Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Originally from the suburb of Camberwell in Melbourne, Gordon “Gunner” Cargeeg, was conscripted in 1942 at the age of 18. With the 2nd AIF (Australian Imperial Force), he spent time in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland before embarking to Indonesia. Whilst he was never deployed to active combat, Gordon was on the island of Moratai when peace was declared on 15 August 1945. Unable to return home to Australia right away, he joined the War Graves Unit and was assigned to take photos of the final resting places of many of his allied comrades.

“I went firstly to Dandenong, which was a suburb of Melbourne, to a ‘flash spotting’ unit. We would spot the shells landing in the water so they could measure the distance and how far their guns [could reach] on the opposition. We were spotting the actual flash of the shot when they fired [Flash-spotting was a method used for targeting enemy gun positions. Flash-spotting involved observing gun flashes and plotting these to obtain intersections which would locate the gun’s position].

And from there I went to a signalling unit in NSW – same people – but on the signalling side of things, doing using Morse Code with flags. I couldn’t do it now. And was there for a few years until that unit was broken up. They had no use for it, it was all obsolete stuff…

I was transferred to Western Australia to the Armoured Division in Mingenew, Western Australia. The Armoured Division were camped there, and I was in 227 Light “Ack” - Light Anti-Aircraft Division.

I was what they called a ‘gun layer’. I sat on the seat on the side of a gun and turned the handle that lifted it up and down and the guy on the other side had a handle and he turned it to go [side to side]. There was someone loading the ammunition in and there was a bombardier who would say ‘fire’ or ‘cease fire’ or whatever you had to do. We never had live ammunition it was all [blanks] until we went to a place up out of Jurien Bay in Western Australia and we were firing on a drogue – they called it a drogue - it was a balloon type thing, being dragged by an aeroplane and we had to fire at that. We never hit it. We had to stop as soon as it got in line with the plane.

And I did that, the Armoured Division, until the Armoured Division decided that the tanks were too heavy – General Grant Tanks they were. We did quite a few manoeuvres in Northern Western Australia. Until we were broken up and we all came home on a fortnight’s leave pre-embarkation to going to Queensland, and we were put on troop trains and taken straight through to Queensland…

I would have been 20 [in 1944]. I had my 21st birthday there [in Queensland] in the late part [of the war]…

We were put on troop ships and we went to a place [an island] called Morotai, in Indonesia…

The troop ship from Queensland was pretty terrible. It was eight high in the bunks down in the hold. In the bunks, you just lay in the bunk and you had another bunk just here on your nose. And no smoking - although I never really smoked much in those days... there were submarines about so they kept us pretty tight. You were allowed up before dark but as soon as it got dark, everyone went below.

You got a metal tray with divisions on it, and you lined up and they plonked a bit of soup in this one, and some potato in this one, and a bit of meat or stew in this one. That was your meal. Same for breakfast…

We spent about two weeks on board I think. They stopped at a bay on the way. They were waiting for an escort which didn’t turn up and they went without the escort…

Morotai was a holding camp for troops that were going to Burma and other places where there was fighting going on. There was no fighting in Morotai. There was a Japanese Prisoner of War camp there. It was all controlled by the Australians. The Americans had taken the island of Morotai over [in September 1944]…

Morotai was a great place for American planes - taking off, coming and going, coming and going. Anyway, when they broke down, they just put them in a paddock. There was a whole paddock of broken-down planes. While I was there, they were carting them away and dumping them out in the ocean. They just dumped everything - even Jeeps and things like that - out they went into the ocean.

We had a flight on a [American] bomber one day. We talked our way into it with an American. We were standing on the bomb rack watching all the bombs fall out. They were dumping all the bombs - didn’t want them anymore - dumping them out to sea.

When they hit the water they just went ‘bang’, but we couldn’t see them, we’d moved on by that time.

They dropped the atomic bomb when we were at Morotai. That finished everything. They were splitting everything up, but we couldn’t go home – or I couldn’t get home...

You had to have so many points to get out of the Army, depending on how long you’d served. And I never had enough to get out, so they said ‘what do you want to do? Do you want to go to Japan with the Occupation Force?’ and I said, ‘Not really!’… and so they said, ‘would you like to join the War Graves Unit?’.

I went to Ambon, where an Australian Force, the Gull Force, had been and they were wiped out pretty well and they were buried all over the island and they’d left their ‘dog tags’ on a cross or a stick and we had to take photos. We never saw the photos… The dog tags went with the photo... I don’t know where they went - back to Australia, to the families…

I did that in conjunction with the War Graves Division. I was attached to the War Graves Division but I wasn’t actually part of their unit. I lived in their accommodation… lived in an old house in Ambon that had been a store for wheat for years and the mice had really taken over! You’d be in bed with a mosquito net above you and there would be a mouse or two up on the mosquito net and you went ‘whack’ and the mosquitos would go [flying].

It was pretty rough, but it was alright. Food was pretty short because they limited the food and the War Graves people didn’t get a great deal. You could get a ration of beer - I never had the ration, never worried about it - but you could get a ration of beer. One of the other blokes would take it… Rice, a lot of rice, and a few vegetables sometimes - local vegetables - spinachy sort of things. A bit of meat occasionally – stew - nothing elaborate!

The locals, well they were in a poor way. There was a big mosque… we never mixed much with them. They were all in pretty broken-down homes. The island had been badly bombed. It was like a horseshoe – the airfield was on one side and we were on the other side - in the town. And everything was in pretty short supply, but we managed alright… until it was time for me to come home…”

“My best memories from the Army are friendship and mateship… and going on leave sometimes – but not from Morotai, I never had any leave there at all. They used to have campfires and concert parties coming through regularly - [put on] by the Americans - and we went to a film if a film was showing. We had our own Red Cross and Comforts place where you could get a pair of socks occasionally - gloves if you wanted gloves - but you didn’t need gloves in the Pacific!

And in the early days [in the Army], when we were camped at Chidlow [WA], we used to go AWOL. We’d to come to Perth and go to dances… a friend of mine and I were invited to go to a party and so we went and that’s where I met Dorothy [Dorothy Beadle later became Gordon’s wife].

They were the best memories I have…”

Gordon Campbell Cargeeg, VP Day 2020 (75 years since Victory in the Pacific)