Quigan's Bar

New Zealand had 1,856 captured in Greece, including Crete. At least 42 ended up in the Klagenfurt camp including five or six from the 28th 28th (Māori) Battalion. 

New Zealand Group. Jun 1943. Back: R Lymburn, R Smith, J Stevens, G Hool, W Collins, Maurice Quigan, D Davies, K Filmer, S Young. Middle: S Bradley, Les Olsen, Ron McGlashen, C Newton, W Keith, Pop Collins, J Prendergast, H Merrylees, J McCallum, B Paku. Sitting: R Bartlett, T Williams, F Mullins, D Adams, J Sunley, A Bird, M Minerapa, S Lightfoot, T Coy. Front: A Rabbits, J Smith, R Chapman

July 1943

July 1944

Maurice Quigan was Klaganfurt's 'publican'. Gunner Quigan was a member of New Zealand Artillery. Born in 1915, he died at Palmerston North on 20 Apr 1995 aged 80.

Kalamata

26 Apr 1941

We eventually arrived in the port town of Kalamata on the Peloponnese Peninsula. We saw units of the 17th Brigade moving towards the beach but were unable to join them. Instead we were told to destroy our trucks and wait until tomorrow night when the boats would be here again. From Greece, Crete and Syria, Long, Gavin, 1953:

During the night of 26 April, a total of  8,550 men were evacuated fro Kalamata, according to the records of the Admiral in charge of the evactuation fleet. One of the transport ships, the Slamat, received a direct hit from a German aircraft before it was out of range. 500 men, nearly all those on board were lost at sea.   

27 Apr 1941

I sheltered with others in nearby olive groves which German aircraft bombed and strafed throughout the day although I never saw anyone get hit. Then as dark fell we were marshalled into groups and marched to the wharf area to wait until the ships arrived. However, our wait was in vain. The ships never came and when the following day dawned there was a general dispersal to find a safe place to wait out the day. 

28 Apr 1941

I joined a small group that found shelter in the hills and so had a grandstand view of the Port as it was being bombed and strafed by German aircraft. At sundown we made our way back to the beach area. The next intimation that things were not well was when artillery shells started to burst among us. As the destroyers disappeared into the darkness I still felt confident that we could hold the beach for one more day, and that the Navy would be back that night to pick us up. Gavin Long described the bleak situation that night.

29 Apr 1941

I awoke at six in the morning and at 6:30AM was amazed to see the arrival of a German staff car carrying a senior officer. I later found out that the officer was the General of Germany’s 5th Armoured Division. He was met by our senior officer, Brigadier Parrington. It sunk in that I was now a Prisoner of War. After the war, I read that Parrington sent a message to German headquarters at 5:00AM, that no resistance would be offered after 5:30AM. I watched all of this from 50 yards away and was left stunned. Around 8,000 of us were taken prisoner.

Captain Gray ordered us to “pile our arms” and clear the beach area. But along with many others I destroyed my rifle and along with my ammunition threw it into the sea.

Then we were marched off by the Germans. My mate and I now took stock of our belongings. We each had the clothes we stood up in, an overcoat and a groundsheet and some underclothes of sorts. I also had a couple of tins of bully beef which I shared and I also had a small amount of Greek currency. The next day we were squashed into a train for the 160 km trip to Corinth.

The train was on a narrow gauge line, 40 men to a wagon, 35 inside and five on the roof. We had an overnight stop in Tripoli (Greece, not Lybia) and were forced to sleep in an apple orchard without blankets. It was cold! At Corinth, we were accommodated in old Greek army barracks. This became our first of several POW camps that we would experience in the coming months.

Narrow gauge train wagon used to transport POWs from Kalamata to Corinth, and from Corinth to the Brailos Pass

CORINTH

The Corinth POW camp was primitive. Our beds were on cold concrete floors with our coats our only blankets. Some of the troops that came later had to sleep in foxholes because the barrack blocks were already packed. Our toilet facilities were just a trench in the ground, about four feet deep. Good balance was essential. Our drinking water came from two wells and although there was enough to drink, washing ourselves was a dream. We stank!

