Commando Magazine edition 3 2020

Troop, 2/9 Cdo Sqn when Pat Keating went home with
the 5 X 2 troops (those who had served for at least 5
years, including at least 2 years overseas.) I got to know
him well, especially when we finished up in the same
Battalion in Rabaul in 1946. A fellow of infinite jest, as
fond of an argument as the late Tom Killen (2/9 & 6 Div
Cav) but who is more intent on taking part in the
argument than on which side he is taking. It is the
word-play that Bill enjoys, and he never misses an
opportunity for a joke.
There have been two anniversaries since last
edition: V.E. Day and Anzac Day. I have previously
described how we were in a landing barge early in the
morning of 08.05.45 when a Fairmile rushed up to tell
us the European news. “Big Deal”, we said and pushed
it out of our minds. It was irrelevant to our proposed
landing at Dove Bay on 11.05! The other, Anzac Day,
did not rate a mention in my letter home of 24.04.45.
We had arrived at But for the commencement of
Amphibious Training and I don’t think anybody could
have given it a thought. The best I can do is to quote
some of my letter home, dated 07.06.45; 75 years ago,
on the day I am typing this: 07.06. 2020:
“Well, the mail system is considerably better
these days. A letter from you today dated 31 st May!
And I think most of your letters are getting through.
Have just finished the last of the cakes and I’m
very sorry. They were both Comforts Fund and were
very nice. The second one was packed by you. Your
parcel has also been demolished – I could have
eaten all the biscuits on my own, in one sitting Well,
almost. [Mum’s plain biscuits, made on dripping and
flour, were the Section’s favourites – I had to battle
to keep a few for myself!]. No sign of the parcel you
mentioned with socks, but the ointment has arrived
OK thanks.
The tucker has continued to be quite fair: fritters
yesterday, that were actually edible and a steamed
pudding last night, with dried apples in it. And the
other day when we came in from a patrol, we had
logan berries and cream – I’ve never seen them
before and they’re the best tinned fruit I know –
except, perhaps, cherries. The ‘cream” of course
was whipped up from tinned milk. But I still can’t
take these stews; I prefer cold bully with a little
tomato sauce. And the porridge, of slightly mouldy
do biscuits, isn’t the best. Still, I’ve been eating
pretty well – and we’ve been getting fresh bread
every few days!
Talking about fruit, we’ve been having a few
guavas lately and you can get a few little sort of
wild passion fruit. They’re yellow, about the size of
a very small cherry and taste a bit like a grape. If
you could get a few dozen, they’d be quite a
decent feed. Also, we’ve a couple of papaw trees
growing on our ridge and we’ve been keeping an
anxious eye on them. They’re all green at present
and as soon as a slight tinge of yellow appears,
someone will dive on ‘em and keep ‘em to ripen.
There’s quite a little competition for them.
This is quite a pretty spot – steep down one side
and very thickly grown, the side nearer the sea is
more gradually sloping and more open. The edge
of it, along which we are camped – i.e. the crest – is
heavily grown with slight, little saplings, but we’ve
cleared these away a bit inside our tight perimeter.
There’s no high ground between here and the coast
and you can look straight across the plantation (still
green, though it’s now a pitiful travesty of a
plantation, all bomb-torn and strafed) to the sea.
I hadn’t seen about the bar to Fergy’s DSO but
it would be for his work during recent months . . .
not far East of us. He’s been doing a good job, by
all accounts.
I’ll stop there; I’m only about half way through the
letter, which indicates that we were resting at home
that day while 4 or 5 Section, or both, were on full-day
patrols. We were then overlooking Mandi Plantation, a
couple of thousand yards east of Wewak. A few
explanations: the improvement in the tucker was
because, after our previous long stint in the Torricelli
Range, where we depended for food on air drops or
cargo-lines we were now supplied by barge and the
depot was only a couple of hours march away, albeit
that the track along the beach was in view and in range
of the one elusive artillery piece that the Japs still had.
Between us and the plantation was a stretch of thick
lantana, interspersed with a few guavas. Harvesting
these was a bit tricky but worth the effort and the risk.
The papaws? As usual, we had moved on before they
ripened.
“Fergy” was Brigadier Maurice A., Fergusson, MC,
DSO & Bar, a first war digger who had been the
original CO of our Regiment and later in the war,
Commander of 8 Independent Brigade, a CMF unit
that fought a great campaign east of the Sepik River.
We had got to know him while I was still at school and
he was commanding a Brigade of the Armoured
Division, in camp at Wee Waa.
So long for now; best wishes from...
Harry Bell
(2/9 Cdo Sqn)
COMMANDO FOR LIFE
58 COMMANDO ~ The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association ~ Edition 3 I 2020