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Australia

Nev enlisted on 4/12/1941 aged 20, at Randwick Racecourse and was in the army for just over five years until he demobilised on 29 December 1945 with final discharge processed on 11 February 1946. His Army number was NX194120 and his enlistment number was N275961.

In March 1942 he was a private in the Heavy Artillery Anti Aircraft Training Regiment, passing Rifle and Bren gun courses with 1st class passes and was issued with two rifles. While in training kept an occasional diary. On 21 May 1942 he records that he ‘got one stripe!’ and became a Lance Bombardier. The following Saturday he records that they ‘marched from Canterbury Racecourse to Milperra Aerodrome!’

On 8 July 1942 he wrote that he ‘got his second stripe’ and was a full bombardier at the level of corporal worth 10 shillings a day.

He was based at Georges Heights Army Camp near Mosman. He described to us how petrified he felt when after the Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour, they were ordered to sit in the dark near the Middle Head military fortifications near Clifton Gardens with a rifle with no ammunition and only a bayonet attached in case of a Japanese landing. Despite this, on September 1942, based at Georges Heights near Mosman, he wrote about how happy he was in the army. This is no surprise – for the first time in his life he had a fixed income and after the deaths of both parents and worries and financial worries and responsibility of his teenage years, this was a relief.

He wrote:
At this present moment whilst in my 9th month at George’s Heights, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. I really mean it too. I have no worries. I have all my instruments and thanks be to God, I can play them. I have a slashing band, 2 stripes, a bonser lot of officers… My sister is happy which helps me to be... She is a VAC and looks lovely… right on the harbor and lovely views, only half an hour from town...Neither have I any lawns - whacko! I’m glad we sold the house – I am the healthiest I have ever been (plenty of swims) . Have no worries, plenty of leave – each weekend – nice dances at the Coronet …I have my bed and sheets in camp in the cottages sleeping next to my best mate Al and have my Gas Chamber, my 2 gas rooms for stores etc... and am head air raid warden for the camp. Ray Floyd my other cobber is QM for the camp. I play the bagpipes occasionally and everyone here knows me and likes me (I hope). I am very happy, happier than I ever was and am sure I could not be (more) contented as I am - I am very happy and love everybody but I owe all this state of well being to only one person God to whom give all thanks.

The next entry is December that year when he writes that he has a ‘bonzer band’ in which he is paying tenor sax along with piano, drums, 1st and 2nd Alto sax, trumpet trombone and two fiddles. He also writes that he just finished exams Gun, Predictor and Heightfinder School and that he came 3rd. He wrote on Friday 4th December 1942 that he had been in the army 1 year.

By 1943 he had his third stripe having become a sergeant. Formally he was also in the Army Brass Band and the Bugle Band at Greta. Informally he helped to form the 1st Australia Heavy AA Artillery Training Regiment Dance Band as an extra activity in their down time. Nev saved a lot of small adverts and tickets for the band including one for an American Red Cross Concert with the location described as “Somewhere in Australia”I
In mid 1944 he learned he was to be posted to New Guinea. In July 1944, a review of a concert held in Greta and conducted by Nev, states: The only sad note was that Sgt Thomas, trombonist Allan Mellor and violinist Cliff Gibbs were playing their last time here…Now their destination is military information…

Nev was in New Guinea from 19 October 1944 to March 1945. Here in the jungle, he would pick up skin rashes and gut infections that would plague him his whole life. In his diary he describes the departure, how he got his sax aboard and his feelings leaving Australia for a war zone:

Extracts:
On Sept 21st Thursday I received the drum that we were off as the ‘SS Taroona’ was in the harbor. Yes it was right at 0730 hours that we were notified that we were to move at 0815. Big panic and I succeeded in packing my gear in time also sending a telegram to Pat, Elsie, Ian and Des. So with my sax plus all gear issued to one going forth to fight in the tropics (ahem) I boarded the train and thereby proceeded on the first stage of my journey. What impressed me most of all was how unconcerned everyone appeared to be. Here was a man going good ness knows where and people would give a casual glance and wave almost nonchalantly. It was indeed most depressing. …“There it is” some bright youth screamed out and I looked together with 300 odd more lads in green and espied a tall mast belonging presumably to the ship that was to take us to the war. My heart jumped hit my mouth and straight away descended to my boots. Bang! We were all given numbers, chalked to the peak of our felt slouch hat and so like a lot of animals we were herded to lone, a few bright nits gave forth Baas and Moos but I couldn’t even raise a laugh this looked serious. Here I was leaving Aussie and I didn’t feel like laughing. At least I had my sax and carried to play with so things weren’t so bad after all. How I ever managed my gear sea kit, rifle etc plus sax I don’t know …At last my turn came to board the gangplank. I called my name to the whiskered gent who was on the dock. He looked so happy (I afterwards found out he wasn’t coming) He ticked it off and another bloke with a few pips said ‘Thomas’ . I nodded and up I went sax and all...I went to my cabin…I parked the old horn under the mattress. The cabin is built for two but now to accommodate three. We were all buddies, blokes one never saw before but now literally in the same boat.

