Loyalty: Stories of the Australian Army

In the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, there are 15 stained-glass windows. Each shows a figure dressed in military uniform, and under each figure is a word which describes a quality displayed by Australians during wartime. One window features an artilleryman holding a gunnery director that helps to aim guns. Above him is the badge of the Australian Imperial Force, and a column with flames representing loyalty to a cause or ideal. This window bears the word 'Loyalty'.

Introduction

During the Second World War, a sign hung above a military training centre in tropical Queensland. 'The oath to serve your country,' it read, 'did not include a contract for normal luxury and comforts enjoyed within our society. On the contrary, it implied hardships, loyalty and devotion to duty, regardless of your rank.'¹

For over a century, Australian soldiers have demonstrated and received loyalty in many forms. To flag and country, to a friend, a platoon, a company, a battalion or regiment, and the loyalty that medical personnel feel towards their profession and their patients. This loyalty has led servicemen and women to risk and sometimes, sacrifice their own lives to save others.

In times of danger, loyalty has helped Australian soldiers endure hardships that have led them to despair. Loyalty can inspire, it can reassure, it can be tested, and it can be proved. At times, it can be misunderstood. Loyalty can have different meanings for different people. What is perceived as a genuine expression of loyalty on one side may not be regarded the same way on the other.

Of the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have been in the army, only a few would have passed that sign at a Second World War training centre. However, generations of soldiers would understand that loyalty and devotion to duty are at the heart of military service.

The man beyond the donkey: John 'Jack' Simpson

Jack Simpson lost his life on the Gallipoli peninsula on 19 May 1915. Of the many stories about Australian soldiers to emerge from the First World War, Jack's has endured longer and been retold more often than most. Eternalised as 'the man with the donkey', there are paintings, memorials and statues in his honour.

Jack was a stretcher-bearer in the 3rd Field Ambulance. Shortly after arriving on Gallipoli, he commandeered several donkeys to carry wounded men from the front line. Although known only to those in the small area that he and his donkey crossed each day, after his death, Jack became a legend. Remembered as a courageous, selfless soldier who braved shrapnel and gunfire to help wounded men. For more than a century, Jack's legend has endured.

When war began in August 1914, Jack was working on a ship docked in Fremantle, Western Australia. Born and raised in northern England, he was homesick and his desire to remain in Australia was waning. Seeing an opportunity to go home, Jack deserted to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Motivated not by any feelings of strong loyalty to Australia, but because he believed it meant a ticket to England. Jack planned to reunite with his mother Sarah and younger sister Annie before joining the British Army.¹

Like many of the first AIF contingent who expected to disembark in England, Jack must have been bitterly disappointed when their convoy was diverted to Egypt. The Australians underwent training in the desert outside Cairo, thousands of kilometres from their original destination. Jack's hopes of returning to England were fading and he was growing sick of the drill, the army food and the sand.

In March 1915, toughened by the hard months of training and drill, the Australian infantry and supporting units began leaving Egypt for Lemnos Island in Greece. They were preparing for the AIF's first campaign and on 25 April, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. The 3rd Field Ambulance was among the first units to go ashore. Its war diary reads: 'The landing was effected under heavy shrapnel and rifle fire and several casualties occurred.' Jack was soon busy tending to the wounded.²

Along with a few other stretcher-bearers, Jack began using a donkey to bring wounded men down the rugged slopes from the firing line to the beach. He worked in Shrapnel Gully, where there was no shortage of wounded as snipers, machine-gun fire and shrapnel took a steady toll.³ After 3 weeks in this dangerous place, Jack was killed.

A man who knew him wrote, Jack 'will be much missed with his mates from Shrapnel Gully – his cheery face and droll ways known to a great many.'⁴ None mourned him more than Sarah and Annie, whose unopened letters came back to them after Jack's death. In one, Annie had written, 'Oh Jack, we do pray for you to be spared … Oh to have you home again. "Home" will not be complete until you come back again.'⁵ Ever since he had left them to go to sea in 1909, Jack had been a regular letter writer. If the letter was addressed to Sarah, it usually included a postal order for money equalling a quarter to a third of his pay.

These letters, spanning Jack's departure from home in 1909 until shortly before his death, were among Annie's most treasured possessions. She prized them so highly that she kept them in a local bank's safe. Her loyalty to her brother's memory never wavered.

In 1956, an Australian clergyman, Reverend Clarence Benson, appeared in Jack's hometown, South Shields, researching a biography. He met Annie, who welcomed the idea of a book about Jack. She entrusted the letters and some photographs to Clarence, believing that when the book was finished, they would be presented as a gift to Australia for which she would receive a letter of thanks from the Prime Minister.⁶

Annie's loyalty to her brother's memory, set over 40 years and reflecting her deep love for Jack, meant that she wanted him to appear in Clarence's biography as a man without faults or strong opinions. When the biography was published, Annie might have been pleased. Clarence wrote of her brother as he was imagined to be by Australians, a humble, heroic man who led wounded men from the battlefield on the back of a donkey, saving lives until his death.

Jack's own life may not have been defined by loyalty to a cause, but loyalty came to play a significant role in Australia's collective memory of him. Annie's loyalty to Jack's memory placed the letters in Clarence's possession. Clarence's loyalty to an idealised version of Jack meant he was not remembered as the working-class labouring man he was but as a saintly, self-sacrificing figure. The man behind the legend remains an enigmatic and fascinating figure.

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Fast facts

AIF medical personnel were among the first to land on the Gallipoli peninsula. They were soon overwhelmed by the number of wounded. One described 'a continuous flow' coming from the firing line down the gullies to the beach. The landing beach quickly became overcrowded with men awaiting medical attention.⁷ Evacuation was impossible until the first night when some 1,700 casualties were moved off the beach in lifeboats and barges and towed out to the ships anchored offshore.⁸

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Did you know?

Jack Simpson became known as the 'Man with the donkey', but he was not the only stretcher-bearer on Gallipoli who used donkeys to bring wounded people from the firing line to the beach. A New Zealander named James Jackson, who had also landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, worked with Jack in Shrapnel Gully for almost a week after the campaign began. He also commandeered a donkey to work in the same manner as Jack, who he remembered as a 'jovial …cheery chap with always a joke for the wounded.'⁹ At least 3 other New Zealanders followed suit.

Plans fall apart: Tragedy at the Battle of the Nek

Major Thomas Redford and Lieutenants Edward Henty, Eliot Wilson and Keith Borthwick, all from Victoria, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 21 September 1914. In February 1915, together in B Squadron 8th Light Horse Regiment, they sailed from Melbourne bound for the Australian training base in Egypt. They were still there on 25 April when the infantry landed on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Trained to ride to battle and fight dismounted, at first there was no role for the Light Horse in the steep, rugged, close confines of the Anzac Cove area.¹ Within weeks of the landing, reinforcements were needed. The Light Horsemen left their horses behind and embarked for Gallipoli where they would fight as infantry.

Thomas, Edward, Eliot and Keith must have known each other well. They had served together in the pre-war militia, sharing a love of soldiering. When war came, Edward was said to have enlisted with 'a sort of enthusiastic pleasure'. His friends were most likely similarly keen. Shortly before joining the AIF, Edward married Florence, and Thomas also married his sweetheart.²

Before Gallipoli, Trooper Alex Borthwick, Keith's brother who was also in the 8th Light Horse, was concerned that they would never see action. At Gallipoli they learned how difficult and confronting frontline service could be. Thomas wrote that while they were digging saps and trenches 'we continually came across dead men.'³

In August, their regiment prepared for an attack on a landscape feature known as the Nek. It was heavily defended and on a narrow front. They were told that New Zealanders were planning to seize the high ground behind the Nek, on the night of the attack. The New Zealanders would be attacking downhill, to the Turkish rear, while the Australians launched their frontal assault.

