Maurice George Blencowe [9768] 

1923-1943

Father Nm: Richard Allan Blencowe 1890- 1954 Petersburg, Frome, South Australia

Mother Nm: Dorothy Mabel Ward 1893–1963. BIRTH 10 FEB 1893 • Leicester, Leicestershire, England. DEATH 18 OCT 1963 • Rockdale, New South Wales, Australia

Marriage Dt:

K comments: Father Richard Allan served in WW1 and was wounded in action.

WW2: Twin Brother Noel served with the Royal Australian Navy. Brother Allan Roy served with the Australian Army, and Brothers Harold and Bruce served with the RAAF.

Spouse comments:

(Research): Ancestry

Oldest Known Ancestor: John Blencowe 1798–1887. BIRTH 16 DEC 1798 • Brackley, Northamptonshire, England.DEATH 4 JUN 1887 • Riverton, South Australia, Australia

Children: Harold 1918-1994, Allan Roy 1920-1987, Bruce 1925-1998, Noel 1923- and Maurice 1923-1943

Birth

25 DEC 1923 • Leeton, New South Wales, Australia.

Before the War

WW2

Blencowe Maurice George, Signaller, NX49451, 2/18 & 2/13 Bns. AIF

1941

• 21 October. Enlisted at Sydney in the 8th Training Battalion. Occupation machinist. Gave birthday two years older than actual. Maurice was a volunteer and was to be part of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force and later to join the 2/18th Bn. of that force.

  

   

   

• 21 October. Taken on strength of 8th Training Battalion in Dubbo. This was the Training battalion for the AIF 8th Division and Maurice was subsequently posted to 2/18th Bn.  of the 22nd Bde, 8 Division,
• 9 December. Granted pre-embarkation leave.

  

1942

• January. Maurice departed Australia for a mission in Malaya, but when he got there to join his 2/18th Bn on 26th January 1942 he was one of 650 reinforcements.  The battalion had been decimated in rearguard action in the Malaysian Peninsular. Prior to this the 2/18th Bn. and the British Commonwealth forces had been pushed off the Malaysian peninsula. The 2/18th and 22nd Bde. subsequently assumed a defensive position in the western sector of the Island. Following the Japanese assault on the eighth of February, the 2/18th was forced back towards the centre of the island. The  2/18th Bn.was later captured on the outskirts of Singapore on the15th February but orders went out ‘every man for himself’ from the Bn. command. This was the start of an amazing escape story for Maurice.
• The Murrumbidgee Irrigator newspaper relates this story.” A mate and Signaller Blencowe made their way to the coast the distance of 4 miles where they got into a sampan with two Chinamen who took them to an island. The next morning a  Dutchman told them that Singapore had fallen into Japanese hands. Directed to another island they arrived to find it being evacuated and there was no room on steamers for them so they remained in the motorboat and followed the convoy to Sumatra. Halfway across the strait, the mate fell out of the boat By the time he got back into the vessel convoy it was out of sight. and they had to find their own way.  Continuing the story of his escape Signlr Blencowe told how he journeyed from Sumatra to Java in a small boat and then was able to get onto a Dutch boat that was going to Fremantle.
• February-March.  Maurice was in the port of  Tjilatjap Java when he was able with other desperate soldiers to board the steamship Zaandam to Freemantle arriving on 7 March. The trip itself was fraught with danger from Japanese submarines and later that year the Zaandam was to be sunk by the Japanese Navy.

  

   

• 7 April. Reported to CO of General Duties Depot in Sydney.
• 27 April. Ill with Influenza Maurice is admitted to 113th Australian General Hospital.

  

   

• 20 June. discharged from convalescence and posted to General Duties Depot Dubbo.
• 23 August. Embarked for Overseas and disembarked in Suez and placed in Staging Camp.
• 11 November was transferred to the 2/13th Bn. of the AIF 9th Division just after the Battalion had fought in The Second Battle of El Alamein and probably in need of re-enforcements. Maurice, however, wasn’t to be involved in any combat in the Middle East.

1943

• • 26th January. The 9th Division was recalled to Australia in early 1943 to take part in the fighting against the Japanese in the Pacific, joining the other two 2nd AIF divisions – the 6th and 7th. Maurice arrived back in Sydney on the 27th of February.
  • March-May. The 9th Division was sent to the Atherton Tablelands, in Queensland, where it was re-organized for jungle warfare and undertook amphibious training.
  • June. Attended the 9th Division Signalling School.
  • 26 July. Embarked from Cairns for Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea. During the landing, the 2/13th was tasked with coming ashore on “Yellow Beach”, and then securing the beachhead for the follow on forces; it later sent out patrols to link up with the 2/15th Battalion and secure the right flank before the main advance west began.
  • August. On the last day of August, the orders were issued for the Landing on Lae and the 2/13th to land at Yellow beach.
  • 4-6 September. Landing at Lae. This was an amphibious landing of the 9th Division in which Maurice took part.

