OUR HEROES – THEIR STORIES

It is often said that wars are fought by ordinary men doing extraordinary things. Military Cross winner, VX12699 Kevin Power, was one of them. He was also fearless.

As a Lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery and leadership during the battle for Myola Ridge,

the 2/33rd Battalion’s most famous of the Kokoda campaign and one of its most important of World War II. The victory gave the advancing Australians control of the Myola dry lakes which became a major resupply point and drop zone crucial to the successful outcome of the Kokoda campaign.

In four days of fierce fighting the battalion defeated a much larger, heavily-entrenched Japanese force, but lost 21 killed and 48 wounded in doing so.

Power’s citation for the Military Cross said that leading a patrol attack at Myola Ridge on October 13, 1942, he showed complete disregard for his own safety when he disarmed a heavy gun, and led an attack on the Japanese, inflicting heavy losses. He returned three times under heavy fi re to rescue wounded men.

An even more extraordinary example of his fearlessness, recorded in The Footsoldiers, came two months later at Gona, when, after more than three months of fighting, the Japanese had been driven back down the Kokoda Trackand were fighting to the death, their backs to the sea.

By this time only eight officers and 128 other ranks of the 2/33rd were left standing out of the 625 men who had started on the campaign. Forty seven had been killed, 122 wounded and 267 evacuated with diseases such as scrub typhus, malaria and dysentery. The four rifle companies had been reduced to two.

The men were so exhausted they could hardly stand, but were still fighting. The extraordinary moment involving Power came when 40 exhausted men under his command faced little chance of surviving an imminent attack by a much larger Japanese force. With no alternative or escape possible Power decided bluffing.

Showing no concern for his one life he jumped up onto his parapet and, standing alone, in full view of the enemy, yelled orders to his troops and screamed at the advancing Japanese : “Come on you Jap bastards, we’re waiting for you.” Then turning to his men yelled: “Battalion, fix bayonets and prepare to charge.” The bluff worked. Apparently thinking they were outnumbered, the Japanese retreated. A few days later Power fell seriously ill with disease and was evacuated.

Power’s extraordinary bravery didn’t finish on the Kokoda Traail. His actions again saved many men in 1943 when 8 and 9 platoons of A Company were caught in an ambush in the Surinam Valley, one of the Battalion’s worst days of the war.

The Footsoldiers recorded that “all hell broke loose” when the Japanese opened fire on the platoons caught in open ground. Men were falling, killed or wounded.

Sensing disaster Power went on what Bill Crooks, described in The Footsoldiers, as “15 minutes of one-man action”.

In a letter to Crooks 25 years after the war Power described what happened.

He wrote: “ I immediately rushed up the hill and killed three Japs in the weapon pits, fortunately preventing them from opening up on our leading sections.

“When I ran out of rounds in the two Owen magazines I engaged the second pit with my pistol.”

Running out of ammunition for a second time, Power turned his attention to rescuing one of his wounded men, “Bluey” Lister. He carried Lister to the shelter of a small embankment then returned to rescue another of my men, Corporal Billy Hooke, who had his right arm blown off. Power attempted to also carry Hooke to safety when a Japanese gunner opened fire on them.

“The first burst hit Bill on the legs and he sagged forward. The next burst went thorough Bill’s chest and straight through my Bren gun pouches.

“I knew he was finished and laid him in a low cutting. Mad with fury that they should fire on a man carrying someone wounded, and intent on blinding their fire, I grabbed a Bren Gun with three magazines from the track and opened up on any opportune target in their FDL’s (Forward Defence Locations) until I again ran out of ammunition.

“I then grabbed a rifle and standing up to get a clear view I kept the Japs in their fox holes by shooting in the front of them every time a helmet appeared. This fortunately gave respite to A Company and allowed that tower of strength, Phil Curry, to put his platoon in a reasonably counter fire position.” Power’s actions saved many lives.

Born at Casino in northern NSW in July, 9011, Power served in the regular Army for a number of years before volunteering to join the A. I. F. in April 1940. He was living at Hawthorne in Melbourne, when he enlisted. Power was a 2/33rd original.

He was Warrant Officer 2 when the battalion was formed in England in 1940. He was commissioned later that year.

He had risen to the rank of Captain by the time of his discharge on March 27, 1947.