Corporal Kenneth William Bak 2/1st Infantry Battalion
By James Martin
Kenneth William Bak was born in Cairns on 17 October 1923, the third son of James and Ruby Bak of White Rock. He went to Woree primary school where he gained a Certificate of Entry to secondary school. His religion was given as Methodist.
He tragically lost his baby on 4 April 1943, soon followed by his wife Lorna on 21 April 1943.
A month later, on 26 May, he enlisted in the AIF at Woolloongabba, Brisbane, and became a member of the 2/1st Battalion as a radio/wireless operator. His new AIF number was QX53163.
Ken had joined the Citizen’s Military Force in Cairns on 4 November, 1942, remaining a member until 25 May 1943. His CMF number was Q266384 and his employment was given as a shipping clerk.
On 29 October 1943 Ken did a course at the Regimental Signallers Training Unit at Tenterfield New South Wales. He received a distinguished pass. He was then qualified for an infantry signals platoon. His course report said he had acquired a sound knowledge and was a good operator capable of 15 words per minute.
He also had a good knowledge of wireless after completing three months at a wireless school on 19 February, 1944. He was promoted to corporal on 25 January 1946.
Ken spent 1447 days on active service, 548 of them in New Guinea and 899 in Australia. He embarked on the MV Van Heutz, a Dutch cargo ship, on 4 December, 1944 and disembarked at Aitape on 12 December, 1944.
The 2/1st Battalion AIF (the City of Sydney Regiment) was part of the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division and took part in the Aitape-Wewak campaign .
Before Ken’s time in the battalion it had been deployed to the Middle East in early 1940 and took part in the early fighting in the North African campaign, before later being sent to Greece in early 1941. A lightning German advance quickly pushed the Allies back and forced them to evacuate after a very short campaign. The 2/1st was landed on Crete where they fought unsuccessfully to repel a German invasion in May, 1941. The majority of the battalion was captured on Crete, but the 2/1st was re-built from survivors in Palestine and returned to Australia in early 1942 following Japan’s entry into the war. They then fought two campaigns against the Japanese in New Guinea, fighting on the Kokoda Track during 1942–43 and in the Aitape-Wewak campaign in 1944–45 where Ken Bak fought. Following the war, the 2/1st was disbanded.
According to the Australian War Memorial website “the Australian portion of the Aitape-Wewak campaign took place in northern New Guinea between November 1944 and August 1945. Aitape had been occupied by the Japanese in 1942. Recaptured by an American landing on 22 April 1944, it was developed as a base area to support the continuing drive towards the Philippines. To free American troops for the Philippine operations, defence of the area was passed to Australian forces. Troops of the 6th Division and other units began progressively relieving the Americans from early October 1944.
“Although their primary role was the defence of the base facilities at Aitape, Australian commanders opted to advance to the east of Aitape, towards Wewak, to destroy the remnants of the Japanese 18th Army. The 18th Army had sustained heavy losses as a result of Australian operations in the Salamaua hinterland, on the Huon Peninsula, and in the Finisterre Mountains. After preliminary patrolling by the 2/6th Cavalry (Commando) Regiment, the Australian advance by the brigades of the 6th Division began in December 1944. It had two axes – one along the coast towards the Japanese base at Wewak, and the other into the Torricelli Mountains, aimed at the area around Maprik used for the gardening and foraging upon which the Japanese force depended for its sustenance.
“The resulting operations were characterised by prolonged small-scale patrolling, often in particularly arduous conditions. Assaults, when they occurred, were similarly small-scale – company attacks being the largest conducted in most instances. Constrained by supply difficulties, progress was slow but steady. But, along the coast was occupied on 16 March 1945, and Maprik was secured on 23 April. Wewak fell on 10 May. The remaining Japanese bastion in the area remained the Prince Alexander Mountains to the south of Wewak. Operations there were still continuing when the war ended in August. Australian casualties in the campaign amounted to 442 killed and 1141 wounded. Over 9000 Japanese were killed and 269 became prisoners of war.”
Following the campaign Ken embarked on the Kanimbla on 26 May 1946 at Rabaul with the battalion, before disembarking in Sydney on 1 June, 1946.
Like many returned men, Ken didn’t speak of the war but one day while watching TV with his daughter a British Warship appeared. “See those guns,” he said. “They are the most accurate things I have ever seen. “They could pound that area but not drop a bit of dirt on the Aussie soldiers.” She believed his job was to go behind enemy lines and radio the position of the enemy to the ships.
Ken suffered malaria in Papua New Guinea and was discharged from the Army on 1 October 1946. He returned to Cairns and his home at White Rock. He worked in the office at Queerah Meatworks and did some work as a penciler for a bookmaker at the Cairns Race track. His main job was as a shipping clerk at Samuel Allen’s, a mercantile and trading company, in Cairns.
Sadly Ken lost his father James in August, 1946. In 1947 he met his then wife to be Doreen Florence Halfpapp, from a pioneer family at Kulara, then Kairi. She worked at Burns Phillip in the pay office. The Halfpapps were a big family who quickly took Ken as one of them. He took care of Doreen’s family, looking after her parents and taking everyone at one time or another for a ride on his motorbike to Tinaroo Dam.
In a letter from Ken to Doreen he said how sad it was that he had to sell his motorbike as he needed the money for their wedding. He had purchased the Royal Enfield motorbike for Doreen soon after they met.
Ken and Doreen were married on 8 October, 1947 at St Mary’s Church of England, Cairns. They then went for a cruise to Sydney for their honeymoon, returning to White Rock where Ken bought a house and land at 148 Progress Road, White Rock, opposite his family home.
He had started working for his brother-in-law John Halfpapp at Excel Electric in 1951. It was one of the first electrician shops in Cairns.
He bought himself a boat, Rangy 2, and went fishing on the reef with friends and family. He loved fishing and gardening. He had a large block of land with many fruit trees which supplied mostly his family.
When Ken’s brother Leslie visited the family loved it. Like all the Bak boys he had a sense of humour. He would have a drink and ride a bike around the back yard. Les also babysat Doreen’s sister Hazel’s children early on when he lived with the family at White Rock. Ken and Doreen were well liked and had many friends.
Judith Keating, Ken’s daughter, said her son Peter said “Granddad was quiet but complex”. She said Ken did a lot of the quotes at Excel Electric to take power to Mt Bellenden Kerr. “He was a very smart man.”
Ken and Doreen had two children. Judith Ann and James John Jensen who took the family name. Judith married Geoffrey Keating in 1972 and had two children, Peter Damien and Petrina Naomi. Judith said Ken and Doreen were the most wonderful grandparents. After Ken’s death, Doreen looked after Petrina and Peter while Judith and Geoffrey were at work.
Ken turned 63 on 17 October 1986, however by 1pm the next day he had passed away. Jensen worked so hard to revive him but was unsuccessful. Doreen passed away at 79.
“My dad Ken was a nurturing soul,” Judith said. “He supported me from when I was a child to when I had children of my own. Not many people can say that they have had parents who truly loved each other and loved all of their family.
“Through the horrors of war to the loss of loved ones, his love never waned. I always hoped that my children and their babies would find the love my dad had for my mother and us.”
ANZAC Biographies
On our website you will find the biographical details of ANZAC (as well as British) servicemen & women whose medals or other memorabilia form part of the collection on display at the Maryborough Military & Colonial Museum, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia.