2/2 ,:COM,~ANPO

COURIER,,_

Vol.Zl. No.Z03. SEPTEMBER, 1967

Ct/it,,-illlANNUAL RE-UNION

,.

The W,A. Branch will be holdingthe Annual Re-Union this year onSept. 30. We have been forced bycircumstances beyond our control toalter the venue to the R.S.L. Hall,corner Anstey and Angelo Streets,South Perth. This is a very nicelittle hall and will provide us with avery comfortable Re-union.This Re-union is being held on the

night of the football grand final andwill provide country members with adual purpose for making the trip tothe )city.To date Steve Rogers, Jack She-

han, Jack Spencer and Eric Thorn-ander have signified their intentionof coming down from Kalgoorlie toattend. ' Surely if chaps like thisare prepared to make such a longtrip then persons living in the cityshould find it no trouble to makethe grade.Every year we have hopes of a

record attendance and for 20 years

we have aimed at having 100 pre-sent but to date we have always,been well and truly frustrated. Thisis your big chance to make it a re-cord this year.Country members are asked to

make up car loads from their areasand come and enjoy a real nightout with their mates. City chapsshould have no trouble in grabbinga cab and heading for South Perth.We also wish to draw your atten-

tion to the Commemoration Serviceto be held at our area in Kings Parkon Sunday following the Re-union,Oct. 1, at 3 p.m. Your hard work-ing President goes to a fantasticamount of trouble to prepare for thisday and he merits your attendance toshow your homage to our gallantdead.This should be a must for all met-

ropolitan members-so paste thisdate in your hat.

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ANNUAL RE-UNIONSATURDAY,30th SEPTEMBER

R.S.L. HALL, SOUTH PERTH(Cnr. Anstey and Angelo Streets)

Page Two 2/2 Commando Courier SEPTEMBE,R, 1967

A""o~ialion. At;liviliSiJ-. : ... !', .' \.

SEPTEMBER MEETING

We, hit the' all time low In at-tendance 'at this function, held atAnzac -House :Basement; on the 5th.Jack Carey had gone- to considerabletrouble to provide good tape record-ings which were really appreciatedby the few who made the effort tobe present. "I ' think the least said' about this

function- 'the better.

ANNUAL RE·UNlON ANDCOMMEMORATION SERV}CIl' '

This is sufficiently covered in theEditorial. So just remember ---' Re-Union, R.S.L. Hall, Cnr. Anstey andAngello Streets, South Perth, thisSaturday, Sept. 30. Commemora-tion Service, Kings Park, this Sun-day, Oct. 1, at 3 p.m.

CAR RALLY

This is not a car trial but a Pic-nic Rally. Cars will move off at10.30 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 5, fromthe No. 1 car park at the westernend of the Causeway. The picnicspot is the same property as last wevisited in Gidgegannup but the Rallywill proceed there by a specially sel-ected route.For those who wish to proceed

direct to the picnic site your easiestroute is straight up the Toodyay

.(Printed for the publisher by "TheSwan Express", 10 Helena Street,

Midland, W.A.)I1IIIIII11I1I11IIIII1I1IIIII111IilI111111111111111111111111"'1111UII1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMhlnl""llillllllllllll!11I111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111'III!

When in TownMake The

,DON CLOTHING CO.Your RendezvoUs for Mercery

Meet Dave Ritchie and SayGood-day .

10% Your Way on All Purchases

Remember:DON CLOTHING CO.William Street, ,Perth

Road over Red Hill until YOQ reachthe ,23 mile peg. About 100 yardspaSt' .thls peg you turn right intoStorleVille Road and proceed forapprox a mile until you see the fam-iliar Double Red Diamond. Turnright through the gate and followthe, track (a good one) until youreach the shed (about half a mile).Join in the fun and go with the

Rally. We can assure you you willsee places you never knew existed.

NOVEMBER MEETING, " '

The final round of the Calcutt, Memorial Trophy for this year.'The, date: Tuesday, Nov. 7.This is your last chance to try

and win this trophy this year.Remember it can be won with

one good night's performance, so doyour best to be there.

THE GREAT SAFARI

Plans are now well in hand forthis great trek East and its successis assured. You will read more ofthis in the next issue of the "Cour-ier".