With the battle only hours away, Alex Borthwick wrote to his parents. 'I hope Keith and I pull through all right but if we don't you will know we have done our little bit. Poor old Mother must not worry too much, and I hope, if we should have the bad luck to get hit today, that Father will console both of you by remembering that we quitted ourselves like men.'⁴

The attack was set to begin at 4:30 am on 7 August. Men were keen to be in the charge. Some left hospital to join their mates in the front line. As one who returned to his unit on the eve of the attack said, 'I'd never have been able to stand up again if I hadn't.'⁵

The Light Horsemen spent a sleepless, cold night in the trenches and saps in front of the Nek. As the hour drew near, they took up positions and waited as shells fell on the Turkish position opposite. Seven minutes before the attack, the barrage stopped. It was supposed to continue until the last possible moment. The Australians waited, wondering what had gone wrong. As the minutes dragged, they heard the Turks opposite emerge from shelter and test their weapons.⁶

The attack's senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander White, was confident in his officers — 'all loyal to the backbone', he had written in his diary. Now, he feared he was sending them to certain death. On the heights overlooking the Nek, the New Zealanders had been unable to seize their objective. There would be no help for the Australians in this attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander White chose to lead the assault, refusing to send his men where he would not go himself. Just metres away, the Turks were ready, 2 deep in their front trench and machine gunners on the flanks. As his watch ticked over to 4:30 am, Alexander shook hands with his officers and said goodbye. Then he gave the order: 'Go!' As soon as the Australians cleared the parapet, the Turks opened a murderous fire. 'We did not get ten yards,' remembered one survivor. Alexander died within moments. Thomas hit the ground unwounded but was shot dead when he raised his head. 'A braver and more honourable man never donned [a] uniform', wrote a Sergeant.⁷

No one ordered the attack to stop and soon, the second wave climbed out of the trench. 'We saw our fate in front of us', wrote one man, 'but we were pledged to go, and, to their eternal credit, the word being given, not a man in the second line stayed in his trench.' A third wave, men from Western Australia, were then ordered forward and before anyone could stop them, half of a fourth wave climbed into the fire. Within minutes, 2 regiments of Light Horsemen had been shattered. The assault on the Nek was a disaster.

The 4 friends who had enlisted on the same day, sailed together, trained together in Egypt and in May 1915 landed together on Gallipoli, were killed within moments of each other. Keith's brother, Alex Borthwick survived the Nek and returned home in 1916.

Edward's wife, Florence, wrote to the army in 1918, almost 3 years to the day after her husband's death at the Nek, requesting any medal ribbons to which he was entitled. 'To keep for my young son', she wrote.⁸

Almost 250 Australians died at the Nek or of wounds sustained there. More than 100 more were wounded. Australia's Official Correspondent to the war, Charles Bean, described the men who made the charge as 'single-minded, loyal Australian country lads.' In rural Victoria and on the farms and stations of Western Australia, the friends and families of these loyal country lads mourned their loss for a lifetime.

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Fast facts

The Australian Light Horse remained at their training base in Egypt when infantry and supporting arms sailed to Gallipoli in April 1915. When fresh troops were needed, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade landed in May 1915, and its men served in a dismounted role. The Light Horse's best-known actions were at the Nek and Hill 60 in August 1915. The AIF transported more than 6,000 horses to Gallipoli but almost all were soon returned to Egypt. Gallipoli's terrain was not well suited to mounted operations.⁹

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Did you know?

The horses used by the Light Horse came from all over Australia but were first sold to army buyers in New South Wales. The preferred horse was a mixed Australian breed called a Waler. Walers proved to be well-suited to the rigours of mounted warfare in the Middle East. They were strong, and able to travel long distances in hot country without the need for large quantities of water. Sometimes the Walers went for up to 60 hours without a drink while carrying a soldier, his weapons and equipment.¹⁰

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Depicts Private George Shelton Lambert, a groom with 11th Light Horse Regiment, holding a troop horse. The title is 'A favourite charger' and is also known as 'Waler and groom'. Artist George Lambert was prompted to make the painting when he was informed that this trooper was his namesake.

His 'faith didn't falter': John Gotch 'Jack' Ridley and the attack at Fromelles

Late on the afternoon of 19 July 1916, Sergeant John 'Jack' Ridley led his Lewis gun team in an attack on the German line at Fromelles in northern France. Under heavy fire, with dead and wounded all around, Jack felt a sudden hammer blow as a German bullet tore into his neck. Struggling for breath, he thought his last moments had come.

Fromelles was Jack's first battle, and the Australian Imperial Force's (AIF) first major attack on the Western Front. Senior officers hoped that it would draw German reserves from the fighting to the south on the Somme, where a major British offensive was in its third week.

Jack Ridley, the son of a well-known Australian publishing company's general manager, came from Sydney's Darling Point. He had wanted to be a soldier from childhood, spending 3.5 years in the senior cadets and serving for 4 months as a Lieutenant in the militia. In August 1915, looking younger than his 18 years and 11 months, and by now a loyal adherent to military values and the profession of soldiering, Jack joined the AIF at Warwick Farm.¹

He was training in Egypt in February 1916 when he was promoted to Corporal, and a week later, he was posted to the 53rd Battalion. In May 1916, he was promoted to Sergeant before crossing the Mediterranean and disembarking at Marseilles, France in late June. The battalion travelled by train to the British sector in northern France and went into the trenches near Fromelles.

On 18 July, as he prepared to go into battle, Jack, a devout Christian, wrote to his family at their home, Walmer: 'My own dear Mother and all at "Walmer", I am right in the thick of it now, banging and booming all around, with shells flying overhead … I try in my poor way to speak Christ to the lads, many of whom may soon have to pass the "River." War is an awful thing.'²

The next day passed in anxious anticipation. 'What an afternoon it was', wrote Jack, 'the shadow of the coming charge made us feel quiet and thoughtful, thinking of home and loved ones and the days of life that were passed. Our thoughts were broken by the thunder of that awful bombardment and the scream of shrapnel as it burst over us.'

When the hour arrived, 'my heart thumped with fear and my face must have been white … at last the time had come. Now Jack, you have waited for it, you have always been a soldier. Now is your chance … I turned my head and blew the whistle, gave a shout of "forward", waited a moment to steel my nerves, and then swinging my revolver around my head I dashed out …'

Jack prayed as he ran: 'God help me, keep me.' He called to his men: 'Come on brave boys.' Then he crashed into a water-filled hollow, sinking up to his chest. He and the men with him waded forward while shells exploded and machine-gun bullets snapped past their ears. Dead and wounded men lay everywhere, 'an awful scene of awful war.' Still in the ditch, Jack raised his head slightly when, 'crash! Bang! It was a terrible smack', he wrote, 'it makes me shiver when I think of it – it felt like receiving a terrible smack from a cricket ball but ten times worse. It stunned me with the force of it … the blood rushed out of my mouth and down my face in torrents. I dropped back into the ditch.'

Lance Corporal Horace MacDonald heard Jack's cry and held him out of the water. Private Mick Elliott raced to bandage the wound and stop the bleeding. 'I felt I was dying', remembered Jack. 'MacDonald held me tight. "Keep up Sergeant", he said "You're all right."'

Elliott, MacDonald and another man named Goodwin remained with Jack. He remembered, 'MacDonald held me tight … I heard Elliot say … "I can't leave the Sergeant."' Jack lay in MacDonald's arms straining for breath and on the brink of unconsciousness: 'I had a terrible scene of war before me … I heard many cries of and groans of agony.' Eventually, leaning heavily against Elliott and MacDonald and with no stretcher-bearers nearby, he began walking back to a dressing station, a terrible struggle through mud and gunfire and shell bursts that took hours.

Grateful to have had help and, more than anything, grateful to have not been left alone, Jack gave thanks for his men's loyalty. 'The services rendered to me by MacDonald, Elliott and Goodwin were noble and gallant: They stuck to me, they bound my wounds up, they kept me till I was in the trench which led to the rear and safety … I know under Heaven I owe my life to them.'

Within 2 days, Jack was in hospital in England. A doctor studied his wound: 'Do you know you have had a very close shave lad?' Jack knew. Over the following weeks, he healed and recovered. His parents waited for news of which transport he would return home on.