The food was nothing to write home about for we only got one bowl of lentil soup a day, and each week we were issued with a giant brick-hard Italian biscuit. Although some olive oil softened them, they still weren't satisfying and we were becoming hungrier and hungrier. We were held in the Corinth camp for 37 days, from May 1st to June 6th.

I have strong memories of three events that occurred while I was in the Corinth camp.

Tensions rose when a visit by Himmler himself was announced. We were obviously not impressed by his arrival and reacted accordingly. Our protest actions caused a furore among the Germans. I saw Himmler drive by in his open Mercedes staff car. The SS indulged him with lots of ‘Sieg Heils’ and heel clicking.

We became infested with body lice. The Germans came up with an amusing scheme to kill the blood-sucking insects. They took our clothes and steamed them. While that was happening we were sprayed with disinfectant and told to swim in the sea. A couple of miles separated us from the ocean. Because of our lack of clothes, most of us had to walk naked down the main street of Corinth with the locals having a good look. I found this embarrassing and humiliating. 

On the morning of May 20, a German padre said Mass for us Catholics. All through the service, the priest had to pause as flights of low-flying aircraft passed overhead. We found out later that they were carrying German parachute troops to attack Crete.

The German Lady

In last week's blog we looked at some of the work deployments of the Klagenfurt POWs and how, through their interaction with the locals the men picked of the German language. Kevin was raised on a farm near Wangarata, 182 km (113 miles) north-east of Melbourne. 

In 2005, about the time of his 87th birthday, Kevin, who was widowed in 2006 and living in Melbourne, was spending a few days with us in Geelong. He and I went to a local bakery to buy meat pies for lunch. There was a queue so we patiently waited to be served.

A tall lady, taller than Kevin who was a shade under six foot, turned to him and spoke in heavily accented English. 

"You know, I like this bakery. You can see the bakers working and it’s always very clean."

Kevin picked up on her accent and without missing a beat, he  responded in German. 

I was a little taken back though not completely surprised. It had been years since I’d heard him speak German. Even then, I thought that his German language skills were limited to the pleasantries.

The German lady, however, was unimpressed. She took offence at my father's approach. She braced her shoulders and stood even taller. Her bosoms inflated, rising over my head. 

"I have been in this country for thirty-seven years. You can speak to me in English!"

I took a step back but Dad held his ground. He continued to speak to her in German. He spoke politely, in a soft voice. That he spoke fluently left me wide-eyed.

Just when I thought the German lady was about to king-hit my Dad, she suddenly went quiet. As she calmed down and she resumed her normal height. She too switched to speaking German. 

They chatted for a minute or so but then she abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

"Wait a minute," she said. "You are Dutch! Yes? No. Wait. I think you are from Switzerland."

"Nah," said Dad. "Wangaratta."

The first of four Christmases

A6 Block. Christmas 1941. 

Back: Ralph Chapman, Ian Lipsett, James Windsor, W Jones, Tom Collyer, Charles Endacott. 

Front: Clyde McLachlan, John Dowrick, Herb Adcock, Bob Smith, Wilfred Bailey, Charles Brown, Ron McGlashen

Profiles 

John Dowrick

John Dowrick, Jack, was a fitter at the Railway Workshops in Mildura when he enlisted in the Army in 1940 aged 35. He was born in St Arnaud, Victoria, in 1905. Jack was an Infantry soldier with the 2/8th Battalion. He sailed to the Middle East in April 1940 and fought at Tobruk.

The 2/8th fought a fierce battle with German troops at Vevi in the north of Greece on 11 and 12 April but, overstretched and assailed by a vastly superior force, was forced to withdraw. Jack was captured near the Corinth Canal. At Klagenfurt he was known as ‘Pop.’ Post-war, Jack returned to the railways, working in the Ballarat workshop. Jack married his girlfriend on his return. They had two children. He died 2 Feb 1972 aged about 67.

Jack and a friend photographed in Tel-Aviv. I found the photo on Ancestry and included it as I thought it so quintisentially 'Australian.'

