Ken O’Sullivan was just 17 when he enlisted in the army in 1941. He saw it as his chance to be a hero and he threatened his mother that if she didn’t sign his permission slip he’d go anyway.
The years from 1941-45 were life changing for Mr O’Sullivan.
He left his home in Williamstown for training across Australia before heading to New Guinea and then New Britain with the 42nd Landing Craft Company.
Now 91 and living in Bacchus Marsh, he quietly reflects on those days.
“It was the hardest time of my life. I lost quite a few friends. But we weren’t fighting all the time and there were good times, too.”
Mr O’Sullivan prefers to speak of his fondest memories – like he and his mates hiding coconuts and waiting for them to ferment so they could share a drink together.
And the time he asked his mother to send him whisky to sell to the English, which she did so by hiding in a loaf of bread.
But the most important thing that would continue to live on, he said, was the mateship.
“Mateship was do or die. You’d do anything, and I mean anything, for your mates,” he said. “We survived because of mateship.”
Mr O’Sullivan said he hoped young people would attend shrines and special ceremonies on Remembrance Day to help keep the stories and history alive.
Remembrance Day
It will soon be 96 years since armistice was declared – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – and hostilities ceased on France’s Western Front.
Next Tuesday, Bacchus Marsh and the rest of Australia will honour the Diggers who died in World War I (1914-18), pausing for a minute’s silence on Remembrance Day.
The Bacchus Marsh sub-branch of the Returned Services League will be selling poppy tokens, representing the Flanders poppies of France, until next Monday at the Village shopping centre, at Foodworks, IGA Darley and outside Westpac Bank.
Funds raised go to help veterans and their dependants through the RSL.
The Bacchus Marsh sub-branch will hold its traditional Remembrance Day service at 10.30am in the RSL Hall in Bacchus Marsh. Everyone is welcome.
