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Transcript of Oral History Recording TRANSCRIPT OF ORAL HISTORY RECORDING Accession number S00540 Title (TX993 (T255532)) Holmes, Geoffrey Lewis (Corporal) Interviewer Sprod, Michael Place made Montrose TAS Date made 9 March 1989 Description Geoffrey Lewis Holmes, Corporal 2/12th Battalion, interviewed by Michael Sprod for the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939–45 Discussing enlistment; 2/12 Battalion; army training; embarkation; shipboard activities; fighting in Middle East; return to Australia; service in New Guinea; action at Milne Bay; attitudes to Japanese. GEOFFREY HOLMES Page 2 of 34 Disclaimer The Australian War Memorial is not responsible either for the accuracy of matters discussed or opinions expressed by speakers, which are for the reader to judge. Transcript methodology Please note that the printed word can never fully convey all the meaning of speech, and may lead to misinterpretation. Readers concerned with the expressive elements of speech should refer to the audio record. It is strongly recommended that readers listen to the sound recording whilst reading the transcript, at least in part, or for critical sections. Readers of this transcript of interview should bear in mind that it is a verbatim transcript of the spoken word and reflects the informal conversational style that is inherent in oral records. Unless indicated, the names of places and people are as spoken, regardless of whether this is formally correct or not – e.g. ‘World War Two ’ (as spoken) would not be changed in transcription to ‘Second World War’ (the official conflict term). A few changes or additions may be made by the transcriber or proof-reader. Such changes are usually indicated by square brackets, thus: [ ] to clearly indicate a difference between the sound record and the transcript. Three dots (…) or a double dash (– –) indicate an unfinished sentence. Copyright Copyright in this transcript, and the sound recording from which it was made, is usually owned by the Australian War Memorial, often jointly with the donors. Any request to use of the transcript, outside the purposes of research and study, should be addressed to: Australian War Memorial GPO Box 345 CANBERRA ACT 2601 GEOFFREY HOLMES Page 3 of 34 TAPE 1 SIDE A Tape Identification: This interview is being recorded for the Australian War Memorial Sound Archive of the Second World War. This is interview number five concerning the 2/12th Battalion of the AIF. The recording was made at Montrose, near Hobart, on 9th March 1989. The interviewer is Michael Sprod, and I'm talking to Geoffrey Holmes, formerly a corporal in the 2/12th Battalion. Well, Mr Holmes, if we could begin with some of your personal details, about where you were born, and when, and your parents' occupations, and so forth. I was born in Burnie, according to the records on 2lst January 1921. My father was with the Hydro Electric Commission, and we came back, oh, before I can remember, to down south and we went to Broadmarsh. And my father was still with the Commission, but we had a farm and an orchard as well, in Broadmarsh. So that was my early life. I went to school at Broadmarsh State School for a start, and then I went to Clemes College in Hobart as a boarder. As a boarder? Yes. So, your father was reasonably well off, then? Oh, yes, he was ... well, our orchard was one of the biggest in the district, and of course he was a patrolman on the ... of the ... on the power lines. So we weren't ... We went through the depression, but I don't remember much about that, except that we had people working for us, clearing land and that sort of thing. That was about ... Was that government assisted? I don't know if it was government assisted or not, but I think they were clearing it for about five pounds an acre, in those days, which I suppose was quite a bit of money. But I would have been just ... oh, eight or ten, or something like that. Brothers and sisters? One sister. She's seven years younger than I am. Right. Still living. So she was quite young when war broke out? GEOFFREY HOLMES Page 4 of 34 Ah, she was at school when war broke out. And I've got a photo of her here somewhere – with me in my uniform, when I came home on my first leave from overseas – and she was at the Hobart High School at that particular time. She didn't go to Clemes? No. And then you ... What level did you reach at school? Intermediate. Did you get your Intermediate Certificate? Yes. And then went to work on your ... ? I went to work on my father's farm. Right. That would bring us to the beginning of l938. Now, would you say your family had any strong religious or political beliefs? Oh, they were ... we were a religious family. My ... I went to Sunday school with two other boys just near where we lived, because there wasn't a Sunday school in the district, being a country district. I ... when I came to town to school, I used to go to Hobart Holy Trinity. I belonged to the scout group at Holy Trinity. I was confirmed at Holy Trinity, and ... we were a religious family. But as far as politics were concerned, I never had any real ... one way or the other, politics. Your father? Ah, my father's belief in politics? Oh, I'm not too sure, really, what ... he was just a ... he didn't discuss politics. And your mother just helped on the farm? Oh, yes, but not ... you know, just ... as a housewife? Yes. Yes. The Clemes school, when was ...? That later joined with Friends, but it had no liaison with ...Clemes was at the top end of Argyle Street, as you'd know it now, and it was an offshoot originally from Friends, known earlier than that as Leslie House. In my day of course it was Clemes. GEOFFREY HOLMES Page 5 of 34 (5.00) Mmm. There was no Quaker influence? No. They were Quakers, the family were Quakers. But they did not have any bearing on going to school there. I used to go ... I used to attend the church at Augusta Road, Saint James. Church of England? Yes, yes. We used to go there with our master, every Sunday morning. All the boys used to go up from the school, to church. Now, there was no cadets, school cadets, at Clemes? Pardon? There were no cadets, school cadets? Military? Yes. No, no. Actually, we used to do ... take a lot of sport. I represented the school in every facet of sport, I think, except tennis. I didn't play tennis at all, not seriously. But I was in the rowing crew and I rowed in two head-of-the-rivers as a bowman. I suppose you know a bit about rowing, and that sort of thing? Ah, a little bit, yes. And football, cricket, athletics, to the cross-country we used to run over here, you know, we'd cross where there used to be in those days just swampy paddocks out across towards Moonah and back. Yes. Now, you'd left to go and work on your father's farm. Did you intend making that your career? I wasn't sure. I wasn't very keen on that sort of thing. I did go away for a short while on a holiday, down Huon, in 1939, just ... early 1939, went down there for a holiday and stayed and ... at Ranelagh factory. And I was a despatch clerk there, at the factory. And they used to ... they used to make pie apple and dried apple, and that sort of thing. It was my job to put the orders ready for shipment. But you came back to the farm? Well, I came back to the farm before I actually joined up. I only went down there on a holiday, and it was a working holiday in the end because I stayed with one of the owners of the factory. They were friends of the family. Yes. Now, at ... how aware were you of the situation in Europe at school, and then after school when you were ...? We were aware that things were happening over there. If you went to the pictures you saw the newsreels and you saw the German brownshirts and the different organisations they had, and GEOFFREY HOLMES Page 6 of 34 just ... you know, on the Fox Movietone News, they used to call it in those days. So we were aware of things were happening over there, but not to the extent we'd know how far it would go. It didn't look too good, but ... I remember the ... when the Italians went into ... oh ... Haile Selassie's ... where was it? Abyssinia. Abyssinia, yes. And so you had no real inkling that it would involve you? Well, not ... no, not really, no. But in ... towards ... oh, the middle of 1939, it looked a bit serious, and things were starting to happen and there was a lot of stuff in the newspapers and on the radio, and that sort of thing. So I was aware of it, yes, yes. Were you in the militia at all? No, no. Was there a military tradition in your family? Had you ever ... My father was ... served in the first l2th Battalion, he was an original, and in the landing in Gallipoli. So I suppose I could say that there was a bit of tradition, really – unknown to me, because I was ..
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