The one that got away
I remember another little incident that I will never forget - but first let me explain; I was never what some people might say, a very sharp eyed individual. Having said that, one day we had momentarily stopped on our patrol when all of a sudden, most of my mates, if not all, saw a Jap running down the track and the two point scouts both opened up on him with their Owen sub-machine guns. Now the Owen, as good as it was, only had an effective range of about 40 to 50 meters. Not so the Bren! The problem was I did not see him and the bastard got away. Now I know what the Bren can do and I know what I can do and let me tell you this. Had I seen him I would have lifted the bastard off the ground with the Bren.
It really bugged me that I had let him get away, even today it still bugs me and sometimes when I am sitting down at Circular Quay and I see an old Jap about the same age as me walk by, I say to myself “for all I know you could be the bastard that got away”.
One more thing worthy of mention: We were out on patrol again - let me first explain - the idea of a patrol is to consolidate your position, kill as many of the enemy that you can and make the whole area secured. To continue, after travelling some distance we heard a machine gun, it sounded like a ‘woodpecker’, the nickname we gave to their heavy machine gun similar to our Vickers but with a slightly slower rate of fire. That seemed to be how it earned its moniker.
The Platoon sergeant said to the Platoon commander “they weren’t firing at us you know Mr Ferndale”. It was the last words he ever uttered. The bloody woodpecker zeroed in on us and let fly with all its fury. We all hit the ground. Col, who had been standing right alongside of me, must have been a bit slower getting down. I heard the bullet hit him. If you were to hang a wet blanket over a clothes line and give it a big whack with a cricket bat you’d hear thwack. I think that is the same noise the bullet made when it slammed into his guts. When you cop it in the guts you know how you are going to die. How could you possibly live with all your intestines mashed to a pulp? How could your food be processed? The poor bugger died soon after.
As for me, I had been lying down flat on my back with the Bren alongside me and praying fervently to God that I would not get hit. I knew the bullets were very close because of the deafening noise they were making around my head. When the firing stopped and we all got back on our feet, the Lieut said to me “Smithy set up the Bren over there and cover our withdrawal”. They all went back and left me on my lonesome. I remember one of my mates saying “good luck Smithy” and I said “thanks Jim”. This time I was not scared, I had just turned 21 and after all I had been through I was now a man and a veteran and by the God Almighty my commanding officer had given me a job to do and I was determined to carry it out to the best of my ability, whatever the consequences.
Within three or four minutes Japs emerged around this bend in the track. I did not fire straight away; I waited until about four or five came into view. And then I let them have it. I saw them all get hit and the rest of them withdrew. I knew they were either going to try and outflank me or silence me with their two inch mortar. Luckily for me Mick reappeared and said “come on Smithy, you can come back now”. Within minutes we had rejoined the rest of the Platoon and then we all withdrew back to the comparative safety of our perimeter some distance behind us.
A perimeter consists of the whole company, about 100 men set up in the shape of a perimeter giving all around defence against attack. About an hour later the Lieut said “come on let’s go back and get them. I said to myself “What! He’s got to be mad. Here we are just escaped being killed and here he is saying, ok let’s go back”!
But you must realise that an officer has got to set a good example to the rest of his men and build up their confidence in the face of adversity and even lead them in if necessary.
In the First World War 1914 – 1918 there were far more junior officers killed than there were men of the lower ranks taking into account the ratio of the ranks that were killed.
At this point I would like to point something out to you and don’t ever forget it. When an officer says to you do such and such a thing, even you though you know that as soon as you do it you are 100% going to get your frigging head shot off, you do it without so much as a second thought. That’s discipline for you. A lot of people today don’t even know the meaning of the word.
Anyway, back we all go; when we reach the spot where we all got shot at the man in front of me went mad (yes – mad). He turned around towards me with his eyeballs staring out of his head saying he could see Japs ‘all around him’. Now let me say certainly I was a little bit ill at ease but I was a long way from going mad. It seems some people ‘snap’ quicker than others. Mick detached one of the men to take him back to our perimeter. We all knew him as ‘Paddy’. I remember seeing him years later at the March on Anzac Day, he seemed quite okay then, but I think somehow he will always be another victim of the war.