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Australia

Roy was born in Richmond, Victoria on the 12th December 1915 and worked as a trapper, covering a number of country regions including the Pinnaroo area where he became friend with a number of local young men with whom he would later serve in the same 2/48th battalion. Prior to enlisting, Roy married Vera Henriette who lived in Adelaide suburbs whilst he was serving. Roy was 25 when he enlisted on the 18th March, ’41 being allocated the number SX11828 in the 2/48th Battalion.
His first days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds before the battalion headed to Woodside in the Adelaide Hills for preliminary training. He and his fellow members of the 2/48th Battalion then embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 10th April ’41, arriving on the 15th May. The young men then marched to a Staging Camp until July before returning to their battalion. During those early days in the Middle East, besides regular army duties was the need to quickly adapt to the locals as well as soon being involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned.
Almost immediately Roy was thrown into action, receiving several shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, left arm and right forearm causing him to be hospitalised for the remainder of the month before he then returned to his staging camp until September, when he was finally able to return to his battalion.
John Glenn in his book Tobruk to Tarakan described how the battalion was fighting in the salient again and the conditions under which Roy sustained his injury. “The days were hot, with the wind like to breath of a furnace, and the nights were bathed in the light of a full moon curtailing the movement of the salient men and presenting the ration parties with the difficult task of getting a meal up, with the gaps in the minefields covered by the enemy fixed lines of fire. Every now and then a Spandau would send streams of red tracer bullets across the forward posts. Every post seemed to be well taped, and as the day progressed activity on both sides increased. Spandau answered Bren and Bren answered Spandau. Long bursts spread from post to post, to be joined by artillery and mortar fire from both sides, until the front was half obscured in a pall of dust and smoke. On our first day Private S.E. Scott and Private W.A.G. Dwyer were killed by machine gun fire and Privates Whitton and Winter were wounded by shell splinters.”
As his shrapnel wounds continued to heal Roy attended the School of Hygiene and was soon receiving a series of promotions including to A/Cpl in August ’42.
Back home, the local Pinnaroo and Border Times encouraged letters to be published from those serving abroad. These gave a very personal picture of conditions the young country enlistees were experiencing. In a letter home in July ’41 Private Jack Slater in the 2/43rd wrote in part that he had met up with Beau Jones (SX6856) and Roy Winter who were in the same Camp. He then described “They have pictures here every night for the boys. When we first came they were in the open, but now they have built a place with sides and ends, and seats for us to sit on. It is air-cooled because it is minus a roof! We saw films of the Sydney Show one night. They are talkie, pictures, and we can hear them very clearly. We all occupy tents, and they are extra good. The first thing we had to do was to dig trenches around them in case of an air raid.”
Those serving gravitated to the men they had known from home and sent snippets back to family. Whilst none admitted being homesick, their thoughts were still of home. Private Roy Winter wrote in a letter published in November ’41. His description of the shrapnel wounding is typically down-played. “I received a parcel from the people of Parilla Well, and I wish you to accept my thanks and the thanks of all my mates. However, had you been here to see with your own eyes the pleasure and gratitude that shone in our features when we opened the parcel, you should, I am sure, have felt amply repaid for your kindness to us and your kindness to me. Here, where our blessings are few, the gift of a delicious cake is something to be remembered, something to be envied, and something to remind us of you people at home. It is a wonderful uplift to us when we find that we are remembered so well; and again my mates and I send you all our sincerest thanks and appreciation of your kindness.
“Just now our unit is resting. We are occupying posts on a level barren plain, and half a mile away is a rise beyond which the front line, where, perhaps, we shall return in a few days when our spell is over. Shells scream overhead through the night. A damaged tank, a smashed aeroplane, a few old trucks and encircling barbed wire completes the picture, and we sit in our dugouts, sleeping, daydreaming, reading or writing to you people at home, wishing all the while that we could be there, even if only for a day, to see the familiar scenes and faces just once more. But it is only a wish, only a pleasant day dream.
