LEST WE FORGET – REMEMBRANCE DAY

There is a solemnity to Remembrance Day that 99-year-old Bruce Robertson feels every year as he remembers the men he served with who never got to come home.

The West Pennant Hills resident was in the militia before World War 2 broke out but joined the RAAF as soon as he could.

“I loved aeroplanes ever since meeting Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm outside Hotel Australia after they completed their trans Pacific flight when I was about 8 years old. We spoke to them and spoke their hands.” He trained as a wireless operator in Sydney and one night while helping to monitor wireless communications he picked up Morse code he couldn’t transcribe.

“I heard some strange signals in my headset and called the Signals Officer over. He got onto the Direction Finding stations and got a fix; they confirmed my original suspicion that it was a Japanese transmission in Kani Code.”

He was later posted to the newly-formed 30 Squadron based at RAAF Richmond and headed to New Guinea for two years, where the Beaufighters were involved in Kokoda, Milne Bay and the Battle of Bismarck Sea.

He said people were not sacred during the campaign,“people were determined.”

He said the “stiff upper lip” was the response when people died. “We used to say, “they bought it”, we lost lots of people then.

“I think of all those that didn’t come back. It used to upset me a lot.” He was in Sydney when the war was declared over, and joined in celebrations with his new wife Beryl.

The couple moved to Castle Hill in 1946. He doesn’t miss an Anzac Day march and this year was pushed in a wheelchair in the CBD parade by one of his great grandsons, next year it will be a great granddaughter who gets the honour. Bruce will be 100.

He often talks about his war service as he feels it is important that people don’t forget the sacrifices others made. Just recently he was invited to speak to 200 people at a Newcastle firm which ends staff on a regular basis to do the Kokoda Track.

On Monday, he will spend Remembrance Day in quiet reflection.

Approximately 7000 Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen died during the New Guinea Campaign