Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Today is 30 November 2024. I am Mark Keynes an ex-army veteran, I was an Advocate working at ANZAC House in Adelaide about 2011. I got a call from DVA staff at Blackburn House in Adelaide saying there was a WW2 veteran in a nursing home on Cross Road and that could do with some help from the RSL. The Nursing Home wasn't a particularly nice place, pretty run down and scheduled for demolition in the near future. This is where I met Ross and over numerous visits and lunches in the next three years we talked about his life and service. I had wanted to do an Oral History recording of Ross' story and I regret that I didn't get that done before he passed away. What follows is my recollection of the discussions and stories he told me about himself and his experiences. I liked Ross and he was quite talkative about his life and experiences. I had the privilege of getting to know Ross at the end of his life. I found him to be very open and honest. I want to do his story justice and relate it to you the reader in much the same way he related it to me.

Ross started out in the Army as an anti aircraft gunner. He arrived in Darwin late in 1942 after the Bombing of Darwin. He told me he managed to get a nice hustle going in Darwin as he ran card games. He managed to have so many people owing him money that there wasn’t much he couldn’t get. More than a few officers owed him and every time an officer needed to go down to Adelaide River for business he would be their driver. This usually meant an overnight stay and Ross would use this time to socialise with the Nurses based there. He also told me how he managed to get a gill net and catch fish in Rapid Creek next to his camp. He and his mates were well fed and they would sell the remaining fish to cafes in town.

After the war moved North, Darwin was relatively safe again and before his unit was moved overseas, the RAAF came looking for air gunners for the European theatre. Ross said his interest picked up when they explained if he qualified it meant automatic promotion to Sergeant. Never one to miss an opportunity for better accomodation and food, he signed up to the RAAF. Also his debtors were leaving Darwin faster than he could have them settle their accounts and he figured a war in Europe as an air gunner was probably better than a war in the Jungle.

He told me he was shipped across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and into New York. He had a weeks leave in New York while waiting for a convoy to assemble. While there he managed to invest the funds he had made from running card games on the ship coming over. He was invited to spend his leave with a well to do family whose business was jewellery. He said he managed to buy enough watches and jewellery at the right price to fill a kit bag. By the time they got the UK he had three kit bags, one for his kit, one full of watches and jewellery and a third filled with money he earned from running card games on the ship. He said he turned a very nice profit on the watches and jewellery in England.

He was assigned to 625 Squadron as a tail gunner. I asked him how many raids he did and Im sure he said 32. I thought they had to do 33 or so to earn the opportunity to rotate out and return to safer duties. Ross said ‘that’s right, but we ran out of war.” He told me he was wounded on his 3rd raid. A flak shell exploded beneath his plane on the way into Germany and struck him and the rear turret. His turret was jammed to one side so he couldn’t get out into the plane where other crew would be able to help him. Small pieces struck him in the legs and backside. He told me he knew the wounds weren’t too serious as he could feel everything despite the pain and he just had to sit there and bleed away quietly while they went onto the target, dropped their bombs and returned to base. He was taken off to hospital for about three weeks.

Over lunch one day I asked him what set the tempo for bombing missions? He said it was all to do with the weather. Often they might go for weeks or months without a mission or have to abort over the sea if the weather closed over. Then the weather would be right and off they’d go and keep going until the weather closed over again. He said while he was in hospital the weather had opened and closed several times as he could hear the raids leaving and returning. He said as soon as he was discharged he didn’t go on convalescent leave as ordered, he went back to his squadron as the weather seemed good and if they were going he wanted to go with them. He went to the OPS Room and they said don’t be silly, go away as you’re meant to be on convalescent leave. Ross thought “bugger you” and went out to the flight line where crews were waiting by their planes for their Pilots and Navigators to return from the mission briefing. He found his crew and said he wanted to go and they said no, he had bandages and so forth and what would it look like if he had to bail out over enemy territory. Still determined to go he waited for the Pilot and Navigator to return. When they got there they said the same thing, go and take your leave and come back when your medically cleared. Ross then told me the saddest thing. A tall young Canadian who he’d never met before and who had replaced him as the tail gunner, turned to him just before he climbed up into the plane, and he said, “Don’t worry Pal, we will be back by morning.” Ross’ crew was shot down that night, there were no survivors. Ross said he still sees that young tall Canadian and hears his words every night when he closes his eyes. Ross was crying as he told me and he was still angry and distraught over that young man and his words. Sixty eight years later he wasn’t able to forget.

