Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

RECRUITMENT

Originally, Roy was younger than the required age to fight in the army. If he wanted to join up he had to get permission from his parents but they wouldn’t give him permission. He knew the person who was the recruiting officer for the army. He had a bit of a chat to him and the officer put him down as being older then he actually was. Therefore, he got to join the army even though he was under age.

OFFICER BOOTS

Roy had quite small feet so he found it hard to find shoes that fit his feet. All of the shoes were too big so he always got blisters. One day when he was in store, he saw a pair of officer’s boots that were his size. He always said that he did not steal them he swapped them. He left his boots in the store and took the officers boots. Officer’s boots looked quite different to the ordinary soldier’s boots. Shortly after that he was on parade and the sergeant in charge said “Peterson you have officers boots on, whys that?” his explanation did not make the situation better. He was in NSW at the time and the battalion was about to be sent to Darwin. As a penalty, he was sent to Darwin with other people earlier than scheduled. He did not think that it was much of a penalty as he got to get away from the rest of the unit. He qualified from the training before everyone else so he thought that, that was an advantage.

SNIPER

He did his basic training for six months. He was out on a rifle range one day shooting at targets. He had shot at the targets and the sergeant had come up to him and said “Peterson you’re a good shot we’re going to make you a sniper.” In addition, Roy had not quite hit the bullseye but he was the only guy that had hit the target. He thought, “Oh I have been singled out to be a sniper” but he didn’t know what a sniper was at the time, so he agreed. He went off to sniper training school, and then he found out that the idea was that he would be up a tree shooting at the Japanese who were trying to invade Australia. He didn’t become one, instead he transferred into the engineering part of the army.

SAPPER (HIS MAIN ROLE IN WW2)

Roy had a few roles during WW2, but his main role was a sapper. During this role he performed a variety of military duties such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-builiding, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, as well as working on road and airfeild construction. He often did this under harsh conditions, in extreme circumstances and often using salvaged materials