Playing Silly Buggers

Melbourne
(October 1942 - December 1942)

Watsonia

On 9 October, we went by rail again, to Watsonia, near Melbourne. That's where I was promoted to acting sergeant and I got paid, not back pay, just pay. I think I was being paid as a corporal but I'm not sure.

Aside - Paybook

I haven't got my paybook. I don't know what happened to that. It didn't get lost in New Guinea. I had my pay book right up to the time I got discharged.

The paybook was as important to you as your rifle. It was yours to keep safe, as without it you could not get any pay. Your rate of pay was recorded and it acted as a bank book. If you won money playing two-up, you could pay money into it. I don't think I ever saw this done but it was possible. To give you an illustration, when I was in action in New Guinea from March to September, there was no use for money (and no one to pay you) so my pay book was just growing by the day. In hospital I had to buy my own cigarettes, so I had to draw some cash out. So for this period I was getting six bob a day.

Watsonia - the Sergeants

Watsonia was a terrible camp: it was called the "18th Brigade" Training Camp and the people that ran it ... There was a man called Major Conkey, who was related to the Conkeys from Bathurst or out that way, the meat packers. He and his people had come from the 18th Brigade which had been part of the 6th Division. The 18th Brigade had come back from the Middle East and were up in Darwin, while the rest of the Division were up in New Guinea. It was the 6th Div. that I eventually joined. Conkey ran this camp and he had surrounded himself with half-a-dozen sergeants, including one who was, allegedly, a deserter from the British Army. They'd taken him on strength. Don't know how they wangled it. Anyhow, the camp was a disgrace, it was an utter disgrace.

Reversion

By this time, we were supposed to be going to the Middle East, not Darwin. But all our troops were being brought back from the Middle East. Anyhow Conkey and I and another Sergeant - I forget his name - from Tasmania - I remember that much - had an altercation. We both were fronted up to him and I just said, "Well, the men are not getting a fair go" ... we hadn't had any leave for six weeks or whatever it was ... "At least you could let them go into town".

Anyhow, one thing led to another and he said, "Will you revert to your substantive rank or will you be reverted?" So, I said, "I'll revert" and the other Sergeant reverted also to his substantive rank. He was a "wood butcher" (carpenter) so he at least had a little bit more money in his pocket. (In the army there were many "specialists" who were graded by their "speciality" and paid according to their rated skills. I will not try to go into a whole list but carpenters were one and, although "Snowy" reverted to private, he still was paid as a carpenter.) I went back to private with no benefit of specialist's pay. That was on 28 October 1942.

We played silly buggers all over Melbourne ... or all around Watsonia. Watsonia is about 4 or 5 miles further out from Heidelberg on the same train line. It was quite a pretty place actually. It's a housing estate of some sort now.

In those days it was just bush and we had quarters (tents) without floor boards and it was on a hill and the rain used come in. It was an absolute brothel of a place. I became a "bad" soldier at that stage and used to terrorise the sergeants giving lectures because I knew as much, or more, about the lecture as they did. Because I'd been doing it for nine months myself.

The Buna Campaigners

The group at Watsonia consisted of all of us who had come over to Adelaide from the aborted trip to New Guinea on Boxing Day nine months before. Most had joined the AIF, but there where some, like myself, who had been "mucked-up". Those who were in the clear as to their status went to New Guinea and finished up in the the 18th Brigade of the 2nd AIF. (The Watsonia camp was the 18th Brigade's training unit.) Most of the rest of us went to the 17th Brigade of which the 2/7 Bn was a member. The 18th Brigadewas mauled in the Buna campaign just prior to Christmas '42. A lot of them got killed or wounded in that action. I had no further contact with them.

Specific comments about Harold's memoirs can be sent to Harold Herman.

Harold's War was written and is maintained by Jack R. Herman as a part of the history section of his website.

Published by
Jack R Herman
Sydney, February 2002

All material © Copyright: Jack R Herman and Harold Herman.
Email: hhermie@iprimus.com.au

Last updated: 28 February 2002