Department of Veterans' Affairs
Transcript
Enlistment
Because it was on, I guess. I had a certain degree of patriotism and the feeling that we should be involved, I guess, but there was also a feeling of adventure, so something different, that it was something that might fill our lives. I'd never been out of Western Australia prior to going overseas with the services.
There was mixed motives I suppose you'd have to say. Initially, I put my name down for the air force and passed the test. In fact, I had to have an operation done to my nose, a submucousal resection they called it, whatever that signified and I was accepted for aircrew but went on and on and on and they didn't have the facilities available to train us and I had a couple of other friends who were joining the air force as well but we went on a militia camp when Italy came into the war and had to round up the unnaturalised Italians in the goldfields area around Leonora and Menzies, that part of Western Australia and we formed an association with eight other chaps who were in the militia and we decided we'd join the AIF together.
So I put my name down for the AIF and it was accepted there and they were taking a bit of time to call us up, so I had some friends who joined the navy as sub chasers…and anyway, the army called us up first and I actually got my call up for the air force when I was on pre-embarkation leave for the army but I had this tie up with the other chap who'd gone in so off I went in the infantry on the flat feet which I'd said I'd never ever do if I had to go to war, I wouldn't be walking but as it turned out I did.
Swapping ships in Ceylon
Well the first port of call was Ceylon and we were on the Aquitania in the convoy that took us to Ceylon and we had four or five days in Colombo and we changed ships then to a couple of Dutch, the New Amsterdam was the Dutch ship made available, requisitioned on the powers that be to take us on to Egypt where we were to be encamped and finish our training or carry on our training.
It was a great big open…the Aquitania wasn't. The Aquitania was set up as it was for peace time travel so it was quite a luxurious but when we transferred to the Dutch New Amsterdam it was pretty, not primitive but, you know, it wasn't like a luxurious sailing boat, cruise ship.
Training in Tobruk
Then, to continue our training were taken up to Tobruk with no thought in mind that Rommel was going to come. We were just up there for training. Well, it was pretty rugged desert. We didn't see much of the actual township.
We were taken out on, there was a perimeter, a fortified perimeter all around Tobruk and we were moved from post to post and had lots of sham attacks pretending the enemy was coming and, of course, when Rommel did come back they had to tell us this time it was for sure, you know, Rommel, the Germans are attacking Tobruk, so we had to post sentries, one sentry to every 50 yards or something.
The troops coming from Benghazi back to Tobruk they built up the defence of Tobruk but when we first got there we were just there for training purposes and then the situation changed very rapidly.
Defending the posts
The posts were S, Sugar 6 and Sugar 7 were the two posts we had the most to do with. They would have been, at least, two hundred yards apart, I suppose, or metres, I should be talking in that, not gone totally metric, they were concrete posts with underground accommodation, they were fully self-supporting but each one had, they had passageways and open areas but each of them had three or four firing, circular defensive posts, really, where you mounted your Bren guns or Tommy guns, or rifles or whatever you had but they were impossible places to defend because you had to, there was this concrete surface of the post, you had to put your head above it and the Germans were in a tank about 20 yards away from you and as soon as you put your head up, boom, so virtually about all you could do was throw grenades at them.
Self-supporting prisoners of war
For the whole time we were there, patrols used to go out more to let the Germans know we were aggressive and still there and prepared to defend us because Lord Haw Haw, he had actually named us the Rats of Tobruk, of course, but he also named us self-supporting prisoners of war.
They just had to stay there and we had to stay there too, so, the tag self-supporting prisoners of war became attached to us which we didn't like particular and for that reason we had to show them that we were more than-supporting but a bit of a thorn in their side. That, Rommel gave up any attempt of taking Tobruk and just bypassed it. Of course, it extended his line of communication having, not being able to use the port of Tobruk. We were a nuisance.
Stuka dive bombers
The Stukas were a source of, they called them dive bombers anyway and when they dive bombed, they had sort of sirens that they used to put on them and made the most frightening noise you can imagine and so even before the bombs started leaving the aircraft there was this horrible noise, oh, you know, they were just about on top of you anyway and then the bombs came. The strafing was pretty severe. That dreadful noise that they made as they… [makes noise] … made a lot more noise than that.
Tobruk township and harbour
Tobruk, the township itself, and the harbour, were being constantly bombed and there were sunken ships in the harbour and the township itself was just about wrecked altogether. They were trying to, having been an Italian post, the Germans had plans and knew exactly where everything was and one of their main objectives was the water supply.