Their disappointment was great when they learned that Jack had chosen to rejoin his battalion rather than return home, as his wound had warranted.³ Like many others, he felt a loyalty to his battalion and his comrades that bound him to them through the trials of front-line service.

Through his eventful years of war service, Jack's faith didn't falter. He lived through more battles, never coming as close to death as he had at Fromelles. For carrying ammunition and rations and rescuing wounded men under fire in one of the AIF's last battles of the war, he received the Military Cross.⁴ He came home in 1919, devoting his life to evangelism and becoming a leading figure in Australia's Baptist Community.

He never forgot that afternoon at Fromelles. His gratitude to his loyal comrades, men who stuck with him amidst the most terrible danger, lasted the rest of his life. As an older man, Jack lived on Pennant Hills Road in northern Sydney. He chose to name his home after the place where he experienced the greatest loyalty and survived his hardest test. The sign near the front door read, 'Fromelles.'

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Fast facts

The Battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916 was the AIF's first major battle on the Western Front. Australian and British troops attacked a German strong point which overlooked low, boggy ground. The attack was met with intense artillery and machine-gun fire. Those who reached the German line could go no further, finding nothing but muddy ditches where they expected trenches. In less than 24 hours, almost 2,000 Australians were killed or sustained fatal wounds. Another 400 became prisoners of war. More than 3,000 suffered wounds but survived. Fromelles remains the bloodiest day in Australian wartime history.

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Did you know?

It was not unusual to live in a house with a name. House names were the norm before numbers were introduced to identify properties. Names were usually given to the house by its owner or sometimes by an architect or builder. Many First World War veterans like Jack named their home or farm after places where they had served. In the early decades of the 20th century, increased development in parts of Sydney meant more and more houses. This led to an increasing number of streets becoming numbered and fewer houses using names.

A road less travelled: Lieutenant Physiotherapist Lorna Ward

Lorna Ward's father discouraged his daughter from pursuing her desire to study medicine. He didn't believe it was a profession for women. Lorna wanted to work with her hands and to care for people, so the headmistress at her school suggested she study massage. She achieved good marks and began her course in 1937, qualifying as a masseuse in November 1939. Three months earlier, on the far side of the world, Germany had invaded Poland, beginning the Second World War.

Lorna had not thought of enlisting until some friends, who were a little older, joined the army as soon as they could. Shortly after Christmas 1939, she followed them into uniform, becoming one of 3 South Australian masseuses to join the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).¹

Lorna looked forward to practising her profession in a wartime setting. 'It seems that we will have more interesting work now, and we are very pleased to be here', she said of herself and close friend Peggy Vercoe, shortly after taking up a posting at the 2/9th Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Adelaide. 'The soldiers are a fine crowd. We feel that we are now doing our duty. We took up the work as a career, and if war comes along, it is the duty of our calling to help.'²

In February 1941, Lorna sailed for the Middle East, sharing a cabin with 3 other masseuses, sad to be leaving her family and wondering what service in a theatre of war held in store. Lorna spent several weeks in Bombay before arriving at Port Tewfik, Egypt, in March. There, the nursing staff, including Lorna, helped the 2/2nd AGH with the steady stream of casualties arriving from the campaign in Greece and Crete. Rejoining the 2/9th AGH, Lorna served in Nazareth, where most of the patients were men who had become ill during the Syrian campaign.

In the Middle East, Lorna shared a tent with 4 other women. 'We were all great friends', she remembered, 'we have always kept in contact and visited one another … For 5 people to come from different states, different backgrounds and with different interests, I suppose we had great loyalty to one another and we were the best of friends … you were in a situation and in a country you didn't know, they were your family really, the unit, the 2/9th AGH, was my family and you could talk to anyone, any of the staff. We all looked after one another, there was loyalty; we were bonded in a way. Due in a way to the CO and the matron, it was a very special unit. Everyone loved being transferred to the 2/9th AGH, there was no dissention at any strata at all.'

In January 1942, the hospital sailed to the southern hemisphere. They docked at Colombo not long after Singapore had surrendered to the Japanese, then sailed for Rangoon (modern day Yangon) at the direction of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, before being redirected to Australia under the orders of Australia's Prime Minister, John Curtin.

Where loyalty within units like Lorna's was felt personally, on the global scale, loyalty to the British Empire, once the cornerstone of Australia's foreign and defence policy, was outweighed by Australia's need to defend itself. Where once no Australian Prime Minister would overrule Britain's leader, at a time of crisis, old loyalties were cast aside in the name of national defence.

On her return to Australia, Lorna was made a Lieutenant physiotherapist. When she became engaged to an artillery officer, Lieutenant Charles Ward, she prepared to leave the army, as was required of married women. But the night before her wedding, she was told that married physiotherapists would not be discharged, though they would not be deployed overseas. Her wedding dress reflected her service career: 'Instead of drapings of white satin and tuille, her wedding gown was her navy mess dress of the army masseuse.'

Her time in the 2/9th AGH ended in August 1942, when she transferred to the Australian Army Medical Women's Service as physiotherapist. She became the army's first married physiotherapist as well as the first married woman allowed to remain in the service.

In the army, Lorna found professional satisfaction, earned the respect of her fellow medical personnel and bore the responsibilities of rank. Her loyalty to the service and her profession was never greater than when she was in the 2/9th AGH. Remembering the Hospital's matron, Colonel Nellie Marshall, 'charming with a ready smile and help', Lorna said, she 'was very proud of our loyalty to one and another and felt that we were a good team, the whole hospital.' Lorna had been just as proud. 'The whole of the staff of the 2/9th AGH were all good friends and loyal to each other and we were dedicated … The CO instilled it into us, and he was fantastic and the matron too. We had great loyalty; we were a very united, very happy hospital.'³

In her own words

Interview transcript number 2004, Australians at War Film Archive.

Lorna describing some of the work done in her role as a masseur

'[W]ith asthma, [patients] are struggling for breath, and they get very upset about it. Well, you have got to try and teach them in their breathing to inhale and then gently exhale… then when you find that you can calm their breathing system down, then you start giving them gentle exercise, just moving around of the chest.'

'Well, we had nothing other than just our hands and voice really to help them. With bronchitis … you have to tip and tap them, you turn them over on their front, you put a pillow under there and you get them to breathe in and when they are exhaling, you press the chest, you slap it you know. It is very hard work…'

'[T]here were no drugs. You just had to try and calm their breathing, instead of gasping, you try and tell them to have some deep breathing…'

'Well, you couldn't complain; everybody had the same workload, that was just a fact of life. And you helped one another. Whatever it was, you just helped one another, you didn't think about workloads. You felt tired but you didn't grizzle about it or complain about being overworked.'

Lorna describing how grateful the patients were

'[patients] were always so grateful, so very grateful. They appreciated all we [did]…even to just hold their hand made them feel better, they were wonderful chaps. There is no one like the Australian soldiers.'

Lorna describing the hospital conditions in the Middle East

'Some days you would go into the ward, and you couldn't see from one side to the other because of the dust and it made it very hard for operating … and it meant all of the cracks in windows and doors had to be stuffed, which made it hot. It was very difficult but we made the best of it … And when you would sleep at night you would have the outline of your face from the sand on your pillow.'

'And of course there was slip trenches … when the siren [during bombing raids] would go, you were all supposed to get into your slip trenches but everyone was a bit reticent because there were so many fleas down there and lizards and scorpions. But we were obliged to take any patient that was able to walk down there too. It was a very difficult area.'

'We had a matron visit us from Cairo in the middle of a dust storm and she didn't stay too long, she couldn't imagine how we were coping without a hospital but we did. But they really couldn't operate that much there. They set up a blood bank and the staff were the donors, cross matching the blood grouping.'

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Fast facts

The army's first female masseuses, also called physiotherapists, deployed to the Middle East in 1941. They served in Australian and British General Hospitals in Eritrea, Greece, Crete, Egypt, Gaza, Malaya and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Masseuses worked in orthopaedic wards, applying splints and plaster casts, helping patients use crutches or other walking aids, and working with patients after surgery. They played an essential role in rehabilitating seriously wounded or injured soldiers, and in some places faced danger from enemy action.

