames heading towards the convoy. No wanting to get burnt again he jumped clear, at the same time yelling out to warn his mates: “Look out ! Look out! Look out!”.

Many times he yelled out the same thing during nightmares that haunted him for the rest of his life.

The full extent of the tragedy – 73 killed or mortally injured and 90 more injured – wasn’t known until the next day. Harry, and others, always thought the plane had been sabotaged, although that was never proved. Harry went into frontline action from Nadzab two days later. One of his first orders was to take six men and silence a Japanese machine gun. A platoon of American soldiers hadn’t been able to accomplish it.

As he and the men walked towards it, artillery fire silenced the gun for them. After making sure all were dead and the gun immobilized they returned to report it had been silenced. The Americans standing by were amazed, saying “ You eat canned meat and dog biscuits and go out to battle.”

Harry and the 2/33rd entered Lae on September 16 after seven days of bitter fighting against the Japanese who were heavily entrenched along the MarkhamValley. After Lae he returned to Nadzab and took part in the Ramu Valley and Surinam Valley campaigns, and the battle for Shaggy Ridge where the only access was on treacherous single-file tracks with falls of hundreds of metres on either side. Harry said he had to tie himself to a tree so he didn’t fall over the precipitous sides when resting or trying to sleep.

On November 30, 1943, he fell seriously ill with malaria. He was making his way back to the 2/4th Field Ambulance when he collapsed in a ditch. Good luck again came to the rescue this time in the form of some American soldiers who found him.

They said: “Soldier, where are you going? You are behind enemy lines.”

Harry recovered briefly but suffered a further attack on February 4, 1944. This time the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels helped him and he was admitted to the 2/5th A.G.H. then transferred to 7 Division Rest Camp in February 1944. Luck followed Harry when he was about to be flown back to Port Moresby. The pilot counted heads and ordered Harry off the plane because he didn’t want to fly with 13 passengers.

Harry got the next plane. During the trip the plane was swerving about. Everyone asked what was going on. The pilot said they were looking for the previous plane. It had crashed.

Harry left Port Moresby by ship on March 23, 1944. Back home he was charged for being A.W.L. after extending his leave for 16 days. Before being discharged on November 17, 1945, he had six months in and out of hospital and convalescent homes with flare-ups of malaria and complications arising from a cartilage surgery that nearly cost him his life.

He was in Sydney Showground Regiment when the war ended. He remembered everyone kissing when the news came through. Harry returned to his pre-war position at the menswear store but then took advantage of a study grant for returned servicemen to become a Triple Certificate Nurse specialising in Psychiatry. He worked at Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital for 30 years. He became a senior charge nurse and was instrumental in improving conditions for workers at the hospital. Later, as a Director on the Board of Parramatta Hospital he worked tirelessly
to improve conditions at the hospital.

Harry was appointed to the Crown Employees Appeals Board and travelled New South Wales with Justice William Perrignon, adjudicating various cases. He and Enid had six children.

Harry went back to New Guinea in 1980 to visit the Bomana and Lae War Cemeteries. At Lae he saw the grave of a mate, NX20605 Donald Kitchener McKinnon who died on September 17,1943. Harry said: “So that’s what happened to you.” He didn’t know.

An artillery shell, a war souvenir, he kept in a linen cupboard at home, was final proof that luck had been with him. It came through the top of a tent where he was sleeping, but was a dud and didn’t explode. A sound sleeper, Harry didn’t wake up.

By the time he did, his mates had retrieved the shell from the tent and had engraved Harry’s name on it. “This one was meant for you, Harry, ” they said, handing him the shell.

Harry never spoke much about the war but did say he hated the kunai grass and the mud. In 1990 when some Japanese exchange students came to Russell Island in Queensland Enid said he shouldn’t still have ill feelings towards the Japanese.

He responded: “When you have had a rifle in your face with a Jap at the other end, talk to me about it
then.”

One of his greatest honours was in 1995 during the 50th Anniversary parade for Victory in the Pacific Day. He was walking to join the Sydney parade when he was pulled into the lead Jeep. He never thought that would happen in his life. He was so proud.

Harry always attended Anzac Day Marches to catch up with his mates and remember those who didn’t come home. He loved fishing and helping people. He was the best Dad.

Harry died on March 14, 2008, age 89. He is buried at Leppington Cemetery. – MARY STEENSON