Absent Without Leave

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion); the routine orders from Hill 69 camp, and point 3 in ‘Information to Assist Patrols’

an hour before morning roll call

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 93

What was the reality?

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 116

a mistake to have attempted to recapture it

ibid., p. 119

Abraham used to milk his cow

ibid., p. 122

and remained that way into the twentieth

ibid., p. 120

came to have its own brothel

ibid., p. 123

not one case of venereal disease was reported in Latakia

ibid., pp. 122–4

necessitating a change of direction by the plane

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion)

‘trumpets of Jericho’, used essentially to unnerve those under attack

AustralianFlying.com.au, ‘Debunking Dive Bomber Myths’, <www.australianflying.com.au/news/debunking-dive-bomber-myths>

the dog river north of Beirut

Australian War Memorial, Item MSS1280; Title: Anonymous; Maker: Anonymous; Object type: Poem

Henrietta and her girls that afternoon

Fearnside, Half to Remember, pp. 127–8

‘Defeat is one thing,’ he said, ‘disgrace is another.’

Phillips, The Middle East Campaigns of World War II, 1940–1942: El Alamein, p. 8

one of the best of the World War Two jokes

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 394

893 packets of cigarette papers

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion)

wives, mothers, fiancées, sweethearts, sisters, aunts and friends

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 370

and six million hankies

Connell, The War at Home, p. 82

produce camouflage netting

ibid., p. 77

Post Traumatic & CSM Confusional State

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion), May/July

Information in regard to ‘digging in’ sourced from Mark Johnson’s comprehensive At the Front Line.

3 HOLE SWEET HOLE

I feel like I’ve grown a rabbit’s soul

This quote was taken from the diary of Signalman Bob Anson for 23 October 1942 and included in 2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 159. He describes the day as hot and confined, and at night the men emerge from burrows like rabbits in the sand country of far west New South Wales. He then quotes the line from a poem called ‘Rabbits’ to two of his mates in the trench.

in this case a hole in the ground

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 449

forever digging holes

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 95

and you can’t find a hole

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 135

was known as the Hill of Jesus

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion)

you fat old bastard?

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 97

The show, as they say, must go on

Merrilyn’s tale can be found in Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 100

between themselves and the sandbagged dummies

ibid., p. 104

worked the patrols

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 144

the glamour of a film star

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 114

the myth of the Rommel invincibility

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 141

with all supporting arms taking part

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion)

the break-in, the guts-eating and the break-out

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 149

a German division of 9000 men

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 139

bait for the trap

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 148

diminish the effects of major injuries

ibid., p. 150

following a path marked by shaded blue lights

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 116

and knew their parts well

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 139

they do not see well

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 151

by a fury of frightening sound

ibid., p. 154

bomb-happy pigeons

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 166

human endurance can survive

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion), Oct/ Nov/Dec 1942

advanced past the Australian 9th Division

Phillips, The Middle East Campaigns of World War II, 1940–1942: El Alamein, p. 25

efforts as ‘Homeric’

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 135

9.2 per cent killed, 28 per cent injured

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion), Oct/ Nov/Dec 1942

4 MAYHEM WAS ONLY A PART OF IT

mayhem was only a part of it

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. ix

good hunting to you all

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion), Oct/ Nov/Dec 1942

for these feelings to adjust

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 178

only that you must stand still

ibid., p. 184

Journalist Fred Smith’s notes

Lloyd and Hall, Backroom Briefings, p. 139

then present for all time

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 143

strangely silent homecoming

From an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 March 1943

any mere German or Italian

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 141

Was it a brawl in the street or something?

Connell, The War at Home; this quote from Jim Flower of Kyogle is on, p. 57

5 THREE MEN AND A BARBER SHOP

spears and bush knives

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 194

most soldiers were extra serious about it

ibid., p. 195

acres of lantana, buddleia, flax and pines

Barber, Mascot 1888–1938, p. 21

the driver still comfortably seated

Gall, From Bullocks to Boeings, p. 21

do so at their own risk

ibid., p. 31

playing golf on the aerodrome

ibid.

6 A NIP IN THE AIR

pre-Christmas attack on Pearl Harbor

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, pp. 344–5

ground troops would soon follow

Connell, The War at Home, pp. 46–8

and even a sanitary cart

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, pp. 344–5

Adelaide River Stakes

Connell, The War at Home, p. 46

emotional chaos remembered in tranquility

James Thurber, originally quoted in the New York Post, 29 February 1960

drunkenness and looting

Connell, The War at Home, p. 47

in the people of our stock

ibid., p. 48

prisoner on home soil

ibid., pp. 50–1

slightest bit of notice

ibid., p. 63

setting off a massive explosion

ibid., p. 62

now it was Sydney’s turn

ibid., pp. 63–6

refugee who had fled from Nazi Germany

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, p. 345

defend against just three mini subs

Connell, The War at Home, p. 67

to invade Australia at that time

Peter Stanley, ‘Dramatic myth and dull truth: Invasion by Japan in 1942’, in Stockings (ed.), Zombie Myths of Australian Military History, p. 144

at that time to penetrate further inland

ibid.

