Charles Hercules Green (26 December 19191 November 1950) was an Australian military officer who was the youngest Australian Army infantry battalion commander during World War II. He went on to command the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), during the Korean War, where he died of wounds. He remains the only commanding officer of a Royal Australian Regiment battalion to die on active service. Green joined the part-time Militia in 1936, and before the outbreak of World War II had been commissioned as a lieutenant. He volunteered for overseas service soon after the war began in September 1939, and served in the Middle East and the Battle of Greece with the 2/2nd Battalion. After the action at Pineios Gorge on 18 April 1941, Green became separated from the main body of the battalion, and made his way through Turkey to Palestine, to rejoin the reformed 2/2nd Battalion. The 2/2nd Battalion returned to Australia in August 1942 via Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), to meet the threat posed by the Japanese.
Green performed instructional duties and attended courses until July 1943 when he rejoined the 2/2nd Battalion as its second-in-command. At the time, the unit was training in Queensland. From March to July 1945, Green commanded the 2/11th Battalion during the Aitape-Wewak campaign in New Guinea. For his performance during the campaign, Green was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. After the war, Green briefly returned to civilian life and part-time military service as commanding officer of the 41st Battalion. When the Regular Army was formed, Green returned to full-time service in early 1949.
He was attending Staff College when the Korean War broke out in June 1950, and Army Headquarters selected him to command 3 RAR, which deployed as part of the United Nations Command formed to fight the North Koreans. After a brief period of training in Japan, where 3 RAR was part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, Green led the battalion to Korea in late September. Immediately pressed into action as part of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, the battalion advanced as part of the UN offensive into North Korea. Sharp fighting followed between 3 RAR and Korean People's Army (KPA) forces, during the Battle of the Apple Orchard, the Battle of the Broken Bridge and the Battle of Chongju. The day after the latter battle, 30 October, Green was resting in his tent in a reserve position when he was wounded in the abdomen by a shell fragment. Evacuated to hospital, he died two days later, aged 30, and was posthumously awarded the US Silver Star. Green was a popular and respected commanding officer, whose loss was keenly felt by his men. According to three officers who served with 3 RAR in Korea, he is considered one of the Australian Army's better unit-level commanders. As recently as 1996, his career was described as an inspiration to serving Australian soldiers.
Early life Born on 26 December 1919 at Grafton in north-eastern New South Wales, Charles Hercules Green was the second of three children of his parents, Australian-born Hercules John Green and Bertha . He attended school at Swan Creek Public School and Grafton High School. In 1933, Green began working for his father on the family dairy farm. He also did ploughing and road construction work using two draught horses he acquired. Green was enthusiastic about the sport of cricket as well as horse riding. On 28 October 1936, at the age of 16, he enlisted in the 41st Battalion, a part-time infantry unit of the Militia. In 1938 Green was promoted to sergeant, and was commissioned as a lieutenant on 20 March 1939, aged 19.
World War II Middle East and Greece With the outbreak of World War II, Green volunteered for overseas service and on 13 October 1939, he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) which was being raised for that purpose. He was posted to the 2/2nd Battalion, which was one of the first units raised upon the outbreak of the war and formed part of the 16th Brigade that was assigned to the 6th Division. The 2/2nd Battalion was deployed to the Middle East in February 1940. Green initially served as one of the 2/2nd's platoon commanders, but accidentally injured himself, and missed out on taking part in 6th Division's first combat action, which took place during the North African campaign between December 1940 and January 1941.
On 12 March he was promoted to captain, and on the 22nd the battalion arrived in Greece to repel the anticipated German invasion. The battalion was deployed north into the Macedonia region to face the German assault, which began on 6 April. It took up positions at Veria on 7 April, but the Allied armies withdrew, so the battalion did not fight until mid-April. Green and the rest of the 2/2nd Battalion saw action at Pineios Gorge on 18 April. The British and Commonwealth forces attempted to block the German advance at the Gorge. They were quickly overwhelmed by the larger German forces, the 2/2nd Battalion losing 44 killed or wounded and 55 taken prisoner in desperate fighting. This resulted in the members of the battalion being dispersed into the surrounding hills. While elements of the battalion were able to rejoin the main forces withdrawing south to embark on ships, others were forced to make their escape independently.
