“It was hell.”
Those three words were just about the lengthiest description I ever managed to get out of my grandfather about what it was like to fight in the Second World War.
He never really said much, did Grandpa, at least not to me. But we were close when I was a kid because he loved cricket and I was a pretty handy leg spinner back in the day. When I was about 13 my club team made the semi-finals, and I remember Gramps sitting in a folding chair just outside the boundary as I claimed six wickets in each innings. “Well bowled,” was his succinct appraisal of my match-winning performance.
It’s funny the way memories fade away over time though, because as much as I remember my grandfather with genuine fondness, I can barely recall a conversation with him that lasted more than a few words. He was born in 1916 and came from a generation of Australians who tended to keep their feelings to themselves.
I tried once, though, to talk to him about what he went through during the war. I was studying history at university at the time and fancied myself a primary researcher of implacable ability. “What was it like fighting over in the Pacific?” I asked him.
“It was hell,” he replied.
Pressed for some follow-up details, the only thing he said was: “a lot of my friends didn’t come home”.
I never really did much with that degree – what with jobs in the history factory being in short supply and all – and I realised then that asking people to discuss things they don’t want to talk about is more difficult than I’d imagined.
But I always remember visiting Grandpa on Anzac Day. When he was younger, he used to march in his local dawn service, until age slowed him and for a few years I began to march in his place. I asked him once or twice what his medals were for, but he always brushed off the question by telling me everyone got them.
(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
As the years went by and the number of veterans dwindled, my grandfather eventually stopped going to the dawn service. He was too old by then, and I got the impression he felt like he’d honoured his comrades as best he could.
But he never seemed to forget – especially on Anzac Day. Maybe that’s why just after lunch he’d pull the tab on a cold beer and sit down in his favourite chair on the back verandah. He’d be there for hours, only getting up to return to the fridge, until the sun started to set. Sometimes we’d have to go wake him and help him on his feet and back down the hallway.
My grandfather passed away aged 90 in 2006, having outlived many of his comrades by decades. His war medals were given to my Uncle Dave – my grandfather’s son-in-law – who served as a radar technician during the Vietnam War. Uncle Dave still lives near the Williamtown airbase that lends the Newcastle Jets their name.
Sadly I couldn’t attend my grandfather’s funeral, as I had just moved overseas and couldn’t make it back in time. I think about him often, though, usually around this time of year. On this solemn day we should probably think about all the Australian and New Zealand servicemen and women who serve.
I’m not sure how he would have felt about the A-League – “it’s good,” he’d probably say – but he surprised me once by pointing out the Socceroos had won their latest fixture. A man who once played cricket against West Indian great Sir Garfield Sobers was mostly just happy knowing his grandkids were too.
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
And that, surely, is the point of remembrance on days like today. No one wants to go to war. My grandfather certainly didn’t. But he served his country, just like my uncle, in the belief that doing so would help protect these shores and provide a decent future for their kids.
That’s why I’ll sink a beer in the sunshine and pause for a moment of quiet reflection today. Anzac Day will always mean something to me.
So to Maurice Elton Tuckerman, who served as a corporal in the Australian Army during the Second World War, and to all of Australia and New Zealand’s servicemen and women, past and present…
Lest We Forget.
Kevin Tuckerman
Guest
Thanks Mike. Fair to say I was a bit emotional reading this, but yes, Grandpa would never talk about his experiences. Lots of stories about when he came home on leave, but nothing about his 'war' experiences. Did you know he 'wrestled' while he was in the Service?
stu
Guest
Excellent post Lionheart.....and well received. Some events have changed over the years and morfed somewhat into legend with some grace added, this is true. I feel, however that there are sufficient numbers who want to totally re-write history....to cancel it if you like. The coming danger is that history is forgotten, cancelled. ignore history at our pearl.
chris
Guest
Nice story Mike. A moving tribute to your grand dad :)
stu
Guest
War.....justified? Unjustified? There are numerous head kickers in hindsight. Australia is considered a western liberal democracy, we understand this way of life and generally are comfortable with it. We identify threats from other groups with a hierarchical ideology most are not comfortable with. Generally our wish is to maintain our way of life over that alternative considered a threat. So what is the base line decission facing this country currently and in the future....I see no alternative but to support the only power that is able to preserve our form of democracy, the USA. If others feel we can go it alone, I would be keen to understand the reasoning behind it. PS......I should add that it is credible that Biden is the greatest threat to conflict with other nations. Strong men are needed, love them or hate them.
Nick Symonds
Guest
You might be interested in They Shall Not Grow Old by Peter Jackson. It's a bit graphic at times, but a very good film. TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrabKK9Bhds
Nick Symonds
Guest
"Time now to place Kokoda at the centre of our military history." - Half my mum's side of the family, almost every second one, have served in uniform since WW1 in a range of conflicts and campaigns either in combat or in support roles for the ADF. I don't think that any conflict or campaign should be put at the centre, they should all be remembered and studied with equal importance. As for fighting other peoples imperial wars, that will always be the case for Australia as long as we are strategically dependent on others. The only ways to avoid this are to either spend more on defence so we can defend ourselves independently, or to be neutral which has it's own risks. If you want to know more about all that, then a good place to start is by reading How To Defend Australia by Hugh White. But as long as militarist powers feel like they can gain an advantage by using or threatening to use force against others, we will need to defend against them.