TIMOR MEMORIAL

This project is rapidly coming tofruition and next issue of the "Cour-ier" will be devoted largely to giv-ing you all the facts and figures re-garding this terrific project.

c.;»: CommentYour Committee met as usual oil

Sept. 19, at Anzac Club. We weremost fortunate to be able to welcomeJim Wall who was over from Vic-toria on business: We were ableto put Jim in the picture regardingthe Safari and also the Timor Mem-orial project so that on his returnto Victoria he will be able to passon his knowledge to the lads in thatState.The main business of the meeting

was in regard to arrangements forthe Re-Union and CommemorationService and the Timor Memorialproject. A working bee was' ar-ranged for Sunday, Sept. 24, to putthe area in Kings Park in good shapeA Car Rally Picnic _was arranged

to take place on Sunday, Nov. 5.

.)

SEPTEMBER, 1967 2/2 Commando Courier Page'Three

,p.r"on.,a!iuuReal good to see Jim Wall over

in W.A. Jim is with the TaxationDept. and was in Perth on business.We managed to combine a bit ofpleasure with it for him. Jim ismostly unchanged except of coursea few grey' hairs. It is visits of thisnature which makes the Associationworthwhile.Ted Monk and self had a wonder-

ful night out recently and got intoa bit of trouble of the enjoyabletype. Really bashed one another'sears to a state of cauliflower. Tedsaid the season had opened well up

at Latham but they' were badly inneed of rain right now.Gordon Holmes dropped in to see

me the other day. He hopes tomake it for the Re-Union.Had a most enjoyable TUn down

to Caple with Jack and Norma Has-son to see Clarrie and Grace Tur-nero Bit heavy but still very good.Congratulations to Dot Bagley on

taking out second prize of $1,000in a recent lottery. Be very nicefor the Safari Dot and Len.Gerry Edwards is currently in

'Hollywood where he has had con- ,siderable. treatment for his backtrouble.

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liMY EARLY DAYS ON TIMOR"(By NX42322, R. TRENGROVE, 75 L.A. D., Later 2/2nd Ind. Coy.), .

(Continued from Last Issue)

'... We had had an early breakfast, webeing all personell at Champalongwhich included a section of Engineers,A.S.C., L.A.D. and other odds andends who were there. This was be-fore 7 o'clock Jap planes had beenover in large numbers and were stillover dropping those things that don'tcare who they hit. Anti personal Ibelieve they call them, also a lot ofother names but as they say inHoyts, unsuitable for general exhibi-tion. High explosives were also be-ing dropped in large lumps as well.It was just on seven when some

terrific explosions were felt andheard. Everyone looked at every-one and said, there goes the dromeat Penfoie which had been mined forthe past six weeks with more dynam-ite than Whelan the Wrecker couldhave got. rid of in his busiest wreck-ing mood. Enough to have delight-ed Lawrence of Arabia for yearsto come could he have but seen it.Also a bomb dump was blown toblazes and various petrol and oildumps in the vicinity of Koepang andPenfoie.1was ordered back to my precious

•

ute. If I drove it ten yards I hadto fill it up with petrol. Capt. Neavewas not going to be caught with alight tank of petrol.At about a quarter to eight Jap

bombers came from everywhere.They didn't touch Champalong.Whether they knew the hospital wasthere we don't know but we guessedthat they saw the A.S.C. stores werethere and a huge ammo dump andpetrol was about a mile further upfrom Champ. The, island was rot-ten with spies and fifth columnists.Things started to get a bit hectic

here and so much went on that I havedifficulty in remembering' what fol-lowed, what with it being such a longtime ago and so many events follow-ing one another in, quick succession.But I will try and set it out as ithappened. I may have to go backon myself occasionally but that can'tbe helped as one thing brings tomind other events which have alreadyhappened and I temporarily forgot.At 8 o'clock I was sitting in the

ute still waiting for Capt. Neave to.get permission from the Brig. for usto go down, when someone shouted

Page Four 2/2 Commando Courier SEPTEM13ER.· ~967

paratroops are being landed. ,I wentto get out of the truck to .go andsee them but Reggie appeared andtold me to stay put. While everyoneelse rushed down behind the hospitalto see the spectacle of some 600paratroops dropping from the sky.They dropped from some 25 or 30transport planes preceded by a severeground straffing of zeroes and otherJap fighter planes.They dropped onto an open and

clear piece of ground about 130yards from B'aboe on the Champ-along side and about the same dis-tance from our L.A.D. store van andbreakdown waggon which were op-posite the house we had comman-deered.From here I will tell it as Eric

