Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Memoirs of my wartime service in the Navy: Enlisted May 1943 - Discharged June 1946

In March 1943 I turned 17, and being young and stupid, I wanted to enlist in one of the Services. When I found that the Navy accepted 17 year olds, that is where I went.
In May of 1943 I arrived at Flinders Naval Depot for training (3 months), and from there went to the Naval Depot at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, to train as an Asdic Operator (Submarine Detection). Unfortunately I finished in the top three on that Course and all three of us were drafted to HMAS ORARA, a 40 year old clapped out coal-burning ship, which had been doing mine-sweeping and was now being converted to an Asdic Training Ship to give refresher courses to other operators.
We sailed to Madang in PNG and anchored – and tied up to a tree!
Corvettes which were doing the convoy escort duties in PNG and further afield came back to Madang where their Asdic Operators came to us for a short refresher course. They were not happy about this and I don’t blame them! They were operating their sets all the time, and they quite rightly felt they did not need a refresher course.
At that time, Madang was not a town at all – one plantation with a large house, in which resided the owner, who was now a Lieutenant Commander in the RAN (Wartime only), and a Sub-Lieutenant; as well as a compound with a few Japanese prisoners waiting to be picked up. I was sent ashore for a few weeks to man a switchboard. The Lt. Commander was a nut-case, in a perpetual state of drunkenness – a bizarre situation!
One of the Corvettes which came in from patrol had to leave one of their asdic operators behind – he had suspected appendicitis and was flown back to Cairns by a RAAF Flying Boat to a Military Hospital.
I drew the short straw and was drafted to the HMAS TOWNSVILLE for a month while they got a replacement – my first experience of a Corvette – very slow and rolled a lot in the mildest weather. On the way back to Madang on the last patrol, we stopped at a small island (whose name escapes me) manned by US troops. This was during the period when several islands had Jap troops who had been left behind. As the Allies had control of the seas at this period of the War, the Japanese Navy were unable to get their troops out of this and other islands, so they were just left to fend for themselves. Consequently, half the island was occupied by Yanks, and the other by Japs. At night time the Yankee half was a blaze of lights and the Japs complete darkness. This period was known as “Island Hopping”, when Japs on several islands were left as it were to rot.
The next day we were invited by the Yanks to get in some gunnery practice – so the TOWNSVILLE spent an afternoon (at anchor) getting in the practice. The Japanese eventually made a half-hearted response and fired a bit of anti-aircraft fire – at which stage the Yanks called it a day, and on the TOWNSVILLE ‘hands to tea’ was piped – what a ridiculous situation!
After a month on HMAS TOWNSVILLE we returned to Madang. The replacement Asdic Operator for the TOWNSVILLE had arrived at Madang and I returned to the ORARA.
Three weeks later we were sent back to OZ on leave – one group at a time. The group I was in flew back to Cairns in an RAAF Seaplane, a Martin Mariner, and from there by troop train to Brisbane, which took several days. There I met up with my sister, Sister Ray, who was an Army Nurse at Redbanks Military Hospital. I went with her to church on Sunday night and woke on Monday with severe stomach pains – diagnosed as appendicitis. Went to Greenslopes Military Hospital – had them removed – flew down to Adelaide in RAAF DC3 to continue my leave.
In the meantime the ORARA was steaming back to Melbourne to be paid off – no longer needed. I was notified that at the end of my leave I was to return to the Asdic Base at Rushcutters Bay. Three days later, another notification: I was to return at once to Sydney as I had been drafted to HMAS WARRAMUNGA – a Tribal Class Destroyer.
I was happy about this as the Tribals were the latest and newest destroyers in the Navy. The OZ Destroyers WARRAMUNGA, ARUNTA and BATAAN, with the Cruisers SHROPSHIRE and HOBART, joined the US 7th Fleet as TASK FORCE 74.
We were based at Subic Bay where the Invasion Force for Japan was assembling, as the US Army began taking position nearer to Japan. We eventually ended up at Okinawa to wait for the final assault on Japan. To our great relief, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the War to a sudden end. We sailed into Tokyo Bay with US 7th and 3rd Fleet, and British Pacific Fleet, plus odds and sods.
We anchored astern of the US Battle Ship MISSOURI and witnessed the signing of the Surrender Documents of the Japanese.
We were busy over the following weeks picking up POWs from various POW Camps at several villages on the coast, and brought them back to Hospital Ships in Yokohama.
We then sailed non-stop to Sydney, arriving on a Friday.
Sydney and Melbourne crew members were given weekend leave – crew members from other States were to remain on board as Duty Watch – very frustrating to see the lights of Sydney at night and not be able to get ashore!
On Monday we sailed straight back to Japan. Once there, after a few weeks, crew members were sent back in groups to OZ for discharge. When my turn came, I with others went to Hong Kong on the RN Mine-Layer Cruiser ARIADNE. After waiting there I came on to Sydney on the RN Frigate WHITSAND BAY, then on to Adelaide by train for discharge.