Arthur Anderson

Private Arthur 'Andy' Anderson was a member of the 17th's Brigade's 2/6 Battalion, He was captured near Corinth, April 1941. From the AWM website:

For the 2/6th, the Greek campaign was essentially one long withdrawal through a series of rearguard positions, beginning on 16 April. In the last days of the campaign its companies were dispersed by higher command; some were subsequently evacuated by sea between 26 and 29 April, but approximately a quarter of the battalion was left behind and taken prisoner. Some of the evacuees were landed on Crete and, after fighting with the 17th Brigade Composite Battalion, many of these men were also captured.

Private Arthur Anderson [photo supplied by his daughter, Carol Mules]

Arthur was born in Melbourne on 20 Aug 1918. Post-war he was a farmer at Glenthompson. He died on 8 Feb 1967 in Heidelberg, Victoria. He was 48. Arthur was in the theatre group. He is shown in this photo taken from one of the skits. He is first on the left.

Kevin Byrne's Memoir, Part 2

16 Feb 1941 

We departed Port Melbourne on the converted passenger liner, the Mauretania. At Balcombe that morning, reveille sounded at 4AM. We were entrained at Mornington for the one-hour trip to Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station. Our exact departure date was supposed to be a secret – we weren’t even allowed to phone our families yet it seemed that all of Melbourne new about it. The Comforts Fund ladies were on the platform at Flinders Street ready to dish out hot meat pies and cups of tea. And my aunt, Tress Rourke, a nun at the Port Melbourne convent, knew because the children in her class told her. Many of the kid’s fathers were wharfies they all knew that a ship was arriving during the night to pick up troops.

Tress and another six nuns walked down to Station Pier to see me off. I wasn’t expecting her but in the sea of khaki it wasn’t too hard to pick out a group of seven nuns. Each one gave me a medal depicting their favourite saint. When they returned to the convent, which had an uninterrupted view of Station Pier, they hung a white sheet from the upper balcony and waved me farewell as the ship sailed. I was very touched by this gesture. 

Post Card of the Mauretania. The ship was painted grey for its troop ship role.

We sailed through Port Phillip Heads at 6AM and then down the west coast of Tasmania. At 4PM we joined three other ships, the Niew Amsterdam which had sailed from New Zealand and the Aquitania and Queen Mary which sailed from Sydney. HMAS Sydney joined the convoy as the escort ship. We arrived in Fremantle on February 10th and were given a day’s leave. The Queen Mary was too big to enter Fremantle Harbour so unfortunately the troops on that ship were denied leave. She had 8th Division troops on board and was heading to Singapore so any troops from that Division who were on the other ships like Aspro had to switch and were taken out to the Queen Mary on Lighters. Aspro and I said farewell and wished each other good luck.

We departed Fremantle on February 13th. Our escort now included HMAS Perth. After four days sailing in convoy, the Queen Mary and the Sydney set sail for Singapore while we continued north to the Middle East. The navy escorts, with their bands playing on the ships’ bow, used their fire hoses to create huge water fountains and sprayed the troops as each ship passed by.

Eleven days after leaving Fremantle we sailed into safe harbour in Bombay and were ferried ashore in Lighters where we were allowed to take a few days leave. Some of the men took the opportunity to ‘play up,’ repeating the episodes of the WW1 troops when they too were bound for the Middle East in 1915.

I was eventually transferred to a Dutch troop ship, the Westphalia. After a hot, slow voyage (we dropped anchor for a couple of days en route) we sailed through the Arabian and the Red Sea. On March 17, we arrived at Port Tewfik, Suez. We were ferried off in lighters and put on a train. We travelled by rail alongside the Suez Canal. By this time German aircraft flying out of Syria had dropped magnetic mines in the Canal and all shipping traffic had been suspended.

In due course we arrived at El Kantara where we crossed the Canal. Then we boarded another train and crossed the Sinai desert to the Beit Jirja Camp in Palestine. Along the way, a fellow soldier who was a student of bible history told us that Moses had frequented the nearby mountains and that the land we were now in was then known as Caanan, the land of milk and honey promised to the Israelites. We all agreed they did not get much of a deal. At Beit Jirja we did daily route marches to recover the conditioning that we lost on the voyage. Then we were on the train again, back to El Kantara, through Cairo, and eventually we arrived at our destination, El Amyria, some 12 miles from Alexandria where we were given another day’s leave. By now I was taken on strength by the 17th Brigade’s Head Quarter Company.

