[68skylark]

Interesting. I've been enjoying books recently from the U.S. Army's recommended reading list, and one of the books has a lot of information about U.S. and Australian cooperation during WWII in the South Pacific.

Until I read Touched With Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific I didn't know much about this theater of the war. The author says the cooperation was extremely good -- he says there were tighter links between the U.S. Army and Australian Army than there were between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.

[billl]

My Dad was US Army Signal Corps in New Guinea, which meant he was part of scratch infantry units as required.

He told a story about serving under the Aussies. He said the officer didn't carry a firearm and kept standing up. When he asked him to stop doing that and asked why (both of those things) the officer said how else could he lead the men and it was his sergeant's job to protect him.

He did teach them how to load a clip of 5 and a bullet in the chamber so if the Japs counted to 5 waiting to reload, they'd surprise them with that 6th one.