Being frightened of what you do in war

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello Christos,

I remember the New Guinea natives to be quite tough and friendly, they showed the greatest compassion when caring for our wounded, they could carry litters up muddy mountain jungle trails, or cross monsoon streams that would make a pack mule think twice about. The japs feared them and they hated the japs, and they were quite good at tracking them. The aussie bounty I had heard was 10 or so shillings a head, that could be traded for supplies, and that's what I remember them collecting, heads, carried in a bag next to that big curved knife they all wore. Some would carry jap rifles or pistols.

[Christos]

Wow....HEADS for trophies eh?....thats a fine detail that Jim must have 'censored from his coversation...he mentioned only EARS, which, when you look at it, doesn't seem quite as bad as a HEAD.....

We Australians have THE GREATEST respect and admiration for the fighting qualities, and the sheer COMPASSION of these marvellous people...A documentary I saw a while ago featured an Aussie Kokodsa vet talking to these people that had been 'bearers', and scewing up his eyes, he asked them , for the camera, what they thought of "Japan-man"....

The reaction of the native veterans that he was talking to was to SPIT....one very universal human reaction that was understood by everyone present......People like those New Guineans and Solomon Islanders like JACOB VOUZA are HEROS of the South Pacific, and their contribution to victory in that theater was PRICELESS....

May all the New Guinea natives that died in that terrible period "rest under the shade of a Kumi tree, by the sweet water" that these 'blackfellows' loved so much....

R.I.P.

[Owen]

He went on to tell me that they had Vickers machine guns set up in the sandhills behind sandbags and when the Japanese marines came ashore they mowed them down in their hundreds. He said that it was such a massacre that him and the boys became very frightened at what they were doing......... He said they felt ashamed after, when they looked at all the bodies.

Just re-reading The Winter War by William R. Trotter, which made me think of this thread, he has this to say about the Finnish machin-gun crews mowing down the masses ranks of Soviet infantry.

Page 79.

In some battles the Finnish machine gunners held their fire until the range was down to fifty meters; the butchery was dreadful.
In a number of cases Finnish machine gunners had to be evacuated due to stress.
They had become emotionally unstable from having to perform such mindless slaughter day after day.

[Donnie]

My granfather felt extreme guilt for killing in the war (after the war i might add).......he was a crew member of the Crocs and used the flamethrower to "mop" up german troops....from after he was demobed he never had a barbeque in his garden, he closed the doors and windows when neighbours were( he hated the smell). He did on one occation shoot a teenage German soldier point blank when his tank was knocked out....he felt no guilt during the war but it hit him hard after.

Donnie

[Tom Canning]

Aviator -
How old do you suppose Ron was when he was blasting away with his 303 Browning at that m/c gun post ? a bit older than I was and I was just 19 going on 20 - that is still in the teen age - right ? They were killing our friends and trying to kill us - anyway they could. many of our enemy were about the same age - later they were much younger....Sapper couldn't have been that much older !
Cheers

[sapper]

Just 19.
A bit different now sadly! Firstly, Let me send my very best and sincere wishes to all our Veterans.
I heard somewhere that we were the greatest generation.

This is a very interesting thread. For it has the quality of "What might have been" How different would my life have been? But for that moment at one in the morning on the Overloon Venraij road in the Autumn of 1944?
Where would I have gone? Would I have been good enough to play professional cricket? I shall never know.

What I do know, is that I am very severely wounded with the rare exceptional injuries classing.
So why should I want to make friends with the enemy? Not me Matey! The enemy took my youth away, And led me to a life of pain.

I am not complaining, I would do it again...Every time.
Sapper

[Ron Goldstein]

Brian

What a super photo...........many thanks for that !

Whilst replying, I also send both Tom and yourself my very good wishes.

It does appear that, as Bill Shakespeare was wont to say, "This happy breed of men" are getting a bit scarce on the ground so we "vets" must surely stick together and try to explain to the younger generations exactly what it was like in those eventful years between 1939 & 1945.

To revert back to the original theme of this thread, i.e. "Being frightened of what you do in war" I tried to throw my mind back to my days in action and to analyse what my main emotions were.

Unlike Brian & Tom, I was what would in the line be considered as "dead lucky", i.e. I survived unscathed.

During the last few weeks of the war in particular I saw other men being hit and killed and yet I was left to fight another day.

I remember one particular event that still stays with me and perhaps epitomised what we, as young men had to face and accept on a daily basis.

I was with the 4th Hussars and we were advancing along the narrow crest of a river bank when a dispatch rider drove towards us waving frantically for us get over to our left.

As we tried to pull over we saw coming towards us about half a dozen tanks each one bearing severely wounded men piled up on the rear of the turret casing while their comrades were trying to staunch the severe bleeding that was taking place.

For the first time in my life I realised that ahead of me lay possible untold terrors and that I would be asked to face the same dangers that the poor buggers on the backs of the tanks were now retreating from.

Surprisingly I felt little or no fear, my feelings were more of wonderment, anticipation of how I would cope and concentration on the messages pouring through my radio headset.

We lived very much for the day then and were grateful for small mercies.

What, I wonder gentlemen, were your feelings like ?

Cheers

Ron

[sapper]

Hi Ron... Lovely to hear from you mate. One thing is for sure, NO Veteran will be able to convey to those that have not been in action.... The absolute comfort, and the feeling of well being, that a dirty and hastily dug fox hole can give you. Specially when the mortars and shells are coming down.

Nor how it keeps calling you back..... when you have to get out ..... There's always another river, another canal to cross. Another minefield to lay, out in front of the leading troops, another assault.

The dirty dogs got me twice. So NO! I have wish to be friends, Its bad enough having to carry a bit of their shrapnel around in my skull...For all of my days....

Or to set off the metal alarms in Airports, because of the metal inside they used to put me back together.
Great stuff.. for while my Vet mates are popping off right left and center, here am I in my eighties going like a good un.
NAH I don't want to make friends with the SS. Not me matey. Not my kind of company/
Sapper

[marcus69x]

Brian, how do you get past the alarms in airports then? do you just explain and they let you through?

[sapper]

It happens every time Marcus, I am taken to one side, but they never find anything. Honestly mate.. I find it amusing.
The one unfortunate thing, and again amusing, is the the plate that holds me together, has WD stamped on each end for War Department. And the war office arrow. Like the Convicts of old had on their clothes.

Lord knows what will happen, if I fall off my twig and get cremated? There will be bits of metal everywhere.......... Cannot stop laughing!
Sapper