Word was getting about that we were destined for Greece. We had heard that the Germans began invading Greece on April 6th. On April 9th we boarded another Dutch transport ship, the Pennland, a sister ship of the Westphalia, and set sail for Athens the following morning. We were in convoy with two other ships and were escorted by two cruisers and three destroyers. A bomb raid by high-flying Italian aircraft caused no damage but it gave us quite a scare.

ATHENS 

13 Apr 1941 

We arrived in the Athens port of Piraeus and disembarked on Easter Sunday morning. This was exactly two months after leaving Fremantle. Allied forces had already been fighting in Greece for a month. My Brigade, the 17th, was under the command of Brigadier Parrington, a British officer. Its three infantry battalions were the Australian 5th, 6th and 7th. Its support units were a mix of Australian, New Zealand and British troops. We were in the last convoy to arrive in Greece.

Upon arrive, the infantry battalions were sent by rail to a destination north of Larissa where they were assigned to defend the mountain passes in that area. Our group now called a ‘composite company’ were taken to a camp at Mount Hymettus on the outskirts of Athens. Our first job was to dig slit trenches for shelter in the event of an air raid. The ground was hard and stony and enthusiasm was lacking – at first. The arrival of a bullet riddled staff car and a chat to the driver caused us to have a re-think. The following day we experienced out first air raid. Needless to say we hugged the bottom of our trenches when some bombs fell close by. 

This photo was taken by a street photographer. Kevin had to pay ‘up front’ and call back in the afternoon to collect the print. He never really expected to see the photographer again and was pleasantly surprised when he emerged from a crowd of people with the photo in his hand.

15 Apr 1941 

I enjoyed six hours leave in Athens with several others and managed to visit most of the famous Greek tourist icons including the Acropolis and the Parthenon. We fraternised with the locals who were very friendly.

17 Apr 1941 

A strong rumour circulated that our group of about 60 was about to be sent to the Athens aerodrome to defend it from an attack by German parachutists. This did not sound very appealing to me so when an officer visited our camp seeking 14 drivers, I was one of the volunteers. We were taken to a motor pool and I picked up a one-ton Morris truck. We collected ‘walking wounded’ from a casualty clearing station and took them to a hospital ship at Port Piraeus, about 12 miles from Athens. After lunch a Captain, a Lieutenant and I took a load of food out to one of the aerodromes. On the way back I had my first taste of coming under fire. A German aircraft strafed and bombed us. A piece of flying debris cut the back of my hand. I began to review my decision to volunteer for this job.

18 Apr 1941 

I was given general driving duties which included setting up supply dumps of fuel, food and ammunition for the retreating infantry. This continued for about a week. At times we back-loaded lightly wounded soldiers to various casualty clearing stations. We slept in our trucks at our base in suburban Athens and initially survived on bully beef and biscuits. We then we approached our civilian neighbours to cook for us. They agreed and the food was served in generous quantities. It was the best tucker I’d had since leaving Australia.

26 Apr 1941 

The rate of the German advance had stepped up a notch and was closing in on Athens. Lacking resources such as air cover, artillery, and naval support, the brass decided to evacuate all Allied troops to Crete, embarking from the city of Kalamata. We joined a large convoy of trucks and drove south. My vehicle was full of soldiers I’d collected late in the afternoon. They had become separated from their units in the prevailing confusion. After travelling on narrow unsealed roads and through mountainous terrain, our only guide was the dark shape of the truck ahead. It was a bit scary at times. 

The approximate route taken from Athens to Kalamata - approx 250 km

KALAMATA 

We eventually arrived in the port town of Kalamata on the Peloponnese Peninsula. We saw units of the 17th Brigade moving towards the beach but were unable to join them. Instead we were told to destroy our trucks and wait until tomorrow night when the boats would be here again.