Herd, my pal, experienced it and sawit personally.He had been out nearly all night

dragging trucks in and his last jobon the breakdown truck was to bringa disabled Bren Carrier from Klap-alima. When the raids started onBaboe he was in the house and therest of the boys were there also.Naturally they all went for their slittrenches that we had dug outside. Ihad dug one when I had been station-ed there and unfortunately it used toleak in the bottom and was at thistime rather slushy on the bottom.It was also the rainy season overthere.Joe Dean, who was Eric's offisider

on ,the breakdown, had - only a fewminutes previous changed into aclean outfit of clothes. When the firstalarm went Joe, who didn't likeaeroplanes, especially unfriendly ones,bolted for the first trench which hap-pened to be mine. He dived into itand low and behold was smotheredin sticky, watery mud. Joe, from allaccounts did not appreciate this atall and after the first wave went overand the all clear was given Joe wentand changed into another clean out-fit. He did look nice and away wentthe alarm again and so did Joe torepeat his first performance. Sort ofact 2, scene 1, sort of style or maybeit was just practice. Anyway Joeonce more got into a clean change orput, his original clothes back on, I'mnot too sure which. 'Eric who had been on the ground

in one of these raids with a handker-chief rolled up in a pad fashion be-tween his teeth and slightly raised upfrom the ground on his hands, was'getting a good shaking up from the

explosions that, were going off roundhim and he was biting so hard onthe old handkerchief that a goldfilling he had in' ,his teeth 'poppedout never to be found, alas; alack, andalaska. The loss of this made himvery annoyed and determined to geta Jap one day for it. Personally Ithink the gold was worth half a dozenof the yellow men, but who am Ito quibble.Don Company of the 2/ 40th' Btn.

were the roving company at Baboe.That is wherever the Japs struck DonCompany was to go.Well some 20 minutes or so be-

fore the paratroops dropped DonCompany got a message supposedlyfrom an ally in the shape of it Tim-orese native Rajah of Koepang, thatJaps had landed at some place onthe south coast, the name of whichI cannot remember. Anyway itmeant that Don Company had to, goand go they did. The distancewould be some 20 miles or more.No sooner had they left than the

raids started in earnest and the Zerosand dive bombers gave everything apasting. This was when Eric losthis gold filling. He said every timethe dive bombe\ started their diveshe was sure it as coming straightfor him. They however were bomb-ing the kitchens which were all un-der one roof and the food was sentout in trucks which to my mind hadbeen a mistake from the first as ifthe Japs found out it would be oneof the first places to go, and evident-ly they had found out because thatwas their target. It was machinegunned, dive bombed and severelyknocked about.The babbling brooks (cooks) were

sheltering in holes near the cookhouse, except Ace who was in asort of a washaway in the bank at,the back of the cook house and hereckoned that one of the dive bomb-er pilots had seen him and I guessAce was correct because as that wor-thy lad said after: I said to myself,Ace, that bloke has taken a definitedislike to you and is out to get youso move boy, and move he did intothe nearest slit trench which he hadno sooner reached than' a bomblanded in the exact place where hehad been crouching.In the meantime bombing was go-

ing on around Baboe and by this timethere were only about 12 or 15 menleft in this little town and it wasnearly 8 o'clock when Eric sung out

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SEPTEMBER, 1967 2/2 Commando Courier , Page Five

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to the boys that some more bomberswere on their way. They werestrung out in a long line and imagineeveryone's surprise when instead ofbombs bodies began to fall withgreat white billowing parachutes op-ening up behind them. What couldthey do, those few men in Baboeagainst 600 paratroops with zeroescircling and straffing every blade ofgrass that moved, so they decided tobeat a retreat for the rocks up theback of their sleeping quarters, butnot before W.O. Willersdorf had setfire to the store van. They neverhad time to burn or put out of actionthe breakdown. That was donelater by Don Company men, I think.Capt. Neave's batman would not

go with the rest of our L.A.D. boys.He went across the road into a slittrench with one of the Sigs and thelast we heard of him some dayslater was that the last some of the40th had seen of him was in Baboewith a bullet wound high upon hisleft shoulder.We at Champalong, after two days

of waiting to hear from the L.A.D.boys, gathered that they were eitherkilled or taken prisoner.Now to continue my side of the

story of the next two days andFriday.The first Japs, which were para-

troops landed at about 8 o'clock onthe Friday, 20th February, 1942, justtwo months and eight days after welanded.We at Champalong waited all day

for news of how the fighting wasgoing. Planes roared overhead allday but none of them had that colourpatch we longed to see.The bombing was terrific and it

now sounded as if naval guns hadbeen added to the din and we knewthat they were not ours.The few Dutch troops comprising

