Yesterday Jack Sue died. Many people wouldn't know who Jack Sue was but you can get some background here. I sure knew who he was, he was a bit of a childhood hero of mine even though I didn't really know his full story until I read his autobiography Blood on Borneo a few years ago. He truly was an amazing person.
This got me thinking about my own family members and their service during the two big wars. I'd done a search of the National Archives for my grandfather Bill's WW1 service record a while ago. He managed to rock up near the end (due to his young age) and then roll his ankle whilst diving for cover during a bombing raid at the village of Merricourt in France with the 4/43rd Battalion. The torn ligaments were enough to have him shipped back to England where the war ended before he was fully recovered. A lucky so and so becuase the French battlefields were hell on earth.
But Bill's brother in law and nephews also did their bit in WW1 and WW2, so last night I did a bit of a search on them all. First up my Great Uncle Charlie who was in the Z force commandos like Jack Sue, but his record hasn't been reviewed yet so I have to wait 90 days to get a copy, if they will release it at all. Likewise his older brother Alfred, a 90 day wait. I was able to find my Great Uncle Berts record though.
This got me thinking about my own family members and their service during the two big wars. I'd done a search of the National Archives for my grandfather Bill's WW1 service record a while ago. He managed to rock up near the end (due to his young age) and then roll his ankle whilst diving for cover during a bombing raid at the village of Merricourt in France with the 4/43rd Battalion. The torn ligaments were enough to have him shipped back to England where the war ended before he was fully recovered. A lucky so and so becuase the French battlefields were hell on earth.
But Bill's brother in law and nephews also did their bit in WW1 and WW2, so last night I did a bit of a search on them all. First up my Great Uncle Charlie who was in the Z force commandos like Jack Sue, but his record hasn't been reviewed yet so I have to wait 90 days to get a copy, if they will release it at all. Likewise his older brother Alfred, a 90 day wait. I was able to find my Great Uncle Berts record though.
Bert signed up at the outbreak of WW2 and sailed for the middle east on the Queen Mary with the 2/43 Battalion. He managed to survive the whole war, his left forefinger wasn't so lucky though as he had it shot off in the Battle of El Alamein.
Then I found my Great Great Uncle Thomas's (by marriage) WW1 record. Thomas sailed overseas in 1915 with the 11th Battalion and spent the next 2 years and 10 months on active service until he was finally killed in action at 2pm on 10th August 1918 which is just a lousy 3 months before the war ended. I can't imagine how it would have been for his wife to receive this letter.
Then I found my Great Great Uncle Thomas's (by marriage) WW1 record. Thomas sailed overseas in 1915 with the 11th Battalion and spent the next 2 years and 10 months on active service until he was finally killed in action at 2pm on 10th August 1918 which is just a lousy 3 months before the war ended. I can't imagine how it would have been for his wife to receive this letter.
He did seem to have a propensity for being shot in the buttocks though with his record showing 2 incidents/woundings. Perhaps he liked showing the Germans his butt in a larrikin Aussie way, I'm not sure, sounds like a good story though.
Then one day his wife Marion received all of his personal belongings, which amounted to a wallet with some pictures, his body being buried in France, it wasn't a whole lot to hold onto was it?
Oh sure he got a few medals for turning up like the rest of them but they don't count for much when your husbands dead in a field tens of thousands of miles away does it?
Oh sure he got a few medals for turning up like the rest of them but they don't count for much when your husbands dead in a field tens of thousands of miles away does it?
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