Hello Christos, I remember the New Guinea natives to be quite tough and friendly, they showed the greatest compassion when caring for our wounded, they could carry litters up muddy mountain jungle trails, or cross monsoon streams that would make a pack mule think twice about. The japs feared them and they hated the japs, and they were quite good at tracking them. The aussie bounty I had heard was 10 or so shillings a head, that could be traded for supplies, and that's what I remember them collecting, heads, carried in a bag next to that big curved knife they all wore. Some would carry jap rifles or pistols.
Wow....HEADS for trophies eh?....thats a fine detail that Jim must have 'censored from his coversation...he mentioned only EARS, which, when you look at it, doesn't seem quite as bad as a HEAD..... We Australians have THE GREATEST respect and admiration for the fighting qualities, and the sheer COMPASSION of these marvellous people...A documentary I saw a while ago featured an Aussie Kokodsa vet talking to these people that had been 'bearers', and scewing up his eyes, he asked them , for the camera, what they thought of "Japan-man".... The reaction of the native veterans that he was talking to was to SPIT....one very universal human reaction that was understood by everyone present......People like those New Guineans and Solomon Islanders like JACOB VOUZA are HEROS of the South Pacific, and their contribution to victory in that theater was PRICELESS.... May all the New Guinea natives that died in that terrible period "rest under the shade of a Kumi tree, by the sweet water" that these 'blackfellows' loved so much.... R.I.P.
He went on to tell me that they had Vickers machine guns set up in the sandhills behind sandbags and when the Japanese marines came ashore they mowed them down in their hundreds. He said that it was such a massacre that him and the boys became very frightened at what they were doing......... He said they felt ashamed after, when they looked at all the bodies. Just re-reading The Winter War by William R. Trotter, which made me think of this thread, he has this to say about the Finnish machin-gun crews mowing down the masses ranks of Soviet infantry. Page 79. In some battles the Finnish machine gunners held their fire until the range was down to fifty meters; the butchery was dreadful. In a number of cases Finnish machine gunners had to be evacuated due to stress. They had become emotionally unstable from having to perform such mindless slaughter day after day.
My granfather felt extreme guilt for killing in the war (after the war i might add).......he was a crew member of the Crocs and used the flamethrower to "mop" up german troops....from after he was demobed he never had a barbeque in his garden, he closed the doors and windows when neighbours were( he hated the smell). He did on one occation shoot a teenage German soldier point blank when his tank was knocked out....he felt no guilt during the war but it hit him hard after. Donnie
Aviator - How old do you suppose Ron was when he was blasting away with his 303 Browning at that m/c gun post ? a bit older than I was and I was just 19 going on 20 - that is still in the teen age - right ? They were killing our friends and trying to kill us - anyway they could. many of our enemy were about the same age - later they were much younger....Sapper couldn't have been that much older ! Cheers
Just 19. A bit different now sadly! Firstly, Let me send my very best and sincere wishes to all our Veterans. I heard somewhere that we were the greatest generation. This is a very interesting thread. For it has the quality of "What might have been" How different would my life have been? But for that moment at one in the morning on the Overloon Venraij road in the Autumn of 1944? Where would I have gone? Would I have been good enough to play professional cricket? I shall never know. What I do know, is that I am very severely wounded with the rare exceptional injuries classing. So why should I want to make friends with the enemy? Not me Matey! The enemy took my youth away, And led me to a life of pain. I am not complaining, I would do it again...Every time. Sapper