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Did you know?

Women served in a wide range of roles in the army during the Second World War. Many joined the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS). Where the previous generation of women could serve only as nurses, in the AWAS, women worked as drivers, provosts, canteen workers, cooks, typists, signallers, cipher clerks. There was a female veterinary surgeon, and anthropologist who worked with Indigenous peoples and a translator who spoke Japanese. More than 24,000 women served in the AWAS.⁴

A long drive home: Private Reginald 'Reg' Worthington

Reg Worthington came from the countryside outside Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales. The Worthingtons had as long a history of military service as was possible in post-colonial Australia. Reg's father was a Boer War veteran and at least 5 of his uncles had served in the First World War. Only 2 returned. Reg was close to both, even more so after he returned from the Second World War.

Towards the end of the 1930s, Reg sensed that war was on the horizon. 'We knew it was coming. The evidence was there that there that we were going to be at war, and it wasn't a shock I suppose … We didn't want war. It was the last thing we wanted … we didn't know what it would do to us individually.'¹

The family had already experienced hardship. Reg's parents couldn't afford boarding fees, which ended his education in primary school. When the Great Depression struck, the family lost their farm and moved to Murwillumbah.

Reg milked cows on an uncle's farm, then he worked on a brother's banana plantation, but the pay was not good. He ended up driving trucks. In July 1940 he enlisted, not with enormous enthusiasm but as if it were expected.

The reason, he said, 'I suppose [was] loyalty'. It was, remembered Reg, 'drummed into us to fight for king and country … I didn't look on the adventure side of it all.' The sentiment ran through Reg's family.

He knew that his mother had 'misgivings' about his enlisting with another son already in uniform. She 'also had a great sense of loyalty', recalled Reg, 'if we can help our country we will do. And that was the attitude in those days. I think a lot of people had the same feeling.' His father was also supportive, contributing to various wartime causes. 'He was good, he became involved in various things in Murwillumbah. All connected with loyalty.'

Reg remembered his last day at home being Christmas day 1940. Shortly afterwards, his eldest brother brought Reg's mother and his fiancé, Iris, to South Brisbane railway station to see him off.

Iris and Reg were planning a future together. Reg remembered Iris being 'disappointed' when the war started. But he knew that he would remain loyal to her, and she to him. He sailed from Sydney on 27 December 1940, arriving in the Middle East on 2 February 1941, with no idea what to expect.

In keeping with his civilian profession, Reg was made a driver. One of his jobs was transporting Italian prisoners of war to camps in base areas. Reg felt that, like himself, these men had not welcomed the war and were happy to be finished with it. Relieved to be away from the shooting, they posed no threat. Reg believed them to be loyal to Italy but not to its ruler, Benito Mussolini. It is possible that among the men in the back of his truck, were at least some who later found themselves working on farms in New South Wales in place of Australians who had gone to the war.

Reg could not have known it at the time, but he too was destined to become a prisoner of war. He embarked for Greece from Alexandria in April 1941 to take part in what proved a brief campaign during which British forces, including Australians, established positions in northern Greece but were forced to retreat before a German invasion.

'A wartime retreat is not very good', remembered Reg, 'It's very hard. Because as you retreat your main thoughts are survival … It was just pandemonium.' Allied troops were evacuated from beaches in southern Greece over several nights in late April. Reg's group were left behind and on 29 April 1941 they were forced to surrender.

He was listed as missing, believed prisoner of war, in May 1941 and was officially listed as a prisoner of war on 23 June that year. At first, he was held in Salonika. Boredom was a significant problem, made harder to endure for not knowing how long they would be in captivity, how long the war would last or what the outcome would be.

For 4 years, Reg endured the spartan life of a prisoner of the Germans. He was in several camps. After Salonika he was moved to the German Stalag 18A at Wolfsberg in Austria. Then, with the end of the war in sight, the prisoners were roused early one morning and told that they were being marched to a safer area. They had no idea where they were going. Reg and the others marched 20 miles (approx. 32 km) a day for 11 days, through snow and over high alpine passes, until they reached Markt Pongau prison camp between Wolfsberg and Salzburg.²

He was liberated at the end of the war in May 1945, flown to England and waited to go home. The loyalty to Australia and through it, the British Empire, that moved Reg to enlist, led to eventful years in the army. He was rewarded in 1945 with a visit to the heart of the British Empire, Buckingham Palace, where he met the King, the Queen and Princess Elizabeth.

Reg sailed from Liverpool in July 1945, crossing the Atlantic, sailing through the Panama Canal then to Hawaii and Wellington before disembarking in Sydney on 8 August, 2 days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and a day before the attack on Nagasaki. The war in the Pacific ended a few days later.

On 23 November 1945, Reg was discharged from the army. He and Iris finally got married that month, 5 years after announcing their engagement. Their loyalty to each other had survived all manner of trials. 'She chose to wait for me. I'm the winner, I was lucky there', said Reg decades later.

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Fast facts

More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war (POWs) during the Second World War. The majority, some 22,000, were held in Japanese captivity in camps across Asia and the western Pacific. The remainder were taken prisoner during the North African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, naval and aerial campaigns against Germany and Italy. Prisoners in Europe were relatively well treated, though during the war's final months, many were sent on forced marches through freezing winter weather and at risk of attack by allied aircraft as the Allies advanced into Germany.³

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Did you know?

Prisoners of the Germans faced months or years of captivity with one of the greatest challenges being staving off boredom. To remain active, Australian prisoners put on Anzac sports days and Melbourne Cup days. They took part in Empire games with prisoners from Britain and other British dominions and participated in other sporting activities. Prisoners also put on plays and theatrical performances and often had access to libraries and the chance to pursue educational qualifications.⁴

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The kindness of strangers: Captain Reg Saunders

I spent one year (May 1941 to May 1942) assisting Greek resistance and British Intelligence in operations against the German and Italian forces on Crete. I was in constant danger from German operations countering the resistance to them. I suffered privations of extraordinary severity due to being deprived of even the ordinary services and camaraderie of a front-line battle situation. The winter and early spring were very severe. I slept in caves and goat shelters … I did not have a change of clothes or even socks, the Greek cobblers mended my old army boots, only to have them fall to pieces the following day. Some of my fellows and those allied to me had no boots, they were carried because they could not walk on their bruised and lacerated feet. I was fired at by German sentries whilst breaking away from their search and destroy patrols … I did not volunteer for the above, I was only given a choice of surrendering to the German paratroopers or escaping to the mountains.¹

Reg Saunders' year on Crete evading capture by the Germans, must have been one of the most difficult experiences of his eventful life as a soldier. Service in the army seemed natural to Reg, a Gunditjmara man, from outside Purnim in Victoria. His father and an uncle, after whom Reg was named and who had earned a Military Medal for bravery, had served in the First World War.

When the Second World War broke out, Reg and his brother Harry decided to enlist. They had, said a biographer, grown up 'with a sense of loyalty and duty to Australia.' The 2 brothers joined the AIF the day before Anzac Day 1940. Before then, Reg had worked in the timber and dairy industries. When the war began, he was working as a timber contractor with his father and brother. Reg was also known in his home district in western Victoria as a sportsman, who was good at football, boxing and played cricket.²

If Reg enlisted for loyalty to Australia, he quickly came to feel a strong loyalty to the army. Perhaps that attachment went back before the war. He grew up hearing stories of the Great War from his father and uncle, and other local veterans. He enjoyed soldiering, applying himself with 'dedication and enthusiasm.' Within months he was an Acting Sergeant.³

In September 1940, Reg sailed for the Middle East as a reinforcement for the 2/7th Battalion. When he joined the unit at Marsa Brega in Libya during February 1941, he reverted to the rank of Private. In April Reg was in Greece, part of an ill-fated attempt to prevent the Germans from overrunning the country. He was evacuated aboard a ship called Costa Rica which was sunk. Reg was among the men on board who were transferred to destroyers and disembarked on Crete.⁴

Crete was the next German objective, and Reg was there when enemy paratroopers began landing on the island in May. Over the following days of hard fighting, the Germans slowly gained the upper hand.

