YOUNGER GENERATIONS GROUP - 2/2ND PIONEER …



YOUNGER GENERATIONS GROUP - 2/2nd PIONEER BATTALION

NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 2009

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Editor: Jenny Davidson Assistant Editor: Sue Tovey

8 Alfred Street 1/14 Aenone Avenue

Highett Vic 3190 Noble Park Vic 3174

Email: jada1952@.au Phone: 03 95483586

Phone: 03 95845008

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Welcome to our August 2009 Newsletter.

I would like to introduce myself as the new editor and to thank Sue Tovey for all the time she has put into producing the previous editions. Due to health and family commitments Sue has decided to pass on some of the many tasks she has undertaken since the inception of the YGG.

If you are able to assist in any way please contact Jenny Davidson or Sue Tovey on details as above.

YGG - Mailing List

We now have close to 270 members on our Newsletter mailing list, isn’t that great!

If you know a relative of a 2/2nd Pioneer who may not be aware of our Group, please tell them about us and have them contact Sue Tovey to be added to the mailing list.

Each time we send out our Newsletter some are returned ‘Not at this Address’. If you move house please advise us of changes to your contact details.

As the YGG operates completely on donations and fundraising (raffle) at our annual function, if you would like to assist with a donation it would be gratefully received. Our intention is to acknowledge any letters/notes received in future Newsletters.

Also if you have any special messages you would like to pass on to other Members please forward them to either Sue or Jenny and we will also include these in the Newsletter.

YGG Annual Excursion - Jells Park Picnic

Sunday 25th October 2009

Following a successful day at Jells Park in 2008 we have decided to meet there again this year for our YGG get together. This is where the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion used to have their annual gathering and we would like to rekindle the spirit of those family picnics. Last year was good, let’s make this year great! Come along and enjoy the socializing and share in a fun day with a picnic or bbq lunch together with other YGG members and their families.

Date: 25th October

Time: 11am onwards

Location: Jells Park South - Oaks Picnic Area

Ferntree Gully Road entrance

Wheelers Hill

Melways Map 72 A9

Copy of Park Map attached

The facilities in the Oaks Picnic Area include -

- car parking close to picnic tables and rotunda

- free electric bbqs

- play equipment for children

- toilets close by

This is our major fundraising event for the year so please mark it on your calendar now and come along to support the Group.

If you require further details please contact -

Jenny Davidson phone 03 95845008 or email jada1952@.au

or

Sue Tovey phone 03 95483586

2/2nd Pioneers Website

The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion now has a website,

Although still a work in progress, the website is up and running with over 78,000 hits already since 24/04/2009.

There is a "Contact us" page for sending information / enquiries and an "About" page for helpful tips on how to get the most out of the website.

Some of the other pages are:- history, photos, soldier's profiles, soldier's stories, timeline, memorials, can you identify, maps, documents, Younger Generations Group, events, visitors and a notice board. There is comprehensive crosslinking within the website so that visitors do not have to search through the pages for connected / relevant information.

Also, any researcher of soldiers from other units will benefit from the "Glossary" page with its information about Abbreviations, Awards and medals, Geography, Medical conditions, Organisations, Ranks (Australian Army), Transport, Weapons and munitions. The "Resources" page provides direct links which were found useful developing the website and for additional research. Other websites such as the Shrine and the Military Historical Society (Vic.) have added direct links to our website.

The Younger Generations Group is seeking letters, photos, news clippings, information and stories relating to every man in the battalion. There are many of them because the Battalion was formed twice - the second time after most of the originals were taken POW in Java. The more accurate information we can gather, the more valuable our website will be as a Battalion history resource.

Please take a look at the site and if you can contribute to it in any way, or have any comments, do contact us.

Cary Sandell

Some Battalion History

Some details of 2/2nd Pioneer History were printed in our April 2007 newsletter and we have had a request to repeat the article.

Colour Patch:

-The triangular shape of the colour patch represents a Corp attached to a Division (in this case the 7th Division)

- Grey outer triangle represents World War 2

- Purple middle triangle represents Engineers

- White inner triangle represents Infantry

The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was formed in May 1940, with the intention that it should work as engineers with sufficient unskilled men for infantry purposes. Lt -Col NF Wellington MC VD was appointed as the first commander of the Battalion.

Our Battalion has a very unique place in Australian Military history, as it is the only one to have some 3000 servicemen assigned to it in WW2. The normal strength of a Battalion is 1000 men plus approximately 100 extra for reinforcement.

As a result of the capture, by the Japanese, of 865 men during their defence of Java in early 1942, the Battalion was reformed (brought up to strength) in May 1942.

The Battalion served in the following theatres of war:

- Syria and Palestine

- Java

- Burma-Siam (Thailand)

- New Guinea

- Tarakan

- Balikpapan

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Hand Knitted Scarves

Hand knitted scarves in Pioneer colours are available from the Ladies Auxiliary, if interested please contact Wendy Apostolopoulos on

03 93549559.

