58/32 Infantry Battalion Association Inc. A0059554F

February 2016 ( Edition 8 )

100 Years to the hour A proud Daughter Judith Storey (left) looks on as her fathers plaque is unveiled at his graveside, along with Grandson Danny Keane (centre) and two great-grandsons (left) Andy Keane (right) Brendan Keane

The Hon. Tony Smith Speaker of the House of Representatives addresses the gathering.

The 58th Battalion is honoured to have had Major William Charles Scurry as one of its finest members, enabling over 10,000 lives to be saved in the Gallipoli evacuation, due to his slow water–drip/delayed rifle fire invention. (pictured below) Bill Higgins who was responsible for the idea and making of our banner. Bill, the 58/32 thanks you so much for your efforts.

How proud our Association was, to have its own banner displayed for the first time at MVCC Remembrance Day 2015 The windy day saw MVCC speaker Susan De Prost pictured above with Lt. Col. Don Blanksby, address the gathering by speaking about her Our Vice President and grandfather who enlisted in the 58th Bn. Historian Maj. Bob Prewett also involved with the precision of Andrew Guest above layed a wreath on the banners colour work was behalf of his grand uncle also present and the smile Lt. Eric Chinner who fought with the shows that he was very pleased nd 32 Battalion WW1. with the result. Annual Pompey Elliott Memorial Luncheon th March 11 2016 Invitation Page 5.

Remembrance Day continued: Our thanks go to Michael & Susan Phillips for laying the 58th/32nd wreath at the Keilor East RSL.

Presidents Report

Let me say firstly, happy new year to everyone and may 2016 be both a healthy and good one to you all.

Our Association has had a very busy and successful year, and thanks must go to our Don Blanksby hard working committee who excelled in preparing both the Pompey Elliott Memorial Luncheon, the Lone Pine Project, Anzac Day and Remembrance day. We thank also the Keilor East RSL (Bill Laker, Gavin Comport and Leanne Parker for providing us with superb facilities for our meetings and social functions.

Also the great effort of the Higgins family in the planning and designing and construction of our new Banner and thanks also on the project to our historian Bob Prewett for his input on Army technicalities regarding banner compliance......

Our sincere thanks to the Moonee Valley City Council for assistance and advice at all events during the year, particularly in the conduct of the Lone Pine dedication

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The Annual “Pompey” luncheon was proudly supported by Penleigh Essendon Grammar where their staff and students again did a superlative job. Tony Larkin, Brigid Cooper and David Hall, thank-you from the bottom of our hearts.

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2016 will commence with our Annual Luncheon, which this year will be held for the first time at our new home at the Keilor East RSL where we are most fortunate to have Dr Robin Droogleever who is the President of The Anglo-Boer War study group of Australasia. Robin will be speaking on the 4th Victorian (Imperial) Bushmen.

This Unit was the most decorated Victorian unit that served in the Boer War. Our Leader Pompey Elliott served in this unit whilst gaining both his commission and DCM ( distinguished conduct medal )

OUR MOST IMPORTANT EVENT THIS YEAR WILL BE THE DEDICATION AND UNVEILING OF THE 58TH BATTALION WW1 MONUMENT ON SATURDAY THE 8TH OCTOBER 2016 IN QUEENS PARK.

This monument will list all the Battle Honours of the 58th Battalion. A Vietnam Story: John Haward June 1968 - March 1969 Supplied by www.susangordonbrown.com.au

