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WWII War Correspondent, Alan Hulls

War correspondent Alan Hulls receives a haircut in New Guinea from Salvation Army Adjutant George Woodland, 19 November 1943.

Courtesy Australian War Memorial

 

Daily Telegraph World War II war correspondent, Gunner Alan Hulls lived at Broughlea, 82 Abbotsford Road, Homebush. A sports editor before enlisting, he fought in the Middle East with the 9th Division and later reported on the war from New Guinea along with poet, Kenneth Slessor. His older brother, John and younger brother, Arthur also served during World War II.

Daily Telegraph 5 September 1942 p.19 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247895062#

The 9th Division had already seen service in the Middle East, including at the Siege of Tobruk during 1941 and the Battles of El Alamein during 1942. By October of that year the Australian government had requested that the 9th Division be permitted to return to Australia as it was desperately needed to help with the Japanese threat in the Pacific.

Tobruk, 1941, painted by war artist, Ivor Hele. Courtesy Australian War Memorial

After three weeks’ leave at home, the 9th Division reformed and trained for jungle warfare in the Atherton Tablelands of northern Queensland from April 1943.

Hulls arrived in New Guinea with the 9th Division shortly before the Battle for Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula. The town of Finschhafen had been occupied by Japanese forces in March 1942 in a bid to protect their air base at Lae. The Allies managed to capture Lae in early September 1943 and began their advance on Finschhafen. The 9th Division was given responsibility for securing the Huon Peninsula, but it took heavy fighting to achieve it. Finschhafen was recaptured on 2 October 1943 and Hulls wrote that the ‘fighting which led up to the capture of Finschhafen was by far the fiercest of the New Guinea campaign.’[1]

Scarlet Beach, Finschhafen area, New Guinea, 22 September 1943, showing a Bofors gun of the 2/4th Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment ready for action during the landing of the 20th Brigade Group 9th Australian Division. Courtesy Australian War Memorial

In New Guinea, General Sir Thomas Blamey would praise the war correspondents for their coverage of the fighting saying ‘You fellows have done a first-class job and we all appreciate it. I have never known a campaign to be presented so well as you fellows have done it.’[2]

Troops of the 9th Australian Division unloading a Matilda tank from a landing craft mechanised (LCM) at Kedam Beach, Finschhafen area, New Guinea, 27 October 1943. Courtesy Australian War Memorial.

In the Daily Telegraph of 16 December Hulls reported that there had been no fresh food for the troops at Finschhafen for seven weeks, but that they had finally received a supply of fresh meat. A considerable quantity of their tinned food had been unfit for consumption due to faulty canning. Philosophically, however, he noted that a soldier ‘takes it as it comes. He will fight indefinitely on hard rations if he knows it is necessary.’[3]

Personnel of public relations, accredited war correspondents and photographers of the Department of Information at Headquarters, 9th Australian Division, Finschhafen area, 11 November 1943. Courtesy Australian War Memorial

By early 1944 Alan Hulls had returned to Australia asserting that the ‘superb job done by our troops in New Guinea seemingly is not getting full recognition outside this country … There is little doubt that the American public regards the New Guinea land campaign as virtually a U.S. show. Actually it was almost entirely Australian.’[4]

Back home, Alan Hulls continued to campaign tirelessly for the conditions and pay of frontline soldiers as well as for the care of those suffering mentally as a result of war service. He was not afraid to speak his mind or ruffle feathers. In March 1944 he criticised the Australian Army’s reluctance to make promotions in the field.[5]

Later, under the heading ‘Aren’t our soldiers due for a rest?’ he furiously demanded that the Australian government show the same consideration for her exhausted, battle-weary troops as did the USA, who also raised the pay of those in action.[6]

In June 1944 he published an article in The Australian Women’s Weekly. Writing about the New Guinea campaign for the women who had sent their husbands and sons to war he assured them that:

In the knee-deep mud of Lae, in the thick jungle, and on the steep slopes of the mountains rising sharply behind the Finschhafen area they developed into just as efficient fighting machine in the jungle as they had proved themselves in the desert. There could be no greater praise.’[7]

But it is spirit that really lifts AIF divisions into the highest class. The spirit that keeps men fighting long after their physical reserves are expended, keeps them fighting despite wounds or sickness, makes them perform deeds of strength and self-sacrifice almost beyond understanding.’[8]

The same article noted that, after observing the Australian troops in New Guinea, Major-General Lethbridge, British Military Mission Leader was apparently moved to say: ‘It would be an impertinence for me to praise the AIF infantryman. He is beyond praise.’[9]

Daily Telegraph 3 April 1945 p.1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248011331

In Melbourne in early April 1945, along with three other Australian correspondents, Alan Hulls received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon by command of General MacArthur, who commented that the recipients added ‘lustre to the difficult, dangerous and arduous profession of war correspondents.’[10]

After the war Alan Hulls moved to the Lane Cove district and returned to sports reporting. He retired to Terrigal, where he died, aged 63 in 1973.

 

By J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

 

References

[1] Daily Telegraph 6 October 1943 p.3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247806326

 

[2] Courier-Mail 15 November 1943 p.3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42014130

 

[3] Daily Telegraph 16 December 1943 p.4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247798975

 

[4] Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 1 March 1944 p.4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42055327

 

[5] Daily Telegraph 2 March 1944 p.11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247757367

 

[6] Daily Telegraph 15 May 1945 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248006508

 

[7] The Australian Women’s Weekly 10 June 1944 p.21 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47216799

 

[8] The Australian Women’s Weekly 10 June 1944 p.21 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47216799

 

[9] The Australian Women’s Weekly 10 June 1944 p.21 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47216799

 

[10] Daily Telegraph 3 April 1945 p.1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248011331

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