大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Tom Rostron and has been added to the site with his permission...

Tom Rostron was born in Ramsbottom, Lancashire in 1918. One of six children, his father was a yarn merchant and had no immediate contacts with farming. It was Tom's dream from an early age to be a farmer and have a place of his own; this dream was partially inspired by helping some farming relatives who farmed near Colne. He spent many holidays on their farm helping to milk, haytime etc.

His first job at 14 years old was a clerk come tea boy at the local cotton mill in Ramsbottom. Tom was a bright lad and his short education included Latin and bistory of a standard only encountered at university today. Keen that he should understand the science of agriculture his father arranged for Tom to spend two years at the Harris Institute, Preston to study modern methods of Farm Husbandry and Dairy Practice. He worked on farms across Lancashire to gain experience and had begun to consider life in Canada as a lumberjack to earn enough to fulfil his dream when in 1937 he heard of The Empire Settlement Scheme. Designed specifically for young single people in their late teens with suitable skills to help build 'under-developed' Australia. They would be chaperoned on a free passage, accommodated and relocated to suitable work places on arrival. Several hundred young people including Tom were gathered in Y.M.C.A. hostels in London and briefed on their expected behaviour before setting sail on March 25th.1939 for the six week passage to Australia.

On reaching Australia those interested in farming spent a few weeks at a farm school before heading off to their allotted placements. They were so impressed with Tom's knowledge here that they actually offered him a teaching post there and then. Tom turned the offer down as the lure of adventure and the 'outback' beckoned. He worked on fruit farms, shearing outfits, dairy and tobacco farms travelling over 400 miles by bicycle within the first twelve months of his arrival. However news was filtering through by May 1940 that the Australians were being called up to assist in the War in Europe which by 1941 was to spread to the Far East. Back in Britain Tom's elder brother had joined the R.A.F. and one of his sisters the Land Army. As it was impossible to return home he felt he should offer his services to the Australian Army. Just days before his 21st birthday he boarded a train from Tenterfield, a remote outpost in Queensland where he had been working on a fruit farm and headed for Sydney, New South Wales to enlist.

New battalions were being formed by Australian Officers who had served in the First World War. One of these new battalions was to be called the 2nd/2nd Machine Gun Battalion and would eventually become part of the famous Ninth Division mentioned in dispatches by Winston Churchill. This battalion formed on 3rd May 1940 was Tom Rostron's choice as each soldier would be kitted out with a Vickers Gun, notoriously efficient and manufactured in Britain. These guns weighed 331bs but in use weighed 4Olbs as they were cooled with water. The support tripod a further lOlbs. Each soldier would be fully responsible for his gun and parts were very difficult to replace if damaged or lost. Tom joined a platoon named C Company amongst men who had managed sheep stations, overland drovers, stockmen, bushmen and kangaroo hunters, all expert axe men and riflemen.

Each Company of men were to form lifelong bonds that would never be shaken. They trained in the Blue Mountains in the coldest weather and up in the Atherton Table Lands in the hottest to be able to withstand any temperatures they may have to encounter. Eventually called up for action they sailed from Sydney to Palestine on His Majesty's Troopship Aquitania picking up a further battalion at Freemantle. They joined a convoy of troopships, H.M.S. Ajax, R.M. Queen Mary and S.S Dominion Monarch. They had their last days leave in Columbo before reaching the Red Sea a month later. They arrived as bombs were being dropped on Port Suez in searing temperatures. They were transported by rail to Khassa. After a short duty they were route marched and moved by train to Egypt and the Western Desert. They were to guard Syria against a German attack from the Balkans, Turkey or from across the Caucasus Mountains from the Russian Front.

