Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Arthur (he was known as Doug to most people and Dad to me) was a Corporal in the RAAF and was mostly employed as a medical orderly at the Bachelor Base hospital.

However, as he was an expert shot with the rifle and an experienced bushman, he was also attached to a unit of commandoes. The job of this unit of five or six men was to rescue any crashed or lost air crew and to check on any Japanese landings.
They found one such landing but were fortunate that the 1000 Japanese had decided to evacuate some days earlier.

Bachelor is south of Darwin on the main highway. It is now a small town and the entrance to the Litchfield National Park. Several of the war airstrips are preserved on the side of the highway but there is no sign now of the main Base.

During the height of the Japanese offensive, they bombed the base and its hospital daily. This went on for months and the hospital always seemed to be a target despite it having a large red cross painted on the roof. During one of these air raids Dad had helped a number of patients from the hospital into their bomb shelter which was only a slit trench, and a bomb exploded close to the trench. Fortunately for Dad there was a tree between him and the bomb, this saved his life, but he was still badly hurt, most of the others in the trench were not so lucky.

This incident eventually forced his discharge from the RAAF as medically unfit and shortened his life such that he died at the age of 49 years.