Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Today I will be speaking about the WW2 actions of 3 men
My grand father Norman Brooker, my uncle Jack Brooker and my father Ron Mc
Donald.
Before I start on this I would also like to pay tribute to other close relatives;
My father in law Lt Tasman Davies who went through the Tobruk Siege.
My brothers Father In Law Helcro Steel, a POW working the Burma Railway.
My fathers sisters;
Jessie, a nurse who must have seen the most horrible injuries.
Mardie, who repaired and folded & packaged parachutes.
My Fathers brother , Malcolm who was a transport driver in the NT
My Mothers Sister , Gwen who was involved in distribution of medical supplies.
There is not time today to go through all of these war experiences, so, I will start
with the brookrers
My Mother always said that the Brookers have been directly involved in every
War Australian troops have fought in apart from Vietnam.
Norman Brooker, My Grandfather, was born Warragul in Gippsland in 1889, he
was from a family of 11 boys ( no girls )they were a pioneer family that opened
the Lardner Track, he moved to Wandella in about 1921. Norman was a great
sportsman, he played football Warragul, Williamstown, Kerang and indeed
Richmond. He could not go to WW1due the commitments of a young family, so at
the age of 50 he took the Oath of Allegiance with his son Jack and said they were
brothers.
Jack Brooker was born in 1915, so was 24 in 1939, he also was a great sportsman
having won the Lake Merran Gift twice, and played football with Wandella,
Golden Square and trained with North Melb getting paid 10 shillings a week, but
due to the war he never did get to play with North Melb. Jack married Jean
Gibbins From Dunbar (where the Dansons live ) And it should be noted that
Aunty Jean Gibbins 2 brothers, William and Albert Gibbins have their names on
the Murrabit Memorial Board
The Brookers were drafted to the 2/5 battalion.
My father Ron Mc Donald was born in Kerang in 1911 he was also from a family
of 11 children ( but both girls and boys ). He joined in 1939 at the age of 28, his
army number was VX563 but I will come back to that number bit later.
He married Norma Brooker on Boxing Day in 1939.
Ron was drafted to the 6 th division 2/2 Field Artillery on 25 pound field guns.
Norman ,Jack and Ron sailed to Egypt in April 1940 and went into training in the
Western Desert.
This was the first time my father was actually engaged in a “ live shoot” with the
25 pound field guns, as during their training previously at Pucapunyal they did
action drill around timber logs, such was Australia’s position in regards been
war ready.

Ron ( or Sandy, his army Nick Name ) was the gun captain of No1 Gun of the
battery, so in training and also when in action the CO would give the order to
Ron, “1 Round …FIRE FOR ADJUST” this would mean the No.1 gun would fire 1
round to determine what range adjustments were required to be on target, when
the No.1 gun had target acquisition and the coordinates given to the battery the
CO would then give the order “10 rounds … FIRE FOR EFFECT” and that’s when
things really started to get hot for the enemy.
Our troops were in Egypt North Africa to protect the oil fields and the Suez Canal
The Commonwealth troop strength was some 36,000 men,
The Italians next door in Libya pushed across the border into the British
Protectorate of Egypt with some 200,000 troops.
The 2/5 th and the 2/2 nd went into action against the Italians in January 1941in a
battle my father called the Bardia DO….It was a walk over!
The Commonwealth troops completely decimated the Italian 10 th Army and in
the following months our troops advanced some 800 Km, and in that time the
Italians lost approx. 150,000 men, 20,000 dead and 130,000 prisoners, they also
lost 850 large field guns, 400 tanks and thousands of vehicles.
Commonwealth losses were 500 dead and 1400 wounded.
My father lost a good mate Bobby Nethercote in bazaar circumstances during
this action.
By this time the officers of the 2/5 th had worked out how old Norman Brooker
was, so he was put into guard duty for the Italian POW’s. And I will always
remember Norman quoting the Prisoners calling out AQUA AQUA ….WATER
WATER.