Dutchmen and Javanese, camethrough on their trucks and by allaccounts had a bad time. Theylater in the day tried to go throughthe Jap lines but were stopped by aroad block. A concrete block whicha Bren Gun Carrier tried to tow offthe road but without success. Theblock was later blown to pieces byour engineers.About 9 o'clock in the morning

Capt. Neav.e came to me and saidthat we of the L.A.D. and two Tom-my Gunners making five men in all,were to go out past Champalong onthe road to Soe to look for a para-

•

•

trooper who was supposed to havelanded behind us.' We searched theroad either side for some miles andquestioned one or two natives butsaw no sign of the suspect. Expect-ancy and nervousness was reachinga high pitch as we could get no in-formation from below as to whatwas going on.Everything was set to blow our

ammo dump, petrol and ordnancestores sky high, likewise the house weslept in with all our tyres and spareparts. This was later abandonedbecause the hospital would havebeen flattened, so the Japanese got allthese supplies which were to havelasted us for six months, includingfood supplies.No one seems to knows why the

hospital was so close to all thesestores, but there it is, it was andwhat's the use of saying or blaming.anyone then or now.Night came and a very nervous

night it was. There was roughly 200men at Champalong including hospi-tal staff and sick and a few wounded.The Major of the Fortress guns andone corporal had been brought byambulance from KlapaJima seriouslywounded. Both died after a fewhours, wounded by bombs. Thedriver of the ambulance was drivingalong near B'aboe when what hethought were Dutchmen fired on him.He stopped to abuse them heartily,wanting to know who and what theso and so blazes they thought he wasand when these supposedly green cladDutchmen arrived closer he amazedlystared, then in double time jumpedback into the cab and drove away.These green clad men were Jap mar-ines.Another attempt was made to bring

wounded to Champalong but theJapanese refused to let any more gothrough to hospital. All our nativesof Champalong had said goodbyeand taken to the hills.All the natives when we came

to the island .and up to when theJaps landed thought that one Aus-tralian was as good as, 100 Japs.Their disappointment must have beenterrific When after three hard daysof battling against odds of nearly athousand to one Col. Leggett hadno alternative but to surrender.Saturday morning brought more

paratroops and supplies by air; forthose already established. A roughguess of how many were or hadbeen landed in this fashion between

"

Page Six 2/2 Commando Courier SEPTEMBER, 1967

us and Baboe was 1,200 Japs, andnow we had good reason to believethat some 18,000 seaborn troops hadbeen landed somewhere near Koe-pang but nowhere near where ourboys had expected and prepared forthem. The two six inch fortressguns had already been blown upwithout firing a, shot as no crewscould have withstood the bombingthey received. Although the Japsnever actually hit the guns our ownmen blew them to pieces.I don't know whether our anti

guns ever went into action but someday I hope we will know much morethan anyone knows nowWe got orders to evacuate Cham-

palong to Soe which we did some-time on Saturday. I can't for thelife of me remember whether it wasdaytime or night time. I think it wasearly in the morning on Saturday indarkness, but that is open to con-tradiction.I, for one, could not but help feel

badly about Eric and the other boysof our outfit at Baboe. It seemedlike desertion. We had all been to-gether so long and now when wewere in trouble and meeting theenemy, here we were split up, onehalf not knowing what had happen-ed to the other half.We arrived at Soe, the L.A.D. ute

with Reggie driving, took up lastposition as an L.A.D. should. Wetook everything we might need inthe way of spare parts and personalgear, the latter being, cut down to aminimum, one complete change ofshorts and shirt and a couple ofchanges of socks. I took five newtooth brushes I bought in the can-teen a week or so before and aboutthree tubes of toothpaste, and threeor four cakes of soap. My shavingoutfit that I had given, to me in 1941and my writing case that my sistergave me and some photos of Mumand Dad.We did nothing at Soe but walk

round and later in the morning we,that is Laurie Ross, and Col andHarry, Norm and myself, went for aswim in the lovely concrete and tiledpool that was fed by a stream fromup in the mountain.During the day we saw some Jap

planes going towards Koepang butnot as many as on Friday.I don't remember that we did any-

thing special on. Saturday other thango around the various trucks andcheck them over and walk aroundpassing and listening to various opin-

