Extracts from
Laurie Cheeseman's Memoirs

Page 9

On arrival at Melbourne the troops were met by a fleet of private cars that took them on a procession through the city before delivering them to the Royal Park camp where they were addressed, no less, than by the AIF commander, General Thomas Blamey. 'After that we broke up for a fortnight's leave, and because of my forthcoming marriage, I was given an additional weeks "compassionate" leave. I headed straight for Wellington Parade, East Melbourne where Elsie was now living and working as a porteress on the Railways, then home to Walpeup for a few days to see my folks and prepare for the big event - our wedding day 25 October 1943'. Because of his extended leave Laurie missed the 17th Brigade's formal welcome home march which was held in Melbourne on 18 November. After honeymooning at Healesville in the Dandenongs, he reported back to Royal Park to find that his unit had left town. He and a few others took advantage of the situation to 'wrangle a few more days leave. It worked for a while but eventually I was put on a goods train heading north . . . a very slow trip but I eventually ended up at Greta camp near Singleton in NSW. The unit was there and the next day we were back on a troop train and moving back to Wandecla again, although this time staging at Townsville for a fortnight on the way'. Apart from a month at Cairns, where they undertook amphibious landing craft training, Laurie and his unit spent the next twelve months at Wandecla.

Members of the 2/2nd Field Ambulance during the 17th Brigade's march through Melbourne in November 1943 (AWM 060153).
Laurie, in the centre in the front, with other members of his unit at Wandecla on the Atherton Tablelands.

After spending a fortnight's leave in Melbourne towards the end of 1944, Laurie and his unit were sent to Bisbane where, with the rest of the 6th Division they were loaded onto ships and began to sail northwards. 'As usual we had no idea where we were heading and rumours flew thick and fast but generally the "strongest" ones were the most unlikely places, and we had a ditty that went: "Some say we're going to New Guinea, Some say we're going to Ceylon, Some say it is back to the desert, But Burma is six-to-four on!" As Laurie's memoirs describe, the ships were heading to Aitape in northern New Guinea:

The Aitape-Wewak campaign lasted until war's end with the division suffering 442 killed, 1141 wounded and over 16000 hospitalised with malaria and other illnesses, a heavy toll for what could in hindsight be considered an unnecessary action. Following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the commander of the Japanese XVII Army, Lieutenant General Adachi, surrendered to Australian forces at Cape Worn Airstrip at Wewak on 13 September 1945. Laurie was then back at Wewak and so was among those who were 'paraded at the edge of the air-strip to watch the Japanese Eighteenth Army sign the surrender document to General Red Robbie in charge of the Sixth Division. We had a quiet celebration, just a special issue of a couple of bottles of beer and more or less confined to barracks. The bomb had saved thousands of soldiers but on the other hand the consequences were frightening'. As a veteran with five years or more service, Laurie was entitled to be discharged from the Army first and so, a fortnight after witnessing the formal surrender, he and four other members 'said goodbye to the unit and went to the wharf by jeep where a motor boat was waiting to take us to a cargo boat and so it was goodbye to Wewak and the jungle for the last time'.

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