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Saunders: Aboriginal Warrior and Australian Soldier

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Saunders: Aboriginal Warrior and Australian Soldier CAPTAIN REG SAUNDERS, MBE: AN ABORIGINAL WARRIOR AND AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER Peter J. Grimshaw, MBE A wooden shack facing Bunyip Lane in the Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve, adjacent to Lake Condah in Victoria, was the birthplace of Reginald Walter Saunders. Assisting at the birth was his Aunt Mary, Lionel Rose's great-grandmother. Little did she realise at the time that she was bringing into the world an Aboriginal warrior who would be the first of his race to become a commissioned officer. Those who served under him in Korea expressed openly the view that he was 'the best officer in the world'.1 What made Saunders so unique? Gordon suggests he was a misfit,2 and when his upbringing and military service is examined such a description is not without some justification. If his Aboriginality set him apart from others how lucky Australia and the Australian Army were to have such a 'misfit'. Reg's father, Chris Saunders, contributed significantly to his son's upbringing. After leaving school, where he had been captain of the cricket and football teams, had won the long-jump championship and had had his name inscribed on the Honour Roll, Chris worked for a travelling circus. His ability as a footballer and runner soon enabled him to join the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football Association. Just prior to the First World War he began coaching a Western District team.3 He enlisted in the First AIF and served as a machine-gunner in the Third Division. On returning from the First World War Chris returned to Lake Condah and married a 'full blood' Aboriginal girl of the Wannan tribe. Reg was born on 7 August 1920 at the time his father was working as a ganger on the Mount Gambier rail line. A brother, Harry, was born two years later. In 1924, when their mother was giving birth to a baby girl, she died of pneumonia and the baby girl died a few days later.4 It was Chris Saunders who taught Reg and Harry how to recite the Lord's Prayer before they went to bed; which tree to select for posts, palings or rails; what wild bee-hives to rob and how to hunt.5 Completing his merit certificate (grade eight) in 1934, Reg left school and began working at a saw mill. Following in his father's footsteps he played Australian Rules football for the Western District Junior League, where he was promptly given the nickname of 'Snowy'. He continued to hunt, play football and, as a consequence of the centenary of Portland (Victoria) in 1934, was exposed to a visiting boxing troupe. Boxing provided Reg with the kind of excitement he loved; it also would prove to be an important attribute for his future army career. The bush-fires which swept south-eastern Australia in mid-January 1939 were to affect the Saunders family. The fire of 13 January 1939 galvanised Reg and his co-workers in the timber-mill community into frantic action: building firebreaks around their homes and fighting the fires with hessian bags soaked in water. A fire of a different kind was smouldering in Europe and Reg, like many fellow-Australians, would be called on to help extinguish the flames ignited by a fascist dictator. 1 Gordon 1962:14. 2 Ibid.: 13 3 Ibid. :36. 4 Ibid. :3 2. 5 Ibid. :3 5. 85 ABORIGINAL HISTORY 1992 16:1 Plate 1. Pamela Thalben-Ball, Captain Reg Saunders, 1978 (AWM, oil on canvas, 76.4 x 61.6 cm, 28159). 86 SAUNDERS: ABORIGINAL WARRIOR AND AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER Top: Captain Reg Saunders, MBE. Bottom: Reg Saunders receiving his commission from Lieutenant-General Sir John Northcott at the OCTU graduation ceremony, Seymour, Victoria, on 25 November, 1944. 87 ABORIGINAL HISTORY 1992 16:1 It was the bush-fire of early 1939 which encouraged Chris Saunders and his two sons, Reg and Harry, to establish their own timber contract business. They worked throughout the district lopping stringybarks and splitting posts. Despite a lucrative contract at Oakbank, Reg announced he had decided to enlist in the army. Some months earlier he had applied to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for acceptance as an aircrew trainee. Not having heard from the RAAF, Reg decided to enlist in the army and proceeded to the recruitment office at Portland in April 1940. Army life appealed to Reg Saunders. At the training camp established at the Caulfield racecourse he attended every course that was being offered, including NCO courses in leadership and instruction techniques. As he had demonstrated when a youth, he applied himself with dedication and enthusiasm. He enjoyed the drill, weapon training, field firing and the night marches.6 Six weeks after enlisting he was made a lance corporal and three months later was promoted to the rank of sergeant. In September 1940 Reg sailed for Palestine as a reinforcement for the 2/7th Battalion, 17th Brigade, Australian Sixth Division. His initial period in Palestine was spent at the small village of Beit-Jirja with the 17th Infantry Training Brigade. It was at this village that the legend which was subsequently to surround Reg Saunders began. The military police had arrested an Australian soldier in Jerusalem who, in addition to being AWOL, was boisterous and rowdy. Until he could be transferred to a military prison he was confined to the small guard house at Beit-Jirja. Reg Saunders was the sergeant of the guard and when the prisoner noticed the sergeant was Aboriginal he became more beligerent and offensive in his description of Saunders. Gordon has provided a graphic account of the events which unfolded: ... the adjutant, Captain Quentin Tilley, reported to his commanding officer, Major Henry Guinn, with a fine, ringing phrase that deserves to go down in military history: 'There's a bit of a blue in the clink, sir'. And he added: 'I think you'd better come over straight away'. The pair arrived back just in time to watch Saunders opening the door of Sharp’s cell, with the observation: 'You need a wash, mate. Come and I'll take you over to the tap’. Replied the prisoner: 'Don't call me mate, blackfeller. You're not taking me anywhere'. Sergeant Saunders, who had kept his temper fairly well, insisted: 'I'm ordering you out of that cell. You're coming out for a wash’. ’And I’m telling you1, said the prisoner, ’that I don’t take orders from any black bastard’. At the door of the cell, Saunders wordlessly began to unhitch his rifle. He laid it down on the floor, then took off the bayonet at his belt, and laid it beside the rifle. Then he unbuttoned the tunic on which were stitched his three stripes. ’Listen, mate’, he said, when he had finally stripped to the waist. ’I'm going to show you once and for all what a black bastard can do to a white bastard'. For maybe five minutes it was a good brawl. Sharp, a year or two older than the Aboriginal, had some experience as a street-fighter - and he hooked, slashed, elbowed, jolted and even kicked with some effect. He lacked the fitness of Saunders, though, and the Aboriginal had learned the right way to 6 Ibid. :45. 88 SAUNDERS: ABORIGINAL WARRIOR AND AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER throw his punches in odd fights against touring side-show troupes in the Victorian bush. He feinted and weaved, and stabbed home punishing left thrusts and vicious rips that opened up Sharp's lip and blackened one of his eyes. The white man went down twice before he jellied into a heap in a comer of the cell, refusing to get up any more. Chest heaving and nose bleeding a little, Saunders put on his tunic and other gear again, then dragged the prisoner by the feet out of the building to a tap nearby. He washed him down, and half-carried him back to his cell.7 What became legend, vividly recounted at Anzac Day reunions, is this story of a black sergeant who took off his stripes to whip a white, insubordinate private. The legend was to grow throughout Saunders’ army career. The 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/8th, which made up the 17th Brigade of the Australian Sixth Division, experienced their first combat action against the Italians who had established fixed positions on the outskirts of Bardia. Each Italian outpost was progressively 'neutralised' by the Australians firing Bren-guns and rifles and lobbing grenades. The problem for the Australians was how to cope with the mass of Italians who surrendered. After Bardia was captured Saunders joined the 2/7th as a reinforcement. The desert campaign saw the 17th Brigade occupy the towns of Derna, Martuba, Giovanni Berta, Wadi Derna, Barce, Benghazi, Mersa Brega and Agedabia. The desert was to Saunders an alien land, as he had been raised in the Western District of Victoria. When he arrived in Derna and noted the lush gardens and the neat colonial settlement he felt pangs of homesickness. After Benghazi the Australian Ninth Division relieved the Sixth Division and the 2/7th returned to Amariya via Derna, Tobruk, Bardia, Solium, Sidi Barrani and Mersa Matruh. On 9 April 1941 Saunders' Battalion embarked on the S.S.Cameronia at Alexandria a few miles from Amariya and four days later disembarked at Athens. The battalion spent the night at a camp in Daphnis and next day entrained for the front. During the two days Saunders spent on the train he marvelled at the beauty of the countryside through which they travelled, noting the fertile valleys, the numerous hamlets and the farmers toiling in their fields.
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