"keep going as best I can..."
Checklist C: That certainly spurs me on.... I am 79 but ...not crippled except for dough....
I have a nice gentleman in OHIO who is granting some reserch in the Archives at NARA in WAS but I need to get down to the AWM in CBR... When I went to the AWM (twice ) in the late 90's I was able to see some records but other records were not available due to the programme underway to digitise the AWM52 (WWII) records and I couldn't complete the task I had in mind. The ones I wanted were of the 11th Battalion, 13 Brigade and 5th Division for a brief period, 19th April to 24th May 1945. Besides being not available for viewing at the time, I was told by a Curator that 13 Brigade (A purely HQ Unit controlling three Battalions) had not served in New Guinea at all and there were no records for that time..
There obviously are records as 13 Brigade are mentioned in the 11Bn and 5th AUST Div records which are now digitised and availble on the AWM Website. 13 Brigade Records have still not been digitised but I am told they are now available for viewing.
Does anyone living in Canberra want to do a nice little research task which will take about two hours at the most ? I would do it myself but I'm a bit pinched at the moment with a few bills pending and what with the tyranny of distance as well..... I will communicate full details of what to look for.
Apart from that, my memory kicked in over the last few weeks and I have been kicking myself because we may have already sat down over the site for a breather while climbing the hill. "before" we positively knew it had been buried by a pesky bulldozer driver. Suspicion had arisen that it was buried simply because we had not seen it and neither had the local people. We were climbing up the side of the hill and rested on an earthen bank which jutted out a little with a bit of a bank about six feet high. I was the last to get to my feet and as I did so I switched on my Metal Detector and got a beep. I did register the site as Waypoint 93 (WP93). A beep in itself was not unusual for you often do get a beep as there is Ironstone in the hill. I thought little of it at the time as we were fixated on the top spine or ridgeline track as the area where Patrol A1 had walked acrosss the hill but now my memory has clicked in that earthen bank seen in 2007 or 2008 mihght very well be the place because it fits the scenario (as do other places) and walking Google Earth at ground level up to the spurline and looking to the South the mountauns do come into view as described by Ken Backhouse, the Patrol Lieutenant. So WP93 now beomes a priority for check and possible dig next time...