they wanted more race meetings

Lloyd and Hall, Backroom Briefings, p. 97

how dirty the yard is

ibid., p. 122

Everybody seemed in a hurry to live

Connell, The War at Home, p. 114

kinship with the United Kingdom

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, pp. 346–7

I will handle the front

ibid.

trousers around the knee, belts twirling

Connell, The War at Home, p. 118

black troops be excluded from the club

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, p. 347

the greatest thing we have achieved

National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra, ‘Abolition of the “White Australia” Policy’, <www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm>

equal-opportunity employer of indigenous Australians

Gary Oakley, quoted in Elliot Brennan, ‘Indigenous servicemen: their contribution’, < www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/indigenous-australians-at-war.htm>, 25 April 2013

it was back to segregation, in pubs, schools and restaurants

These issues are covered in detail in Glen Stasiuk’s 2002 TV documentary The Forgotten.

Long Bay gaol

Connell, The War at Home, pp. 20–1

Two thousand Austro–German Jewish refugees

ibid., p. 30

secret messages intended for the Nazis

ibid., p. 23

banned in Australia in 1941

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, p. 249

control over its citizens

Connell, The War at Home, p. 87

715,000 men and women were in the armed forces

ibid., p. 89

permission of the Manpower officials

ibid., p. 90

Dedman alienated the majority

ibid., p. 91

hotels forced to close even earlier

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, pp. 248–9

Manpower raids on hotels

Connell, The War at Home, pp. 92–3

ban on the Communist Party was lifted

ibid., p. 93

Citizen racketeering was rife

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, pp. 248–9

CSR suitcases

Connell, The War at Home, p. 123

around four hundred dollars today

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, p. 248

employed soldiers who were AWL

Connell, The War at Home, p. 91

one race-free Saturday every month

ibid., p. 25

7 THE HOME-FRONT LINE

barbed wire on the beach

Phillips, The Home Front 1942–1945, p. 6; quoted from the unit history of the 17th AMF Battalion

not of calm but of imminence

Connell, The War at Home, pp. 32–6

throw the enemy into headlong flight

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 March 1943, p. 6

Bob Dyer and The Crazy Builders

The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1943

scientifically cooled for your comfort

The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 1943

all the props were there

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 168

under a deluge of caterpillars

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, pp. 146–7

Hairy curses tickle hairy arses

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 137

Protection on the move

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 198

fell down a ravine during training

ibid., p. 463

‘Oily-Tongue’ Larkins and ‘Watering’ Mellon

ibid., pp. 425–6

the pipe-smoking general

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 144

committal to trial by court martial

Australian War Memorial, Second World War Diaries AWM52 Item 8/3/17 (2/17 Infantry Battalion), April/ May 1943

throwing masses of infantry against them

Lloyd and Hall, Backroom Briefings, pp. 155–6

8 EVELYN’S WAR

voluntary recruitment had not met with demand

Bolt, Our Home Front 1939–45, p. 164

Change your job for him—won’t you?

Australian Women’s Weekly, 17 April 1943, p. 2

nitrates in the manufacture of munitions

Connell, The War at Home, pp. 96–102

‘Deputy Premier alarmed at Moral Drift’

Bolt, Our Home Front 1939–45, p. 168

‘A Disgrace to Sydney’

The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 November 1943

more than Australian men did

Connell, The War at Home, p. 115

home-made Australian maple syrup

Murray, A Home of My Own, p. 15

at half the retail price

Reader’s Digest, Australia’s Yesterdays, p. 347

A few adventurous women

Gall, From Bullocks to Boeings, pp. 26–8; Eames, Sydney Airport, p. 48

9 RUN FOR YOUR DEATH

shot for the offence

Glenister, Desertion Without Execution

AIF deserters should be put down

Stanley, Bad Characters, p. 90

swayed by our decision

ibid.

our very own ‘No Death’ clause

Glenister, Desertion Without Execution

Mrs Slovik was dead

Fantina, Desertion and the American Soldier, p. 127

the individual is of small account

Oram, Military Executions During World War I, p. 62

average man is to get out of the way

ibid., p. 63

Not Yet Diagnosed Nervous

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 264

10 GAPS IN THE RANKS

supplement their income

National Archives of Australia War Cabinet Agendum No. 417/1943, ‘Payment of allotment and dependant’s allowance in respect of members of the Australian Military Forces absent without leave’, Series no. A2670, Control Symbol 417/1943, Item barcode 9019829

obtaining labour through the National Service Office

National Archives of Australia, ‘Employment of Deserters and AWL Personnel’, Series no. AWM60, Control symbol 362, Item barcode 519009

Stamp his papers deserter

Klein, They Stamped His Papers Deserter, p. 31

try and give them a hand

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX17773 Pte A. Harrison official court martial records, p. 6

How do we know that our complaints will be rectified?

