In September 1942, Catterns, by now a captain, was sent to New Guinea with the &lt;a href="2/1st%20Battalion%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/1st Battalion&lt;/a&gt; where he saw action on the Kokoda Track, winning a Military Cross and being mentioned in despatches for acts of gallantry which his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Cullen, was moved to declare "the bravest thing I'd ever seen a man do". Catterns served in New Guinea for the rest of the war, eventually attaining the rank of major.