Page 94 - moondani kyema
P. 94
ndani kyema, My Story - Ray Moore 94
Private Black up as he removed his clothes, much to his embarrassment and
everyone else’s amusement.
Another after-lights-out trick was for someone to come around in the dark just as you
were going off to sleep and whisper in your ear, “Want a piss?” The power of
suggestion had the effect of getting about 25% of the men out of bed again for the
twenty metre run across to the toilets.
In a debate which was organized by the Company Command, we discussed whether
“Country life was better than City Life”. Half of our company came from Richmond
and Hawthorn, and the other half came from Ballarat and the Western District.
Private Black argued persuasively that country life was better because they were
able to watch lantern slides from time to time in the Mechanics Institute to relieve
their boredom.
When we were drilling with our rifles over our shoulders, Private Black always looked
as if he was carrying his shovel over ploughed paddocks.
We were in the RAASC – the Royal Australian Army Service Corps. In other words
we were truck drivers and responsible for supply. We were “the man behind the
man behind the gun.” When the other 1400 National Servicemen went bush for a
two weeks’ bivouac, we stayed in camp and drove supplies out to them each day.
They were suffering out there on bivouac. The weather was rotten and they had to
sleep in small pup tents and were cold, wet and miserable most of the time. We,
however, slept in our warm tents back at the camp, and on the one or two occasions
when we had to stay in the bush overnight with them, we slept in the back of our
covered trucks in comfort.
The most painful experience of the three months was doing guard duty. The second
most painful experience was doing drill. H Company was the worst drill company of
the whole battalion. Guard duty however, had its compensations. I spent many
happy hours sitting in the moonlight talking with the one prisoner whom I had to
guard, and then later I wandered around to the mess hut. Here I found that our
“scrambled egg” had been prepared the night before for breakfast. It was made out
of reconstituted egg and resembled a large flat roasting dish of yellow jelly. It was
cold and would be reheated for breakfast. To compensate for this disgusting sight I
found a loaf of bread and a packet of butter and took them back to the Company
lines where I toasted the bread on the end of my bayonet at the open door of the
furnace which supplied our hot water.
The picture theatre at Puckapunyal had burned down a few weeks before we arrived,
so the movies were shown in an outdoor theatre on a hillside with a netting fence
surrounding it. It wasn’t hard to find a way under the fence and see some good
pictures free of charge. The only other entertainment was writing letters and playing
ping pong in the Salvo’s hall.
On a couple of occasions we arranged a raid of one of the other tents. Inside the
tents, each person had a bed with fold away legs, and a six foot cupboard beside it to
hang your great coat and store your rifle. The raid was carried out by the simple
means of all 25 of us from one tent, surrounding another tent in silence, and then at a
given signal pushing the six foot cupboard inwards and grabbing the end of the
Private Black up as he removed his clothes, much to his embarrassment and
everyone else’s amusement.
Another after-lights-out trick was for someone to come around in the dark just as you
were going off to sleep and whisper in your ear, “Want a piss?” The power of
suggestion had the effect of getting about 25% of the men out of bed again for the
twenty metre run across to the toilets.
In a debate which was organized by the Company Command, we discussed whether
“Country life was better than City Life”. Half of our company came from Richmond
and Hawthorn, and the other half came from Ballarat and the Western District.
Private Black argued persuasively that country life was better because they were
able to watch lantern slides from time to time in the Mechanics Institute to relieve
their boredom.
When we were drilling with our rifles over our shoulders, Private Black always looked
as if he was carrying his shovel over ploughed paddocks.
We were in the RAASC – the Royal Australian Army Service Corps. In other words
we were truck drivers and responsible for supply. We were “the man behind the
man behind the gun.” When the other 1400 National Servicemen went bush for a
two weeks’ bivouac, we stayed in camp and drove supplies out to them each day.
They were suffering out there on bivouac. The weather was rotten and they had to
sleep in small pup tents and were cold, wet and miserable most of the time. We,
however, slept in our warm tents back at the camp, and on the one or two occasions
when we had to stay in the bush overnight with them, we slept in the back of our
covered trucks in comfort.
The most painful experience of the three months was doing guard duty. The second
most painful experience was doing drill. H Company was the worst drill company of
the whole battalion. Guard duty however, had its compensations. I spent many
happy hours sitting in the moonlight talking with the one prisoner whom I had to
guard, and then later I wandered around to the mess hut. Here I found that our
“scrambled egg” had been prepared the night before for breakfast. It was made out
of reconstituted egg and resembled a large flat roasting dish of yellow jelly. It was
cold and would be reheated for breakfast. To compensate for this disgusting sight I
found a loaf of bread and a packet of butter and took them back to the Company
lines where I toasted the bread on the end of my bayonet at the open door of the
furnace which supplied our hot water.
The picture theatre at Puckapunyal had burned down a few weeks before we arrived,
so the movies were shown in an outdoor theatre on a hillside with a netting fence
surrounding it. It wasn’t hard to find a way under the fence and see some good
pictures free of charge. The only other entertainment was writing letters and playing
ping pong in the Salvo’s hall.
On a couple of occasions we arranged a raid of one of the other tents. Inside the
tents, each person had a bed with fold away legs, and a six foot cupboard beside it to
hang your great coat and store your rifle. The raid was carried out by the simple
means of all 25 of us from one tent, surrounding another tent in silence, and then at a
given signal pushing the six foot cupboard inwards and grabbing the end of the