When they captured an airstrip and began flying reinforcements in, the Allies were once more forced to retreat. On Crete, Reg had his first experience of close-quarters combat when he took part in a bayonet charge in the Battle of 42nd Street. This local success was too small to stop the Germans, and this time, Reg's unit couldn't reach the evacuation beaches. Facing a hopeless situation, the group surrendered. Reg and some others decided to flee into the mountains rather than go into captivity.

For over 11 months, Reg lived on the run, never able to relax his guard. 'The need for caution was great', said Reg, 'because civilian sympathisers faced almost certain death and torture, while I may have been tortured and executed if captured. I know I and others were betrayed many times, but brave Greeks backed by quick action always succeeded in hiding the evidence.'⁵

Almost always on the move, Reg stayed longest in a village called Labini in the hills of central Crete. There he was kept safe by a Cretan woman and her children. Vasiliki Zacharakis was, said Reg, 'the bravest woman I've ever seen … she walked straight as a gun barrel and had courage to match.' With 3 other men, two Australians and a New Zealander, Reg was also hidden in a church outside Labini which could only be reached on foot. Shepherds would warn them if German patrols were about.⁶

After almost a year on the run, Reg was in a party of some 90 men taken off the island by a trawler on 7 May 1942. None of them would have made it without the steadfast loyalty of civilians of Crete who risked their lives to help the men who had come to defend their island.

Reg survived because strangers, at enormous personal risk, stayed loyal to the evaders and to the cause of their own liberation. For the entirety of his service life, Reg inspired loyalty in others, and he was in turn loyal to Crete's civilians, to the men he commanded and to those under whom he had served.

One man remembered, 'the soldiers who served under him trusted him. They'd have followed him anywhere and he was just simply a fine soldier.'⁷ Another said Reg was 'impressive as a man, as a soldier'⁸, and another said he was 'one of the most outstanding leaders that I have ever had the privilege to serve under.'⁹

Reg returned from the Mediterranean, having learned that his brother Harry had been killed in New Guinea. In 1944 he became the first Indigenous Australian to gain a commission in the army. He was 25 when the war ended, married with a young daughter. Life was hard. He worked as a tally clerk on the Melbourne wharves and by 1949, he and his wife Dorothy had welcomed 3 daughters.

In 1950, war broke out in Korea and Reg went back to the army. Where once he had been moved by loyalty, this time his motivation was different. 'Where else can I get £21 a week, all hospital expenses, three meals a day and an allowance for my wife?'¹⁰

Reg retired from the army in October 1954 after further distinguished service in Korea. He is one of Australia's best-known Indigenous soldiers, a man loyal to his country and to the army who had this loyalty returned in equal measure.

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Did you know?

As soon as Crete fell to the Germans, many Cretans began opposing the occupation. It was the first time in the war that the Germans met such swift and significant opposition from a local population. Resistance on Crete lasted from the time of the German invasion in May 1941 until the German surrender in May 1945. This period in Cretan history is honoured today in the many memorials across the island.

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Forced to leave when most needed: Australian Army Nurses Singapore 1942

The fall of Singapore to Japanese forces on 15 February 1942, was among Australia's darkest moments of the Second World War. The island was home to Britain's main naval base in Southeast Asia and was regarded as an impregnable fortress on which Australia could rely for defence in the region. Few imagined that the Japanese could conquer the Malay peninsula and then Singapore in a matter of months. Australians were shocked when it happened. For Singapore's defenders, surrender meant more than 3 years in Japanese captivity during which one in 3 Allied prisoners lost their life.

In the days before the British surrender, Singapore descended into chaos and panic. Amidst the confusion, as people tried to escape by whatever means they could find, more than 120 Australian army nurses were working to tend the ever-growing number of casualties.

As the Japanese closed in and the situation grew increasingly hopeless, the nurses were ordered to evacuate. More than 70, along with hundreds of patients and civilians, boarded the ships Wah Sui and Empire Star and sailed southwards towards the Netherlands East Indies (present-day Indonesia).¹ Loyal to each other and to their patients, every nurse wanted to remain behind. It was, said the 13th Australian General Hospital's (13th AGH) unit history, 'what they enlisted for, were trained for, were mentally attuned for and now sadly must obey orders and leave just when most needed.'²

One of the hospital's nurses, Sister Beryl Forsyth, recalled that 'it seemed like leaving a job half done.' They were there to care for the wounded, of whom there were many, but she thought that the men were glad to see them go.³ Beryl was in the first group to leave. Another Sister remembered many of the nurses weeping when told they would have to leave the hospital. 'To the last we had all believed that "something would happen," so that we would not have to leave', said another. When the time came, the nurses had 20 minutes to get ready. They left carrying their tin hats, gas masks and with only the clothes they were wearing.⁴

Getting away from Singapore was very dangerous. Empire Star was normally a cargo vessel with accommodation for just 16 people. Now more than 2,000 were crowded on board. Japanese aircraft bombed her 3 times. During the air raids 2 nurses, Sister Vera Torney and Sister Margaret Anderson, dragged wounded men from a blazing cabin shielding their patients with their own bodies when Japanese aircraft machine-gunned the deck. For their selfless courage, Vera was made a member of the military division of the Order of the British Empire and Margaret was awarded the George Medal. Hazardous though their escape was, the nurses on Empire Star made it to Australia having first docked at Batavia, Java, itself soon to also fall to the Japanese.⁵

The following day, 12 February, the remaining 65 Australian nurses on Singapore boarded Vyner Brooke to make their own escape. The difference of less than 24 hours in leaving Singapore, was for many, the difference between life and death.

Vyner Brooke was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Sumatra. The nurses on board were either killed in the sinking, carried away from land on currents as they clung to wreckage from the ship, or were washed ashore on Bangka Island. Those who landed on Radji Beach, on Bangka, joined a large group of soldiers and civilians who attempted to surrender. But when Japanese troops reached them, they ordered the men to march around a headland, then killed them with bayonets. The Japanese then forced the nurses to wade into the sea and machine-gunned them. The only surviving nurse, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, who had been wounded, floated in the surf until the Japanese left. She then hid for several days with a surviving British soldier before giving herself up, knowing that the Japanese must never find out that she was a witness to such an atrocity.

Vivian was taken to an internment camp and reunited with other Vyner Brooke survivors who had landed on a different part of the island. When Vivian arrived, the women asked where the rest of the nurses were. They were horrified to learn of what had happened. As Betty Jeffrey wrote in her diary: 'After we heard this story we decided then and there never to mention it again; it would not do for it to go back to Japanese ears. The subject was strictly forbidden.' The silence was never broken. The nurses' loyalty ensured that not a word was ever said. 'We had to keep Vivian's secret. We had to adapt to circumstances or die', said Sylvia Muir.⁶

In 2023, almost a quarter of a century after her death in July 2000, a statue honouring Lieutenant Colonel Bullwinkel was unveiled in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial. Three generations of her family attended the dedication ceremony. Vivian's nephew spoke of one of his aunt's defining qualities, remembering 'she was very loyal, and very loyal to her colleagues.'⁷

Loyalty was part of the nurse's creed. Vivian Bullwinkel and every nurse with whom she served had sworn an oath, the Australian Army Nursing Service Pledge of Service, which reads:

I pledge myself loyally to serve my King and Country and to maintain the honour and efficiency of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

I will do all in my power to alleviate the suffering of the sick and wounded, sparing no effort to bring them comfort of body and peace of mind.

I will work in unity and comradeship with my fellow nurses.

I will be ready to give assistance to those in need of my help, and will abstain from any action which may bring sorrow and suffering to others.

At all times I will endeavour to uphold the highest traditions of Womanhood and of the Profession of which I am Part.⁸

In North Africa, Greece, the Middle East, the Pacific, Australia and in Malaya, Australian Army nurses upheld this oath, none more so than those fated to be serving in Singapore in February 1942.

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Did you know?

Of the many sculptures in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial, only one, the sculpture of Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel AO MBE ARRC Ed FNM FRNCA, commemorates an individual female service person. Several items from Vivian's Second World War service are displayed in the Memorial's galleries, including her grey nurse's uniform with the trace of a bullet hole above the hip, testifying to her extreme good fortune on Bangka Island in 1942.