Swinging The Banjo

The Klagenfurt Camp was built by wealthy construction contractor, Adolph Rabaul, a relative through marriage to Adolph Hitler. It occupied an area of about five acres in the suburb of Waidsmandorf. Barracks lined two sides of the perimeter, each with six rooms referred to as huts. Each hut contained bunks for up to 20 men, two tables and a pot belly stove. The camp was built for 240 prisoners. The third side was the kitchen (called the cookhouse) and a mess hall. In the middle of the compound was an ablution block with cold showers and wash troughs. A 10-hole septic tank occupied the fourth side of the camp. 

The camp itself was surrounded by a double barbed wire fence. There were four watchtowers equipped with searchlights. Another building was the camp hospital which was equipped with 12 bunks. The German guards were quartered in a building at the camp’s entrance. There was an adjacent POW camp that he French prisoners of war. I am unaware if there was any fraternisation between the French and Allied soldiers, but I known that prisoners from both camps worked together on at least one work party, the one the one where Michael Cister lost his life in 1944.

The above information was extracted from Kevin Byrne’s memoir which also included a sketch of the camp layout from which I constructed the diagram below.

While the work camp was home to 10029/GW Allied POWs it also housed POWs on other work party contracts from time to time (possibly even for the duration). Men from 10066/GW was one such group.

The POWs in the Klagenfurt camp were deployed on Adolph Rabaul’s contracts, but sometimes were sub-contracted to other contractors. Kevin's work party was digging foundations and trenches by hand with a shovel. He called this “swinging the banjo.” He also did snow clearing, pipe laying, and unloading coal at the local railway junction. His last job was on a furniture removalist's van. And of course, like most of the men who interacted with the local population, Kevin became fluent in the German language.

Swinging the banjo

From left: Kevin Byrne (sitting in pipe) , C Browne, Chas Endacott, Colin Morris, Herb Adcock, Dave Adams, Ron McGlashen

Bahnbetreebswerk Party. Jul 1943. Back: Frank Woolmer, ‘Froggie’ French, C Mitchell, Kevin Byrne. Front: Gordon Walker, Ted Morgan, Charles Wood, Dick Duggan. Henry 'Froggie' French was killed in the 19 Feb 1945 bomb raid.

Waterworks Party, 1943

Stadtbaum Work Part: Rod Lymburn, Cliff Crouch, Frank Hawkins, Tug Wilson, Jock Spoor, “Churchill”, Eric Marland, Fred Mann

Profiles

Driver Albert Freeman 

Royal Army Service Corps (photo: Stalag 18A website)

Private Henry Charles Edward Macauley (photo: Stalag 18A website). 

Known as Charlie, he was born in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, on 27 Nov 1913. Charlie was a driver with the Australian Army Service Corps. He died in Sydney on 4 Aug 1979 aged 65.

A file on Charlie's service records contains the following quote: "German troops split us and shot the Greek help I had." In the escape, Charlie said he was accompanied by 'Frank' Hickey. This man was Ronald Francis Hickey, a fellow member of the Australian Army Service Corp. Frank was killed on 18 Oct 1941. Charlie's daughter said that "he was on the run and in hiding from the Germans and the Bulgarians in the north of Greece ... where he witnessed atrocities committed against the Greek people. Up in the hills in the north of Greece he had incredible support from some villagers, who were hiding and feeding him at great risk to themselves."

Charlie was among the prisoners who were marched to Stalag 18C at Markt Pongau in March and April 1945. Markt Pongau was in the Salzburg redoubt, 168 kms north of Klagenfurt.

Private Ian Lipsett 

Ian Lipsett was born 1 Sep 1915 in Albury, New South Wales. He lived at Jindera, a small town on the city's outskirts. He enlisted in the Army at Wangaratta, Victoria. He was an infantry soldier with the 2/8 Battalion. Postwar, Ian married and lived in Port Kembla, NSW. He died in Woolongong, NSW on 3 Jan 1991 aged 75.

Private Ronald John McGlashen

Ron was a member of the New Zealand's Second Division

Lance Corporal Donald Thomas Henry Winter

Don was a signalman with 1 Corps Sigs in the Australian Corps of Signals and was captured in Kalamata. He was born in Sydney, NSW on 24 Feb 1920 making him the third youngest soldier in the camp. He enlisted in the 2nd AIF in Albion, Queensland when he was 19. Don played trumpet in the camp orcheatra. Post-war, Don married and was employed as a linesman. He lived in the Brisbane suburb of Chelmer. He died 17 Aug 1962 in Brisbane. He was 42.

