Department of Veterans' Affairs
Transcript
Training
My brother and I went down to join up together and we decided we wanted to go in the air force…
My training, I went to Shepparton in Victoria to do my rookies. After that they made a blue. Then they sent us to Geelong but when we got there to Geelong, they said they didn't want us. They sent us to Adelaide.
So we went to Adelaide and we were doing an electricians' course and about three parts in of the course they decided they had enough electricians, they decided they wanted some radio mechanics. So they picked us up and took us all to Sydney.
So we took over a couple of hotels in Bondi, the Astra, and the Pacific and then we went from there to … we used to do our work in Ultimo…We used to get the bus every morning to Ultimo which was a fair fair trip.
13 Squadron
They decided to send us to Canberra to form a squadron. A squadron had come down from Darwin and had to be reformed in Canberra. It was, the 13 Squadron it was and we had to reform the squadron.
We went down as armourers' assistants. The aircraft we had there were PV 1 Ventura, the navy type. There were two types of Venturas, a navy and an army one. In the navy type we used to go out and drop depth charges and all that sort of stuff.
22 Repair and Salvage Unit
We used to transport the men from working from here to there. Wherever they wanted to work. If there was an enemy aircraft shot down or damaged or crash landed or anything, we retrieved them. That was in 22 RSU, we retrieved them.
Eating with the Americans
We were living in the boat with the Americans then…ice cream and everything. Coffee whenever you wanted. Ice cream for lunch. They lived in the lap of luxury they did, really…They'd do anything for you.
They'd give you a carton of cigarettes for… a tin of evaporated milk. They used to use it for cream. But they'd give you a carton of cigarettes for a time of that which we shouldn't have given them tins because we had to break open a case to give them but doesn't matter.
They were only little things…While we were unloading the boat we ate with the Americans. I had a little tiny plate. I always carried a little tiny plate.
On my first meal he picked it up and threw it straight in the rubbish bin and said, "This is no good" and gave me a plate this big. They looked after us. They looked after us well.
A floating mine
The Americans told us there was a Japanese submarine on the horizon. We could see the sub but we couldn't tell whether it was a Jap or not, but they knew.
The next day there was a big floating mine come down towards the boat, got into the wash and went around the back of the boat. That was our first introduction to war.
Sightseeing through enemy territory
Joe, Jackie, and I got a bit bored watching a boat getting unloaded once so we said to one of the Yanks that was there "We're going for a trip around the island". Jack was in transport and I was in transport, so we went and got a jeep out of transport.
We decided we'd go for a run around the island. Late in the afternoon, coming on dark. We knew where we were going. We knew there was a road right around the island, so we were going to take that one.
So we took it down and we come right around and we come down here and when we got here some Aussie raced out with a rifle and said, "Halt" and all the rest of the junk so we stopped, naturally, and he said, "What do you think you're doing?" "We're just having a look around. Why?" "Well, you gotta see the officer" and he brought the officer of the day and by geez, didn't he wail into us.
He said, "You just came through Japanese occupied territory". We didn't know there were any Japs over there. Just came through Japanese occupied country and they never even looked like interfering with us but it frightened the Hell out of when he told us. We went straight back to the ship then.
A Japanese boulder
I never fired an angry shot. I never shot at anyone…We used to do guard duty, that was of a night as well and I was on guard duty one night and we were on top of this hill that had been levelled off and the headquarters and everything was up there, and my duty was round and round the headquarters. And I looked across and I seen this bloke over the other side and he's squatting down.
I thought ‘He's right alongside the jungle. Why would he step out of the trees to have a crap in the open?' I watched him and watched him and finished running around again and he'd moved and I'd moved further along and I'm staring and string at him and he's still squatting down and I thought ‘There's something wrong with this bloke'.
When the other fellow came to relieve me, he said, "Is there anything I ought to know?" and I told him about this bloke over there. He looked at it and he said, "I'll go around here and you go around there and we'll get him in between us". We thought he'd be a Jap. He wouldn't be a bloody Australian.
He went one way and I went the other way and we got around there. I came back for some reason. Perhaps I didn't want to be in it. I came back and then he came back. He said, "You're queer'. I said, "What?" he said, "That Jap, I just walked over, you said you seen him walking around'.
He said, "That's a boulder". It was a big stone. That's all it was, and I nearly had a shot at him. I had him lined up and I thought ‘No, I won't do this. This is being stupid, and I won't do this because he's probably got a family in Japan and they'd want him back'. It was right towards the end of the war and we knew the war was nearly over so I wouldn't have a shot at him, and I didn't either. I never fired an angry shot in the war, not one shot in anger.
A gruesome souvenir
We were up on top of this hill that had been levelled off and we were pitching our tent and that sort of thing and we're smarties, we thought we'd go out and get a load of bamboo and we were going to build out of the top of this. So we did that, got the bamboo, and there were three Japs there and they're dead, naturally, otherwise we wouldn't have stayed. But there were these Japs there and one big fella. I think he must have been a Formosan or something like that.
I was with Jackie and a young bloke from the West. I can't think of his name but he said, "I want a souvenir'. And I said, "Well, go ahead, please yourself. Get what you want." He said, "That blokes got a belt around him'. The big bloke had a belt around him. "I'll take that'. And the stench was pretty bad. So he reached down and he got it and pulled it and pulled it and pulled it and the next thing, half the Jap went that way and half the Jap went that way. He cut him fair in half. Pulled the belt right through him. Yeah, I remember that. Whew, the smell.
The taste of dead bodies
When I came home, I got home, I got out of the taxi at the house and my mother and sister were walking up the street. I yelled out … and went up with them. They were going…I was living in Southwark in Adelaide and just over the river was another different suburb, so we went round over the river and they were heading that way so I went with them and we went round to some places and we called in at a delicatessen and this is awful, this is.
We went round to a delicatessen and they said, "You haven't had any decent food for a long time", you know. Like the food used to be alright, you know what I mean. They got me a plate full of meat, sliced up meat, different types of meat and that sort of thing and I said, "That looks lovely", you know. And the first bite, all I could taste was the dead bodies on the island, on Labuan.
This is the point I missed out on. When they went to lengthen the strip, the strip was there just for the fighters. Well, they wanted to bring the bombers in, see, and so they lengthened the strip and took the top of the whatshisname off. There was a big grave with hundreds of bodies in there and the stench went all through the islands and you could taste it. You could taste it. A week after you could taste it every time you had a meal and that's what I tasted when I got home. The first thing I done. So I had one mouthful of meat and that was it, I couldn't eat anymore. It tasted like dead bodies.
Anzac Day
I don't worry about Anzac Day now because I can't march. I could go down and go in the cars and that sort of thing, but I don't worry about it no more…
I do think that they think more of the First World War than they do of the Second. I thoroughly do think that. All you get on the television now is First World War, First World War. Afterall, I think we did our job just as well. Although, thank goodness, I was never in the first one because I didn't like that trench warfare. It was not for me.
