Thanks Keith, Dad was with 7th Battalion Signals as a Don R. They were rushed up to the Northern Territory after the Japs bombed Darwin but Dad had too close a look at the back of a 1/2 Ton Dodge command car that overtook him on a dirt road then stopped on the road in the cloud of dust it was throwing up. He still suffers from his injuries to this day.
His memory is still sharp. He clearly recalls travelling south on a stripped out B25 Mitchell that the Americans were using on the milk run, he lost his breakfast on the flight.
When he sufficiently recovered from his injuries he was manpowered into essential work and was a welder helping to build those 6'x6'x6' pontoons with checker plate on one side that were used among other things to build floating jetties. The place also built unpowered steel hulled watercraft called 'lighters'.
Dad's name is on a memorial to those who served in the forces that is in a park just outside his back fence where he lives in Mildura. He still sees his few remaining service friends at the RSL regularly and attends the ANZAC Day ceremonies each year. This year he attended even though he had spent a sleepless night in hospital under observation due to a bad fall the day before, he's 91. I really don't think they make them like that any more.
David
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