Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Story above taken from "the Oaklands Story" which was written by Andy and his siblings.

The war had been going for some time. Rob had enlisted in the 2/48th Battalion A.I.F. and had been through the Desert Campaign (Rats of Tobruk) and was stationed in Australia during his jungle training. My other brother Cameron had enlisted with the 2/27th Battalion and that was in New Guinea. I was 18 years of age and found I couldn't concentrate on work at the farm. Dad noticed this and said "Do you miss the boys?" I said yes, and "Well, I won't stop you if you want to join up", he said. I joined the RAAF in Melbourne on June 30th 1942. I never got home to see my folks. 26 days later I arrived in New Guinea and was posted to an Airfield Construction Unit as a ‘Dozer driver. I hadn't finished my rifle drill etc.

On the first night in New Guinea I slept on a sheet of roofing iron, never had time to get a tent up that made certain one was up the next day. We started clearing the jungle to make an airstrip for the Beaufighters to land on, to help our boys fighting in the Owen Stanley Ranges.

Whilst there I visited Cam who was camped some distance away, it was nice meeting him even if only for short time.

Months went by and the drome was finished so we moved on again, this time to Goodenough Island out from Milne Bay. We keep at Milne Bay one night and a convoy of boats came in, Whilst they were there Mr Tojo decided to drop a few bombs, luckily they went for the shore. My tin hat I hoped had a very wide brim. We finish the drome I'm Goodenough Island then went home to Aussie for 36 days leave. It was lovely to be home but soon I had to return to camp and then back to New Guinea, this time to Aitape in Dutch New Guinea. Whilst there I was operated on for appendicitis and flew back to convalescent camp at Sogeri out of Port Moresby. After about 10 days I moved to rejoin unit which by now was at Voemfoor Island, after a small job there we shifted to Biak Island to build and repair the old aerodrome. After several months there we moved again, this time to Labuan just off the Borneo coast, here we built a drome to get fighter cover for our troops in Borneo.

I finally returned to Australia after flying ten and a quarter hours non-stop from Biak to Brisbane. Home again on leave I enjoy every moment. My discharge came through at Adelaide and at last I was allowed to wear civilian clothes again. I enjoyed my two trips to New Guinea and the islands and made some very good friends and mates.

(Entry in Dad's (Robert Franklin Agars) diary Friday 11th of January 1946: "Came home in Mail. Andrew came back from Adelaide, discharged.") Dad died just 27 days later, on February 7th, and was buried in the Ellison Cemetery.