Description
Object description
Australian private served with 2/16th Australian Infantry Bn, 21st Australian Infantry Bde, 7th Australian Infantry Div in Lebanon, French Syria, Australia and Papua New Guinea, 4/1941-9/1942
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Fremantle, 1919-1940: family; education; employment; contact with ex-servicemen; question of effects of military service; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of enlistment and training with Australian Army in Australia, 1940: initial enlistment, 3/1940; call-up for military service, 9/1940; reaction of parents' to his enlistment; basic training; opinion of training; issue of equipment.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Queen Mary from Australia to Middle East, 11/1940: reaction to leaving Australia; conditions on board; training on board ship: composition of unit; character of ex-miners in unit; morale during voyage; call in at Trincomalee; arrival at Port Tewfik. Recollections of period as private with 2/16th Australian Infantry Bn, 21st Australian Infantry Bde, 7th Australian Infantry Div in Middle East, 1941: move from Port Tewfik, Egypt to Palestine; reaction to sight of large numbers of Italian prisoners of war; question of degree of confidence in senior officers and politicians; nature of training; degree of knowledge of role of other Australian units.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of operations as private with 2/16th Australian Infantry Bn, 21st Australian Infantry Bde, 7th Australian Infantry Div in Lebanon and French Syria, 4/1941-1/1942: attitude towards Vichy French forces; degree of knowledge of political situation; question of German threat to Middle East; reaction to initial experience of action; use of machine guns; reaction to being shot at; role of battalion; motivation and briefings; reaction to surrender of Vichy French; attitude to senior officers; relations with Lebanonese civilians in Beirut and Tripoli. Lebanon; relaxation in Tripoli, Lebanon; return to Palestine, 1/1942; attitude to Japanese entry into war, 12/1941. Aspects of voyage aboard Ile De France from Egypt to Australia via India: embarkation on board Ile De France at Port Tewfik, Egypt; leave in Bombay, India; aborting of plan to land unit on Java, Dutch East Indies; rations on board.
REEL 4 Continues: arrival in Fremantle, Australia, 3/1942. Aspects of period as private with 2/16th Australian Infantry Bn, 21st Australian Infantry Bde, 7th Australian Infantry Div in Australia, 3/1942-8/1942: leave on arrival; reaction to sight of defences in Fremantle; blackout precautions in Perth and Fremantle; petrol and food rationing; move to Adelaide after period of going Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL); opinion of United States Army troops; opinion of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Gordon Bennett; attitude towards Japanese; nature of training; duties helping farmers Queensland; voyage aboard SS James Wilson from Brisbane to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Recollections of operations as private with 2/16th Australian Infantry Bn, 21st Australian Infantry Bde, 7th Australian Infantry Div in Papua New Guinea, 8/1942-9/1942: arrival at Port Moresby.
REEL 5 Continues: move inland from Port Moresby; construction of camp; battalion morale; lack of information about situation; sight of militia casualties being aided by Papua New Guinea civilians; march to Kokada Track; question of the whether it was a track or a trail at Kokoda; difficulties encountered on Kokoda Track especially on Golden Staircase; role of New Guinea; conditions on Kokoda Track; daily routine; air supply; state of Kokoda Track; air supply drop losses; initial contact with Imperial Japanese Army troops in Owen Stanley Mountain Range, 8/1942; behaviour of casualties; ambush of Japanese; question of remarks made by General Douglas MacArthur about Australian's fighting qualities; opinion of Brigadier Arthur Potts.
REEL 6 Continues: withdrawal back down Kokoda Track; Imperial Japanese Army equipment and weapons; question of Imperial Japanese Army use of psychological warfare; tactics employed; Imperial Japanese Army 'jitter' tactics; opinion of United States Army troops at Buna; effect of Imperial Japanese Army mortar barrage. Recollections of wounding and evacuation on Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea, 9/1942: nature of gunshot wound; arrival of stretcher-bearer; problems of operating in jungle training; meeting with brother; evacuation on stretcher through jungle; period with group of wounded behind Imperial Japanese Army lines; how group was found by patrol; importance of salt; attempts to help wounded soldier.
REEL 7 Continues: aid he received from fellow wounded soldier; lack of bodily motions; question of luck; importance of mateship during military service; conditions in hospital in Port Moresby; length of journey to hospital in Port Moresby; reaction to arrival of patrol; change in character of Port Moresby; attitude towards wounding; case of soldier with self-inflicted wound; attitude to having served on Kokoda Track; reaction to wounding and evacuation, Aspects of hospitalisation in Australia, 9/1942-1/1943: evacuation on hospital ship from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to Sydney; reception in Sydney; treatment of wounded soldier from Papua New Guinea.
REEL 8 Continues: adapting to hospital life; opinion of nurses; nature of journey to Fremantle; reaction of family to his arrival in Fremantle, 12/1942; period as hospital outpatient in Fremantle, 12/1942-1/1943; downgrading of medical status; reaction to not being able to return to battalion; return to civilian life, 1943; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; question of anti-climax of returning to Australia; reaction to end of war with Japan, 15/8/1945; question of effects of military service; nature of Kokoda Track Association.
