CRAPP, Walter Matthew
| Service Numbers: | Q131728, QX53096 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 March 1942 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Richmond, QLD, 1 February 1915 |
| Home Town: | Richmond (Q), Richmond, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Richmond |
| Occupation: | Carpenter |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Mar 1942: | Involvement Private, Q131728, also QX53096 | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar 1942: | Enlisted | |
| 3 Mar 1942: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, QX53096 | |
| 10 Apr 1943: | Involvement Private, QX53096, also Q131728 | |
| 17 Sep 1945: | Discharged | |
| 17 Sep 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, QX53096 |
Help us honour Walter Matthew Crapp's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography
Wally enlisted for adventure and a chance to travel overseas. The Army decided he would make a good motor mechanic but after a brief stint of training he convinced his superiors to transfer him to infantry.
Over the years Wally never spoke of the war, to anyone. However much later in his life, in his seventies, he recounted a few stories to Bradley one of his grandsons.
Wally first saw action in New Guinea fighting the Japanese. As he recalled, "the sea voyage up to New Guinea I spent most of the time sea sick, I'll never forget how bloody crook I was."
Regarding the actual fighting "One time when on patrol in the jungle, I got separated from my platoon. I came through some scrub and stumbled upon a Japanese Machine Gun post. Three Japs were all watching in the other direction - didn’t know I was there! I emptied my entire magazine into them.”
After New Guinea, Wally again saw action, this time in Tarakan, Borneo. In his words “It was a bloody waste of time, we didn’t need to go.” (The Battle of Tarakan was late in the war, May-June 1945). Wally was part of the first assault on the beach. The US Navy took the Aussies into battle in LVT’s or “Buffalos” – amphibious landing craft with tank tracks. As remembered by Wally, “we were 100 yards or so from the beach and the Japs started shooting. The US sailors then told everyone to get out and wouldn’t go any further into shore. So we all had to jump into the water and swim ashore.”
Returning from the war, Wally went back to his hometown of Richmond in North Queensland. He was a carpenter and with his wife Ethel, raised six childen – five girls, one boy (in fact, two sets of twins). He loved to have a punt on the horse racing, enjoyed a hot English curry and often did some gold fossicking. In retirement, Wally and Ethel settled in Charters Towers, North Queensland. They often had a full house as their many grandchildren would often stay with them during school holidays and weekends. In their final years they moved to Brisbane to be close to family.
Wally died in December 1995 aged 80.