"

ions from everyone who knew asmuch" as the .heads themselves knew.A guard had .been placed on the

road some few miles out of Soe andthis was maintained up to' the, .lastminute that we evacuated Soe. 'Sunday morning arrived bright and

clear when it was decided that theL.A.D. personnel would return toChampalong for more spare parts andinformation. We left Soe early andwhen we got to the guard Capt. Arn-old pulled us up and told us that aphone message had come throughto .say that some of the L.A.D. andsome cooks had turned up at, Champ-along. I was so pleased that tearscame to my eyes and for once Capt.Neave could not drive fast enoughto please me.When we arrived at Champalong

those of us in the back of the utenearly broke our necks getting out togreet our mates. I saw Eric andRoy and Cam before the truck stop-ped. I dived on to them and feltlike kissing and hugging them and forthe life of me I couldn't stop snif-fling and laughing. More like cry-ing, I guess.W.O. Willersdorf in charge of the

party of L.A.D. and cooks had walk-ed all the way inland to Champalongwhich had taken them 2t days withlittle or nothing to eat, dodging theplanes and Japs who at times werevery close to them. The Japs had aseries of bird calls such as owl hoots

.'.-NEW SOUTH WALES U

iiMEMBERS il(SYDNEY) '.1

HAVE YOU rI

ACCOMMODATION? I~I~IiIi!in51IIIi..II

IF SO CAN YOU PUT UPSOMEONE ON THE

SAFARI?

Contact:J. F. HARTLEY19 Elva StreetCabramaHaN.~.W.

URGENTLY

.\

SEPTEMBER, 1967 2/2' Commando Courier Page'Seven

and other types of birds, 'as signalsto let one another know where theywere and quite a number of times thesmall party had -had J aps on eitherside. \There is a lizard on Timor which

because of its queer noise, we namedChoco and made a call which sound-ed just like the word Choco onlydragged out much more than that andrepeated about five times. Whilstthey were settling' down for the firstnight, using banana leaves for blan-kets, Eric said as one of these lizardsstarted its croaking cry: "If he goesfive or more we will know the Japsare not near."It was only said in a joke, but as

the boys said after everyone uncon-sciously counted every lizard theyheard and heaved sighs of relief whenit reached five. They cursed Ericheartily for ever saying it.We got the things that we came

back for and waited until eveningbefore we moved out.I forgot to tell about what happen-

ed before we left Champ the firsttime. We destroyed three new Chev-rolet motors which were still in theircrates, by giving them some gentletaps with a '14 lb. hammer and dittothe diesel motor Col and I had lostso much sweat over. As we left allother things intact we may just aswell have left these intact.We had, we being our fitters, fixed

lie~~E~

II=:~~IIIi HAVE YOUiI ACCOMMODATION?Ii·n!=n~~Hii

!!IIiE

!~E!~~I!

VICTORIAN \MEMBERS(MELBOURNE)

IF SO CAN YOU PUT UPSOMEONE ON THE

SAFARI?

Contact:H. E. TOBIN

15 Beatrice StreetBurwoodVictoria

URGENTLY

a motor bike up during the day also acouple of heavy trucks. I was to ridethe bike back to Soe and as it wasgetting towards evening and the lighton the bike was nearly useless I wastold by Reggie to leave immediatelythe time then being about 5 o'clockSunday evening. I was kicking thebike over when a dumb cluck of adriver batman came Iup the road ona push bike and said the Japs wereat the bottom of Champalong hilland that the Yanks had landed atKoepang.Well it caused a stir believe you

me and I was further ordered tomove away with the news to Soe, forwhat it was worth. It wasn't worthanything as the Japs did not arriveup there for another couple of daysat least.I reported to Capt. Arnold after

reaching Soe and told him who hadgiven the information and he saidhe didn't believe it especially theYank part of the message. Thischappie who gave the alarm was laterseverely tongue lashed for his stup-idness in not verifying the fact aboutthe Japs and for starting a false rum-our about the Yanks. The Japs hesupposedly heard were some of "C"Company rqen who had battled theirway through the Jap lines and got tothe bridge near Champalong and itwas these chaps being challenegd bythe guard down there that this brilli-ant specimen of manhood had heardand taken for granted that they wereJaps. Where he got the rumourabout the Yanks no one, not evenhimself, seemed clear on.Hut he started a panic at Champ.