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It runs in the family: Sergeant George 'Ian' Hodgson

Ian Hodgson grew up in the Gilgandra area of New South Wales. His father ran a sheep and wheat farm. From a young age he had chores ranging from collecting firewood to milking cows.¹

When Ian was a boy, his father went to the Second World War. When he returned, Ian recognised 'you just knew something was different' and in later life came to understand that war 'just takes something from you.' Remembering one of his uncles, a First World War veteran, Ian admitted: 'I really didn't like him, as a child. And I really didn't like him as a teenager'. Unable to understand what his uncle had experienced as a young man on the Western Front, Ian grew more compassionate with time and experience in the army, thinking of him instead as a 'poor bugger' who had endured too much.

Despite it all, Ian wanted to become a soldier. 'It was this thing, I had it when I was in high school … that I wanted to be a soldier.' His family had been shaped by war – 3 generations had served. Ian's father was in his 30s when he enlisted for service in the Second World War. He refused to let 17-year-old Ian enlist for Korea: 'You're too young, you wouldn't come back.' In 1950 Ian joined the Citizen Military Force (CMF) instead. After 8 years, 4 of them full-time, his unit's adjutant approached him. 'Look, it's obvious you like the army, why don't you become a regular soldier?' Ian took the advice in 1957 and never regretted his decision.

Ian was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in the early 1960s. In 1964 he deployed to Butterworth, Malaya, the first of 2 tours with 111 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery. He remembered hoping that he would be able to do the job that he had trained for on his overseas deployments. By 1969 he was ready for more overseas service. Having seen friends and peers head off to Vietnam, he wanted to share the experience. He completed a series of courses to qualify for the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) and deployed to Vietnam in 1970, spending 8 months in Quang Tri Province as a member of the Team. In Vietnam, he felt the deep camaraderie of soldiers on active service, 'this affection of your mate … you could feel … I know if something happens to me you will come and get me and vice-versa.'

As he prepared to go to Vietnam Ian felt very strongly that the 'standard and the example was set at Gallipoli. And I'm sure every Australian soldier [thinks] how dare I let these brave men of 1915 down?' In dangerous moments, he drew strength from thinking about earlier generations of soldiers. 'You go back to the standard that has been set by my previous peers … and then go back a bit further to Gallipoli, and your mind says, "My God, I couldn't let those men down."' Ian's happiest memories of Vietnam were the occasional reunions with other members of the AATTV: 'There would be a great feeling to see these men.'

In 1971 Ian was wounded and repatriated to Australia. He retired as Regimental Sergeant Major with 16 Air Defence Regiment in South Australia in 1980.

Army life had suited Ian: 'The rapport that you got with your peers, and the loyalty that came out of that', he said later, had made for a satisfying vocation. Loyalty to the ideal of service carried into Ian's post-army life. He enjoyed a 15-year long career as a tipstaff to a South Australian Supreme Court Judge which ended with him holding the position of Chief Tip Staff to the Chief Justice of the South Australian Supreme Court.²

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Did you know?

Many Australian families have a history of service in the army spanning generations. Service men and women today might have relatives or forebears who served in the world wars, Korea or Vietnam, perhaps even the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century. The Lovett family of Victoria, whose Aboriginal heritage dates back over a millennium, also has a tradition of service that runs through the world wars to the recent 21st century conflict in Afghanistan. Other Australian families can point to a similar history of soldiering through the 20th century and to the present day.

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Loyal to the last: Warrant Officer Class II Kevin Wheatley VC

Kevin 'Dasher' Wheatley was killed in November 1965 in Tra Bong Valley, Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam. Though he could have escaped, Kevin remained with a mortally wounded comrade. He was prepared to sacrifice his own life rather than leave the man alone as enemy troops approached.

Born in Sydney's Surry Hills in March 1937, Kevin was educated at Maroubra Junction Junior Technical School. After school, he worked in a series of manual jobs and in 1954 married his fiancé, Edna. Two years later, aged 19, he enlisted in the Australian Army.¹

In 1957, he was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) and deployed to Malaya, the scene of a guerrilla conflict known as the Malayan Emergency. Here, Australian troops participated in operations to end a communist insurgency against the sitting British Colonial government.

After his tour, Kevin was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR). Then he joined the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR). He was a keen footballer, earning the nickname 'Dasher' when he played rugby for 1RAR.² After 8 years in the army, Kevin was an experienced soldier. He was promoted to Sergeant in January 1964. Later that year he was promoted to Warrant Officer Class II (WO2), his reputation for courage and loyalty already established.³

By then Australia was in the early stages of involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1962, in support of the United States and its ally South Vietnam, Australia had sent a team of military advisors to Vietnam. The team, called the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), trained South Vietnamese and Indigenous soldiers from the mountainous northern and central regions of South Vietnam. Each Team member was an Officer, Sergeant or Warrant Officer.

The AATTV were scattered around South Vietnam, often serving alongside military advisors from the United States.⁴ Kevin joined their ranks in March 1965. By then he and Edna had 4 children.

Described as 'short and stocky with a powerful body … known and liked for his particular version of practical soldiering', Kevin was said to be '… uninhibited in word and deed … he radiated an impression of confidence and toughness, tempered with a ready smile and a sense of humour when the occasion suited.' His son George remembered Kevin as 'a hard man', but also knew, as others did, that 'there was a soft side to him too.' He 'loved kids and was always very loyal to his friends', said George.⁵

Kevin did not speak Vietnamese but was popular among the South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians who knew him. He was also courageous, once running through gunfire to rescue a terrified 3-year-old girl. It was not the only time he risked his life to save someone else.⁶

On 13 November 1965, Kevin was with South Vietnamese soldiers and a group of advisors, including Americans and an Australian, WO2 Ron Swanton. They were on a search and destroy operation when they came under heavy fire. Kevin realised the enemy was too strong and called for assistance, but before help could reach them, Ron was hit. Seeing him fall, Kevin ran with a South Vietnamese soldier, Private Dinh Do, through enemy fire to reach the wounded man. Together, they dragged and carried Ron across 200 metres of bullet-swept ground until they reached the shelter of the woods.

But there was no safety there. As the enemy fought towards their position, the South Vietnamese troops and other advisors in Kevin's group withdrew. Dinh Do urged Kevin to escape with him. He refused. As he began to run, with the enemy just metres away, Dinh Do caught a glimpse of Kevin pulling the pins from a couple of hand grenades. Then he heard 2 explosions and bursts of small arms fire.

The next morning, Dinh Do returned to the scene of the battle and found Kevin and Ron dead in the place he had left them. A United States soldier involved in the battle later wrote of Kevin, 'If it were not for this human sacrifice for a wounded friend, he could still be alive today.'

As had been the practice in earlier wars, Australian war dead were to be buried in the country where they fell. When Kevin's family raised funds to have his body brought home privately, their example caused an outcry that led to a change in policy. From early in 1966, Australians who lost their lives on overseas service could be returned home if their families wanted it. Kevin Wheatley was buried with full military honours in Pine Grove Cemetery in Sydney's Eastern Creek.⁷

On that afternoon at Tra Bong, South Vietnamese soldier Dinh Do's loyalty to Kevin Wheatley and Ron Swanton could have cost him his life. Where his fidelity to the 2 Australians has gone largely unsung, Kevin's self-sacrificing loyalty to Ron placed him in a very select group. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. An extract of his citation reads, 'His acts of heroism, determination and unflinching loyalty in the face of the enemy will always stand as examples of the true meaning of valour.

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Did you know?