Empire Games

Sundays were rest days. The mornings were devoted to housekeeping and the afternoons to leisure. To keep themselves occupied constructively, the MOC established committees to arrange sporting events, especially in the warmer months. The events were often built around national teams. Scotland, Wales, England, New Zealand, and Australia fought out battles on both the football pitch and the cricket ‘oval.’ The annual athletic carnival was called the Empire Games.

The POWs were paid 8 pfennigs a day for their labour - a requirement of the Geneva Convention. Wages were sometimes pooled to buy sporting equipment but by 1943, the Red Cross stepped up. Kevin’s photograph collection featured several photos of sports games, all with players names printed on the back.

Back: Lofty Windsor, Alan Eason, L Wood, C Morris, L Eliott, Tiny Petersen, R Thorpe, W Cassidy. Front: G Conyard, G Nowells, M Thomas, S Pendlebury, Bob Behen, H Lanham, Don Winter.

Aussie Tug o' War Team. 1944 Empire Games. Standing: Roy Thorpe, Les Wood, ‘Tiny’ Petersen, ‘Lofty” Windsor, Sitting: Bill Cassidy, Jock Nowell, Alan Eason, Mick Thomas, Les Eliott.

Stan Pendlebury (Australia) finishing first in the 75 yards sprint. Aug 1944 Empire Games.

Australian footbal teamBack: John O’Malley, Lofty Windsor, Rob Adams. Middle: George Richardson, Ted Bradburn, Alan Eason. Front: Eric Green. 1943. Alan Eason and Eric Green were killed in the bomb raid on 19 Feb 1945.

Cricket Match Scorers, June1944. Back: Harry Mitchell and ‘Dixie Colebrook Front: Bill Cassidy, Taffy Griffiths and Jock McGechie.

The Football Final drew a big crowd.

Not all were serious. "Our Girls" Football Team, May 1943. Back: Leo Turton, Len Chadwick, John Dawson, Pat Kershaw, ‘Darkie’ Reynolds. Front: Ken Kewel, Don Michie.

Novelty Football Match. 26 Dec 1942. Australia vs Scotland. Australia: A Anderson, AH Smith, F Welch, D Duggan, John Burrows, F Murray, J Holman, Chas Lawrence, Scotland: R Porter, James Coid, J Whittet, Les Scott, W Sutherland, Angus McDougall, A McNeill, Stan Summers. Johnny Dawson, GK Bisset. C May (umpire).

Profiles

From the photos below …

Wilfred Angus Bailey

Gunner Wilfred 'Bill' Bailey was a member of 2/1 Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery. He was born in Sydney on 23 Aug 1913 and enlisted on 7 Nov 1939. Post-war, Wilfred lived in Caroona, in central New South Wales. He retired to live in a war veterans home in Narrabeen. He died in Sydney on 7 Oct 1983 aged 70.

Robert Bartlett

Private Robert 'Kinder' Bartlett was a member of 28 Maori Battalion, New Zealand Infantry. Kinder played guitar in the camp orchestra.

William Jefferson Gilbert

Signalman William Jefferson Gilbert, Jeff, was a member of 1 Corps Sigs. Jeff was born in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote on 20 Aug 1919. He was one of the six men killed bin the bomb raid on Sunday, 19 Feb 1945.

Christmas 1942: Back: Kevin Byrne, Jack Holman, ‘Scotty’ McLeod, ‘Jeff’ Gilbert, ‘Lofty’ Windsor. Front: Fred Payne, R. Bartlett, Wilfred Bailey

John Holman

Private John 'Jack' Holman, 2/9 Battalion, lived in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield when he enlisted. Jack was born in Kent, England on 21 Jan 1906. Post-war he was a butcher in the Melbourne suburb of East Malvern. He died in Emerald, Victoria, in 1984, aged 78.

Alexander McLeod

Lance Corporal Alexander 'Scotty' McLeod was born 8 Jul 1908 in Glasgow, Scotland. He enlisted at Bondi, NSW in 1939. He was a member of the Australian Army Service Corps. No post-war records have been located suggesting that he might have remained in Britain after the war.

