BILL ALLAN

Born 20 September 1914

I was born on 20 September 1914 and that makes me 84.  I was born in South Melbourne.

I think if I was to say some of the things that were involved in my history that children should know the first one that I come to would be that they should be given to understand what a number of what are now our elderly people were involved in during their life. In opening I would say that the possibility of war is one that should always be recognised as a most horrifying experience. The politicians don’t know what they’re letting the people into when they sit around a table in a parliament and decide, “Yes we’ll go to war”.  They have no idea about it whatsoever and I think they should be educated.

I would say that those that go to a war expend very little of their time actually as combatants in a war and that a big proportion of their time they enjoy periods of leave in foreign countries which they would never see if they were not involved in the war.  I think their experiences there can be beneficial to them if they learn the things that are necessary to learn from it.

I think possibly the things that might be of interest are, in my early life I played football in the VFL in Victoria for South Melbourne.  I played soccer when I was at school at the South Melbourne Technical School where I trained in building construction.  That was up until 1939 and then when the war started, I enlisted and went away.

During the war, I was first stationed in North Africa where for a total of two years I served in the desert and then went with the battalion into Palestine and into Syria for the invasion there.  An interesting thing of the invasion of Syria was that myself and seven others were formed into a fighting patrol to cross the border to establish the troops, the Vicchy French troops, that were defending their border.  We were led in around the French posts at night and the guide, who was an Israeli - was Moshe Dyan. He stayed on and became the Minister of Defence. He organised the recovery of the Israeli people that were captured by Arabs and taken into southern Africa and for the remainder of his life, he and a friend of mine in the group corresponded.

After two years we were ordered to return to Australia because the Japanese had invaded. After five days leave we were then transported to Papua Guinea where the battalion was engaged on the Kakoda Trail.  I was there for five months and was evacuated through Port Moresby to the Lenonda Hospital Ship, to Townsville and by train then to Sydney, Vulcan Hills Hospital.  I was in hospital for five months.

From Ballarat I was granted a weekend’s leave to Melbourne where I met up with my wife again.  The question asked was how long was I married before I went to the Middle East.  I was granted a marriage leave from Puckapunyal camp on Friday afternoon at 5.00pm to be married on Saturday and return to the camp on Monday morning at 6.00am.  So my marriage leave was three days.  After which we were concentrated in Queensland