Kevin Wheatley also received recognition from the United States who awarded him a Silver Star. South Vietnam honoured him with a Military Medal, the National Cross of Gallantry with Palm and Knighted him into the National Order of the Republic of Vietnam. Wheatley's image and citation are displayed in the Hall of Heroes in the headquarters of the United States Army. These can be found in the John F. Kennedy Centre for Military Assistance at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.⁹

An unfinished letter: Susan Felsche

Susan Felsche lost her life doing the job she loved, the job she had studied and trained for since she was a teenager. At her funeral, her widow, Klaus, spoke of the depth of his loss. He told mourners of Susan's 'astuteness, energy, loyalty and dedication. She proudly wore the uniform of her nation.'¹

Susan was born Susan Stones in Brisbane on 24 March 1961. From a very young age she declared her interest in being a doctor. With intelligence to match her ambition, Susan began studying medicine at the University of Queensland when she was 17.

She was well-known in the Brisbane community where she grew up, had taught Sunday School at a local church for more than a decade and had been a first aid officer for TS Norfolk Naval Cadets in Redland Bay. Susan planned to join the navy as an undergraduate medical student but changed her mind. The army, she decided, offered greater challenges for medical officers and in 1983, she joined the army's undergraduate scheme.²

Over the following 4 years, Susan had postings in Richmond and Townsville, and at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. In 1987, she began service as a Captain Medical Officer at 5 Camp Hospital Duntroon in Canberra. Alongside her career in the army, Susan studied part-time and worked after hours at Canberra's Woden Valley and Calvary Hospitals, often with leading orthopaedic surgeons.³

She married fellow army officer Klaus Felsche in August 1988. Three years later, in 1991, she was promoted to major and posted to the Directorate General of Army Health Services. The following year, she was posted to the 1st Military Hospital at Yeronga in Queensland as the Medical Officer in Charge of Clinical Services. Not long afterwards, she was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.⁴

In the early 1990s, Susan was asked to consider a peacekeeping posting as Medical Officer with the 4th Australian Staff Contingent to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). Her father remembered being concerned but felt that there were more dangerous deployments than Western Sahara. 'There was no shooting like in Cambodia and other places', he told a journalist. Susan accepted and prepared to spend 6 months in Africa.⁵

'She was looking forward to working in a different environment,' her commanding officer remembered. 'She was going to be working in the field with Australian troops, in a Third World country and with doctors and nurses from other countries.' Susan was excited at the prospect, keen to apply her training and experience under difficult operational conditions.⁶

Susan left Australia for Laayoune, Western Sahara's capital, in May 1993, and was attached to a Swiss medical unit, working out of tents. Then there were postings to MINURSO-controlled United Nations observation posts where she got to see Western Sahara's countryside. 'It looks flat and dry, but it is all divided into fields as far as the eye can see for farming.'⁷ There were also large areas of desert, and often strong winds. These were so strong as to move the landmines sown across Western Sahara, to lie unmapped under shifting sands.

Wherever she went in Western Sahara, Susan was the object of attention. As she told Klaus in a letter, 'A female soldier is a rarity … and everyone is talking about the female Major on the mission and some countries have never heard of a female doctor.'⁸ On 17 June she wrote to say she had arrived in Awsard, in the middle of the Sahara Desert, where she was attached to a Swiss medical unit attending to all UN personnel scattered in posts across the country. The base comprised a camp of '6 or so weatherhaven shelters. We're surrounded by a stone wall and a row of rocks marking the distance permitter. Beyond that is out of bounds because of mines. The track up the mountain is carefully marked because of mines.'⁹ Susan was well equipped to work in this dangerous environment, with one officer describing her as having 'plenty of guts, she didn't take a backward step if the interests of her patients were at stake.'¹⁰

On 20 June 1993, Susan began writing a letter to Klaus but put it aside, intending to write more later. It was never sent. The following morning, she joined a small team travelling to provide medical support to UN personnel, including an Australian contingent scattered across Western Sahara. Their aircraft crashed moments after take-off, killing Susan and 4 of the 5 passengers and crew on board. She was the first Australian service woman to lose her life on an overseas military operation since the Second World War.

Susan's loyalty to her twin professions – doctor and army officer – led her to serve as a peacekeeper in Western Sahara. She died, said one letter of commiseration, 'in the service of peace'. Her funeral, with full military honours, was held in Brisbane, near where she had spent much of her youth. It was this, her 'professionalism and loyalty', remembered Klaus, that made her an 'inspiration and one of the army's best officers.'

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Did you know?

Australia was the first nation to send peacekeepers into the field when 4 military officers deployed as observers in the Netherlands East Indies (present-day Indonesia) in 1947. They served during a conflict for Indonesian independence, monitoring a failing ceasefire along with other international observers. Australia's part in the operation finished in 1951. The commitment to the Netherlands East Indies was central to the development of United Nations peacekeeping and to Australia's role as a peacekeeping nation.¹²

References

Introduction

1. N. Biedermann, "Australian Military Nursing from ANZAC to Now: Embracing the Ghosts of Our Nursing Ancestors", Advances in Historical Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, June 2017, https://www.scirp.org/journal/ paperinformation?paperid=77028, accessed 30 May 2024. The quotes are from '4.2 Conditions Faced'. The sign was initially described in D. Ashley, 'Army's Spirit', Australian Army Journal, 10, 2013, pp 203–212.

The man beyond the donkey: John 'Jack' Simpson

1. P. Cochrane, Simpson and the Donkey, the making of a legend, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1992.
2. 3rd Field Ambulance War Diary, April 1915, AWM 26/46, https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1012449/bundled/RCDIG1012449.pdf, accessed 1 June 2024.
3. For a short account of the conditions faced by the Field Ambulance, see S. Due, 'Anzac Doctors', Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, Vol. 32, No. 4, October 2024, https://jmvh.org/article/https-doi-ds-org- doilink-03-2023-83122963-jmvh-vol-8-no-1/, accessed 1 June 2024.
4. P. Cochrane, Simpson and the Donkey, p. 42.
5. P. Cochrane, Simpson and the Donkey, p. 42.
6. For the story of Benson and Annie, the way in which Jack's letters were obtained and the resulting biography of Jack, see P Cochrane, Simpson and the donkey, pp 31ff.
7. P Cochrane, Simpson and the donkey, pp 31ff.
8. For a short account of the conditions faced by the Field Ambulance, see S. Due, 'Anzac Doctors', Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, vol. 8, 1 June 1999, https://doi-ds.org/doilink/03.2023-83122963/JMVH, accessed 3 June 2024.
9. P. Cochrane, Simpson and the Donkey, p. 186.

Plans fall apart: Tragedy at the Battle of The Nek

1. The four men appear throughout P. Burness, The Nek, a Gallipoli Tragedy, Exisle Publishing, Auckland, 2012.
2. P. Burness, The Nek, p. 48.
3. P. Burness, The Nek, p. 69.
4. P. Burness, The Nek, p. 90.
5. P. Burness, The Nek, p. 91.
6. For a vivid account of the Nek, see C.E.W. Bean, The story of Anzac from 4 May 1915 to the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Official History Of Australia In The War Of 1914-18, vol. 2, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1941, pp. 607 ff.
7. P. Burness, The Nek, p. 97.
8. Edward Henty, 'Service Record', NAA B2455, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5476281, accessed 3 June 2024.
9. Department of Veterans' Affairs, "Animals in the military during World War 1", https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/military-organisation/animals-in-military#3, accessed 4 June 2024.
10. Department of Veterans' Affairs, 'Animals in the military during World War 1', https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/military-organisation/animals-in-military, accessed 24 May 2024.

His 'faith didn't falter': John Gotch 'Jack' Ridley and the attack at Fromelles

1. Born to be a soldier, War Diary of Lieutenant John Gotch Ridley, MC, A survivor of Fromelles 53rd Battalion, 5th Division, IF World War 1 1914-1918, Baptist Historical Society of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, p. v. In a photograph, p. iv, Ridley looks remarkably young.
2. J. Ridley, letter to family, 18 July 1916, Born to be a soldier, pp. 48ff. The following is taken from Ridley's account of his experience at Fromelles written in a hospital shortly after the battle and published on pp. 51-72.
3. Letter Tom Ridley to Mr W. Muirsmith, 4 December 1916, J. Ridley, Born to be a soldier, pp. 78ff.
4. Ridley's citation can be found on the Australian War Memorial website, https://s3-ap-southeast-2. amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1068356/document/5500333.PDF
5. Ridley's address is listed as 'Fromelles' 468 Pennant Hills Rd in his service record, John Gotch Ridley, Service Record, NAA, B2455, https://recordsearch. naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5568172, accessed 24 May 2024.
6. Australian War Memorial, 'Battle of Fromelles', https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/fromelles, accessed 24 May 2024.
7. 'Early Construction and Heritage Properties: 1900- 1930', https://buildreport.com.au/heritage1900/, accessed 24 May 2024.