We were out on operations in the jungle with the Infantry and their 2 forward scouts moved on. We heard 2 explosions and realised our claymore mines, stolen by the VC, had gone off. The first scout was blown apart, the second lost half his face and arm. He was screaming. My orders were to move in.... I could see a semi circular bunker system and they were firing at us. I started firing both the 30calibre and 50 calibre machine guns into the bunker, but they jammed. In the split second I stopped shooting, a Viet Cong soldier jumped out of the bunker. I did not see him. There had to be one on either side firing RPGs from only about 20 yards away. Tank Gunner First Armoured Regiment 1968-69 The first grenade blew up in front of me and I saw this big flash and got some shrapnel and oil in my face. The next one John Haward came through the side and hit my crew commander's seat and blew his legs away. The next round came through on the other side which took the loader's knee cap off. Our driver was There is another incident that I unconscious so we couldn't back off. The message went out to the Infantry that we had been hit. will never forget. I said to Len the crew Commander, “we have to get out” so he We surrounded this Viet Cong village. lifted himself on his elbows onto the turret and just rolled off. It was like it was deserted. Suddenly this little kid came running out. Jacko the loader, was going out his side …..and I climbed up. Through the interpreter he was told to Somehow I was able to roll off and we crawled underneath the STOP “ don't come any closer, or we will tank. We could see the Viet Cong trying to shoot us. Len had shoot you ” and they shot him. his head on my chest and said tell my wife I love her, I will He went boom ! The Viet Cong had him never see her again – and we said, don't be stupid. loaded up with explosives With that, the medics came up behind us and dragged us back and they were going to detonate him as into the clearing. Len survived his wounds. soon as he came to our lines. People say the Viet Cong were nice people,...... they weren't. For a long long time I could not get this out of my mind. I am ok now, but it does not go away. ! After I got out of hospital, I had some leave. So I went to see one of my mates Steve. We welcome Before I joined, I used to be at his house our Guest Speaker regularly – I was like one of the family. Dr. Robin Droogleever His father said Steve isn't in..... I said.... to our 2016 “'aren't you going to invite me in ?” Pompey Elliott He stood there for a minute and then the Luncheon. mother came out and said, “ Well John you are no longer welcome Robin will be speaking here. on the Boer War and We don't allow baby and women killers in will also have his book this house. entitled I never did set foot in my mates house Colonel Tom's Boys again. for sale on the day

Left: Front cover of COLONEL TOM'S BOYS – a must read !

58/32 Infantry Battalion Association Incorporated Invitation

Major General H. E.“Pompey” Elliott CB CMG DSO DCM 2016 Annual Reunion Memorial Service & Luncheon Date: 11th March 2016 Place: Keilor East RSL – Parking available Address: 12-22 Hoffmans Rd, Essendon Vic 3040

The Memorial Service will feature the participation of students from PENLEIGH ESSENDON GRAMMAR Plus our GUEST SPEAKER Dr. Robin Droogleever President : Anglo Boer War Study Group of Australasia who will speak on the 4th Victorian (Imperial) Bushmen in the Boer War [Learn how 'Pompey' Elliott won the Distinguished Conduct Medal during The South African War.]

Cost $55 per head Extra drinks at the bar at individual expense.

Assembly 11am sharp at the Keilor East RSL Cenotaph (directly opposite RSL) Medals to be worn, also private floral tributes welcome. At the conclusion of the service our Luncheon will commence with pre drinks, followed by our Guest Speaker (20 minutes duration) then lunch.

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL – NO PAYMENTS ON THE DAY R.S.V.P. 4th March 2016 Reply to Secretary: Ev Reynolds Ph: 9379 7482 Email: [email protected] Chqs: payable to 58/32 Infantry Battalion Association Incorporated. Mail to: 318 Pascoe Vale Rd, Essendon. 3040

Military old songs live with the Retro- Girls Prizes Military Display

Battalions Parade together for the first time since the 1950s

The Colours of 1RAR, 2RAR, and 3RAR are simultaneously marched off the parade ground during their 70th Anniversary Parade at Lavarack Barracks Townsville. The Power of the RAR is not in the machines it has, it is in the collective and in the individual soldier. I am sure all those on parade, and indeed the spectators, walked away with a sense of that power. General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor General of Australia. Historically the Colours were escorted into battle by a Colour Party, which was expected to fight to the death to defend the Colours. This tradition continues today. When Colours are retired from active use/laid up, they are preserved in a Church or Public Building. Colours are not restored, disposed of, or destroyed when their appearance has deteriorated beyond recognition: they are left to turn to dust like the bodies of the fallen soldiers who served them.

Our 58th/32nd Battalion Colours are laid up in the Mayoral Chambers in the Moonee Valley Civic Centre and you can see them on our Website or advertisement in this edition. ( page 9. ) Colours are the Spirit of a Regiment, for on them are borne the battle honours and badges granted to the unit in commemoration of gallant deeds performed by members of the unit from the time their unit was raised. Originally the Colour was the rallying point, where during noise and confusion of battle, it was the focal point of the Regiment. The Only Woman at Gallipoli Which of the 2 was it ?

Lover Gertrude Bell or Lady Doughty-Wylie

Ninety years ago, as Allied troops struggled to live through the bitter fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula, a lone woman made a visit to the peninsula. She stayed ashore for only an hour or two as she had arrived with a single task . The woman came to lay a single wreath. She walked from a single beach to a single lonely grave on a battle scared hill in the freezing cold and bitter winds and without speaking to anyone marched up to a grave, knelt for some time, then stood and placed a wreath on the wooden cross.

