大象传媒

I was driven to the Street Railway Station in Melbourne in a troup transport. I had been supplied with a full kit for jungle fighting and a rifle. I was a member of the Royal Australian Engineers proceeding to fight the Japanese in Milne Bay. The train reached the border of Victoria and New South Wales at Albury. We were required to change trains as Victoria had 5'3" Irish gauge and New South Wales has 4'8" standard gauge. Finally after travelling through the night the steam train arrived at Central Railway Station in Sydney. We were then provided with a meal at a makeship canteen and marched to board a train for Brisbane the capital of Queensland. We travelled for 20 hours and arrived at South Brisbane Railway Station where the standard gauge line terminated. We were then loaded onto another troup carrier with our equipment and driven to Roma Street Railway Station where we were given a meal. Queensland has a rail gauge of 3'6" and we had to travel to Townsville 540 miles to the north. The train would take two days to complete this journey. We would be required to leave the train at various towns to be supplied with meals. The only good situation was that we were able to get a beer during the journey. When we pulled into towns in New South Wales and Queensland; Australian women passed food through the windows of the train. I believe they are the cream of women in the world. When we arrived in Townsville we had travelled over 1440 miles on four trains, over 5 days and we still had to sail to Milne Bay. We were loaded onto the troup ship with our supplies, weapons and equipment and we set sail escorted by two Royal Australian Naval ships. The weather was hot and steamy but the beer was cold and welcome. I believe that this was not a good introduction to war. I spent 2 years fighting the Japanese in New Guinea with American soldiers and the Australian Army.

Related by his nephew

Ian Edward Holmes

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