John Aubrey O'Malley

Private John O'Malley in the 2/11 Infantry Battalion. He was born in Geraldton, Western Australia on 16 Jun 1916. He died there on the 10 Oct 1980 aged 64.

Frederick C. W. Payne

Driver Fred Payne, was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps.

Edward Peake

Edward Peake, Ted, was a assigned at different times to both 10029/GW and to 11066/GW. Both work parties were in the Weidmannsdorf work camp in Klagenfurt. Before the war, Ted lived at Dairy House Farm, Ashley, Cheshire.

John Ernest Warburton

Private John Warburton served in the 2/11 Infantry Battalion. George was born in Brunswick Heads on 19 Apr 1915. Post-war, John farmed at Wokalup, WA. John died in Bunbury, WA on 13 Dec 1989. He was 74.

James Alexander Windsor

Private James Windsor, Lofty, 2/11 Battalion, was born in the Western Australian wheat-belt town of Northam on 30 Sep 1918. He was a member of the 2/11 Battalion. James was captured in Crete. He was single when he enlisted but married just before he embarked for the Middle East. James was killed in a motor accident on 20 Dec 1947, less than two years are being discharged from the army. He was 28. He left a wife and three children.

John O'Malley, Edward Peake and John Warburton, Jan 1942.

Kevin Byrne's Memoir - Part One

My army career began on August 5th, 1940 at the Caulfield Racecourse where the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) had established a Recruit Reception Centre. I had turned 21 the previous October and had been working for almost six years in Oaklands, a small town in the New South Wales Riverina. I was ready to move on. At Caulfield, we were kitted out with the basic necessities and uniforms. We also got some basic instruction in marching and parade drill.

This went on for three weeks after which we were sent to the Balcombe army camp on the Mornington Peninsula for basic weapons training. We were also inoculated in preparation for travelling overseas. In September, I was assigned to the advance party of 30 men to go to the 2/23 Battalion, which was located at the Albury Showground. Albury Grammar now occupies this site. The 2/23 was then renamed the 2/23 Training Battalion.

In WW1, the Australian army was called the Australian Imperial Force – the AIF. So when volunteers were called for to form a Division following the outbreak of WW2, it was called the 2nd AIF. The Battalions that fought in WW1 such as the 23rd Battalion (Albury’s Own) were called the 2nd 23rd but written simply as 2/23.

While at Albury I contracted the mumps and spent six days in the Albury Base Hospital then was given a week’s sick leave. My parents lived in nearby Wangaratta, so I went home to convalesce. When I returned to Albury, I found the camp almost deserted. The men formed the nucleus of the 2/29th Battalion and finished up in the 8th Division in Singapore and Malaya and eventually prisoners of war of the Japanese. The 70 or so men that remained in the camp – most had just returned from leave like me – were invited to put their names down for various units such as Signals, Engineers, Artillery, and Transport. I loved motor vehicles and didn’t hesitate to nominate the Australian Army Service Corps as a truck driver. My application was successful, and I was posted to the AASC’s Moore Street depot in South Melbourne,just around the corner from Victoria Barracks. I received driver training and got my army driver’s licence. Over the next four weeks, I spent much of my time ferrying new army trucks from the Ford Plant in Geelong to Port Melbourne from where they would be shipped overseas.

In mid-December we were ‘invited’ to put our name down for an overseas posting. I was out on a job at the time and later found that two of my mates, Jack ‘Bluey’ O’Brien and George ‘Aspro’ Aspden both put my name down. Bluey put it down for the 7th Division and Aspro for the 8th. The duplication wasn’t picked up and my name was down for both the 7th and the 8th. In the end, I was sent to neither. I was allocated to the 6th Division.

On December 20th, 1940, we were told we were going overseas and given 14 days pre-embarkation leave. Bluey O’Brien married Nora O’Keefe at Dookie the next day. I was best man. After spending Christmas with my family in Shepparton I travelled to Oaklands for a ‘send-off’ by the local Returned and Services League. A week or so after returning to South Melbourne, we were sent back to the Balcombe camp to prepare for departure. The 6th Division was fighting in North Africa, so I had a pretty good idea where we were heading. The Balcombe camp was a rather pleasant place save for the actions of a sergeant who had it in for me. He had wrongly accused me of being AWOL at South Melbourne and wanted to charge me. I sought a redress and won the hearing but that made his attitude towards me even worse.We completed our admin and wrote our Wills and finally we were ready to depart.

