View the pdf - Australian Army

There was also irony in Field’s criticism of Dexter for not visiting the forwardtroops often enough because the brigade’s records indicate that the brigadiervisited the 61st Battalion only once during March, on the 3rd.199 Field explainedthat ‘The conduct of operations and the period of absence entailed away from myHQ made personal visits to this Battalion on my part irregular and infrequent.Numerous visits were however, made with great regularity by members of myStaff ’.200 This was true and Dexter’s location on the inland flank made personalcontact more difficult. Field also noted that ‘Assurances were conveyed to me thatthe Unit would carry out its allotted role in the advance to the Hongorai Riveralthough it was reiterated on a number of occasions that the troops were tired’.201Dexter’s memoir and his letter to Field of 19 March suggest a sense of frustrationin getting his concerns through to the brigade headquarters, and it is temptingto speculate that more frequent visits by the brigade commander in late Februaryand the first half of March might have resulted in prompter recognition of thebattalion’s state.202 Interestingly, the 9th Battalion’s CO complained in late Aprilthat Field had not visited his battalion’s troops in over five weeks.203Undoubtedly a multitude of other factors played a part in the 61st Battalion’sdemise. The lack of any noteworthy victory, and corresponding lack of recognitionby the military hierarchy, was important. The battalion did not get the sameopportunity as the other units to have a limited exposure to combat in the centralsector. One observer has suggested that the death of Lieutenant Robinson was afactor.204 Dexter noted the obvious ramifications of the misunderstanding overthe cancelled relief on 1 March.205 Dexter’s personal relationship with his brigadecommander may also have been a factor—Dexter was the newest of the COs withinthe brigade and probably did not have a well-developed understanding with hiscommander. A relatively obscure issue that seemed to generate considerable angst199 See ‘Record of Movement of Officers – HQ 7 Aust Inf Bde’, March 1945, 7 InfantryBrigade War Diary, February and March 1945, AWM 52, Item 8/2/7.200 Draft report, ‘VX5172 Lt Col W.R. Dexter 61 Aust Inf Bn’, 9 April 1945, p. 1, AWM3DRL6937, Item 32, sub folder ‘W.R. Dexter’.201 Ibid.202 Dexter, ‘The Battalion – My Home’, pp. 166–7, AWM PR01182; Letter from Dexter toField, 19 March 1945, AWM 3DRL6937, Item 32, sub folder ‘W.R. Dexter’.203 Matthews diary 16, 26 April 1945, AWM PR89/079, Item 5.204 Schacht, My War on Bougainville, p. 185.205 Dexter, ‘The Battalion – My Home’, p. 167, AWM PR01182.A tale of three battalions — 47