Private Henry Prichard Green, 15th Battalion (CMF)
Australian War MemorialHenry Green was born in Hughenden, Queensland, on 15 August 1920. Known affectionately as Poogey, he was the fourth-youngest of 15 children born to English emigrant Harry Green and his wife Mary.
Henry and his family remained in Hughenden throughout his childhood. He attended the local school, before finding work as a station hand in the area.
Henry enlisted in the Australian Military Forces at Hughenden in July 1939, but had to wait until November 1941 to start his initial training. He was transferred from the militia to full time duty in February 1942, and completed his mobilisation enrolment form in late March.
While in initial training, Henry ran into trouble with his officers for disappearing from camp for three days, and was confined to barracks for a week as punishment. This would not be the last time Henry was found absent without leave; he was fined three pounds in September 1942 for disappearing for a week while in the field in Australia. Although Henry had completed his initial training as a private with the 26th Battalion, he was transferred to the 15th Battalion in late December 1942, following a week of home leave in early November.
The 15th Battalion had initially been mobilised to undertake defensive home duties along the coast of south-east Queensland in response to the threat of a potential Japanese invasion in early 1942. By the time Henry joined in late December, the battalion had been transferred to the 29th Brigade as a garrison force in Townsville.
On 9 January 1943, Private Henry Green left Australia on board the Taroona bound for New Guinea. The 15th Battalion was deployed to serve as garrison troops in areas that had been secured by Allied forces, and was stationed at Milne Bay for the first six months of 1943.
Halfway through July, the 15th Battalion was sent to Buna. In August the battalion began moving to Nassau Bay, then Tambu Bay, to take part in the Salamaua Campaign.
In 1943, Salamaua became a focus of Allied strategy, but not as a goal in its own right. Allied operations were launched towards Salamaua along the coast, and through the mountains from Wau, to divert Japanese attention from Lae, which was the Allies' main objective.
On 1 September 1943, the 15th Battalion was approaching Salamaua from the area near Tambu Bay when it came under fire from “determined attacks by the enemy”. At some stage during the fighting, Private Henry Green was killed in action.
He was 23 years old.
Four Green brothers served in the Second World War: Jim alongside Henry in the 15th Battalion, Alfred with the 13th Australian Personnel Staging Camp in Australia, and David as a temporary corporal with the Royal Australian Air Force. Jim, Alfred, and David survived the war.
In the years following Henry’s death, the Green family and friends inserted several commemorative notices in local papers on the anniversary of Henry’s death. In 1948, his older brother Edgar inserted a short poem in memory of his brother: “A gallant soldier has gone to rest, not dead to those who loved him best.”
Henry’s remains were initially buried at Tambu Bay. In January 1946, they were exhumed and reinterred in Lae War Cemetery. His Commonwealth War Graves headstone bears the inscription selected by his grieving parents: “His memory liveth … loved son of Mr & Mrs H. Green of Hughenden, Queensland.”
- Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1706287