The woman’s visit to a war hero’s solitary grave was probably the only time a woman ever stepped ashore during the eight months of bitter fighting which cost more than 40,000 Allied lives.

That sad woman then walked back down to the beach and left on the same boat that had brought her to Gallipoli.

The grave was that of Colonel Doughty-Wylie, 46, from the Royal Welch Fusiliers who was awarded the Victoria Cross after he died April 26, 1915, after leading an attack on a Turkish position on Hill 161, after he saw the Australians being attacked on mass.

The news of the woman's visit soon found its way around Gallipoli and gave the soldiers a topic of conversation other than the war. '

Her identity was never discovered. "She may have been Doughty-Wylie’s wife, Lillian, who was nursing with the French Hospital service in France.

"Or, maybe she was Gertrude Bell, the English writer and historian, who was Doughty-Wylie’s lover."

supplied by Queensland RSL News from the book by John Howell

NOTICE BOARD 3 rd DIVISION FORMATION – 100 YEAR COMMEMORATION This service will take place on the weekend of 2nd/3rd July 2016. Most of us served in 3rd Division as part of our Military careers. (3rd Division is reported as being the longest serving Australian Army Division in history) In 1916 Sir John Monash assumed command of 3rd Division and footage has been found of his most famous parade on Salisbury plains when 27,000 members took over 2 hours to march past King George V prior to departing for the Western Front. Maj. Gen. Pompey Elliott himself commanded 3rd Division from 1927-1931. Our own 58th Battalion joined 3rd Div. in 1921. Let it not be forgotten, that our very own Patron and ex-Commanding Officer Maj. Gen. Kevin Cooke commanded 3rd Division in 1981. INTRODUCTION. Dear Reader—The following sketch of life in the trenches is a faithful account of a soldier’s life as it really is. Stripped of all gloss and glamour, the realities of war are truthfully portrayed; also the brighter and more human side of a soldier’s life, the chaff, the comradeship, the arguments, and running through all, the golden thread of love for our native land, the writer hopes that in this story you will find something to interest and amuse you and he will not have written in vain.

A Scorching hot day on the Peninsula, Seven or eight Australians are sitting together in a sap. The Turks’ trench is a bare fifty yards away. Every six or eight yards in our trench an observer stands, watching through his periscope for the slightest movement on the other side. The heat is intense, the trench is like an oven, and the perspiration runs off the men in streams. “Could you stop a long one now, Bill?” said the man on his right. Bill does not answer. Suddenly he stiffens, his trigger finger crooks, and he fires. "Got him, by hell!” he shouts. "Good boy, Bill!” said the man on the left, “I’ve missed the cow twenty times." “Yes,” said one of the crowd in the sap, “Missed him ! and well miss the Bally Derby and Cup and every other darn thing if we don’t soon get a move on.” “What do you fancy for the Cup, Jim,?” one man asks. “Why, Old Seldom, every time,”Jim replies. “Spare me days,” said another man, he hasn’t a hope. Why, I’ll give you five to one that he don’t get a place.” “It’s a wager,”says Jim; five to one, in quids.” “Right oh !” says the layer of odds, “and I’ll get a bit back of what I dropped on the cow at Caulfield. AUSTRALIA! A momentary silence falls on the group, as each one’s thoughts flash back to the land of their birth, and the loved ones at home; In that fragment of time, Crash! A 9-inch armour-piercing shell has come through 15 feet of solid earth and exploded amongst them. The vagaries of fortune, - the only ones uninjured are two brothers; all the rest are shattered and broken and Tom and poor Jim will never see either the Derby or Cup again, for they sleep, their last long sleep, on the wind-swept hills of Gallipoli. …...... …......

An Australian, in a bar, somewhere in France. Enter three or four Americans. They order beer all round and after a while say, “ Kid, this beer is considerably flat, ain’t it ?” "I suppose it is,” said Australia. “It's been waiting here 3 years for you to come and drink it. !