All trucks were ordered to leave withor without their load and Eric wasto drive our ute out and some ofour lads were a bit slow getting something and a certain Captain who Ihave mentioned quite often wanted toleave them behind but Laurie said toEric, don't move off until I tell you,and this made the Captain very wild,threatening nothing short of a tiringsquad for Staff-Sgt, Ross and Eric,but wait they did and it was all laterforgotten when it was found thatcertain officers had allowed the panicto spread.As the last truck raced away from

Champalong the chaps from "C"Company, about 13 in all, saw thelast one race away and shouted outto it but it never stopped. How-ever they caught us later at Atamboea

(To be continued)

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Page Eight 2/2' Commando' Courier SEPTEMBER, 1967

RAy AIT~EN, fro.m Somewhere in"England, writes:-After wandering round Greece,

Italy ,Spain, France and Portugal Iam now more or less firmly estab-lished in the U.K. That is to sayI've rented a house here, about 20minutes by tube from the heart ofthe metropolis within walking dis-tance of Kew Gardens where I'vebeen doing some careful brain suck-ing on my pet hobby of growingnative plants.As a result of the overtures of

John Beard and Charles GardnerI've had the red carpet treatment atKew and am now full of new tech-niques and gimmicks. They havebeen very successful, for example ingrafting eucalyptus and also in grow-ing them from cutting,My greying blonde has led me

over all the ruins and through allthe old churches we were unfortun-ate enough to pass in Latin Europe.We've climbed the walls of castlesand ogled the houses and indeed thebones of pre-historic man.You'll be pleased to know that I

left-my camera at home. So manypeople have subjected me to "slideevenings" in my life time that Ipromised myself I would never do itto anyone else.We went down to Eastbourne yes-

terday to spend the day with afriend and had a go at PevenseyCastle which started as a Romanset-up on the site of a Briton de-fensive position, then was taken overby the Saxons and later re-buiIt bythe Normans. The ammunition,'large round stones, for the bom-bards and trebuchets, are still stack-ed up ready in case the "bomb"throws us back a thousand years andwe have to take to bows and slingsagain. It's an interesting historicalcommentary in stone to see abovethe vertical loop holes for cross-bows and arquebus, the transverseones for Vickers with the label1939-45. This was; of course, the"invasion coast" and the castle wasoccupied throughout.Last weekend Scotty Taylor came

up from B'ristol and spent Saturdayand Sunday with us. Scotty hasn'tchanged much apart from the lossof more hair. He remains a batch-elor. He has retired as a shop-keeper because his partner, who was

his uncle, was anxious to retire, andScotty is now foreman of a set-updoing queer things with plastic sheet-ing, chiefly making rick covers.His weekends are fully occupied

as -he has a caravan and car to towit with and waves a fly over thewater wherever there is a stream orlake.Bill is convinced he is going to

get back to the West one day. In-deed he was on his way when someclot gave him this job he has andkept raising his pay to keep himin England.He has lost none of his burr from

living amongst the sassenachs, andthe words come out as if he hadspent all his life north of theborder.A couple of years ago Bill had a

very odd experience. He was at theraces with some friends when hecaught himself staggering. He didnot feel ill or short of breath, so hewas amazed to find himself on theground. His mates got him to hos-pital all right but the thing was dis-concerting. He could understandwhat was happening but couldn'tspeak. Further, though he was, ableto listen to nurses and doctors hehad a memory that stopped in 1942.He had the clearest picture' of hiswhole life from the age of 2t untilabout the middle of the SecondWorld War. -The doctors assured him that it

was not a heart attack and thatsince it hadn't killed him in the firstplace he was in no further danger.A blood clot from an old injury hadmoved to the brain and had nowbeen dissipated' naturally. In itspassing it had wiped out a good dealof Scotty's memory. The "gooddeal" included the names of allcommon objects.Scotty wanted to know how long.

They told him not to worry as theyhad a bloke there who was recover-ing the art of speech and recall afteronly a matter of three years. Theytook Scotty to see him.That was enough for our dour

Scot. He took himself off to the'country for a walk and he sat downand tried to recall the name of somegreen stuff on the ground. He keptpointing at it and fighting for recall.After a while he got it "grass". Hethen pointed with SOIne concentra-

