Lance Copland still has striking memories of the day Leslie ‘Bull’ Allen heroically pulled at least 12 American soldiers back over the line on Mount Tambu in 1943.
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He is the last one still alive from the pivotal World War II battle that day.
Mr Copland, in the 2/5th battalion alongside Bull, was on the mortar as they tried to take Tambu from the Japanese force.
“The final big battle was for Mount Tambu. We’d been there for a few weeks and couldn’t take it because it was a big fortress,” he said.
“When (the Americans) came it looked like they would be able to take it, but they couldn’t take it. When they went out (over the line) the first time, their medics had been hit, and there was only Bull left, and Bull went in 12 times, to my knowledge, and pulled 12 American soldiers out.”
The Americans had arrived on July 28, to Mr Copland and the rest of the 2/5th’s relief, as the Australians had fought some way up the mountain but lost a few dozen men.
It was another attack two days later that saw quick casualties and led to Bull’s action, as the last stretcher-bearer.
“They only really got a few yards before they were fired on. And these 12 were hit pretty quickly,” he said.
“And Bull – they called out to him, he’d talked to them a bit before to let them know what it was going to be like – but he went and pulled each one out, and I think a few were dead and died.”
Mr Copland, who is turning 93 this year, came to Ballarat during the week to meet Bull’s sons and daughter and historians David Cranage and Phillip Bradley, who has written several books about Australia’s WWII role in Papua New Guinea.
That group has continued the campaign for Bull to receive a posthumous Victoria Cross to go along with his Silver Star from the US.
Mr Copland described Bull as a character who would try and gee up the troops before any action.
He said Australia did not know how close it came to a Japanese invasion in 1943, with several battles all proving decisive. Alongside the Tambu battle, Mr Copland was part of the critical fight for the aerodrome at Wau. From this, the Japanese troops were pushed back to Salamaua.