GREECE
The Italians asked Hitler for help in 1941 in order to prevent the defeat of the
Axis forces in north Africa and their new advance into Greece.
Hitler was absolutely furious with Mussolini as he had his mind on Russia,
anyhow as a result Hitler sent his new tank force ( the Africa Corps) into North
Africa. This force was led by Rommel who had led the Panzer Tank operation
through the blitzkrieg campaign that had given Hitler “Fortress Europe.”
The Italians had by now attacked Greece, advancing through Albania, but the
Greeks were holding their own and in fact pushing the Italians well back into
Albania.
The British decision to send the 6 th Division as well as the 2/5 th and dividing our
North African troop strength, was at best unwise in every military concept, and
also left the door open for Rommel’s conquest of North Africa.
The Germans ( again to help Mussolini ) attacked northern Greece through
Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

The 6 th Division had only just arrived in position in northern Greece when started
getting probing or testing attacks from German troops. After these testing
attacks the Germans mounted a full scale attack on April 12 th 1941.
They advanced with massed infantry well equipped with superior weapons
supported by heavy artillery and backed by a determined air force.
The front line platoon of Australian troops were rapidly overrun and all but 6
were killed or wounded.
The allied forces were now in retreat, and as April 19 th dawned the 2/2 nd field
Regiment and Australian troops moved back through 3,000 Foot mountains in
absolute freezing conditions, up through Brallos Pass.
Brallos Pass is in itself a natural defensive position and in fact in 400 BC, 700 of
the then Greek army held back 10,000 Iranian forces in what was again a battle
for Western Civilization, and again although that battle was lost, the war was
won.
The 2/2 nd placed 2 x25 pounder field guns in a forward position at Brallos Pass
on what was then the old National Highway, this pass overlooked the all
important bridge crossing over the Sperkhious River that had been destroyed by
our troops after the withdrawal.
The rest of the regiment moved back and dug in with camouflage nets.
This set the stage for the Regiments finest hour…. Or perhaps I should say finest
days in action.
As dusk fell the Germans tried to repair the bridge but accurate fire from the 2
forward guns prevented this, the gun crews maintained spasmodic firing during
the night of 1 shell about every 5 minutes. During the next day the gun crews
destroyed a plane that made a forced landing within range and after that at
about 5pm an armored convey approached the bridge and 1 of them was also
destroyed with the rest forced to withdraw, this was followed by a second night
of spasmodic fire to prevent bridge repair.
The 25 pound gun has an effective range of about 12.5 miles or just over 20km
So the Germans bought forward some 5.9 field guns with a range of 14.6 miles or
23.5km.The CO ( Anderson )was loading double powder charges into the guns,
and while that practice is not listed anywhere in the British Operational Manual,
it did in fact increase the range considerably, however they were still ½ mile
short.
During the day Anderson spotted German troops that were trying to outflank
them and the had approached within close proximity of the 2 gun crews, these
troops were engaged over open sights and they sent some 60 shells into the
ground troops inflecting very heavy casualties
Eventually the German 5.9 field guns put our 2 forward guns out of action and as
the gun crews were withdrawing shellfire came crashing down on them killing 7
men and wounding others.