SEPTEMBER,' '1967 212 Commando Courier Page Nilie,

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tion at some taller things and finallycame up with "trees". The only.trouble was that when he wentback to it had forgotten the nameof the green stuff. It took himhalf a day to master both and afurther three months to rebuild histotal memory. He is still carefulwith unfamiliar objects and is an,avid reader of labels. 'What annoys him most of all is

that he now has a normal memory,i.e. the one he had before the day at'the races and has lost the completepicture of his life from 2t to 24which used to slide through his mindon an endless screen as he lay won-dering if he'd ever talk again.Scotty now finds the whole busi-

ness mildly amusing and it is doubt--ful if he sees what an exciting char-acter study it is.Try to picture one man in bed

mouthing nothings and our William,with the sun on his bald head, outin the paddock fighting his personalbattle with his own memory.There's nothing wrong with Bill's

memory now. We went over youall far into the night and he racedfrom one name to another withgreat interest. He sends his bestwishes to all the boys and wishesme to convey particular regards toyour good self, The Imp, Doc Wheat-ley, Joe Burridge, and the I.O.B.I don't know whether Doc Dunkleywill recognise his own initials butPaddy always called him -the Iras-cible Old Bastard and quite franklythere were times when I thoughtPaddy was quite right.Well, I must knock it off. I'm be-

ing dragged off to Windsor to seeanother bloody palace. I hope theyhave got something exotic in thegarden.Leave for Scotland on Saturday

and fly out of England on Sept. '22.Will stop off in Vienna, Istanbul,Teheran, New Delhi, Bangkok, Sing-apore, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney,Melbourne and so home by Oct. 26.Couldn't fit Adelaide in. Wantedparticularly to see the Imp but willhave to wait for another trip.I'll be in Timor some time in

November, possibly within a weekof arriving home. Will see you be-fore I go.

ALAN mOMPSON, of ZO Elizabeth. Parade, Lane Co.ve, writes:-Well, it's been a long time. I

think it was Canungra when we last

!

•

saw one anothel' and probably a bitunder the weather, then r as well.'However most of that can wait untilAnzac Day 1968.Firstly, congratulations on the

Great Safari idea and programme,and I wish you' every success.It was good to receive the "2/2nd

Courier" (which I had not seen be-fore) and the tickets which our As-sociation here purchased. HarryBrittain has forwarded the necessaryreturn.I was most interested in the Com-

memoration Service Address givenby your Vice President, and in yourmonthly meeting 'Programme on the, back of the "Courier".

However to return to the Safari.As President of the N.S.W. Comman-do Association I want to extend aninvitation to you and to all 2/2ndpersonnel to join us at our Annual ,Re-Union on Anzac Day 1968 andnaturally at the march beforehand.Undoubtedly you have been in

touch with the 2I2nd Associationhere-you probably know more aboutthem than we do-and already knowthat they march in our group but donot come with us on the ferryafterwards. Each year we charter aferry, roll the barrels on, stock upwith eats and leave about 12.30 fora trip around Sydney Harbour. Wetake a pipe band and each year wemuster between 200 and 250. Youare most welcome to join us and aseach Unit gets together you would ineffect be holding your own re-union.However we do not want to cut

across any plans the 2/2nd here havefor you but to let you know wewould be most happy to have youaboard.Joe Tell and Alfredo De Santos

are the only 2!nd-ers we have in theAssociation and both are staunchsupporters.Well, that's the position and if we

can do anything to assist please letus know.Personally I look forward to see-

ing you and many others and reviv-ing some memories of Darby, Timor,etc, etc.

BERT MATIHEWS, of 185 Raven-scar Street, Do.uble View, W.A.,writes:--Enclosed is ticket butts and dollars

for same and I hope the sweep is an-other success.

Page Ten SEPTEMBER; 19672/2 Commando Courier

MICHAEL CALVERT, of The Flat,,Beech. Hurst, Old Avenue, WestBybeet, Surrey, England, writes:-The enclosed photograph might

amuse you.You can get any sort of sign post

set up -with a direction, to your hometown. They have a table of distancesto places all over the world and this,to the Prom., is via Panama.