    

    

    During the landing, the 2/13th was tasked with coming ashore on “Yellow Beach”, and then securing the beachhead for the follow on forces; it later sent out patrols to link up with the 2/15th Battalion and secure the right flank before the main advance west began. On Yellow Beach, Lieut-Colonel Colvin’s*  2 companies of the 2/13th quickly moved inland and along the beaches. One patrol found signs at the southern end of the Bulu Plantation that about thirty Japanese had recently fled towards the hills. There were no further recent signs of the enemy, and at 2 p.m.patrols of the 2/13th and 2/15th met at an unnamed river known as Suez between the Bulu River and Red Beach in the afternoon without opposition

  • 5 September. On the 5th the advance continued to east and west with no opposition from the enemy, though the going was very heavy. From Yellow Beach, the 2/13th Battalion occupied Buaru.
  • 6 September. East of Lae on 6th September the weather continued to favour the advance. On the right flank, the 2/13th Battalion moved east from its base on Yellow Beach and, despite orders to stop at the Buhem River, Lieut-Colonel Colvin^* sent two companies across the river and along the coast towards the overgrown Hopoi airfield which he occupied without opposition that afternoon.
  • Lae fell more quickly than the Allies expected and as a result, a follow-up operation was mounted to secure the Huon Peninsula later in the month.
  • 22 September. Landing at Scarlet Beach. Again an amphibious landing at Scarlet Beach, between the Song River and Arndt Point, on the Huon Peninsula, on New Guinea’s east coast. As at Lae, the first wave, consisting of two companies each from the 2/13th and 2/7th Infantry Battalions, would land in plywood LCP(R)s launched by the four destroyer types of transport. Scarlet beach was dotted with Japanese dugouts and pillboxes and machine-gun fire started immediately the 2/13th landed the first opposed landing to an AIF force since Gallipoli.

 

• 23 September. The 20th Brigade’s drive on Finschhafen began, with two battalions commencing the advance south – the 2/13th and 2/15th. Following the capture of Finschhafen, the main part of the Australian 20th Infantry Brigade returned to Scarlet Beach, due to intelligence that the Japanese were about to attack. The 2/13th and 22nd Infantry Battalions were left around Finschhafen.

• 28 September. The 2/13th ordered to capture Kakakog Ridge but this to prove much more difficult terrain and conditions than expected plus Japanese troops defending the area and still held Finschhafen.
• 29 September. Both the 2/13th and 2/15th Battalions sent out several probing patrols on the 29th, but by the afternoon it was obvious that surprise had been lost and that the enemy was aware of the Australian intentions. Cooper’s patrols, during the morning and early afternoon, met nothing but trouble as they attempted to find their way towards Kakakog spur and Triangle. Enemy artillery inflicted some casualties, and patrols were unable to make headway.
• 30 September. At 6.20 a.m. on the 30th Colvin* visited the two forward companies of the 2/13th. When he returned to his headquarters he telephoned Windeyer* that the companies were not far enough south and not high enough t o attack City or Triangle from their present positions, and he was dubious about an attack from the west as it would take Cooper’s men a long time to move around to the higher ground. After some further surveillance by Windeyer* the plan for an attack at midday next day soon took shape. The  2/13th would attack with Cribb on the right towards Triangle and Deschamps on the left towards City, with Cooper’s company in reserve in the initial stages of the attack.
• 1 October. Maurice fatally Wounded. The 2/13th attacked the Kakakog Ridge on this day but the terrain and difficulty attacking the Ridge proved too much by the end of the day and the 2/15th Bn. took over the attack on the 2nd Oct. For the loss of 10 killed and 70 wounded, the 2/13th Battalion had killed between 80 and 100 Japanese during the fight for Kakakog on 1st October
• 2. October Died of wounds.

1. Note: 2/13th Bn men that fell on Oct 1, 1943, are GEORGE PERIS NX78461, PERCY CLARENCE RIDDLE NX90571, RANDOLPH WALTERS NX86902, and CHRISTIAN WELLER NX87188
2. Note: key commanders mention in storyline *Brigadier Victor Windeyer 20th Infantry Brigade AIF and Lieutenant Colonel George Edward Colvin commander of 2/13th Battalion

Burial

• 2 October. Maurice was initially buried at Finschhafen Cemetery and then moved later it seems to Lae Cemetery.

  

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LAE Cemetery

Name: Maurice George Blencowe
Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1924
Death Date: 2 Oct 1943
Cemetery: Lae War Cemetery N Gui 1
Burial Country: New Guinea
Father: Richard Allan Blencowe
Mother: Dorothy Mabel Blencowe
Regimental Number: NX 49451
Region or Memorial: New Guinea

Medals

We have no medal records but he was entitled to these medals for his service

 

Nominal Listing National Archives

Name BLENCOWE, MAURICE GEORGE
Service Australian Army
Service Number NX49451
Date of Birth 25 Dec 1921
Place of Birth LEETON, NSW
Date of Enlistment 21 Oct 1941
Locality on Enlistment BRIGHTON, NSW
Place of Enlistment PADDINGTON, NSW
Next of Kin BLENCOWE, RICHARD
Date of Death 02 Oct 1943
Rank Private
Posting on Death 2/13 AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION
Prisoner of War No
Roll of Honour LEETON NSW
Honours None for display

Sources

Niece Anne (Blencowe) Burton has been a key source of family history. Anne is the editor of the Blencowes Families Association and a leader in the organisation of the Blencowes family history and its preservation, Anne someone who I have depended on for many years as my strongest supporter for the WW1 and WW2 Blencowe projects. My personal thanks for the information provided for this page and the pages of the descendants of Richard Allan Blencowe.

1. Army Records
2. Ancestry Military Tree of Blencowes ww2
3. Official History of World War 2 Australian War Museum
4. The Battle for Finschhafen

Gallery