Sargent Len Ingram was 1 of those killed and his service no was VX562, and as I
said earlier my fathers service number was VX563 so Len must have been
standing right in front of my Father when they enlisted in East St Kilda in 1939.
Those 2 guns held up the German advance for a good 2 days giving
Commonwealth troops time to retreat along a set of very narrow and precarious
roadways, it also gave the Regiment ample time to move to new defensive
positions and dig in; the stage was now set for the last stand in Greece.
In a letter home my father wrote;
“ The regiment went into action for 3 days and nights doing a lot of damage to
Jerry, they had spotter planes up trying to pinpoint our location and indeed they
must have spotted our position as the next morning 40 to 50 planes came over
and gave the position hell with bombs and machine gun fire for about 40
minutes.”
Fortunately ( or was it just Australian cunning ) during the night the regiment
had pulled back ½ mile and dug in with new camouflage nets leaving the old
camouflage nets in position. The unit just sat quite and laughed and as soon as
the planes had withdrawn our guns went into action all day without stop,
holding the German advance for 1 more day. That day saw the regiment at its
best; shell after shell was rammed into the breach and just as quick as the last
shell was ejected.
Eventually the targets came down to open sights and the guns were withdrawn
1 by 1 the last gun firing into German troops that were in plain view.
It was more than time to take off, the guns were destroyed as well as the large
trucks that pulled them and the unit got onto the Destroyers after midnight and
everyone fell asleep right where they were on the deck.
COST OF THE GREEK CAMPAIGN
Greece lost
13,400 dead 42,000 wounded 1,290 missing 270,000 captured and an estimated
540,000 Greeks perished during the German occupation from 1941 to 1945.
Commonwealth Lost
903 dead and 1,250 wounded 5,900 captured 600 of those KIA were ANZAC’s
RAF Lost 72aircraft shot down & 137 destroyed on the ground
Navy lost 2 Destroyers 4 Transport ships & 21 other ships.
Army lost 104 tanks 400 field guns 1800 machine guns and 8,000 vehicles.
Italy Lost
19755 dead 42,000 wounded 25,000 missing
Germany Lost
8,150dead 22,700 wounded and 8,200 missing
THE GREEK CAMPAIGN HAD BEEN A DISASTER
The Brookers sailed back to Egypt along with the 2/5 th while the 2/2 nd sailed to
Crete, the Regiment without field guns were now infantry.

THE CRETE CAMPAIGN
Started in 20 th May 1941
IT was a major airborne campaign and was in fact the first mainly airborne
invasion in history, however the absolute huge loss in casualties suffered by the
Germans meant that this paratroop group would never again fight as a unit.
The first day the Germans suffered extremely heavy losses within both the
paratroopers and the fabric gliders,
The paratroops landed separate from their weapon canisters due to weight
issues, and as such they were unarmed till they located their weapon drop and
unpacked them, they were subjected to vicious attack from civilians armed with
old guns, pitchforks and even kitchen knives.
The gliders also took an appalling casualty rate from Bren guns positioned along
the sides of the airstrips and I have had a first hand account of that action from a
member of my fathers unit.
The German 1 st Assault Regiment lost 112 killed out of 120 members in the first
few hours of the attack.
Due to a communication breakdown under severe critical shortage of radio
equipment the New Zealand troops vacated an airfield thus giving the Germans
a foothold to quickly land troops and equipment.
Crete surrendered 30 th May 1941
My father was on the last ship to leave Crete and in fact he had to swim out to the
boat, it was very obvious to the ANZAC troops that British men were given
priority on the evacuation transports, and that is also well documented in many
WW2 history books.
IN A LETTER HOME MY FATHER WROTE
“The battle of Crete was a big show, and no one except those that were there will
ever know or have any idea of what it was like…Greece was nothing like it for its
intense fighting. Every day we had at least 500 planes over us, and things were
pretty warm, I can tell you.”

LOSSES;
German
6,000 to 7,000 troops and 284 planes
Commonwealth
2,550 deaths, 3,400 wounded and over 25,000 POW’s
594 Australian deaths, 1000 or so wounded and 5132 POW’s
Cretan Losses
6,539 men killed along with 1,113 women killed & 869 Children
3,474 by firing squad and over 1,000 civilians in massacres.
The brutal German occupation left Crete with a severe haltered for the Germans
that is still well entrenched to this day.