Brian What a super photo...........many thanks for that ! Whilst replying, I also send both Tom and yourself my very good wishes. It does appear that, as Bill Shakespeare was wont to say, "This happy breed of men" are getting a bit scarce on the ground so we "vets" must surely stick together and try to explain to the younger generations exactly what it was like in those eventful years between 1939 & 1945. To revert back to the original theme of this thread, i.e. "Being frightened of what you do in war" I tried to throw my mind back to my days in action and to analyse what my main emotions were. Unlike Brian & Tom, I was what would in the line be considered as "dead lucky", i.e. I survived unscathed. During the last few weeks of the war in particular I saw other men being hit and killed and yet I was left to fight another day. I remember one particular event that still stays with me and perhaps epitomised what we, as young men had to face and accept on a daily basis. I was with the 4th Hussars and we were advancing along the narrow crest of a river bank when a dispatch rider drove towards us waving frantically for us get over to our left. As we tried to pull over we saw coming towards us about half a dozen tanks each one bearing severely wounded men piled up on the rear of the turret casing while their comrades were trying to staunch the severe bleeding that was taking place. For the first time in my life I realised that ahead of me lay possible untold terrors and that I would be asked to face the same dangers that the poor buggers on the backs of the tanks were now retreating from. Surprisingly I felt little or no fear, my feelings were more of wonderment, anticipation of how I would cope and concentration on the messages pouring through my radio headset. We lived very much for the day then and were grateful for small mercies. What, I wonder gentlemen, were your feelings like ? Cheers Ron
Hi Ron... Lovely to hear from you mate. One thing is for sure, NO Veteran will be able to convey to those that have not been in action.... The absolute comfort, and the feeling of well being, that a dirty and hastily dug fox hole can give you. Specially when the mortars and shells are coming down. Nor how it keeps calling you back..... when you have to get out ..... There's always another river, another canal to cross. Another minefield to lay, out in front of the leading troops, another assault. The dirty dogs got me twice. So NO! I have wish to be friends, Its bad enough having to carry a bit of their shrapnel around in my skull...For all of my days.... Or to set off the metal alarms in Airports, because of the metal inside they used to put me back together. Great stuff.. for while my Vet mates are popping off right left and center, here am I in my eighties going like a good un. NAH I don't want to make friends with the SS. Not me matey. Not my kind of company/ Sapper
Brian, how do you get past the alarms in airports then? do you just explain and they let you through?
It happens every time Marcus, I am taken to one side, but they never find anything. Honestly mate.. I find it amusing. The one unfortunate thing, and again amusing, is the the plate that holds me together, has WD stamped on each end for War Department. And the war office arrow. Like the Convicts of old had on their clothes. Lord knows what will happen, if I fall off my twig and get cremated? There will be bits of metal everywhere.......... Cannot stop laughing! Sapper
Sapper - Know the feeling at airports - they search and search - and find nothing and reluctently pass on !!! Had both hip joints replaced in 2006 - the older surgeon and his apprentice were looking at the x rays and the young man was asking what all the white spots were - "possible faulty film? " he asked whereupon the older one looked - then looked at me - then said " if we dig those out - we can send them all back to the Volkswagen people - they can make a bumper out of that lot !" All I really lost was my hearing and a chunk of my left leg but the hearing is annoying as I can't hear all the notes in Beethoven's creations...but then at 84 - I can't hear all the commercials which is a blessing ! Cheers - and stay out of that pub on Wallisdown Road !
Ron asks - "what were your feelings ?" strangely - calmness no panic - just a sense of care for the other members of the crew. On getting out of the starboard side where we were hit by the 88mm - and missing the next shot - I ran around to the port side to check on the driver and co-driver - they were long gone...then to the rear where I found the Commander and gunner - who should have also been long gone - then we were hit by a rain of nebelwerfers and scattered - I took off and was hit again - then fell down - was joined by a reinforcement called Dave Gear whom I gave instructions as to where to head - then I was hit again - finally joined up with my gunner who was in very bad way - so treated him and tried to hide behind a one inch thick grapevine from some clown with a spandau ! That was around 2:30 on a boiling hot day - finally picked up at around 11pm - in the CCS by dawn ! Feelings ? - a bit of wonderment I suppose..... Cheers
Absolutely amazing Tom. As I've said before, you just don't get these type of accounts from books or documentarys. We're sooo lucky to have guys like you to share your memories like that. Cheers mate.