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX18306 Pte J. Wilson official court martial records, ‘Summary of evidence’, p. 86

but I got married instead

Quoted from the National Archives of Australia M1455/114 Personal Papers of Prime Minister Chifley, correspondence relating to NX18306 Pte John Wilson (Grovely Mutiny), p. 99

conduct an inquiry into the case

ibid., p. 98

11 ABSENT FRIENDS

refusal to recognize the supremacy of a man’s duty to his family

Fantina, Desertion and the American Soldier, p. 127

patients in a public hospital

From a transcript of The Hon. Patricia Forsythe speaking in the Parliament of NSW in June 1996 on the demise of the hospital, <www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC19960626065>

improve, but she didn’t

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX54916 Pte S. Quillan official court martial records, p. 10

when I went back to it

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX5836 Pte S. Glynn official court martial records, p. 12

was the same—very hysterical

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX52651 Pte J. Hamilton official court martial records, p. 12

is still very ill

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX19115 Pte P. Murrell official court martial records, p. 16

live with my wife alone

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX89527 Pte M. Pollard official court martial records, p. 11

I think death would be easier for me NX89527

ibid., pp. 21–2

Lt Waterhouse: . . . No

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX32737 Pte A. Currie official court martial records, p. 25

I just left

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX23799 Pte L. Campbell official court martial records, p. 11

or words to that effect

Statement from the National Archives of Australia NX40424 Pte A. Drew official court martial records, p. 12

son and brother, Alf xxxxx

ibid., pp. 18–20

‘chocos’, or chocolate soldiers

Connell, The War at Home, p. 18

Jack surrendered, and he was immediately charged with desertion

National Archives of Australia, ‘Harbouring and assistance of deserters and AWL [Absentees without Leave]’, Series no. MP508/1, Control symbol 4/702/1012, Item barcode 3284045

12 FROM THE PIMPLE TO SCARLET BEACH VIA DEAD MAN’S GULLY

fully fit for front-line duty

National Archives of Australia MP742/1, 85/1/39 ‘Discilinary [sic] action against personnel AWL (absent without leave) from operational areas’, p. 5

returned to the mainland to serve those sentences

ibid., p. 4

as a fighting member

ibid., p. 13

Most bets were on New Guinea

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 179

some would be ground to flour

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 151

lost all their personal items

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 140

path through it with a machete

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 151

eventually got malaria almost to the man

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 141

hugging the coast of New Guinea

Holmes, Smiles of Fortune, p. 21

who talked in low voices

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 152

the need to urinate

Johnson, At the Front Line, p. 20

like prawns being shaken from nets

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 150

half of what they carried into El Alamein

Johnson, At the Front Line, p. 7

squeeze the split-pins of our grenades

Holmes, Smiles of Fortune, p. 23

cross of the German bombers

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 405

dropping their eggs of death

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 152

‘the Last Supper’ as some called it

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 433

away the landing force

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 156

too dark to see the shoreline

Holmes, Smiles of Fortune, p. 33

firing directly at the landing barges

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infanty, p. 156

we had to move before lunch

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 230

13 DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

but our stomachs did

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 250

assault enemy positions

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 166

The jungle war lacked mutual respect

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 161

Creating demons is an old human habit

Johnson, At the Front Line, pp. 36–40

Jap bursting his grenade on you both

Holmes, Smiles of Fortune, p. 36

soldiering in the jungle

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 182

The uncontrollable prolapsing of the anus relented

Holmes, Smiles of Fortune, p. 40

darkness suddenly falling, and rain

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, pp. 270–1

the history of the battalion

ibid., p. 275

than any ten days at Tobruk or El Alamein

Random House Australia, Australia Through Time, pp. 316–17

the assault as much mental as physical

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 184

claustrophobic battle conditions

Johnson, At the Front Line, pp. 34–6

‘the hunting, hiding, listening part’ of jungle warfare

ibid., p. 35

movements of the jungle’s non-human citizenry

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 192

before the art of self preservation takes over

Wells, ‘B’ Company Second Seventeenth Infantry, p. 155

their empty-eyed vacancy and unnatural quiet

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 147

which indeed he believed himself to be

Fearnside, Half to Remember, p. 187

detect and bash back the neurotic; broadened channel leading to the way out

Walker, Australian War Memorial Second World War Official Histories: Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 5: Medical, Volume I: Clinical Problems of War (1962 reprint), p. 705

region poorly designed for discomfort

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 147

even though it saw little action

Johnson, That Magnificent 9th, p. 183

florally, arboreally, faunally, and aviarily

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 162

sixty-three fewer men than when it arrived

2/17 Battalion History Committee (Australia), ‘What We Have . . . We Hold!’, p. 283

skeletonic portrait of Joshua Smith

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 162

Or was I merely going ‘troppo’?

Jones, The Reluctant Volunteer, p. 159