My wife and I visited Crete in about 2015 travelling the battle grounds and we
visited the 2/2 nd Field Regiment Monument at Brallos Pass in July of last year
The Greece & Crete Campaign was particularly costly for Australia as almost
40% of troops sent there were either killed or taken POW and that all happened
in about 2 months.
HOWEVER IN HINDSIGHT, the campaign held up the German attack on Russia
and that took them into the Russian winter
Other World events at Approx. this time;
24 th May 1941 sinking of the Hood, (pride of the British fleet) over 1400 men
went down with her and there were only 3 survivors.
7 th October 1941 John Curtin elected PM of Australia.
7 th December 1941 Jap Attack on Pearl Harbor
15 Feb 1942 Fall of Fortress Singapore
19 Feb 1942 Darwin bombed… the first of 97 air raids on Australian main land
30 th May 1942 Sub attack on Sydney harbor
DARK TIMES INDEED
Australia’s New PM John Curtin defied Churchill’s request for further support
and had the troops bought home, Churchill wanted Australian troops to stay in
Europe and North Africa, even stating that if Australia was lost, he believed the
Commonwealth could win it back in a treaty after the war.
The 2/2 nd and the 2/5 th were transported home via Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) in
March 1942, the troopships came under Japanese attack in Colombo harbor by
the same carrier squadron that had attacked Pearl Harbor…. Of the 72 planes
that attacked some 25 were shot down, the Commonwealth lost 14 hurricanes
and 1 Catalina.
The troops arrived back in Australia mid 1942 and after some leave were sent to
New Guinea and the Kokoda trail.
My father was deemed unfit for jungle warfare due to a leg injury caused by a
crush impact from the field gun truck hitch, (resulting is suspected blood clots )
so he spent 2 years at Victoria barracks in ST Kilda Road
My Grandfather was also deemed unfit for jungle warfare because of his age was
garrisoned back in Victoria.
My uncle Jack Brooker fought the Japs up and down the Kokoda Trail and it is
written into the history of the 2/5 th that after Victory Europe Day on May 8th
1945, that jack said to one of his mates
“ if we were still over in North Africa it would be all over now for us”
That was about 5 weeks before Jack Brooker was KIA by a Japanese firing from a
concealed position. ( A sniper )
Jack Brooker is survived by my cousin Cynthia and Grandchildren….

So he will never be forgotten.
Jack Stanley Brooker rests in the Lae war Cemetery in New Guinea.
My Mother and Father made a visit to the grave in the late 1980’s and while it
was obviously a very sad trip for my Mother, she came back with the story that
perhaps the saddest thing about the trip was the fact that there was an 18 year
old Australian boy in the next grave. My mother could never attend ANZAC day
Or Remembrance day because of her brother’s death.
WW2 changed almost everything in Australia
For a young country it was the most defining period of change in our history
The men and Women who left Australia between 1939 & 1945 and eventually
returned to Australia, came home to a very different nation.
We entered the War as a subsidiary to Britain and ended the war more aligned
to America.
At the end of the war we had the 4 th largest Air force in the world,
We had a regular standing army
And a very efficient Navy
The defense spending pre-war was 2% of our national Budget but that would
rise to 37% in 1943.
The alliance with America made us more aware of ourselves as a nation, while
we previously identified as British subjects.
Australian Citizenship along with Australian passports and identity papers
separate from British were introduced in 1948
For my father there was a massive change, he had traveled to the UK and indeed
Germany in1937 purchasing the top Clydesdale draft horses he could secure and
shipping them back home with great pride, as the proud horseman he was.
However,on return from the war it was mostly tractors, but he still went on and
had a very good crack at life in civvy street.
He returned from the war A Lieutenant, commissioned in the field, and that
means he was promoted on natural ability rather than social standing or
education, as seemed to be the British method.
The Cost of the WAR;
Almost 1 million Australians served in WW2
We lost 40,000 troops and 800 civilians
Britain lost 300,000 troops and 70,000 civilians
USA lost 400,000 troops and 12,000 civilians
Russia lost 8.7 million troops and 19 million civilians
Japan lost 11 million troops and 2.5 million civilians
Germany lost 5.5 Million troops and over 2 million civilians.

AND FINALLY
I must say that today is not about the men and women that came home from the
war but rather it’s about those that did not return

That’s why we say
LEST WE FORGET