Man of Confidence

Arbeitskommando (work camp in English) 10029/GW, in the Klagenfurt suburb of Waidmannsdorf, held about 250 army¹ prisoners. The commandant and his guards were army soldiers, but men generally considered too old for active service. The camp was built and financed by a civilian contractor who used the prisoners as labourers². Their work ranged from digging drains, construction, and unloading coal to shovelling snow. All Klagenfurt’s prisoners were 'other ranks,' i.e. Privates, Lance Corporals or Corporals³.  

Each Arbeitskommando had a Vertrauensmann - a Man of Confidence - who was elected liaise between the POWs and the Camp Authorities⁴. In the larger camps such as Klagenfurt, the MOC was promoted to Sergeant by the POW hierarchy at Stalag 18A at Wolfsberg. At various times, the MOC had to be a leader, a diplomat, a mediator, a negotiator, an administrator, and a politician. The MOC, as the ranking NCO, also set the standards for military discipline and dress. This was a demanding role as he had no military authority apart from his rank and no peers to lean on. And not least because Klagenfurt was populated by soldiers from three different armies, British (about 40%), Australian (about 35%) and New Zealand (about 25%). This mix changed from time to time as POWs transitioned camps. An exception to the mix was South African Michael Cyster, a ship's galley boy from Cape Town.

Stuart Stubbings

The initial Klagenfurt MOC, an Australian, lost favour and an election was held to replace him. Another Australian, Corporal Stuart Stubbings, was elected and retained the position until the end of the war. Cpl Stubbings, born 12 Nov 1905⁵, was one of the older men in the camp. He was also a capable soldier having been awarded a MID in the Desert Campaign. 

Sgt Stubbings, second left (J Dowick collection)

Sgt Subbings with an eagle rescued by one of the POWs, wearing his favourite slippers (Ian Nowell)

Stubbings was somewhat of an enigma. He grew up in the tiny Tasmanian town of Sandfly (pop. 157 in 2011) with little in the way of formal education. He fell afoul of the law when still a teenager and served three months in prison for forgery and larceny. Ten years later he was charged with a similar crime, but the court found him not guilty. The men called Stubbings 'King' for his penchant for military pomp and ceremony⁶. Stuart died on Christmas Day, 1985. 

Geoffrey Skinner

Lance Bombardier Skinner, Royal Artillery, was born 16 Dec 1919. An Englishman, he was born 16 Dec 1919. Geoff was the camp clerk, a Corporal O’Riley (MASH) if you like, and a man who was an important support to the MOC. He was the keeper of records, crucial to the management and security of mail, Red Cross parcels and recreational equipment. In the camp he was a member of the theatre group and participated in sports events.

His selection for his role as camp clerk was genius. Although equipped with only a basic education, Geoff was intellectually gifted. While in the camp he had his family send him books so that he could sit for matriculation exams as soon as he was released. This he did. He passed his examinations and was accepted into medical school. He later became a pathologist in London. Geoff died in London on 22 Mar 2010 aged 90.

Footnotes

1.      Soldiers, sailors, and airmen prisoners were incarcerated by the respective service branch and were guarded by the German equivalent branch.

2.      Under the Geneva Convention, these ranks could be put to work whereas senior non-commissioned officers could not.

3.      Army corps sometimes had their own name for junior ranks. For example, an ‘private soldier’ Armoured Corps was Trooper (or Lancer in some regiments, Sapper in Engineers, Driver in the Service Corps, Craftsman in Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Gunner in Artillery, or Signaller in Signals. The British still used the rank Farrier in one of their Corps. Corporals in Artillery were called Bombardiers.

4.      The initial MOC at Klagenfurt was appointed by a senior NCO at Stalag 18A.

5.      Stubbings’ birth date was provided by a family member. His army records show he was born a year later.

6.      Jock Nowell's records.