Bernie Callinan and I had a coupleof meals together .during his recentvisit here. He looks very well anddecisive.I have been swimming as part of

my fitter-Calvert campaign and' tookpart in a club half mile handicap racein the Serpentine in, Hyde Park. I.started first and came in last in 19mins. dead. I am starting in a milerace tomorrow evening but I may go

-\

SEPTEMBER, 1967 2/2 Commando Courier Page Eleven

..

into the shallows and walk the lastbit.I am very pleased to receive your

"Courier" regularly.I got a nice letter from your Com-

missioner General to whom I showed'past numbers of the "Courier" ask-ing him to let me know if any mem-ber of the 2/ 2nd Commando to hisknowledge came' to London. -. He- toldme that he would let me know;I am still a Highways Engineer of

a minor sort in the Greater LondonCouncil, and obtained my A.M.I.C.E.the other day, partly due to 'BernieCallinan being one of 'my sponsors.I have got fed up with commuting

and am moving up, to less salubioussurroundings in London, but I hopethen to afford to get away to thecoast most weekends.I did some spear fishing last year

and my best catch was a B'alanWrasse which on looking it up, Ifound was a lazy old ruminant scav-enger, something between a pig anda cow which no true sportsmanwould ever shoot!I am going down to Devon in

August but I have too long andpowerful a spear gun and either thestring catches in my ears, or the fishswim between my goggles and thepoint of my trident.Well, all the best and best wishes

to everyone., Y oure doing a greatjob keeping the "Courier" going .Thanks for the Address Book.

R. H. BURTON, AlUes Creek, viaMundubbera, Qld., writes:-After such a long time it is quite

hard to know what to write about,especially after not seeing any ofthe boys over there for so many'years. Any way I do hope every-thing is going well for the Associa-

; tion over there. I miss the Westvery much. I don't know if I shallever get back there.I -have sold my tickets. Am en-

closing the butts and the money. Thelittle extra can go to a good cause. Iwish I could afford more.As you can see I am out of the

army 'now and am working at thissaw mill. Mundubbera is about 200miles from Brisbane and Allies Creekis about 24 miles from Mundubbera.1 am in quite good health even

though I have just turned 45.My good wife is. in Brisbane un-

dergoing different tests and seeing dif-ferent ' doctors. She has 1feen backand fdrwards about three limes now.

It's a bit hard with six kids on yourhands, but still I am making out O.K.Please excuse the paper as it was

all I could find.The job here is not too bad. I am

out in the log yard. I clear about$95 a fortnight. , No relit to pay, freeelectricity and fire wood, so one can'tgrumble. _Well, -that's about it for this time,

so will say cheerio and all the verybest to you and all my old cobbersover' there. ' ,

FRANK A. CRAIGIE, 236 West St.,RockhamptoD, Qlds., wrltes:-Sorry I have been so long in drop-

ping you a note but since last writ-ing I have had a spell in Green--slopes Repat. Hospital and am nowworking on a job that is 25 milesfrom home, so that by the time 1get home at night I just feel liketaking it lightly. However I hopeto be able to put more to paper soonbut must now get these butts backto you in time.Remember me to all the boys and

sincerely hope they are standing upto time and wear.Please note change of address.Believe you have Association Tie

and Badge. Would be proud to wearthem. Let me know how much.

GEORGE STRICKLAND of 15Dudley, Street, Rivervale, W.A.,writes:-Am enclosing the sweep butts plus

cheque to cover same. Hope I've re-turned them before the death knock,I usually get caught.Don't know if you have heard

that I've sold out at Ready Mix.Eight years is long enough to havemy bones shaken to pieces in a truck.Also there is too much country workinvolved now, these wheat silos arecoming too thick and fast. I havereverted back to the old hammer andsaw after all these years. Cabinetmaking at Allwood Industries just100 yards from home.I haven't been able to make any

Unit shows lately but hope to nowthat I have settled down to regularhours once more.We haven't received a "Courier"

for ages, about Christmas time wasthe last one.Well must get this note off. Hope

the sweep is once more a great suc-cess and hope to see you at footieone of these days.

Page Twelve, 2/2 Commando Courier SEPTEMBER. 1967

~ QC!Qooo CQC'.lQQQQ~ooaCo<:><::lQQQQOQOCO<:::lo<:><)QO QQQ"IQI ::::'Or;)QO~

~~QCOQOQoQQ~QQaQoQocQOOQQQQO~QQQQOOCOOOOOQ

ANNUAl RE-UNIONSATURDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER

R.S.l. HAll, soura PERTH(Cnr. Anstey.,~n,d 'Angelo Streets)

I,

COMMEMORATION SERVICESUNDAY, 1st OCTOBER, at 3 p.m.

KINGS PARK

CAR RALLY PICNICSUNDAY, 5th NOVEMBER, at 10.30 a.m.

Commences from No. 1 Car ParkWestern End of Causeway

CALC,UTT MEM:ORIAL TROPHYFinal Night For 1967

TUESDAY, 7th NOVEMBER, 1967