Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Reminiscence by ‘Jimmy’ Pascoe Apr
11
by Elizabeth & Lindsey
REMINISCENCE BY JIMMY PASCOE

[This story is taken from Teh Kallim, Vol 2, No 7, December, 1969.]

Norman Utz and I passed our medical at Toowoomba on the same day and were duly sworn in to the AIF the next day, after spending a night in a hotel there, during which time we celebrated not wisely, but certainly very well.
The sergeant who marched us down to the station, took one look and his only remark was that from the look of us there couldn’t be much grog left in Toowoomba if we were anything to go by. Norm’s only comment was that by the look of a certain three striper, it was a wonder we got any at all.

But one incident that has always remained with me happened at Kokoda where, in common with so many of us, Norm collected a bout of fever – PUO they called it then. When he was allowed up, he used to walk along the trail and bail up anyone who might have some tobacco, get some off them, and then go back and share it with the boys who weren’t able to get out of bed. Many a man had a smoke at that time because Norm had bitten somebody else for it, and although a heavy smoker, he still shared what he had with the others. Only a small thing perhaps, but one that I have always remembered.

And now for another story slightly different this time. In the first attack on the fort at Merdjayoun, as so many will remember, we had been pinned to the ground for quite a while and then the Frogs started playing a tune with their 75 pounders. One shell they sent over landed in front of 10 Platoon of B Company, and very promptly sent out a peculiar mixture that certainly wasn’t high explosive. One bloke after looking at it for a few seconds, asked what I thought was the minds of all of us, ‘What in the hell is that?’ And very promptly received a reply from a Lieutenant close by, ‘It looks like gas.’ Eventually, it turned out to be smoke.

NOTES:
• Norman Cyril Leonard UTZ – QX 16679
• Harold Joseph Harrison PASCOE – QX16673 (known as ‘Jimmy’)
• ‘three striper’ – slang term for a sergeant
• PUO – pyrexia of unknown origin (No, I haven’t a clue what this is!!)
• Merdjayoun – town in Lebanon where there was heavy fighting between Australian and Vichy French soldiers 19th – 24th June, 1941
• ‘frogs’ – slang term for French
• 75 pounder – this is possibly a Canon de 75 modèle 1897 field gun used by the French forces in the Second World War; it fired a 6.3 kg, 75 mm shell