The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

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Lest we forget we will remember them

Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels on the Kokoda Track WWII

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels was the name Australian soldiers gave to a group of Papua New Guinean people who helped and escorted injured Australian troops down the ^[2]Kokoda track during WWII. Over 4,000 Australian lives were lost in the campaign but the number would have been much higher without the help of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.^[3] The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels carried the stretchers, sometimes under fire, back to the Advanced Dressing Station. ^[4] They made the stretchers from blankets slung between two poles with spreaders at each end. There were four natives on each stretcher. They stayed with the same digger until they reached the Advanced Dressing Station. ^[5] They worked under shocking conditions, up and down treacherous mountain ridges over 13,000 ft high, down into the dark narrow valleys of the Owen Stanley Range. They carried heavy loads along a narrow, rough track. The conditions were cold and wet. The Kokoda track turned into liquid mud from all the movement. But despite all this, they carried and cared for their wounded Aussie soldier.

This was hard for the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels as Dr Geoffrey Vernon wrote^[6]:

The condition of our carriers at Eora Creek caused me more concern than that of our wounded. Overwork, overloading (principally by soldiers who dumped their packs and even their rifles on top of the carriers' own burdens), exposure, cold and under-feeding were the common lot. Every evening scores of carriers came in, slung their loads down and lay exhausted on the ground; the immediate prospect before them was grim, a meal that consisted only of rice and none too much of that, and a night of shivering discomfort for most as there were only enough blankets to issue one to every two men. Despite this no known live casualty was ever abandoned by the Fuzzy Wuzzies.^[7]

The Kokoda campaign was one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II, which has forever changed the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

An Australian digger said^[8]:

They carried stretchers over seemingly impassable barriers, with the patient reasonably comfortable. The care they give to the patient is magnificent. If night finds the stretcher still on the track, they will find a level spot and build a shelter over the patient. They will make him as comfortable as possible fetch him water and feed him if food is available, regardless of their own needs. They sleep four each side of the stretcher and if the patient moves or requires any attention during the night, this is given instantly. These were the deeds of the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’ – for us!

Along the Trail Laurie Howson of the 39th Battalion wrote in his diary^[9]:

The days go on. You are trying to survive, shirt torn, arse out of your pants, whiskers a mile long, hungry and a continuous line of stretchers with wounded carried by 'Fuzzy-Wuzzies' doing a marvellous job. Some days you carry your boots because there's no skin on your feet. But when I look around at some of the others - hell! They look crook! Then I have seen the time when you dig a number of holes in the ground and bury your dead. Nothing would be said, but you would think maybe it will be my time next.

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels Poem

By Sapper H "Bert" Beros NX 6925, 7th Div., RAE, AIF:

Many a mother in Australia, when the busy day is done, sends a prayer to the almighty for the keeping of her son. Asking that an Angel guide him and bring him safely back. Now we see those prayers are answered on the Owen Stanley track. For they haven’t any halos, only holes slashed in the ears, and with faces worked by tattoos, with scratch pins in their hair. Bringing back the wounded, just as steady as a hearse, using leaves to keep the rain off and as gentle as a nurse.

Slow and careful in bad places, on the awful mountain track, and the look upon their faces, makes us think that Christ was black. Not a move to hurt the carried, as they treat him like a Saint, it’s a picture worth recording, that an Artist’s yet to paint. Many a lad will see his Mother, and the husbands, weans and wives, just because the Fuzzy Wuzzy carried them to save their lives.

From mortar or machine gun fire, or a chance surprise attack, to safety and the care of Doctors, at the bottom of the track. May the mothers in Australia, when they offer up a prayer, mention those impromptu angels, with the fuzzy wuzzy hair.

Bert Beros served in WW1 and WW2. He wrote this^[10] poem at 4 am one morning on the Kokoda Track. An officer sent a copy home to his mother and she so admired the poem, that she had it published in the^[11] Brisbane Courier-Mail.

Recognition

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels had never been officially recognised for their courageous work.^[12]In July 2009, Australia's Veteran Affairs Minister Alan Griffin presented two medals to two Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels at a ceremony at the Bomana War Cemetery, just outside the capital Port Moresby. The Kokoda battle began in July 1942, so this medal was long overdue it has taken over 65 years, to^[13] honour these brave men who saved so many Australia Soldiers during the Kokoda campaign in WWII,on that dangerous,treacherous and hazardous track.

Sources

1. ↑ Australian War Memorial - Battle of Buna
2. ↑ Pacific War.org.au - The Kokoda Campaign
3. ↑ Prezi.com - Transcript of The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
4. ↑ WWII Australia gov.au - Kokoda Fuzzy wuzzy angels
5. ↑ asopa.typepad.com - Victory in PNG due to fuzzy wuzzy angels
6. ↑ Kokoda Track Foundation - Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
7. ↑ State Library of Victoria/Ergo - Kokoda track campaign
8. ↑ From Wikipedia.
9. ↑ Kokoda Treks -Diggers Poems & Stories
10. ↑ Anzac Day.org - Poem The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
11. ↑ Courier Mail - Kokoda
12. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald.com.au - Australia honours Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
13. ↑ Tasmanian Times - 89 Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels awarded medals

See also

• The Australian - Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels still helping Diggers - 92-year-old war veteran David Payten was helped up the stairs to the Hyde Park memorial in Sydney by a fuzzy wuzzy angel
• The Conversation - Lest we forget the PNG soldiers who served in Australia’s military
• Daily Telegraph - Fuzzy Wuzzy angel flies from PNG to march with pride alongside Aussies for Anzac Day
• Wikipedia - Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
• Australian Government - More information about the Kokoda Track
• Army - Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
• Examiner - Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel mourned TASMANIANS have paid tribute to one of Papua New Guinea's last remaining Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels - Ovuru Indiki.