He describes their arrival at Milne Bay prior to disembarking in Lae:
I can’t get over how calm and peaceful it all is. Tranquility reigns supreme indeed Here it is Sunday morning and I am sailing through the China Straits at a steady 18 knots. With tropical islands everywhere around. It is really nice and the dark foreboding thought of was is far from our minds as we watch the islands trickle past… we began the stretch or our first port of call Milne Bay. The boat seemed to spurt ahead… As we approached … the horrible thought dawned upon me that this was New Guinea… A murmur went around the ship and then came forth curses and damnations at the sight of this foreboding looking country. We arrived in the bay, Milne Bay at 1730 hours, it certainly was all its cracked up to be – horrible. I shall never forget it…The mountains just loomed straight up to the sky and low hanging mist hung loosely about it all… It began to drizzle but dried as soon as it hit one’s shirt, My hair was beginning to stand on end cos this place forebode evil. It looked and was evil. A place where one felt one could die.

He describes here going ashore in Lae:
The harbor is alive with shipping, all Liberty vessels. Huge derricks and cranes are unloading immense equipment trucks, jeeps and Blitzes. Little ferries and boats of all sizes and descriptions are plying back and forth. Some are driven by boongs…Right at the water’s edge is an airstrip and the sky is full of planes – Douglas B38s, Thunderbolts, Black Widows, Boomerangs....In the foreground is the wreck of a Japanese cruiser sunk at its moorings with its bow sticking well out… our names are called and we passed down the plan onto a strange looking boat. 25 on board. Hey look out driver - we shall hit the shore. Lookout! Hell the boys all stood up and we said our praters – Here was this coon a Yank corporal going to crash us into the bank. We held on and amidst a curious throttling noise from the engines we found ourselves being lifted from the sea and proceeding to climb the bank and run on the land. Well words failed me. Here we were one minute on the sea and the next in the land…I had realized that this was a duck.

Lae had been a Japanese military base that had recaptured by Australian and US forces in 1943. Lae then became a crucial Allied base from which to launch a further offensives towards the defeat of Japan as part of the great Allied counter-offensives spanning Asia and the Pacific, from Burma to the Central and North Pacific. It was protected by units such as Heavy AA Artillery which was Nev’s unit.
At Lae, he writes:I began to hate them (the guns) more every day I’d seen those blasted guns for two years now and knew every bolt… boy did my ears ring. However within a month of arriving in Lae an opportunity arose in the Etertainment Unit show called Tanks a Million.. He had seen this show on the ship over. He records the event in his diary on 17th October: Around I come, horn and all… anyway I thought no hide no Xmas loot and round I come and said “I have my sax here and would like you to hear me: He said OK ( a bit amazed) and I sat in with the boys on a jam. Two days later I joined Tanks a Million… Boy am I happy…I said good bye to my mates and came here…I had to revert to a private but I don’t mind... I’d be happy to pay the Army.

The transfer to the Australian Entertainment Unit was arranged but required him dropping his 3 stripes and return to the rank of Private. He also learnt that the Unit is due to return to Australia the following Easter when they will rehearse at Pagewood in Sydney and he can live at home. The transfer is referred to on his army driver’s licence: In his diary he describes how happy he is to have gotten the transfer and the new routine:
It’s a golden opportunity and I’m very grateful on hearing the news of my transfer. I went around straight behind a gun and on my knees offered up my prayers of thanksgiving to God for what he had done…we did six shoes a week. Up at 6 – put up curtains (me being a curtain team) all day then back, wash, then do the show and pull it all down after the show, then the same next day. It’s no bludge but I like it and I can play my horn even if I can't squeeze in practice I can still play which means everything to me. I have a 3 ton truck and it has the portable stage on it... I have a good bed and am the happiest I have ever been at last after 3 years of uncertainty. I know what’s happening and can see the future not only till the war lasts but right away ahead. I feel I am just starting learning bits each day each little a;; helps in my musical education and life experience. And so November passes doing shows here shows there and still more shows.