Makes me smile Tom. It has a familiar ring about it. In one case we were moved by our CRE right up under the noses of the German Paras, on the side of the hill facing them. Give them their fair due. They waited until we were all sittings ducks before opening a barrage like the end of the world. Our Colonel wanted us to stay right up the front at all times, so that we could get into action faster. Silly prat. One of the lads told him. OK if you can tolerate the casualties. While on that hill we came under fire from railway gun at VIre. You could hear the bloody shell wobbling through the air long before it hit us, each time the the shell landed on that bloody hill great big lumps of it erupted. After a few hours we were withdrawn/ By the way the man that invented your hip joints was my Surgeon, and and I helped to make his equipment, while he was at Shaftesbury Military hospital as a Major in the Medical. Eccentric... saved me from amputation. He did a bone graft on a goat It worked, so they did it on me on VE day. Only trouble, I have no hips, so my bloody trousers fall down unless I grab them....I am also a very funny shape...Very funny. Major John Charnley. later Sir John. Lady Jill Charnley sent me an autographed book on his life. The Major gave me photos from an old camera of gear we made Lost them... Ah Tom and Ron the days of our youth. What we had of it? In passing, I have to say that in recent years the war pensions have improved. being very severely war disabled I am looked after quite well. sapper
Sapper and Trooper Tom, Thankyou for sharing that information with us all, absolutely stunning to read. To me you are all heroes to a man. I just wish my late father could have shared more with me about his experiences in Italy. Regards Tom
Sapper - your surgeon was a brilliant man and his hip joints have saved me endless hours of pain - started 25 years ago when we lived in Highcliffe - knees were bad - uric acid swelling the area around the joints - " why can't you suck that stuff out" I asked - as usual no answers from the medics...finally diagnosed in B.C when we returned to Canada - then a medic told me - in ten years time you will need new hips ! He was right but they didn't operate for 14 years - magically the thigh bone was returned to where it should be easing the pressure on the knees - result NO pain anywhere and I can walk upright once more ! Now after two years - that swelling again around my left thumb - more pain !...... heigh Ho Youth ? - yes - that was a fantastic two weeks ! Glad to hear that you are looked after on the pension end of things - some of the horror stories about the pensions to-day are worrying until you see the one time payments before the regular pension kicks in...just shake my head as I was laughed at after being rejected for Korea - took the Canadian Veterans dept to squeeze it out of the British Govt - in 1992 - without me even asking ! Cheers
Some years ago, the old war injuries started to create blood clots, They finished up in my lungs with what is known as.... Multiple Pulmonary embolism. Hundreds if blood clots in the lungs. Nearly died, had a near death experience. I need a new hip, but got no chance. Would never survive it. Been on anticoagulant treatment (warfarin) Rat poison! for 36 years. Will stay on it until I pop my clogs! The war may have done many years ago, the effects last much longer.
Sapper - the operation on my right hip was easy - heard the surgeon cracking jokes to the nurses and thumping in the replacement woke up on the way out of the theatre - the left was a bit more bother - sitting waiting for the surgeon who came in and asked " how are you to-day" - so I replied "100% less seniors discount" - he then said that he would soon fix that -and he did - took me hours to wake up but then same again - no pain - bit of discomfort that was all even when the young Filopino nurse tried to give me a new anus - was released from Hospital next day - walking ! Then for a month had daily visits from nurses - physio's et al with walking - walking - walking - even the dog walked slowly with me !! I chucked the warfarin years ago - touched off psoriasis - not good ! Cheers
Had the same lots of skin troubles. but the alternative for me? So I put up with it. I look at it like this. For all the side effects, the pain and discomfort. I am still here and making a fist of it. Cheers Tom... Though sometimes when I look at the world. I wonder...I wonder. For all the lads we left behind such a long time ago. I wonder what Ron thinks of it? Cheers
