The “C” Company, 28th Infantry Battalion was made up of mostly WA Goldfields lads and other young country men, their willingness to enlist and defend our shores was a true trademark of their courage, commitment, strong mateship and not wanting to miss out on a serious fight, as well, take the army weekly pay too!
My father-in-law, Don Roach, was one of them, like so many others, a local miner, tradesmen, butcher, baker, grocer, etc, doing his duty and bloody proud of it too, while they did like a cold beer, it can be said that they did like a fight too, it’s unsure if any of them actually knew exactly what they were getting themselves into, but the simple approach was, they lived a hard and tough life as kids and adults, so they backed themselves and believed that they could and would survive, that sense of duty and pride drew the best out of them, roll up and sign up they did, as the PRICELESS BOARD OF SIGNATURES tells the story, pretty much down to earth people & soldiers that stood up to be counted, on our land and offshore too!
If only this board could talk today, what a wonderful experience & source of information it would be, perhaps some people can expand on it. As it can now be described as an iconic piece of WW11 memorabilia & valued by their families.
Their Western Australian war time journey included Northam, Perth, Fremantle, Yanchep, Great Northern district, and, foot beach patrol North of Perth, when Don Roach reported hearing submarines charging their batteries at night above the water, his claim was dismissed by senior officers as rubbish, the self-taught mechanic knew what he heard and was talking about, the higher authorities did not want to alarm the Metro population of a potential Jap Navy in our immediate waters at that time, it was proven later on, that he was right, the noise he heard was most likely an enemy submarine casing out various shipping lines. Navy & Merchant vessels now know how close the Japanese were to our West Coast shoreline, close enough to hear them and feel them.
They were shunted off to the NT, Katherine & Darwin via the Nullarbor on a train – with maybe a spare carriage for the grog, it’s believed the exchange of autographs took place at Alice Springs in December 1943, as they cooperated with the US Water Buffaloes unit for training and the defense of the top end of Australia Their main camp was south of Darwin, close enough to rush to the Port and defend it if need be. As the war started to turn our way in PNG, our boys were loaded up and taken to New Britain by boat, they saw the back end of a very difficult, trying & sometimes atrocious war firsthand, and the overall Australian numbers killed or wounded in the PNG battle was enough to shake the strongest and harden WA lads on how to deal with the realities of a brutal war, from a cold beer at your favorite pub in Kalgoorlie, to this confronting lifetime experience, so much to admire and respect about these gallant men and soldiers, so many left the Goldfields as young naive men and came back much older for their troubles. Unfortunately, some struggled mentally after the war, other drew on the bond of mateship to pull through and merge back into the local community.
They can best be described as true blue men & soldiers, gutsy local lads.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we shall remember them-all of them;
Lest we forget- these brave men and their duty well done
by Merv Kennedy – Former Goldfields person
Moya Sharp
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