Wartime Memories

Marge and Harry and a little friend, 1942

 

I`m definitely becoming aware that my memory is shortening with the lengthening of my years....the Second World War years, 1939 - 1945 sure are a long way back and to me certainly seem so.......After conscription for 21 year-olds soon after the start I was drafted to Mt. Martha for a 3 month camp and duly medically examined and I can vividly remember a story going around  the tents at the time about a group of blokes who were a little illiterate and had two doctors examining them at once -  peering one in each earhole, and if they saw each other, they were drafted into the Military Police - having "nothing between the ears..."

 

Those three months were quite an emotive experience for me a true young "city-slicker" sleeping on a prim straw palliasse - close contact with 5 strangers in a tiny tent, being woken by a raucous blaring bugle before dawn, lining-up with a tin plate for meals, picking out khaki pants & tops and unmderwear from huge piles of dumped clothes, long monotonous marches, dreary drill etc,

 

We were issued with one leave-pass a fortnight (if my memory serves me correct) when I was able to catch up with my fiance Marge and my family. I really enjoyed my time in the Army and not very long afterwards, having given the idea much thought and family discussion I volunteered to go overseas with the AIF. However after another medical test my 90% blindness in my left eye soon stopped that idea.

 

I was working then as an audit clerk with Myer....price control had not been long introduced and stores & shops etc. were not allowed above a margin fixed by the government. It was my job to investigate all departments, interviewing staff etc. When, coincidentally I had to confront my old headmaster from Melbourne High School who, retired, was working there part-time. I remembered he had a face that looked as thought it had been carved out of granite with a manner to match.....I didn`t want to face him and soon changed places with another chap in my department.

 

Those were the food and clothing ration books and coupons as a result of government control of manufacturing and purchasing - the only way to deal with severe shortages of manpower and resources...Later on, in early December 1941, Marge and I, my Mum and Dad, Freda and Ken left Melbourne   to enter into a business partnership with my Uncle David Diamond, mum`s eldest brother who was operating a secondhand furniture shop in Lismore, northern New South Wales, after travelling against many folk escaping south from a possible invasion threat.........

 

We were holidaying in Ballina over Xmas when my father suddenly became ill and died in Lismore hospital just 46 years old of a brain tumour of and / or aneurismwhich prompted our immediate return to Melbourne and my eventual return to the Pay Corps of the Australian Army in Swanston St opposit  the Museum where I spent the rest of the war...........

 

The only battle in which I was engaged was "The Battle of Swanston St" in which I was daily engaged trying to get a seat on overcrowded trams....to keep fit, once a week we had to march around the  city streets with a break at Treasury Gardens for drill etc. They needed a Band to lead the troops and had great difficulty in getting a Drum Major to lead it. I volunteered, was immediately issued with a whistle and a long baton which I quickly learned to twist & turn in the proscribed manner....

 

Every now and then , when I considered it right,I would blow my whistle for the band to play and when I considered it right blow it again for them to stop, to give them a break.

When we reached the Gardens, the Band discreetly indulged in the practice of "spine-bashing" (lying on our backs etc.) while the troops indulged in various drills.My work was clerical because of my accountancy experience and I had the pleasure of talking with many famous Australians when collecting pay while on leave....

 

Once a week the Commanding Colonel carefully inspected long rows of desks with paper, pen & books all on the right corner in proper regimental order!(Typical Army.....)

 

VP day, August 15, when Japan surrendered, I was in a city Drill Hal having had drops in my eyes for a test and told to wait in a room till called. I was the only one there and I suddenly heard loud shouting, screaming and the honking of car horns....I came out of the room - the whole place was deserted and the doors were locked but after a while I found a wayout through a window and joined the mad mobs celebrating the end of the war and I had to ask someone to tell me what number tram to get as I couldn`t see prop-erly.....

 

 

                                 `till next time - in about 7 - 10 days