Anzac Day at Greenmount

[willie45]

The Anzac Day service at Greenmount, Queensland, is one of the smaller services around.
But what it lacks in quantity is made up for in quality.

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Guest speaker was Squadron Leader Troy Denley, Department of Defence. And an excellent speaker he was too.




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Every year there's less Diggers and more kids marching. There were only two WW2 Diggers present this year. My Dad, ex 2/9th. AIF, on the left, and his mate, Ron Allen, ex RAAF, on the right.




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Very much a community based service. The local scout group, two primary schools and the local council play a major role. Wreaths were laid by the Department of Defence, RSL, Toowoomba Regional Council, Scouts, Schools, Churches and the Public.




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My Great Uncle who served in the 5th. Light Horse is here on the WW1 section. My Dad's name is on the Cenotaph in the neighbouring town, Cambooya. It's always hard to keep composed while laying wreaths here, as my nephew Steve, who served in the RAN, always used to fly over from Perth to march with his Grandad, but tragically lost his life on the HMAS Toowoomba, four days before Anzac Day in 2011.




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My old Dad can barely walk now and needs two healthy grandsons to hold him up. But he still made it.

It's very inspiring to see the large and growing involvement by the younger generations, and Anzac Day is getting bigger every year around the Nation and overseas. There's a lot of hope for the future with kids like these around.

Cheers, Willie.

[sandgroper]

Willie, this is brilliant mate, this is what ANZAC day is all about.

[Glenn66]

Nice to see Coolangatta turned on a nice day for you, makes me a little homesick seeing the clear blue skies!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks for showing the pics. Great to see.

Up the ANZACS! Thanks for their sacrifice from the UK.

Cheers, Ade.

[willie45]

Different Greenmount, Glenn. This one's on the Darling Downs about 20 minutes south of Toowoomba on the way to Warwick. I'd forgotten all about the Gold Coast Greenmount until you mentioned it.

Cheers, Willie.

[Glenn66]

Out of curiosity, my Great Uncle Harold was 2/25 AIF

[willie45]

Glenn, your Great Uncle and my Dad would have landed at Balikapan on the same day along with a few thousand others.
Was he with the 2/25th. when they were at the Kokada Trail, I wonder.
Brave men, all of them, that's for sure.

Cheers, Willie.

[Glenn66]

Hi Willie, yes Harold was with the 2/25th from the get go, initially Egypt, Palestine, back to Egypt again then back to Australia to be trained up for the New Guinea campaign then finally Borneo. He passed away maybe 4 years ago now but throughout the years I could never coax more than a few snippets about his service out of him, he was a great fan of motorcycle speedway (which I used to do) and that was more or less all he ever talked about.

I know he was a corporal, a machine gunner and never got any awards but that's about it.

[willie45]

You really have to admire and respect those men who were in it from the start, Glenn. They did it hard over a number of years. My Dad was one of the younger blokes, and by the time he joined up, there was not such a great urgency for men. Consequently, he spent 18 months or so in training battalions and joined the 2/9th. as a reinforcement in Morotai, leading up to the 7th. division landings at Balikpapan.
There were quite a few new blokes there, as the 2/9th. lost about 2/3, killed or wounded at Buna. I remember my Dad telling me there was still an element of men at Balikpapan who had been in it from the start, at England, then Rats of Tobrouk, back to Australia, then Milne Bay, Gona, Buna, Shaggy Ridge then Balikpapan. They must have had great fortitude to stick it out that long.

When the war ended, they sent all the long serving blokes back home fairly promptly and amalgamated the battallions of younger men. All the younger 2/9th. blokes got absorbed into the 2/14th. with their younger blokes, and the 2/9th. was disbanded at Balikpapan. I take my hat off to your Great Uncle.

Cheers, Willie.

[Glenn66]

Thanks Willie, one of the few stories Harold told was on the Kokoda trail when they would get sent up the trail for either 2 or 4 weeks at a time (I can't recall exactly) and they couldn't ever take their boots off due to the constant fear of shelling and the last thing you'd want is a cut foot in those conditions so for the entire time in the line, 24/7 they'd have the boots on then when they'd trek down the trail after their stint they'd pull the boots and socks off and all the skin of the feet would come away with the socks.

Can't imagine blokes these days coping with that without crying about inhumane treatment.