They spent many nights and days dug shoulder deep into the sand with an allowance pint of water a day! They were issued with sponges brought out especially from Australia the idea being that overnight the sponges gathered enough dew to wash their faces and save their precious water for drinking. Tom, against the rules kept a diary which he buried each day away from his person so that should he be shot his diary would not be found on his person. The battalion backed up the British Troops and were instrumental safeguarding the important port of Mersa Matruh where all supplies and extra equipment was shipped in from Britain. After several months and various moves throughout Eygpt, the Gaza Strip and the Holy Land, the second/ second Machine Gunners were to be sent to back to Syria and the Lebanon. Here they experienced torrential rain and snow. Eventually they ended up in November 1942 dug in at El Alamein for the main assault. The 2nd/2nd Machine Gunners lost 73 men. The Ninth Australian Division lost 20% of the 13,560 killed. The support of the Australian Army was spelt out by General Sir Harold Alexander at a march past at Gaza Airport in December1942 who quoted 'they had shown remarkable courage of toughness, tenacity and blazing courage on the right of the line

In January 1943 11,000 Australian troops returned home on great liners like the Queen Mary, the Ile de France, Aquitania and many more. They arrived in Sydney to a 'ticker Tape' welcome and two months well deserved leave knowing that their next tour of duty would be to face the Japanese in New Guinea. Intensive training of a different kind prepared the 2nd/2nd Machine Gunners for the tropical conditions of New Guinea. The operation to take New Guinea and Borneo back from the clutches of the Japanese was incredibly difficult and dangerous. The Australian troops were the best suited to the type of warfare they were about to encounter but it was sheer 'hell'.

From the moment they disembarked from the troopships onto light landing craft they were bombed by the enemy. Different Companies and platoons were draughted to the hundreds of islands that make up the whole of this region. Snake infested swamps, mosquitoes, monsoon rain and thick mud slides claimed many lives and demoralised the others. Daily living was fraught with fear. Rations were desperately scarce and the men were only allowed two ounces of flour meal a day! Collectively they took turns to bake bread at night in order not to alert the skilful Japanese snipers. By doing this they could allow each man a slice a day! Little by little the troops inched their way through thick jungle alongside their American counterparts.

They were desperately short of ammunition and fighting an unseen enemy - an enemy that used stealth and a knife as his weapon, whilst all day long airborne 'dog fights' screamed overhead. Still in C Company and now promoted to Sergeant, Tom Rostron was on Labuan Island just off Brunei in August 1945. His Company was supporting the 24th.Brigade and had a section in an outpost position above a railway cutting, where bombed rolling stock was standing. The cutting was off limits to the local civilians and troops who had to use an alternative route over the hillside. There was an enemy skirmish to ambush C Company's outpost and the machine gunners opened fire killing several Japanese soldiers. Later in the day Tom's best mate who had been with him throughout his six years with the 2nd/2nd Machine Gun Battalion lead a foot patrol out to see what was going on when he was picked off by a single sniper just two weeks prior to August 15th when the Japanese surrendered. Until this point C Company had had a remarkable record and for Tom his death has been a lifelong sadness.

The final days for the Australian Army in Borneo and New Guinea were spent preparing reception camps for the released Japanese Prisoners of War and caring for the internees prior to them returning home. They were visited by Lord & Lady Mountbatten during their time on Labuan Island. In February 1947 the Australian Machine Gun Battalion. A.I.F. ceased to exist - its work complete, but those who spent between five and six years of their young lives together have remained in touch with friendships cemented for ever.

Tom Rostron returned to England in 1947 to the delight of his family in Ramsbottom. Whilst working as a farm manager in Warwickshire, he met his wife Mary and they have farmed at Barnacre, Garstang, near Preston for over 45 years until he retired to live at Bilsborrow. Since their marriage Tom & Mary's home has been 'open house' for all Tom's Machine Gunner's, their wives and families. Their children, and children's children have experienced warm Australian hospitality.

In 1999, Tom and Mary went back to Australia and Sergeant Tom Rostron marched on Anzac Day in Brisbane alongside his old comrades of the 2nd/2nd Machine Gun Battalion proudly showing his medals of gallantry and wearing a red 'Lancashire' rose. They retraced Tom's steps and met up with folks who remembered him as the 'English boy'. Whilst there his amazing story was reported by the national media.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.