Green and many other members of the battalion evaded capture by undertaking a hazardous journey through the Aegean Islands, then Turkey, to Palestine, which Green reached on 23 May. Green reached the island of Euboea in the Aegean on 7 May, where he met several other members of the battalion. They travelled on to the island of Skyros, and after narrow escapes from detection by German troops and aircraft, reached Smyrna (modern İzmir) on the Turkish coast, where they obtained the assistance of two Turkish officers who had fought the Australians at Gallipoli in World War I. Disguised as "English civil engineers" they caught a train to Alexandretta (modern İskenderun), from where they boarded a Norwegian ship to Port Said, Egypt. Green learned a great deal from his experiences in Greece. According to Margaret Barter, the author of his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he contributed a "sensitive account" of the campaign to a battalion history, Nulli Secundus Log, which was published in 1946. During his time in Greece, Green developed a reputation as a calm and reassuring leader who communicated clearly with the soldiers under his command, a fellow officer observing that "[t]roops would follow Charlie anywhere because he understood them and they understood he was fair dinkum [meaning: authentic]".
After being rebuilt in Palestine, the 2/2nd Battalion was sent to undertake garrison duties in northern Syria between October 1941 and January 1942. On 11 March it left the Middle East to return to Australia to meet the threat posed by the Japanese. On the way home, the 16th Brigade was diverted to defend Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), where the 2/2nd Battalion was part of the garrison between 27 March and 13 July. Green was temporarily promoted to major on 19 June.
Australia The battalion finally disembarked at Melbourne on 4 August. Having injured his foot and contracted typhoid while in Ceylon, when the 2/2nd was sent to New Guinea in September, Green was unable to join them. On 30 December, having been substantively promoted to major in September, he was posted as an instructor to the First Australian Army's Junior Tactical School in Southport, Queensland. He married Edna Olwyn Warner at St Paul's Anglican Church, Ulmarra, New South Wales, on 30 January 1943; his best man was his former commanding officer, Colonel Frederick Chilton. Green's posting to the First Army Junior Tactical School ended on 31 March 1943. On 26 June he took up an instructional position at the Junior Wing of the Land Headquarters Tactical School at Beenleigh, Queensland.
Green returned to regimental duties in July 1943 and was made second-in-command of the 2/2nd Battalion, which had returned from New Guinea after fighting in the Kokoda Trail campaign and the subsequent Battle of Buna–Gona, and was training in north Queensland. Although Green was considered the natural successor to the previous commanding officer, now-Brigadier Cedric Edgar, his posting as second-in-command alleviated the tensions created by the appointment of an "outsider"—Lieutenant Colonel Allan Cameron—to command the battalion. Green undertook the senior officers' course at the Land Headquarters Tactical School between 18 August and 1 November 1944. During this course he was described as an "outstanding student". Chilton later observed, "Although quite young at the time he was very mature; a quiet, calm man, obviously with exceptional reserves of and force of character".
Aitape-Wewak campaign On 30 December 1944, Green arrived in the town of Aitape, on the north coast of New Guinea, where the 6th Division was taking over responsibility for the area from US forces. On 9 March 1945, Green took over command of the 2/11th Battalion, part of Brigadier James Martin's 19th Brigade of the 6th Division. At the age of only 25 he was the youngest Australian battalion commander during the war. Green was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel five days later.
The battalion had landed at Aitape on 13 November 1944 to take part in the Aitape-Wewak campaign against the Japanese 18th Army. For the 2/11th Battalion, the campaign consisted mainly of arduous patrolling operations. Before Green took command, the unit had been part of the push by the 19th Brigade along the coast east of the Danmap River from 17 December to 20 January 1945. During this advance, the battalion lost 20 killed and 29 wounded, and killed 118 Japanese.
In early April, after Green had taken charge, the 19th Brigade was committed to an offensive against Wewak, and concentrated at the base at the village of But. As part of this offensive, the 2/11th and the 2/7th Commando Squadron were sent on a wide sweeping movement inland to cut off the Japanese, who were abandoning Wewak in the face of pressure from the 2/4th Battalion and withdrawing their main force into the Prince Alexander Mountains. After an arduous cross-country march across a swamp, the battalion arrived near Wirui Mission on 10 May and killed three Japanese who stumbled into their perimeter. This was followed by a series of clashes, culminating in the capture of a hill on 15 May by a company that lost four killed and 18 wounded, while killing 16 Japanese and capturing four machine guns. This was considered the hardest fighting the battalion had been involved in since arriving in New Guinea. This fighting in the foothills continued until the 27th when Green ordered a two-company attack to clear a pocket of Japanese. Supported by a 2,360-round artillery bombardment, the two companies killed 15 Japanese for the loss of two killed and six wounded. In total, during the May offensive, the 2/11th lost 23 killed and 63 wounded, and by the end of the month it was only 552 strong from a strength of 627 at the beginning of May, and only fielded 223 riflemen instead of 397. Soldiers from Headquarters Company were redistributed to the rifle companies to bring them closer to establishment strength.