To Marlene John, the years her father spent in World War II are shrouded in mystery.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
When he returned to Australia after years as a prisoner of war in south-east Asia, he hardly spoke of the things he’d seen.
Reginald Wise, better known as Bowie, witnessed pivotal moments for Australia while serving in the 2/40th Battalion.
He was kept at Java and Changi, and then worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway.
Private Wise had been captured on Timor when his force of 800 men – mostly Tasmanians – was overwhelmed by 28,000 Japanese soldiers.
On a ship to Japan, later in the conflict, battalion members were caught up in an attack which involved the single largest loss of Tasmanian life in war, the sinking of the Tamahoka Maru.
Mrs John knew little of her father’s war, until she met former radio presenter Rod Stone.
“When she met me, she started hearing all of these stories,” Mr Stone said.
He has long recorded the memories of World War II veterans.
The project has grown more emotive the longer he’s continued it. Veterans have opened up to him about their experiences.
His own father, Ernie Stone, had survived the war and returned weighing 46 kilograms despite his height of 6’2”.
Bowie Wise and Ernie Stone would have known each other well, and endured the cruelty of their captors together. They eached returned to Tasmania. But their children only met last August.
Mrs John, whose father died in 1973, was looking for a place to donate the photographs he took and carvings he made during the war.
She found Mr Stone, and showed him two-up coins, photographs, and messages home she kept.
“To have all this stuff survive is quite extraordinary,” Mr Stone said.
Many items were lost in the war, and afterwards.
“Essentially because the men were always on the move, in one camp and out of another camp,” Mr Stone said.
He has contacted the 12/40th battalion, based in Hobart, offering the items on Mrs John’s behalf.
The photographs document Pte Wise’s journey to the war’s frontline. They show his training in Brighton, and the route from Melbourne to Darwin, via Shepparton, Adelaide and Katherine.
“It’s quite extraordinary he would’ve done a pictorial record like that.”
Mr Stone thinks he must have mailed his photos back home from Darwin, because none taken after then are in the collection.
Pte Wise, a cornet player, was a member of the only military band of all Australian battalions to leave the country in World War II.
While her father never shared his experiences of the war, Mr Stone can interpret the items in the collection for Mrs John. They say much about his time in the war.
“He’s still thinking of home, and in a recreational sense, he’s collecting the British coins from British soldiers,” he said.
Soldiers played two-up for food and clothing. One prisoner of war in the battalion went three years with a single boot. He had to wait for a man with the right sized foot to die before he got a second.
Clearly he would’ve thought always he was going to be coming home. He’s of a sort of mind that they would overcome all the obstacles.
- Rod Stone
“Those are the sort of things they would’ve been playing two-up for.”
Several carvings made from mother of pearl, found in Timor, tell most about Pte Wise’s character.
He carved it carefully into love hearts, and an Australian Army’s rising sun.
“That would’ve taken him hours and hours and hours,” Mr Stone said.
Time is something he had in plenty while a prisoner of war.
“Clearly he would’ve thought always he was going to be coming home. He’s of a sort of mind they would overcome all the obstacles.”
Other men may have fallen apart under illness, injuries or the beatings they endured.
“To have had the presence of mind to keep a collection of things in the hope he was coming home was just extraordinary.”
Hobart’s Lloyd Harding and Bridgewater’s Bill Russell are the two last known surviving members of the 2/40th Battalion.
Launceston’s last surviving member, Ron Cassidy, died recently.
It’s estimated one in 10 Tasmanian families knew of, or had a direct relationship with, a member of the battalion.
“I think that’s what in a cultural sense shocked Tasmania,” Mr Stone said.
He will send the items to the 12/40th Battalion’s Derwent Barracks soon, where it will be included in its new museum for people to view.