In a book by Anthony McAleer – Jim Baddeley recalls his great war. On February19th 1916, 17 yr old Jim Baddeley forged his mothers signature on his enlistment papers and joined the AIF underage. 76 years later at the age of 93, he sat down with Lilydale RSL's historian, to record his memories of his wartime experiences with the 58th Battalion on the Western Front. From the terrible winter of the Somme to the gas attacks at Ypres and the killing grounds of Villers-Bretonneaux, is a story of sacrifice, endurance, bravery and loss. An ordinary Australian who survived extra-ordinary times. FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT [email protected] 2015 Members who have passed this Year Bill Calder, Ray Landgren, John Leyden, John Martin, Graeme Missen, Doug Mulder, Fred Stratton Michael O'Callaghan, Peter Ryan, Stuart Young, Harry Young, Alan Macfarlane OAM. EM THEY SERVED THEIR QUEEN AND COUNTRY We also must offer our deepest condolences to our former President Ian Rainford who tragically lost his beloved daughter “Katheryn”

Our thanks to John Magill our Welfare officer who does a sterling job in stressful situations.

New Life Members: We are pleased to announce new Life Members, Bill Hocking and Val Young. New Members: Ian Wall, Gwen Calder, Kerryl Daniels, Morag Sinclair, Aileen Martin, Irene Landgren

Our thanks to Bill Shorten for We would like to thank Don Parsons, ACADEMY OF RUNNING President of the Lilydale RSL for his continued printing of this making us feel so welcome at late Professional Athletics Coach newsletter. It is much notice to the William Scurry International Standard appreciated and allows us to Dedication (front cover) where we Melbourne Suburbs continue to produce quality were privileged to meet William Scurry's Daughter and Family who News items Ph: 0412 945 111 are now on our newsletter listing

It is here ! Simply known as the 58th32nd.com.au Our Website is up and will grow over the next 3 months as we build it. articles, subjects, merchandise and latest news, are just some of the topics that we will host on our site. We also welcome input from members to assist with content. 58th32nd.com.au

As one of the most feared military commanders fighting throughout northern New York and New France during the Seven Years War, Major Robert Rogers is thought to be the father of Special Operations forces in North America.

Rogers grew up in an unforgiving environment surrounded by violence, retribution and a warrior’s code embedded in blood revenge. He was exposed to Indian raiding parties and served as a boy in the New Hampshire militia participating in armed combat during King George’s War from 1744 to 1748. With a marvellous sense of topography sharpened on the frontier settlements, Rogers ruthlessly applied his knowledge of bush warfare as a commando leader and exploited his fluency in French allowing him to question captured prisoners and use that knowledge to his immediate advantage. Rogers became a master of the lightning raid and a highly valued intelligence interpreter .

No likeness of Rogers survives today, but we can imagine that he – like his Rangers – was sleek, agile, tough, rugged and weathered while bearing the physical scars of close combat.

Yet, there is a tragic side to his personal story. Following the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years War, Rogers was left with a huge financial debt. Commanding officers at the time were responsible to pay, clothe and feed their troops; however, the British promised to compensate Rogers for his expenditures.

The British failed to honour their promise and Rogers’ reputation quickly diminished. A man of great energy and vision, he was unable to pull his life together and died in an English prison in 1795, a divorced and impoverished alcoholic. An extraordinary warrior, Rogers’ legacy survives into our time. This is worthy of his reputation owing to his record in battle and his authoritative observations on irregular warfare, which are the foundation of contemporary Special Forces soldiering.

Woody Woodpecker

A woodpecker’s head experiences decelerations of 1200gs as it drums on a tree at up to 22 times per second up to 11,000 times per day. Humans are often left concussed if they experience 80 to 100gs, so how the woodpecker avoids brain damage is amazing, but perfectly accounted for by evolution and natural selection. In reality, nature has created the perfect shock absorber, many times more efficient than our best attempts to create one. It may seem amazing how a small bird can withstand such gargantuan cranial trauma. What’s more, the force of a peck is equivalent to coming to a stop from 26,000 miles per hour - 11,000 times per day sometimes for 1 month until their nest is built. Trevor Donald Sinclair 27th January 1944 - 6th October 2015

It is with the utmost sadness that we publish the loss of our dearest friend Trevor Sinclair, who was a member of the MVCC Anzac Centenary Committee and who joined our Association. I met up with Trevor many years ago when he was a Councillor and Mayor. In recent times he joined our Association and became much liked by all with his genuine friendship and enthusiasm.

Trevor took on the Avenue of Honour project located on the Boulevard/Banks of the Maribyrnong which in turn became a dedication to members of the 58th/32nd Infantry Battalion. It is our hope and desire that this project will be completed in his honour. We will all miss you Trevor but your hard work to your citizens will never be forgotten. From Councillor to Mayor to Community bus driver, You led from the front and always placed your community before yourself. It was an honour to have worked with you.

R.I.P.