Brothers in arms
Australian War MemorialHarold West and George Leonard were best mates who did everything together.
The pair enlisted together at Goodooga in north-western New South Wales in August 1941, were posted together to the 2/1st Battalion, and served together in the Middle East, Ceylon, and Papua New Guinea.
As young Indigenous boys growing up on the border between New South Wales and Queensland, they had been taught to hunt, track, and live off the land.
As adults, they put their specialised skills to work as bushman trackers, station hands, ringbarkers and casual labourers.
Harold, a proud Murrawarri man, was so good at his work that it was said he “could track a little black ant up a crowbar after six inches of rain”.
These skills, along with his ability to move quietly and invisibly through the bush for long periods of time, would prove indispensable during the Second World War when his battalion found itself desperately fighting to stop the Japanese advance on the Kokoda Trail in 1942.
When his best mate George was killed at Eora Creek in October, Harold was stricken with grief.
Over the following days and nights, he sought revenge, putting his specialised skills to work to track the Japanese and even the score.
Leaving his unit behind, Harold would disappear for days at a time to hunt Japanese machine-gun posts.
Armed with a bag of grenades, Harold stealthily moved behind the enemy’s lines, eliminating machine-gun posts and numerous other enemy positions.
Waiting silently for hours alone in the jungle, he would inch carefully towards a party of Japanese soldiers and throw grenades before slinking back into the bush. He would then disappear into the jungle, evading capture, despite the enemy’s best efforts to find him.
Upon returning, he would report that another Japanese machine-gun post had been taken out of action.
Read more about George Leonard and Harold West. Click on the link below.
Image: Informal portrait of two Aboriginal servicemen and best mates, Private George Leonard (NX43504) and Private Harold West, (NX43500), 14th Reinforcements to the 2/1st Battalion.
- Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/harold-west-and-george-leonard
