Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born on July 3, 1907, in Harrogate, Bill later relocated to Mt Barker. Interestingly, the presence of Schwab Street in Harrogate suggests that the Schwab surname was a significant local surname during that era, as there is also evidence of other extended family also living in Harrogate in a residence called Appleton Cottage. It was named Appleton Cottage, because a family named the Appleton’s lived there. But then in 1936, it was sold to the Schwab family.

Bill had been employed as a farm hand and he followed the Methodist faith, embracing its teachings and principles. He had a sister named Millie Jenkinson, who was his next of kin and also lived in Harrogate. Described as having brown hair and blue eyes, Bill had a tattoo decorating his left forearm.

Bill Schwab enlisted for the war on the 29th of the 6th in 1940. He had reported for duty on the 3rd of July in 1940. He was assigned along with 43 soldiers to the 8th Division Salvage Unit. The point of the unit was to search the battlefield for gear, weapons, and ammunition once the combat had moved to somewhere else. Their task was to both fix and redistribute the salvaged equipment, arms, and ammunition to other units within the 8th Division. It was also to identify the enemy’s ammunition and if they had captured any enemy guns, they would identify which ammunition went with it. In this process they got to see Japanese shells and learn about how they were made. While this was their intended purpose, the 8th Division Salvage Unit rarely did these duties throughout during the war.

They were trained at Wayville, which involved long training marches to build up their fitness. Then they were moved to Woodside on the 20th of February until the 16th of April 1941 where at the end of their training, they were known as a very well-trained unit. Bill reported for duty in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and arrived there on Anzac Day 1941, he was there for three months. In Alice Springs he would unload trucks and do repair work on roads.

As he returned home from Alice Springs, he learned he was going to be sent overseas. When returning to Adelaide in July 1941 he had 1 week’s embarkation leave. He then went to Melbourne by train, and when he arrived at the Spring Street Station, he had to pay his own fees to get to Caufield racetrack where the slept in the horse stables overnight. Once Bill arrived in Melbourne, he learned that he was going to Malaya and was disappointed he wasn’t going to the Middle East where the action was. He was sent to Singapore because of the threat of war with Japan.

Then Schwab departed by boat and arrived at Malaya on the 15th of August 1941. Once in Malaya he was stationed at Yong Peng, and then was moved to Singapore at Alexandria a larger base (in the state of Johor). A typical day for the unit, when they were in Johor, was up early to go physical training and then they would train throughout the day. In between trainings, the division would go to retrieve enemy ammunition and bury it, so that it would potentially cause injury to Japanese soldiers if they stepped on it. To do this they would tie together lots of ammunition and bury in it in groups.

The Japanese Army invaded Malaya Peninsula on 8th December 1941. Once the Japanese started attacking the north of Singapore, the 8th Division had to go to be with the rest of the Australian contingency. Their role was to bury some of the Australian ammunition as they had so much stored up in places and didn’t want the Japanese to find it. Once back in Singapore they would stop Chinese truck drivers, then assess the condition of their vehicles and pay them to give the truck to them. This way they acquired about 10 larger trucks for the Australian army. As the Japanese continued to invade Singapore, the 8th Division didn’t know what to do, and communication was very poor.

In the days prior to the fall of Singapore they would find themselves in trenches with soldiers from other allied forces, all mixed up together without a plan of action. Finally, the British Army surrendered on the 15th of February 1942 and that’s when the 8th Division, and a total of 15,000 Australian soldiers were captured and taken as prisoners of war. Once they were in the prisoner of war camp it was quite boring, and the food quickly deteriorated. As prisoners of war, they had to work on constructing the Thai-Burma railway, which was slave labour and incredibly cruel. They would stay in tents in groups of 500 to do this work on the railway.

He was a prisoner of war in Siam (Thailand) but then was transferred to Burma (Malaya) which is where he died from illness at the age of 36 on the 7th of July in 1943. When the war finally finished, over three years later, only 22 out of the 43 men who had left from Melbourne in mid-1941 returned home in late 1945.

References

“Flickr.” Flickr, Appleton cottage in Harrogate South Australia. It was a ba… | Flickr, 7 May 2023, www.flickr.com/photos/82134796@N03/9871095734. Accessed 7 May 2023.

Jazeera, Al. “Myanmar Army Air Raids Send Hundreds Fleeing into Thailand.” Aljazeera.com, Al Jazeera, 24 Dec. 2021, www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/24/myanmar-army-air-raids-send-hundreds-fleeing-into-thailand. Accessed 7 May 2023.

McLaren, Melvin David . “Melvin David McLaren, 8 Division Salvage Unit, Prisoner of War (POW) at Changi, Interviewed by Gillian Pearson about His Service in the Second World War and His Experiences as a POW.” Awm.gov.au, 2023, www.awm.gov.au/collection/C298593. Accessed 7 May 2023.

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SA, Harrogate. “Harrogate SA.” Google.com, 2023, sites.google.com/site/harrogatesa?pli=1. Accessed 7 May 2023.

Terrace, Victoria. “Digital Item Page Gallery.” Naa.gov.au, 2023, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=6410955&S=8&N=9&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=6410955&T=P&S=8. Accessed 7 May 2023.

UBC Web Design. “8th Division | Monument Australia.” Monumentaustralia.org.au, 2015, monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/ww2/display/50012-8th-division. Accessed 7 May 2023.

Wege, Tony. “Shiny Shovels and Valiant Hearts : A History of the 8th Division Salvage Unit 1940-1945 / Anthony L.... | National Library of Australia.” Nla.gov.au, 2016, catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7283751. Accessed 7 May 2023.