“The last two days have been dusty and somehow I could not dream of Pinnaroo; it had to be Adelaide or the South East where dust is rare; I hope you feel as we do for in spite of casualties among Pinnaroo chaps, we still carry on full of faith in ourselves, and confident of the future. I am proud of my unit and proud of the AIF. The AIF stands on its own! —even Jerry admits that—and, though we curse it at times, when we are alone, we are proud of it and its deeds. I saw Clem Billing (SX6829), Tom Trish (SX6894), Norm Badman (SX7093) and Beau Jones (SX6856) about an hour ago and they are all looking well. Beau has lost some of his condition and is now in good fighting nick, and, like all of us, is feeling fit. My best wishes to everyone in Parilla Well, (By the way Clem also received a cake).”
“You are doing a good job in keeping up the spirit and the fighting power of the boys over here. I had a narrow escape on my first spell in the line. A shell landed in the dugout where I was, but it did not go off! A week after that a shell exploded over my head and I copped six pieces of shrapnel which sent me to hospital, but I am now back with the Unit again. It was not a serious wound, so I soon got over it, and I did not waste time getting back. For all that, I had a good time while on the hospital round. It is very cheering to know that things are going well at home. It makes us think we shall have something to look forward to on our return and it makes us hope that the country will be ready to receive us.”
By August ’41 news had been reported of Roy being wounded in action. This was followed in November ’42 that he had again been wounded in action with a gunshot wound to his abdomen at the start of 6th November ‘42 as had so many others in the fierce fighting to take Trig 29. At a similar time two other locals, Corporal Clarrie Baldwin and Corporal Clem Billing were also wounded. At the end of the night the 2/48th Battalion had just 41 men still standing. John Glenn in Tobruk to Tarakan best summarised the soldiers’ efforts. ‘Truly it can be said of these men, “They fought themselves and their enemy to a standstill until flesh and blood could stand no more, then they went on fighting.” Also injured in the fighting by a sniper’s bullet was another good friend, Bill Ziesing SX3917.
It was sobering for the men to lose fellow soldiers who had become close friends. In a letter to the Pinnaroo and Border Times, published in March ‘42 Roy wrote that he “visited the Tobruk War Cemetery and after viewing the graves of Pinnaroo soldiers he felt that at least he would write a few verses to commemorate his fallen comrades. These verses are dedicated to all Pinnaroo boys who have fallen in this War. In his letter he requested that a copy be sent to Mr. and Mrs. Slater as a tribute from one of Jack Slater’s pals. (Jack SX10458 was in 2/43rd Battalion and killed on 3rd August ‘41)
There’s a far graveyard of brave men who died,
Under the deep blue sky they lie side by side;
The A. I. F’s heroes, Australia’s pride,
South of Tobruk in the grime desert wide.
These men were buried where fighting they fell,
Though there’s no chapel near where you may hear the tolling bell.
Their memories linger, their sad mem’ries dwell,
In the hearts of their loved ones for whose sake they fell.
There are heartaches and deep grief unspoken
O’er the names on each grave you see there.
Many battlefield friendships were broken
When mates were sundered by Death’s grim toll.
In pensive moments the men who returned
Think of a battlefield where nerves were steeled and Death spurned;
Think of old mates there where wild courage burned,
In the souls of these men when their glory was earned.
South of Tobruk we may go back some day,
And there with sorrow deep to those who sleep our homage pay;
For these were our comrades, we silently pray
Their lives for mere glory were not thrown away.”

Finally in February ’43 Roy was able to return home via Melbourne however his poor health resulted in him acquiring acute pharyngitis, followed by tonsillitis. Once recuperated, Roy was back into training in Queensland in preparation for New Guinea, arriving in August ’43 as a Corporal. Illness continued to be debilitating with several bouts of typhus returning him to hospital and eventually to Australia on sick leave.
Roy eventually returned to Tarakan in April ’45 and a promotion to Sergeant but still illness stalked him such that he returned to Australia via Brisbane in October ’45 to return to his wife and young child. He was finally discharged on the 24th April ’46.
Aged 58, Roy died on the 24th February ’73, two months after his birthday. He was buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery as was his wife, Vera who lived to be 94 and died on July 1st 2004.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.