Nick Symonds
Guest
ANZAC DAY NPL BRAWL Three people have been hospitalised after a wild brawl involving Rockdale Ilinden and Sydney United 58 with two suffering lacerations and a third being trampled. Flares and other objects were thrown and there was a report about a man carrying a pair of machetes, under investigation. I've never liked the idea of sport on ANZAC Day when petty things like referee decisions or match results turn people against each other for stupid reasons. That's how wars start in the first place.
jbinnie
Guest
DAN - Why Kokoda? This was a "holding" exercise to try and stop the Japanese from getting total control of the island. There is no doubt the lads sent there did a magnificent job in what was actually a retreat until more men could be despatched to New Guinea. When that finally happened the Japanese were given the first defeat of the war in infantry combat at Milne Bay, not somewhere up the Kokoda Track. And if you want to stick to the European theatre then the holding of Tobruk against the might of Rommel is a magnificent tale of Digger "performance". Cheers jb.
Indeed, Gallipoli had nothing to do with the defence of freedom. Time now to place Kokoda at the centre of our military history.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Oh please, what rose-tinted nonsense. Iraq, Vietnam and even the pre-federation 2nd Boer War were nothing to do with "defence of freedom" and all to do with advancing British and American foreign agenda. Even WW1 was hardly some noble defence of ideals against tyranny but rather an inevitable consequence of rival European imperialist powers becoming increasingly polarised and competitive.
John
Great reflection Mike.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
yes, and both the US and UK have held formal inquiries into why they went there, but no inquiry here. PM Howard has escaped scott free.
GrasssRoots Greg
Roar Rookie
Thanks Mike, my Pa was 16 when he found himself in France in WWI. As kids you never even consider talking to your Grandparents about their lives so I guess it is no wonder that they never got into the habit of talking about it. Because he lived well away from our home I rarely saw him more than once every couple of years so only found out late in his life that he had been fighting his own battle with the DVA about the effect he suffered from Mustard gas. He was only ever interested in to talking to the kids about kid things and sadly as an adult, I was robbed of the chance to talk to him about adult things. It is only now, in later life, that we regret these things. Cheers, Greg
Iraq? 1 million Iraqis killed. By any standards, that assertion requires historical revisionism of a monumental kind. My father, a WW2 vet, opposed the war for that very reason - it was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. And for many legal experts an illegal war.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Thanks Mike. You are rightly proud of your grandfather. I’m a veteran of 35 years plus another decade as a reservist, from 1971. Today is the first day for a few years that I haven’t attended a dawn service or march. My local dawn service was cancelled, there’s only a handful of vets in our RSL, several older ones have passed in the last year or so, and the association I march with (I’m a member of three) is not marching this year due to covid. Veterans have always honored Anzac Day in some way, often in isolation. As a serviceman, we never marched until fairly recently, unless you were a veteran, or you were detailed for a particular ceremony. I don’t recall politicians popping up all over the place like they do today. Not until 1990, the 75th anniversary of ANZAC, when they realised they could get some publicity out of it. A lot of publicity. I’m embarrassed these days, by our politicians when they stand up and ramble on, always overstating what Australia did, playing on the nationalism angle. They should only appear on ANZAC Day to apologize. ANZAC Day, for me, is a day to honor servicemen. Servicemen don’t start wars. They do what their country asks them to do. Whether they agree with the politics or not, they volunteer to fight for their country knowing they could die. I’ve lost many good friends during my time in the defence force, more than twenty without counting them, mostly in accidents, none to enemy action. They were all doing what they had been trained and told to do. My family has been fortunate with no close relatives lost during the major wars. Personally, I joined as Vietnam was ending and saw a couple of decades of peace, although I deployed regularly on disaster relief missions through the 1970s and 1980s in Australia and New Guinea, and supported other deployments around the world. I deployed to East Timor in 1999 and was meant to deploy to Iraq after that, but that’s another story. I have visited the WW1 battlefields in France and Belgium, and some in New Guinea and Indonesia and I have researched the stories of many veterans of WW2 in particular, but other wars too, airmen mainly. I hold them all in great respect. I feel sad when I see politicians at Gallipoli or in the Somme making grand speeches about nationhood and spending millions to attract tourists there. But ah, I best stop or I will spoil my day.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
A very well written and poignant piece. On behalf of all football fans who hail from the Mediterranean, let us also remember that there have been as many wars fought within the Mediterranean basin as there have been years in recorded history.
The Sports Lover
Roar Rookie
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” Writing about war or appearing to be glorifying combat always brings the risk of criticism from well meaning pacifists. Which always brings me to quote above, attributed to Rudyard Kipling on learning of the death of his beloved son in the trenches of France.
Honest Max
Roar Rookie
I like this story. Thanks for posting it. But.... lots of people want to go to war. Most soldiers do. It’s weird but true. And voters seem to like it too. The commercialisation of ANZAC Day, perhaps soon to be known as “Digger’s Christmas” is just painful and sad. Dan Carlin’s exceptional podcasts might be the best way to appreciate what the ‘hell’ you that the veterans mentioned. Anyway, Australians will keep voting for political parties that comtinue sending people to fight in wars that aren’t winnable and have nothing to do with Australia like they always have done. Has a single politician ever been held to account for the dead Australians? Maybe this one day of pretending to care about the cannon fodder washes away the guilt from 364 days of indifference. I’m going to bed.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Lest we forget
Chopper
Guest
I went to the dawn service this morning and one poignant point that will stay with me forever is that Australia has never been to battle to conquer any country but we have been to war to defend freedom. Over two million Australians have worn the uniform of this country in defence of freedom since Federation.