With the outbreak of war things changed dramatically at home. In October 1939 Dad was on the reserve of officers and was called up and took command of the 13th Garrison Battalion at Port Kembla and in later years to take charge of Detention Barracks at Holsworthy New South Wales.
Mum became involved with an emergency Corp which fed the men on troop trains as they went through Moss Vale station. It happened at all hours of the day and night. Sisters Dorothy and Marion would go with her and also help. Mum and Dorothy also helped with the Church of England recreation hut which operated at the church. Mum made many friends there and received cards for many years after the war from one or two of the boys.
With loads of children at the primary school I helped dig and maintain slit trenches which were dug over the side of the hill where the school now stands. Fortunately they were never used.
Mum knitted socks and balaclava for the comforts fund while all of us would get involved helping to pack them. Don and I learnt to make camouflage nets from heavy twine which were used to cover stores and trucks.
After a couple of years Don failed a medical test so he went to work with an engineering firm in Sydney. Dorothy worked locally, Marion although very young went to work in a maternity home in Bowral and Elsie our baby sister aged 11 years passed away in hospital with Meningitis. The day she passed in March 1941 Dad received word of his promotion to Major.
I can still remember the primary school children each side of Waite Street as we left for the Moss Vale Cemetery.
Things were really hard for mum at this stage. She was heavily involved in charity work, dad away and children leaving home plus food and clothing rationing to contend with. I think the mums left at home had it really tough.
It was on February 23 1943 that I left to join the Air Force. Why the Air Force? I do not know but it was the first Service I could get into.
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