They said if they could deny us water, the battle was half won but we always managed to get water and they always managed to bring naval craft up with reinforcements and supplies as well. Those ships, the captains of those ships were endangering not only their crews but the whole ships itself. As I said, there were plenty sunken naval ships in the harbour itself.
Bathing in the sea
When we went up on the perimeter in the outskirts of the township there was a beach area that when we were at rest we used to, we had swims in the ocean, although it was very cold at night it was very pleasant during the day, quite warm and nice to get in the sea. Not many men had bathers I might add but it was just as pleasant without them.
On the alert
Being on the alert, being expectant, being prepared, making sure our weapons were kept in immaculate condition. There wasn't much training that we could do.
When you were on the perimeter you were static, that's what you were and you were there to defend your area of the perimeter so it was basically just being on the alert.
Firing over open sights
The Royal Horse Artillery, British gunners played a very vital part in the defence, I won't talk general history which everybody knows now. We were quite dependent on those but a lot of infantry, the battalion boys, in the battalions, the Germans, the Italians didn't destroy all their guns that they left behind and the regular artillerymen taught our infantrymen the rudiments of firing these Italian guns and ammunition, of course, that they had left behind and the German tanks would appear on the horizon, they'd fire over open sights.
We didn't have any ups and downs or anything, just push it around and aim the barrel and fired wherever the Germans were coming from, just pulled the lanyard and hoped for the best. More misses than hits of course, but enough hits and I think the Germans considered us far greater defenders than we actually were. I don't really think we were adequately in a position to hold Tobruk the way we did.
Advantage of higher ground
The main task that we were given was virtually to straighten out the salient. S6 and 7 were on the high ground which overlooked the whole area of Tobruk, including the township, al.though the township was quite some way away but we were sent to virtually straighten out the salient and deny the Germans the high ground where they could look over the whole of the Tobruk area.
It was a big advantage to have that higher ground because from there they could see everything that was going on.
A dusty ruse
Of course, to make it look like the defence was greater than it was, they used to tie bags and things behind ordinary trucks and put up terrific dust, create dust storms. They'd drive these trucks pulling bags.
We must have looked like a formidable defence force with all the movement that was going on because with all the dust they couldn't tell if we were towing guns or if tanks were operating or what.
We didn't have all that any tanks in Tobruk anyway but most of the equipment in transports and trucks were diesels that the Italians, they hardly blew up any of their ammunition or food dumps even their wine dumps which was duly appreciated by some of our troops.
Surrounded at S6
That was the evening that we were to straighten out the salient by attacking S6 and 7. Well the attack on S7 failed but the attack on S6 was successful but the officer who was in charge of the platoon that was attacking S6, when S6 was taken he was to send up a success signal on a Very light pistol but in the attack the Very light pistol was shot off his hip so when we got to the post, when we took the post, he had no way of indicating that the post had been taken.
He did send back a runner but by that time the reinforcements who were supposed to come up decided that the mission had failed and they went back to their, they weren't available to come forward and assist us to defend, you know, keep the post so that, we managed to keep the post all that day. In the evening and the night the Germans just came and surrounded it. Wherever you moved there was a German, and as I say you couldn't put your head up or you got it shot off.
German salvation
The Germans, hey had us lined up in a…and we thought we were for it but the prisoners, the German prisoners…apparently when we left the post, several grenades, touch grenades exploded and they thought we had booby-trapped the post for when they came which we hadn't and these German prisoners that we had stood up in our defence and said, "No, they looked after us and gave us water and what food they had and they, virtually, were our salvation.
Escape and recapture in a cave
I managed to escape three times. The first one was on the march. We were turning around a curve through the Black Forest and the guards were marching with us, of course, and turning around this curve we thought the guard behind us wouldn't be able to see us so we went over the edge into the forest but the guard did see us and they had these Alsatian dogs and when you get up and have this fierce Alsatian dog not wanting you to escape, you behave yourself and take notice. While we were still on the march they had us in a great big shed, about four or five hundred of us I suppose.
I was looking out and there were no guards inside the shed but there were guards outs all up and down outside the gates and the one outside the gates was marching up and down and then he they'd stop for a couple of minutes and have a cigarette and looking the other way so I said to Alan and Thommo who were these guys who had shot through then and we found this cave on a little hillock and so we thought we'd spend the rest of the night there and in the next morning the Germans decided they were going to mount an ack-ack gun on the little mound.
There was nothing there prior and while he was having lunch one of the Germans actually working on the construction of his ack-ack gun and he came down into the cave and the others and so we were gone again.
