transferred to more glamorous work re-conquering the Philippines. Potts went home on leave to Western Australia for nearly two months, rejoining the brigade at the end of January 1945. Shortly after he received a curt signal from II Corps HQ, asking why he had not nominated anyone for medals recently. Central Bougainville On 10 April Savige gave Potts control of the central Bougainville sector. He immediately sent out patrols to sniff out Japanese. This put him at odds with Major George Winning, a former commando who had surveyed the whole island when Australian troops first arrived. Winning called Bougainville "a self-supporting POW camp". "To fight a war here and provoke hostilities will be nothing more than sinful destruction and wastage of bloody fine men who deserve to be laid off and sent home to their people". In Potts' view, taking a brigade trained to the peak of fitness and primed to attack and then giving them a garrison job, was actually more hazardous than sending them into battle. He had already lost one battalion commander in Bougainville, not in combat but in a plane crash while on a reconnaissance flight. Potts established that there was a force of 40–50 enemy in the Berry's Hill area, and had reason to believe they were being reinforced. With artillery support and air support from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Australians killed and captured a number of the Japanese and pushed their front line forward. Soon resistance stiffened, and it was clear that the hill was held by a significant force. As II Corps had introduced a "no casualties" policy, the Australians withdrew, with one slightly wounded. Patrolling and harassing without any serious engagements continued until June, when 23rd Brigade was sent north. Northern Bougainville Potts' new assignment was to contain Japanese troops in the narrow Bonis Peninsula and push them north towards the Buka Passage at the end. There was now believed to be 1,200 Japanese on the peninsula and 1,400 on Buka Island across the passage. By 28 June Potts had his 27th and 8th Battalions positioned at the base of the peninsula, on the east and west sides respectively. The Australian lines of communication were quite stretched, and the Japanese infiltrated constantly. In July an Australian wood-chopping party was attacked and two field ambulance men were killed. The next day a jeep was wrecked by a mine. 8th Battalion