Ross told me his Squadron 625 was paired with 617 Squadron RAF - the famous Dambusters. Ross explained they didn’t replace the guns on the 617 aircraft after the dam raids in 1943 and instead used them for Special Ops such as dropping the massive Tall Boy bombs. His squadrons planes were armed to the teeth and each plane flew close escort to a 617 plane to provide protection. Ross said he mainly flew with the CO of the squadron but other times he would be allocated to other aircraft, always as a tail gunner.

I once asked him if he ever had to fire his guns in anger. He said only once, on a moonlit night he saw a night fighter lining them up. He let go a very long burst and that seemed to put him off. Ross said every mission had him on edge with his eyes wide open, from the time they entered enemy fighter range till they they cleared it, his eyes were as big as dinner plates.

He said several times the perspex in his turret fogged up. He didn’t explain why or what the proper procedure was to clear it was but I gather it was time consuming and tedious. Ross said he used his crash axe to smash out a panel. He got harsh words thrown his way for doing it but he said he’d rather that or not seeing the night fighters.

He told a story about a very savage RAF Police Sergeant who seemed hellbent on harassing aircrew anytime they were off base. He said it was like he had a pathological hate for them. He used harass them if they were talking to English girls or drinking in local pubs. He’d arrested a number of aircrew in such situations for made up reasons. He said they sorted him out one evening just as they were about to go on a raid. The RAF Policeman was called to their aircraft and they had him climb inside to see some imaginary crime scene. The Navigator unveiled the Top Secret map for the mission and the hatch was closed which now meant the Policeman had to stay onboard. He was given enough warm clothes to endure the flight to Germany and back. Ross said they never had a problem with him again after that.

After the war he spent time in Charters Towers where he says he was an SP bookie. He said the local Police and three other SP Bookies had a neat business agreement and on the whole everything was good.

Later Ross lived in Adelaide and said he was in the business of supplying corporate marketing merchandise. He said the breweries and wineries were great customers. He told me he was involved in the Blackwood Golf Club and numerous deals were done on the course where the right people were enabled to win. There was talk of horses, owners and trainers, and jockeys being provided with ‘girlfriends’ to help them remember which races to win and which races they ought not to win. I’m not saying Ross was shady, he just seemed to know a lot of stories about shady things.

Ross was moved from the old decrepit aged care facility on Cross Road into a larger facility out near Gilles Plains. That facility while more modern was not very nice either. His room was OK and the staff were friendly but it felt like the minimum level of service required. I managed to get him into an RSL Care home at Angle Park. It felt much better for him and he appreciated it.

It was becoming obvious that Ross ought to have some end of life plan, a will etc. As he had no living relatives. He wasn’t under the Public Trustee as he had full testamentary capacity, no assets, no savings. All his fortnightly pension went on either horses, alcohol or chocolate for the staff. He always kept his top drawer full of chocolates for any staff who came into his room. I’m sure he believed it was the right thing to do, to tip people or do them a favour. On several occasions as I was about to leave he would hand me a small wad of money usually about $500 and tell me to “buy myself a ukulele.” I was grateful just to hear his stories. I made sure to donate the money to the RSL Welfare Fund and get a receipt. I know he wanted me to have the money, it was his way of saying thanks and being himself.

I asked him what he wanted by way of a funeral. He said he didn’t care and didn’t want one, just drop his body in a bin and be done with it. On about 19 June 2016 I was living and working in Darwin and I got a call from the manager at Angle Park. She told me Ross was rapidly declining and was not expected to last more than a day or so. She called again on 21 June to say he had passed away during the night. I had made arrangements with Blackwell Funerals and they provided the cheapest service and cremation they could. I liaised with his bank to pay for the funeral out of his remaining funds of which I am sure there weren’t many. Ross’ few personal effects were sent to me, his watch and a few bits and pieces. I donated them to Vinnies. His medals and log book were long gone, Ross said an ex wife had disposed of them when the marriage broke down.

A few months later I was in Adelaide and I collected his ashes. I thought about taking them up to Blackwood Golf Club and spreading them there but I wasn’t sure how that might play out if someone had a problem with it. I didn’t know what the protocol was for a golf club and a previous members ashes. In the end Ross’ ashes were spread into a river near the Barossa Valley at a sight that meant something to me.

It’s sad that Ross died alone without any family or friends with him. I’m sure there is so much more to Ross’ life than I got to know and those stories have passed into the mists of time forever. I believe his was a life well lived and I can picture him as a young larrikin soldier in Darwin in 1942 and then as aircrew over Europe as a tail gunner in a Lancaster. RIP Ross.