George Alan Vasey - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Despite his achievements, Vasey was twice passed over for promotion. In November 1943, the announcement of the appointment of Lieutenant General Iven Mackay as High Commissioner to India, and the subsequent elevation of Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead to command New Guinea Force and Second Army, created a vacancy at II Corps, which was filled by Vasey's old rival, Frank Berryman. Then in February 1944, the appointment of Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Herring as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, led to a vacancy at I Corps, for which General Blamey nominated both Vasey and Major General Stanley Savige, but recommended the latter. Army Minister Frank Forde queried Blamey's recommendation, which was very unusual, and asked who was the senior officer. On being informed that Savige was senior to Vasey — although not as senior as Arthur "Tubby" Allen or James Cannan— he dropped his objection. General Douglas MacArthur considered Vasey's supersession "outrageous". Yet Blamey had not lost faith in Vasey; asked at a social function about his opinion of Vasey, Blamey called out to him across the room. "There, ladies and gentlemen," Blamey declared, "is my ideal fighting commander."

Blamey had reason to be concerned about Vasey's health. Vasey was drinking heavily, and was hospitalized in New Guinea in February 1944 with a skin condition, and again in Australia in March 1944 with a respiratory tract infection. In June 1944, he became seriously ill with malaria and acute Peripheral neuropathy, and for a time was not expected to live. 7th Division soldiers in the hospital constantly asked the nursing staff about his progress. The men called him 'Bloody George', not after his casualties, but after his favourite adjective, and Vasey's personable style of command attracted immense loyalty from his men. "Vasey owns the 7th," wrote a Melbourne journalist, "but every man in the division believes he owns Vasey." He was again Mentioned in Despatches on 21 July 1944.

Vasey slowly recovered. In October 1944, Blamey set up a Post-War Army Planning Committee headed by Vasey to report on the future of the Royal Military College and the training and education of Staff Corps officers. Vasey called for a greatly expanded regular army of 20,000 men. His report recommended that the course at Duntroon be deepened professionally and academically to the level of an undergraduate university degree. The report's recommendations were not accepted or welcomed by the government but pointed the way to the future, in which the Army would become increasingly professional. In February 1945, Frank Forde pressed for Vasey to be given another active command. Blamey, who still had doubts about Vasey's physical fitness despite Vasey being given an A by an Army medical board, reluctantly appointed him to command the 6th Division, then in action in the Aitape-Wewak campaign.

Vasey flew north to take up his new command. The aircraft Vasey was travelling in, RAAF Lockheed Hudson A16-118, took off from RAAF Station Archerfield on the afternoon of 5 March 1945. Due to a cyclone that was ravaging the Queensland coast at the time, the aircraft crashed into the sea about 400 metres (440 yd) out from Machans Beach, just north of the mouth of the Barron River, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) short of the Cairns Airport. Vasey was killed in the crash along with all those on board. He became the fourth most senior Australian officer to die in the Second World War, after General Sir Cyril Brudenell White (who died in another Hudson crash in 1940), Lieutenant General Henry Wynter, and Major General Rupert Downes (who died in the same plane crash as Vasey). Vasey's body was recovered from the crash site and was buried with full military honours in Cairns cemetery along with those of Downes and Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Bertram. Generals Blamey and Morshead were chief mourners. For pall bearers, Vasey had Major Generals Edward Milford and George Wootten and Brigadiers Frederick Chilton, Ivan Dougherty, Kenneth Eather, John O'Brien, Henry Wells and David Whitehead.

Vasey's concern for his men outlived him. Jessie would go on to found the War Widow's Guild, serving as its president until her death in 1966. Thus, "the legacy of George Vasey's war was a more compassionate Australian society." As a military commander, Vasey demonstrated that a regular officer could be an "ideal fighting commander" and not just a competent staff officer. Vasey hastened the post-war transition of the Australian Army to a professional force dominated by regular soldiers. Historian David Horner wrote: "Not only was his command marked by tactical flair, innovation and imagination, but he also displayed remarkable qualities of leadership in adverse situations. Vasey led not just through technical expertise but by example, personality, and a genuine concern for his men."

Today, Vasey's papers are in the National Library of Australia, and his decorations are held by the Australian War Memorial, as is his portrait. A final Mention in Despatches was published three days after his death. The Mulgrave Shire Council (Cairns) named the esplanade at Trinity Beach "Vasey Esplanade" in his honour and erected a plaque on a brick memorial wall to commemorate all eleven service personnel lost in the crash.