Shared Experience: Art and War

Battlefield burial of three NCOs

Ivor Hele
Battlefield burial of three NCOs
oil on canvas
76.3 x 91.6cm
ART22560

In a 1983 interview, Hele recollected:

My most moving event in New Guinea was with the 2/3rd [commando] mob and three of their NCOs that were killed and stretched out. I started drawing and it started to drizzle with rain and a couple of the other blokes, digging in madly, stopped and propped up a couple of sticks and put round a sheet over the top of me.

The men were keen for him to record the incident.