[pic]

Annual Reunion Lunch and

ANZAC Day March

A good representation of YGG Members attended the Association Reunion Lunch at the Fairfield-Alphington RSL and also marched on ANZAC Day.

Thank you also to our members who assisted by carrying the Banner in the March, it is great to be able to support the remaining Pioneers at these important occasions and also for many of us to represent our loved ones who are no longer here.

The March was followed by many families gathering together at the Waterside Hotel for lunch and more catching up.

Annual Pilgrimage

Again we had a good attendance at the Shrine of Remembrance on Sunday 14th June where Pioneers and family members gathered for the service remembering those of the Battalion who have gone before us. Members of the Younger Generations Group assisted Col Hamley with the service. At the conclusion we all moved on to the Shrine Café to hear a moving address by Ann Holland (daughter of the late Hal Gregson) followed by afternoon tea. Cary Sandell also had his computer set up to enable all present to view the new website he has set up for the Battalion.

For the past few years the address has been given by YGG Members with them passing on recollections about their Fathers, Uncles or Grandfathers who all served with the 2/2nd Pioneers. For all present it is a moving experience to hear these recollections being expressed so lovingly by these family representatives.

If you are interested in presenting an address on your Pioneer at a future Pilgrimage please contact Sue Tovey.

Shrine Address by Vincent Arnel on 17th June 2007

My Poppy was George Charles Jackman, born 2nd April 1921. His early life was hard. His big sister was sent away when he was 3. He never saw her again but he never forgot her.

Not long after that his mother was killed. He and his younger brother John Henry (Skeeta) became unwanted children. At the age of 4 years Poppy was looking after his baby brother on the streets, begging for food from the men at the local pub, until they came to the notice of the authorities.

They went into foster-care with Louise and Jack Edmunds. “Aunty Lou” became the mother they needed and they loved her. She was also the aunty of my Nanny, Doreen Turnbull. Poppy met her and when he was 8 years old he declared “One day I’m going to marry you!” She didn’t think so and told him quite forcibly.

When Louise died in 1936 there was no shortage of people who wanted Poppy, but no one wanted Skeeta, who was a bit of a handful.

So the boys wouldn’t be separated, Louise’s sister, Elsie Turnbull (Nanny’s mum) took them. They became “her boys”. Once again they had someone who loved them and they loved in return.

When war broke out Poppy wanted to do his bit. One day when he was at work as a cabinet maker he hit his thumb with a hammer. Throwing aside the hammer he declared “Bugger this! I’m off to join the army!”.

He became Private Jackman VX21519 on 4th June 1940. He had put his age up to enlist without parental permission. He became a member of the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, B Company.

When he later found out that Skeeta had done the same thing, enrolling with a different battalion, he had him seconded to the 2/2nd Pioneers so that he could look after him.

Poppy complained about marches in full kit that he went on during training and about greatcoats that itched and were damned heavy when wet.

He was sent overseas and fought in Syria. This left him with two life-long hates…he never wanted to see snow or sand again. Every time he went to the beach he complained about sand in his toes. Taking his children to the snow was out of the question.

His Company took part in the decisive battles around Damour which was a major factor leading to the Vichy French seeking a truce. He went on to Java, where along with so many others he was made a POW on 8th March 1942, then became part of the labour force building the dreaded Burma Railway.

He spoke little of this time to his children. Scant mention of the ship he was on being sunk. Sometimes he mentioned a time of walking through the jungle and having the biggest cobra in the world rear up. “It was thicker than my arm and the head was higher than mine”. Mum couldn’t believe snakes were that big and never wanted to see one.

He talked of the workers finding a dead elephant and one of the men trying to smuggle the liver back into camp under his hat, except that a Jap hit him with the butt of his gun and thought he had bashed his brains out when it oozed out and down his face.

He talked of the stupidity of Jap officers who used a bag of TNT to blow a stump out of the ground which left them with a huge hole needing to be filled in, or, of the time one of the Japs got sick of waiting for our men to dismantle the scaffold at one bridge, jumped up with a sledge hammer, knocking it around until he hit the king pin. It tumbled down, impaling and killing him. He talked of Uncle Skeeta who the Japs called ‘Mr Sleeps’ making fake women partners and doing dance turns in the camp concerts.

When he came home after being recovered in Thailand on 20th August 1945 he married his Doreen, as he told her he would do all those years ago. It was a busy life with 5 children to raise so he sometimes worked 2 jobs. In time they loved having visits from their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Poppy loved his family and his Pioneer brothers – the ones who came home, and the ones who did not. ANZAC Day was very important. He was so proud when he marched for their memory. We lost Poppy on 24th May 2001. His lungs were damaged by his time as a prisoner and he was not able to fight off the bacterial infection he got when working in the garden with Nanny. We honour him. He is greatly missed by us all.

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