Doug Rouse's veteran story

A bombing at Buna

At Buna, that's where we got bombed. Some of our blokes got covered in dirt, had to dig 'em out. Pretty close. Our tent was full of shrapnel. My mate, he ran outside, and he fell into a heap of barbed wire stuff, you know, and he sang out to me, it's got prickles, you see, "I'm bleeding to death" he said.

He dived into a heap of this, you know, that wire stuff and he got prickles. He had nothing on and he got prickles, you see, and he had a bit of blood running out, I guess.

"Rouse" he said, I'd laid down on the floor, see, "I've been hit" he said, I'm bleeding to death". That was Max Richards, me mate…Blew holes in the tent, blew some of the tents over with some of the blokes in it. Covered them over. Had to get them out.

The Americans

All we had was pick and shovel, but they had everything. Bulldozers, graders, everything. It didn't matter. If you wanted something, it was there. Everything was better. We were fifty years behind. That's what I always thought.

Matter of fact, the food, everything was better, no doubt about that or we thought it was anyway. Didn't like going back because things weren't as good. You've only got to look at their uniforms, how they were dressed, one thing and another to our old khaki stuff. The Americans, their gear was better. Everything was better.