Commando News Edition 17 Dec2019

landing was accomplished with little opposition from
the foe, though our own Water Transport emulated the
Navy at Gallipoli by under-estimating the strength of
the current and landing us in the wrong place.
HQ turned out to be as risky as the forward section,
for the Nips, who knew the area well, carried out a
number of night raids, causing casualties. Our
precaution against this was to double the listening
posts and to set our own booby-traps outside our
perimeter. This was a task usually performed by a
section-member other than a sig, so when detailed to
set the traps, Dolly was unsure of the procedure.
Another sig, an experienced NCO who had served in
the Middle East with the Regiment, offered to instruct
him – and then occurred an incident which had a
lifelong effect mon Dolly.
The booby traps consisted of grenades, placed
inside empty bully-beef tins and suspended at about
ankle height, attached to a trip-wire. The safety pin was
removed from the grenade, thus releasing the sprung
lever which activated the detonator. The trap-setter,
however, had to hold the lever in place with one hand,
and slip the grenade into the tin, which was just the
right size to hold the lever in place. While in the tin, it
was safe . Doug Blom, a most delightful fellow, who
had performed the operation many times, somehow
managed to drop the grenade after removing the pin.
The 4 second fuse did not allow him to escape and he
suffered wounds from which he died a few days later.
Dolly was fortunately unharmed – physically. There -
after, he -quite needlessly – blamed himself for Doug’s
death. Nobody else, including Doug, attached the
slightest blame to Dolly, but he carried that
undeserved feeling of guilt all his life.
From then on, things could only get better. After
being relieved from the Dove Bay area, 2/9 Squadron
was lucky and had no further direct contact with the
foe, unlike 2/7 and 2/10 Squadrons. 10 Squadron in
particular, suffered a number of casualties in the last
few weeks of hostilities. The Japanese 18th Army
eventually realised that the war was over and formally
surrendered on 13.9.945. Dolly and I were both in the
Regimental Guard of Honour that witnessed the
handing over of the Japanese Commander’s sword to
our “Red Robbie” in an impressive ceremony on an
airstrip at Cape Wom, near Wewak.
Dolly was duly repatriated and, many months after
war’s end, discharged. His brief formal education had
left him with few of the skills necessary for civilian life,
but he sensibly returned to agriculture.There were no
Soldier Settler’s wheat blocks available, but he took out
a War Service loan and went into partnership with his
father and brother and after much very hard work:
swinging an axe, clearing virgin scrub and learning the
finer points of agriculture, he became a skilful and
efficient farmer, whose skills were utilised by the UN to
teach new methods to primitive farmers in North
Africa.
Our paths next crossed in the 21st Century when I
saw his name among the list of apologies for a
ceremony at the AWM, Canberra. I found his address,
made contact, and suggested that he honour the
Eastern States with his presence on Anzac Day. He and
Shirley made the trip – I think that was about 2010 –
and Dolly, Reg Davis and I marched together in Sydney.
Thereafter he was a regular attender at either Sydney
or Melbourne on Anzac Day, and was a great host to
Kathie and me when we visited Perth in 2017, linking
me up with Ben Mundy, ex 2/9 and 2/7 Squadrons –
and ex-10th Light Horse – as were many of the 1944
input to the Regiment. He wowed us all at our
Regimental lunch in Sydney with film footage of his
90th Birthday celebrations: jumping from an aeroplane
and sky-diving like a dinki-di paratrooper.
He impressed us, too, with his constant globetrotting,
especially when he had been selected by DVA
to attend the ceremony in PNG for the 70th anniversary
of the Japanese surrender. He had a slight stroke just
before he was due to leave and DVA, playing safe,
refused to take him. So what does Trooper Dolton do?
He recruits his son as a carer and pays his own way to
New Guinea, witnessing the ceremony at the very spot
where he witnessed the actual surrender on 13.9.45!
And then he follows the official party as a kind of
honorary member. Stroke? What stroke?
We will miss him on Thursday – but what a great
idea to hold the funeral on Anzac Eve! He would have
cracked some wry joke about it if he’d known – or did
he plan it this way?
A good mate of mine, no longer with us, was that
great Western Australian ex-commando and man of
letters, Tom Hungerford. 2/8 Squadron. His poem,
Anzac Day, after describing a typical 1950s reunion,
and the jeep-loads of WW1 Old Diggers leading the
march, concludes, in the imagined words of one of his
mates:
That’s us in a few years! Medals and ribbons,
Hair brushed, bums wiped, shoes shined, our teeth
in,
“Wheeled out once a year for the Anzac Day
shindig,
And then carted home.”
That was never going to suit Trooper Dolton G.L;
WX28219. He did it his way. In Sydney tomorrow
[Anzac Day] the children, grandchildren and widows of
former members, lunching together – about 30 of them
– will drink to the memory of those two great old
Signallers, Graham (“Dolly”) Dolton and Reg Davis.
Through the mud, through the blood, to the green
fields beyond.”
This indeed we did, for Dolly and Reg (see
Commando News 15) were very popular with both
their few surviving contemporaries and the younger
generation which has supported us in recent years.
COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 17 I 2019 69