In February 1945 he was offered spare seat in a RAAF flight from Lae to Madang and is so impressed by his first flight and the time saved by flying – he comments: ‘We were in the air for about 3 hours – about 350 to 400 miles in only a morning. It’s hard to believe. We could be in Townsville I 5 hours!!! And Sydney in 2 days.’

By the end of 1944 the war in the Pacific was successfully pushing Japan back. The Battle of Iwo Jima was in February 1945 and in late 1944 and early 1945, offensives were launched into Burma. The Entertainment Unit was to be sent home at Easter as planned. He was one of 8 soldiers selected to travel with the trucks all the way to Sydney rather than by train from Townsville. Photos shows his truck waiting to and being loaded on board the ship to take them home. His diary describes the last days packing up and waiting and finally the news that he is placed on a ship - his voyage home on board the Clarence River a Merchant Navy shop with RAN gunners and his joy at seeing Australia again:
Rumours are flying fast that we may be going home…Oh Boy Oh Boy Home!!!...Yes heard today that things are pretty close – only waiting ok from movement control. We went round and saw the ship the ‘Clarence River’ a Liberty ship crewed by Aussies.You beaut. My trunk was loaded today…Thank goodness I’m going back with the trucks straight to Sydney – the others will go via Townsville and I’ll miss out in the horrible train trip. Whoopee!! … I can’t wipe the grin off my face at the thought of coming home... I just couldn't get rid of the smile as I drove through Le for the last time. Our trucks were hoisted aboard. … Only 8 soldiers in the whole boat and we’ll live with the crew. We left New Guinea at 2.45 and I stood and watched it slip away from me for an hour while the activities I had done flashed through my mind. The last of New Guinea. That horrible evil looking pace and as we steamed out of Huon Gulf I thanked God as I had never thanked him before…I still cant realise even yet that we are on our way home – home!!! I wouldn't have missed it for the world – It’s been an education and a half.

He continues:
We are zigzagging our course all the time – every nine minutes. You see it takes a sub ten to line up a torpedo so we change our course every nine… Our crew are all merchant navy but the gunners RAN…our course took us directly out under New Britain and we were minutes from Rabaul, only 6 minutes flying time for a Zero. No wonder they were so careful about not showing alight.

We sighted land today. Oh boy@! Everyone went tearing to the side like kids. Australia! Good Old Aussie. As it came nearer we could distinguish beaut beaches and hills and clouds that were above the mountains not under them…woke at 3am went on deck level with Coffs Harbor. 10am Port Macquarie.

Sat 17th
We tied up at No 4 Darling Harbour… Home at last – words cannot describe what a feeling it is when I think of what could have happened. I shudder and I thank God with all my heart for bringing me safely back home.

He landed in Sydney on Saturday 17th March 1945.

He would have been responsible for the delivery of the trucks and equipment on board once home and resumed rehearsals with the Entertainment Unit once they had all arrived but who knows what his next duties would have been had the war not ended a few months later.

Demobilisation was a complicated business. General demobilisation was conducted in four stages. The first stage which included Dad, ran from October 1945 to January 1946 and involved the discharge of 249,159 personnel.   Where possible, service men and women were placed on leave and allowed to return home while awaiting discharge. They could also work with permission. This is what happened to Nev. With much of his pay while in New Guinea intact, he was on leave from August to October and then from November to December with only 4 of those days on pay. It was a lengthy process as all his medical checks show. Nev still had 60 days leave accrued while overseas, paid as a lump sum and was granted a special leave petrol allowance. His discharge documents state that he was approved to wear ribbons of 1939/45 and the Pacific Star.

In 2009 Nev’s family donated some of his war memorabilia to the Australian War Memorial. Items that they asked to place into their collection include some of those shown above such as his Record of Service Book and Demobilisation Book as well as his Army Driving Licence as well as his two war diaries – one outlining the trip to New Guinea and the other the trip home some photos plus some Vietnam War memorabilia where he toured three times with ABC Concert Parties.