大象传媒

Approximately 70,000 women served in the various forces, relieving men who were themselves, sent to defend Australia from the Japanese Invasion. I was 19 years of age when I enlisted in the Australian Women鈥檚 Army Service for full time duty. I received three shillings and sixpence a day until I was 21, whereupon I received an increase of one shilling and sixpence to five shillings a day.
Tasmania is an island south of the mainland of Australia and as we were to be trained in Victoria at a Signals Training School, we had to cross the Bass Strait by ship. It was a treacherous voyage as it was often mined and patrolled by enemy ships and submarines. Later on, we were often lucky enough to fly across in Hercules transport planes. They could be very uncomfortable though as they contained no seating. We had to sit on our kitbags.
I completed my training in Victoria and was then posted to an Army unit in New South Wales. Being in the Australian Corps of Signals, we do not say what our work entailed but it was very exacting. We worked three days of eight hour shifts, from midnight until eight a.m. Three days from eight a.m until five p.m. and finally, three days from five p.m. until midnight. This was followed by a three day break. Being so far away from home, I only had home leave every six months and later when I moved to Queensland, it was every twelve months.
Whilst in the training camp, we had an unpleasant experience. An American serviceman was found in the area of our camp. Fortunately he was apprehended by our guards. He was then removed from the camp and later murdered a woman in a shop doorway. He was captured and hanged.
In some units we worked with, and on the same basis, as men but with less pay. However, in Queensland our camp was completely staffed by five hundred women. Administration staff, cooks, mess orderlies, hairdresser, Q-store personnel and pay clerks as well as the four shifts of Signals personnel. It was a very efficient unit.
I also served on the Atherton Tablelands in the very north of Queensland. A.W.A.S. were not permitted to serve outside Australia because we were not protected by the Red Cross, as were the hospital personnel. However, in May 1945 when the Japanese had been driven out of New Guinea, four hundred A.W.A.S. did go to the L.A.E. to do some vital work with them.
After peace had been declared, they were also utilised for secretarial duties in relation to the War Crime Trials. I was sent home on compassionate leave in August 1945 and as the war ended, I was then discharged.

Malva Langford.
Launceston. Tasmania.

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