“No one really wins a war” – World War II, 75 years on

SATURDAY, August 15 is Victory in the Pacific Day and the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

About 12,000 of the 1 million-odd Australians who served in the conflict are still alive today, with some of the veterans now residing in the Surf Coast.

Among them is Roy Cummings. Mr Cummings is now 94, but still able to recall his experiences in the Pacific with great clarity.

He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy in November 1944, on his 18th birthday.

Mr Cummings said the reason he enlisted was “the same as everybody else at that age”.

“All your friends are in the forces and you’re stuck out on your own waiting until you were 18 years of age.”

Almost immediately after he had completed his basic training he posted on the HMAS Kanimbla as a helmsman.

Mr Cummings said there was little time to adapt to his new life.

“Training in Flinders Naval Depot was very useful, but as soon as you get on board a ship it’s a very different atmosphere altogether.

“The first port of call was Morotai, it was the big assembling area in the pacific, so I was right in the thick of things right from the start.

“I didn’t have to wait a year or two to see new surroundings or new duties, so I learnt very quickly what was going on.”

Cummings was involved in three landings in Borneo. His ship was part of the first landing in Balikpapan, which Mr Cummings described as a “mini-Normandy operation”.

“Even though it was only a 12-month stint in the navy, it was pretty hectic from almost the first day. It was a baptism under fire.”

Torquay local Joan Sparkes experienced the war from a different perspective.

Ms Sparkes served as a quartermaster and was in charge of equipping the recruits at the recruit depot in Melbourne.

When the war finished, Ms Sparkes was transferred to Heidelberg Hospital, where many of the prisoners of war were treated when they returned.

Ms Sparkes said it was confronting to see the state of those who returned.

“They weren’t great memories – to see the boys coming back all wrapped in bandages,” she said.

“The first lot they brought out, they brought out by plane and were transferred by ambulance to the hospital. They were wrapped in old army blankets and had teeth missing and needed glasses and all that sort of thing. They were straight out of the PoW (Prisoner of War) camps.

“Even prior to that we had the boys coming out of Tarakan, and in Tarakan, the Japanese were up in the trees and they were shooting the soldiers from above, and they had a lot of bad injuries in their shoulders and backs.”

Despite only being in her early 20s when the war ended, Ms Sparkes decided a career change needed.

“I’d had enough of nursing by then.”

Mr Cummings came to a similar conclusion. Rather than stay on in the navy, when the war ended he took an early discharge and began the difficult experience of assimilating to society.

Ms Sparkes said it was difficult for those who did not go through the war to understand its effects.

“You don’t realise what it’s like unless you experience it. Us people lost those four years of our lives.

“No one really wins a war.”

A commemorative broadcast from the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne will be streamed at 11.20am on the anniversary. It can be viewed by heading to shrine.org.au/75th-anniversary-victory-pacific-vp-day.

The state government has also compiled a list of ways people can thank veterans. Head to vic.gov.au/activities-home.