A piece on my father Fred Swallow, (1913-1982) who was a Bren Gunner in the Australian 6th Division - 19th Brigade - 2/8th Battalion. From his enlistment in Melbourne in April1940 he went to camp at Balcombe near Frankston for his "boot" training then across to Egypt on the troop ship "Christian Huygens". (Never been able to find a photo) Arriving in the Middle East, the 2/8th trained in Palestine and Egypt in preparation for its first campaign, against the Italians in eastern Libya. It played only a small role at Bardia (3-5 January 1941) but suffered the heaviest casualties of any Australian unit during the battle for Tobruk (21-22 January 1941), after having to attack a strong point constructed around a line of dug-in tanks. Dad was hit by an explosion from a mortar/shell and received three bullet wounds from machine gun fire when the fighting had supposedly finished for the day. He received horrific injuries from the mortar, Compound Fracture (hole in the skull) in which they embedded a metal plate, his nose was virtually blown off yet fixed with plastic surgery, fingers were shattered and repaired with wire and skin grafts and also received a huge amount of shrapnel wounds, most of the metal he took with him to the grave in 1982. As a consequence of his visual injuries, he was left in the field at first by the medics as he was thought to be dead and the later "burial detail" found him to be alive. He spent 4 months in hospital at El Cantara in Egypt: before being shipped back to Australia on board the "HMAHS Manunda" in June 1941. On his return from Egypt, my Uncle (Dad's brother) put on a welcome home dinner for family and friends and even made up a menu. He spent time in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and was classed as a 75% TPI however overcame many of those injuries to return to the work force, father 4 sons and retired from the Reserve Bank of Australia note printing branch in 1973 after 31 years. (He could not return to his cabinet making trade due to his injuries) Dad laid to rest in 1982 after 9 years of retirement.
Geoff, An amazing story, I am sure you are very proud of him. You mention the troopship Christiaan Huygens. The Dutch motor vessel Christiaan Huygens survived the Second World War, but was wrecked shortly after. On August 26th, 1945, when in the Scheldt estuary, 10 miles W.N.W. of Westkapelle, she struck a mine and began to sink. She was beached on the Southern Steenbank, but on September 5th, broke in two and became a totalloss. One person was killed. Here are some pictures of her: http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum/O.../Old Ships C/slides/Christiaan Huygens-01.jpg http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum/O...C/Old Ships C/slides/Christian Huygens-01.jpg http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum/O...C/Old Ships C/slides/Christian Huygens-02.jpg Regards Hugh
Thanks Hugh. I had not looked for quite a while. Now the over, there and back is complete. Cheers Geoff