A road less travelled: Lieutenant Physiotherapist Lorna Ward

1. Australians at War Film Archive, "Lorna Ward", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/2177, accessed 5 June 2024.
2. "S.A. Masseuses Like Their Job With A.I.F." News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), 13 January 1941, p. 5: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131428855, accessed 5 June 2024.
3. Australians at War Film Archive, "Lorna Ward", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/2177, accessed 5 June 2024.
4. Anzac Square Memorial Galleries, 'Women in World War II', 15 July 2024, https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/women-world-war-ii, accessed 5 June 2024.

A long drive home: Private Reginald 'Reg' Worthington

1. Australians at War Film Archive, "Reginald Worthington", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/, accessed 6 June 2024.
2. The Final Days at Stalag 18a, http://www.stalag18a. org/end.html, accessed 6 June 2024. Stalag 18C Prisoner of War Camp during the Second World War, The Wartime Memories Project, https://www. wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/pow/powcamp.php?pid=3340. See also, The Final Days at Stalag 18a, http://www.stalag18a.org/end.html, accessed 6 June 2024.
3. Victoria University of Wellington Library, 'Prisoners of War, Release and Evacuation of Camps in Austria', https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Pris-_ N103448.html, accessed 6 June 2024.
4. See for example, Department of Veterans' Affairs, 'Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war', https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/resources/stolen-years- australian-prisoners-war#5.

The kindness of strangers: Captain Reg Saunders

1. National Archives of Australia, "Saunders, Reginald Walter DVA Medical File", C143, NMKM04240-01, 32429917.
2. D. McIntyre, "Saunders, Reginald Walter (Reg) (1920- 1990)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/Saunders-reginald-walter-reg-15909/text27110, 29 June 2024.
3. D. McIntyre, "Saunders, Reginald Walter (Reg) (1920-1990)".
4. D. McIntyre, "Saunders, Reginald Walter (Reg) (1920-1990)".
5. National Archives of Australia, Saunders, Reginald Walter DVA Medical File.
6. National Archives of Australia, Saunders, Reginald Walter DVA Medical File.
7. Australians at War Film Archive, "Jack Gallaway", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/2577, accessed 7 June 2024.
8. Australians at War Film Archive, "Joseph (Joe) Vezgoff", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/671, accessed 7 June 2024.
9. Australians at War Film Archive, "George Mansford", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/1768, accessed 7 June 2024.
10. National Archives of Australia, "Saunders, Reginald Walter DVA Medical File."
11. T.Kokkinidis, 'How the Battle of Crete Changed the Course of World War II', Greek Reporter, 20 May 2024, https://greekreporter.com/2024/05/20/how-the- battle-of-crete-changed-the-course-of-world-war-two/, accessed 29 June 2024.

Forced to leave when most needed: Australian Army Nurses Singapore 1942

1. Old Treasury Building, "Caring for the Troops", https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/work-for-victory/ caring-for-the-troops/, accessed 8 June 2024.
2. L. Arthurson, The Story of the 13th Australian General Hospital, 8th Division AIF, Malaya, https://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/AUSTRALIAN_GENERAL_HOSPITAL.pdf, accessed 8 June 2024, see p. 22. See also S. Fulford, Training, Ethos, Camaraderie, and Endurance of World War Two Australian POW Nurses, https://muntokpeacemuseum.org/wp-content/ uploads/2017/02/Fulford-Sarah-2016-Training-Ethos- and-Camaraderie.pdf, accessed 8 June 2024, p. 49.
3. "Women's Section Nurses from Singapore Left Doomed City", The Age (Melbourne), 13 March 1942, p. 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205282941, accessed 8 June 2024.
4. "Nurses Tell of Days in Singapore", The Mail (Adelaide), 29 August 1942, p. 5, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54899454, accessed 8 June 2024.
5. S. Fulford, Training, Ethos, Camaraderie, and Endurance of World War Two Australian POW Nurses, p. 49.
6. S. Fulford, Training, Ethos, Camaraderie, and Endurance of World War Two Australian POW Nurses, p. 89.
7. C. Hunter, "There was no mistaking their vicious intentions", Australian War Memorial, 2 August 2023, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/vivian-bullwinkel, accessed 8 June 2024.
8. The Australian Women's Register, "Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)", https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/australian-army-nursing-service-aans/, accessed 10 June 2024.
9. The Australian Women's Register, "Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)", https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/australian-army-nursing-service-aans/, accessed 10 June 2024.

It runs in the family: Sergeant George 'Ian' Hodgson

1. Australians At War Film Archive, "George 'Ian' Hodgson", https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw. edu.au/archive/1349, accessed 8 June 2024.
2. For general material on the conflicts in which George 'Ian' Hodgson served, see Department of Veterans' Affairs, "The Malayan Emergency 1948 to 1960", https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ malayan-emergency-1948-1960, and on the AATTV, see Ian McNeill, The Team: Australian Army advisers in Vietnam 1962-1972, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1984.

Loyal to the last: Warrant Officer Class Two Kevin Wheatley VC

1. A. Staunton, "Wheatley, Kevin Arthur (1937-1965)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wheatley-kevin-arthur-12006, accessed 10 June 2024.
2. C. Hunter, "He always thought of others first", 13 November 2021, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/kevin-dasher-wheatley, accessed 10 June 2024.
3. A. Staunton, "Wheatley, Kevin Arthur (1937-1965)".
4. For a history of the AATTV, see Ian McNeill, The Team: Australian Army advisers in Vietnam 1962-1972.
5. D. T. Zabecki, "He went AWOL to save a stray dog and refused to leave his comrades. Meet Australia's first VC recipient in Vietnam", 15 may 2023, https://www.historynet.com/kevin-wheatley-victoria-cross-vietnam/, accessed 10 June 2024.
6. D. T. Zabecki, "He went AWOL to save a stray dog".
7. C. Hunter, "He always thought of others first".
8. Victoria Cross: Warrant Officer Second Class K A Wheatley, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam", Australian War Memorial, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C265771, accessed10 June 2024.
9. C. Hunter, "He always thought of others first".

An unfinished letter: Susan Felsche

1. Papers of Susan Felsche, AWM PR00288, Klaus Felsche eulogy, Folder 2.
2. D. Horner, "Felsche, Susan Lee (1961-1993)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/felsche-susan-lee-18362/text30001, 2017, accessed 11 June 2024. See also, AWM PR00288, papers of Susan Felsche. See specifically the eulogies in Folder 2.
3. "Major Susan Lee Felsche", https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10676763, accessed 11 June 2024.
4. "Major Susan Lee Felsche", https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10676763, accessed 11 June 2024.
5. "Local dies in Sahara crash", The Redland Times, 23 June 1993.
6. "Female Digger dies in Western Sahara plane crash", The Australian, 23 June 1993.
7. Susan Felsche letter to Klaus Felsche, 18 May 1993, AWM PR00288, papers of Susan Felsche.
8. Susan Felsche letter to Klaus Felsche, 20 May 1993, AWM PR00288, papers of Susan Felsche.
9. Susan Felsche letter to Klaus Felsche, 17 June 1993, AWM PR00288, papers of Susan Felsche.
10. "Female Digger dies in Western Sahara plane crash", The Australian, 23 June 1993.
11. P. Londey, Other People's Wars, A History of Australian Peacekeeping, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2004. See, pp. 139 ff. On Susan Felsche specifically see p. 142. See also "MINURSO, United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara", minurso.unmissions.org/background. United Nations Peacekeeping, "Minurso Fact Sheet", peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minurso, accessed 12 June 2024.
12. P. Londey, Other People's Wars, see, pp. 13ff.

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