Sent to Gestapo headquarters
We were taken to a Gestapo headquarters in Nordhausen and the instruction to prisoners of war, is they said escaping is no longer a sport. They actually put that on the posters and warned that any attempted escapees amongst the British forces would be shot, you know, a big poster.
Anyway we were as I say recaptured by these guards and we were taken into this headquarters of the Gestapo and the first thing we were marched into this quadrangle , "Why weren't these men shot?" and anyway…we hadn't been shot obviously.
The Nordhausen rocket plant
He questioned us for awhile and Tom Cummings spoke quite fluent German and that helped, you know, which quite impressed with him, the Gestapo chappy, and he was most interested in the fact that we were Australians and what we were doing over there fighting the Germans who had done them no harm.
Anyway they chatted away for quite awhile and I think the fact that we were Australians and that Tom could converse in his own language, they sent us down into the dungeons, in the cells underneath Gestapo headquarters and the next thing we knew was there was tramp, tramp, tramp along the corridor and they came to our cell door and gave us some beautiful soup and we thought it was a firing squad coming along to get us so we were very hungry in and enjoyed the soup but, you know, we thought the last meal for a condemned man before they did the job, then they went away and then another chap came along the corridor and they took us to an underground factory and it was V1 and V2 firing, assembly and firing place at Nordhausen.
They didn't have anywhere else to put us immediately so we had a couple of days, actually a lot of the Germans, military personnel had civilian clothes on and they knew they had lost the war and had very little chance. One of them gave Tom Cummings a note saying, you know, when you get back to your own lines would you say that we here did everything we could to make things comfortable for you.
Escape into American lines
Anyway they took us from this underground factory, it was actually built into the hill, virtually a whole township in the mountain. They took us to another POW out camp and we were out in the yard and actually that camp had an air raid shelter attached to it and when the American aircraft came over, the siren went and the German guards were in front of us, the three of us , actually there were no guards behind us, they'd gone into the shelter and up…as we were going in and so the three of us departed and went into the garden of a very well kept home of lawns and what have you so we could hear the Americans crossing the Rhine and the sound of the, so we knew they were approaching so we just stayed there for the morning and the afternoon and they, the actual Yanks did come through.
One of the hardest things was getting down to greet them because anything that moved, they were shooting but anyway I had an Australian slouch hat, whether it did any good or not, waving it and creeping down to meet them and the American in charge he accepted us as being genuine ex-Australian prisoners of war and he said, "Oh, I suppose you'll want to get out of here" and we said, "Well, you know, if we can help?"
We weren't in particular good nick I might add.
He said, "No" and there was a German major sitting in his car and he'd just been taken prisoner of war and the Americans just kicked him out and said, "Here's your transport down to Paris."
Sent to England
He gave us big fuel containers and C rations and plenty of, and a note to say that these three Australian prisoners of war making their way down to Paris we should be pleased to receive any assistance you can render them on their way through and they did. Took a few days to get down but we were fortunate that in two of the places they had evening shows and really high, I've forgotten the name of them, you know, they were probably Bob Hope type.
We'd never heard of Bob Hope or anyone while we were locked up as prisoners but they really looked after us and we joined up with, stayed with the Americans all the way down and thought this was pretty good, better than going to Australians and anyhow I still had my slouch hat and the Australians… called us in and shot us over to England to Eastbourne where the headquarters was for receiving the ex-POWs so we were back home, well not home, back at post.
Madame DuPont's cocktail party
At the time in Paris, Madame DuPont and her husband was one of the head of the Marquis and she was accepted by all the generals and what have you, she took us along to a cocktail party that, I suppose they were discussing tactics officially, but there was we in our rugged filthy old gear that we'd escaped with all these generals in their brass fruit salad…
The Americans were always condemned, well not condemned, but described as having their medals as fruit salad, so she was rapt, I've got photos at home actually up in her flat, her husband was out still, although Paris had fallen there was still pockets of the enemy that they wanted to clean up and make sure but anyway he wasn't with her so we didn't get to meet him but we had to meet all these fellows and they were most interested to hear our story and we were most interested in having some of the goodies they were enjoying at the cocktail party.
Treasured friendships
There were plenty of times when we thought this is it. But fortunately, the Gods were kind to us and, no, I think, generally speaking, that the friendship and the mateship, that they're all so fond of calling it, was a lasting memory that the friends, although I'd joined up with these eight in particular who had been rounding up the Italians, non-naturalised people that had spread out quite a bit, and I had virtually new friends, a lot from the goldfields of Kalgoolie, that was an association I kept after the war and treasured and valued while we were living together.
