Newsletter 111998 May 1998 With the Signals in Japan 1949 P. Trost [That which follows is not about life at Duntroon, but it country. This was the time of the Sergeant Gombo' affair. does throw a light on an era that played a critical part in honing Our concerns were not alleviated by noticing that our taxi the training given at the RMC and in adding some elements driver had an enormous .45 automatic tucked into his hip that could not be taught in that institution. Under experienced pocket. But then we noticed that gun toting seemed to be a commanding officers and senior NCOs, most members of five way of life with the locals. RMC Classes developed and matured in a regimental setting After one of us made a tremendous fuss about the that no longer exists. Life revolved around their units and their layout of his bedroom and the lack of a mosquito net, we soldiers with more than enough attractions outside of the unit headed for the bar to see what we could get for the $US10 that guard-house to leaven the usual routine. This article was a government starved of US dollars allowed us to take out of written for the author's RMC Class but could be of interest to a Australia. Anyway, it would have bought less than four wider readership. Ed.] drinks, soft or hard! Fortunately, some of us met an Australian businessman with a very healthy expense account. He After 33 days of post-graduation leave, we five brand introduced us to Old Parr Scotch whiskey and took us out on new members of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals were the town - and how! I recall four clubs and the largest dance sent to the School of Signals at Balcombe, Victoria for our hall in the world (?). This tour lasted just long enough for us to Corps training. Balcombe was a war-time camp made of return and book out of our rooms at the hotel next morning. various sized galvanized iron huts set on the side of a slope amid Our Classmate never did get the chance to test the efficacy of sand and some bitumen. However, it was not too far from his mosquito net. Melbourne by bus and train and was close to the Mt Martha beach. At the School we were told all about super heterodyne The memory of the final leg to Iwakuni is non existent - we just died. However we were pretty fit by the time we receivers, line repeaters and amplifiers and other things arrived at the BCOF Signals Regiment next morning. technical. Incidentally, it seems that one of us was determined to be the About mid-March 1949 we were given a few days first of our Class to set foot in Japan. He was certainly first out leave and packed off to the transit camp at Marrickville - of the plane, but the ground staff had not finished putting the meeting classmates from other Corps who were also British steps up to the door. It is an academic question as to whether it Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) bound. The was his foot or some other part of his body that had first method then in vogue at Marrickville of combining all the contact with the soil of Japan. 'shots' that we had to receive into one needle had an immediate and disastrous effect on some of our members - I must record two sights that I have never forgotten - instantaneous passing out! they helped me understand something of the Japanese After that, and with nine others, we were packed into a mentality of a certain level of workers at that time. The first is Lancastrian - a converted Lancaster bomber piloted by two ex- of the Kure fire station and the ramshackle engine emerging RAAF types, and operated by the then Qantas Empire Airways from the building on its way to fight a blaze. One fireman had in conjunction with British Overseas Airways Corporation. the task of cranking the hand siren to warn all of their The use of the word 'converted' should not be taken too approach. He was applying himself lustily to this task when literally. There were seven bucket seats on each side of the the engine reached the gutter and stalled. The driver could not fuselage, 504 gallons of fuel under the floor (so no smoking), a restart it so, with some helpers from the station, he began to switch on the forward bulkhead that said 'hot' and 'cold' (our work on it under the bonnet. What of our siren friend? Well, cabin temperature control) and a table on which was a coffee he had obviously been told that his job was to wind the handle urn and a pile of sandwiches (our in-flight service). The first and mind his own business. So, while the mechanics were at leg, to Darwin, was overnight and something went wrong with work, there he was, cranking the siren. The second concerns the heating and the coffee urn. Whoever was in the front seat the ancient tramline that joined Hiro and Kure. Here was woke up with his feet frozen in spilt coffee. evidenced some early Japanese quality control. An employee We must have taken to the air after our breakfast at the had been given the task of walking along the track to check RAAF Mess, because I think that we arrived in Manila in late that any buckling was not too serious. To assist him, his afternoon and were taken to the elite Manila Hotel. I superiors had given him a metal rod. At either end of the rod remember the sign about depositing your guns with the was a shorter piece of metal at right angles to the main piece. cashier! There was also a sign warning guests that the wearing The distance between the tips of these two short extensions of spiked shoes was prohibited (If you can't shoot them, you can't kick them either?). The most omlnous sign however, was I Sergeant Gombo had been in the Philippines Army and he applied to a huge banner at the airport that said, Aussies, ~OLLare ermgrate to Australia. The 'White Australia' policy then in vogue led to welcome here even though we are not welco~ne in your him being denied entry and his case attracted much publicity. Lefr - on arrival at Itvakuni ai@eld in April 1949 and about to take theirfirst look at Japan. R.WO. (Roy)Pugh (RAE). K.J. (Ken)Hill and P. (Par) Trost. Right - the author on duty as Signals Regi~izentOrderly OfJicer with loaded revolver as carried after Retreat. was obviously the correct distance between the two rails - Mention of WLKS reminds me that not only did we because every ten or so paces he inserted the tips into the accommodate the radio station OC. but also the C of E Padre - tracks. However, when there was a mismatch, 1 saw him bend a wonderful man by the name of Laing. He had a regular 07 15 the long piece over his knee and then check again. If it now spot on WLKS - live to air. Frequently, however. he would fitted, with a nod of and an, Ah so, he proceeded to the next still be chatting to others of us in the bathroom minutes after check point - his job satisfactorily done! 0700. We delighted in tuning in at 0715 to see if he made it or not. He always did, although we would often hear heavy Back at the unit we were given the equivalent of troop breathing getting louder and louder as he sprinted into the commander jobs. Three of us would be on shift as Duty studio during his introduction. Signals Officers, while the other two would be employed in the One final recollection. It may well be that Lieutenant automatic telephone exchange or with one of the maintenance K.J. (Ken) Hill (1948) was the first in the Class to fire a shot in troops. We found that our Diggers were War of 1939-45 types, anger! As Duty Officer one night, he was alerted to there being usually much older than ourselves. I ttunk that I grew a intruders in the area. One broke from the buildings and started moustache to try to make myself look a little older! However, to dash across the parade ground. Ken grabbed a ,303 rifle we played a lot of sport with them, among other things, and a good feeling of mutual respect was soon established. The unit from one of the guard, called on the intruder (a Japanese) to halt and, when he was ignored, loosed off a round. Fortunately esprit de corps was really good and lasts to the present day - he missed! noticeably at reunions - irrespective of rank. A great perk that On 3 October 1949, we left Kure by Army Engineer was soon introduced was a tour in Tokyo with the Ebisu workboat and crossed the Inland Sea to Iwakuni once again - detachment. Here I met some of our Classmates with the Duty Company of 67 Aust Inf Bn. Weekends down at Kawana were accompanied by Noritake dinner sets, Samurai swords, aluminium trunks from the Ginza, ornaments, trays, even a a wonderful lurk as was the entrek into the Yokohama PX. Being a two-pip lieutenant helped sometimes, as even carved room screen and many other mementoes of our time in Macarthur's Honor Guard at the Dai Itchi building would Japan. We were bound for the School of Military Engineering at Casula for a concentrated couple of month's work on maths respectfully turn out for a youthful two-star general.