A RIVERLAND woman said she received the biggest surprise of her life recently when her husband’s World War II slouch hat was found and returned to her.
On June 18, members of the Australian Army met with Gwen Nagel, of Barmera, to present her with the hat, which belonged to her husband Roy, almost 80 years since he had been separated from it.
Mrs Nagel said the slouch hat “meant the world” to her husband and his brothers-in-arms.
“They had a song in his battalion, ‘It’s just a brown slouch hat with the side turned up and it means the world to me’,” she said.
“Roy said to me that the only thing that he really wanted was his brown slouch hat, but I forgot about it because I thought him thinking about it was only going to stress him out.
“He often used to mumble to me ‘If I just had my brown slouch hat’.”
Mr Nagel enlisted with the Army in 1939, joining the 2/10th battalion of the Australian Imperial Force.
While in the Middle East, Mr Nagel was injured in an explosion, causing severe spinal damage and leaving him in a plaster cast that covered from just below his shoulders to his knees.
At the end of 1941, Mr Nagel was discharged from the Army on medical grounds and returned to Sydney.
His belongings were packed up after he was discharged and shipped back to Australia and had not been seen since.
Mr Nagel passed away in 2016 at the age of 101, having never recovered his hat.
Mrs Nagel said members of the Army contacted her earlier this year, hoping to return some of Mr Nagel’s belongings, nearly eight decades after he had been discharged.
“When the coronavirus came around earlier this year, they started to have some idle time on their hands, and they started to go through some of the old boxes,” she said.
“They first called me back in February, but I didn’t believe them so I ignored it… and at that time I had enough on my plate because I had just found out that I had lung cancer.
“Then a sergeant called me up and asked me if I was still living in Barmera, and told me that they’d found Roy’s belongings and that they’d like to come and see me.
“I told my daughter, and she told me if I believed that, I’d believe that pigs fly.
“They called me from Adelaide early on Thursday morning and told me they were on their way.
“It was the biggest surprise of my life, I was bawling my head off.
“I just never thought we’d see the hat again… and I didn’t think they’d actually come.
“When they gave it to me, I held the hat to my heart and I cried and cried.
“After they’d gone I stood up, still crying, and I said to Roy, ‘Here it is, it’s back home where it belongs, and if you’re up there and you believe me, give me the biggest wink you’ve ever given me’, and he did with a smile all over his face.
“It’s a miracle – that is what you call a miracle to have it show up after all this time.”
The soldiers spent five hours with Mrs Nagel talking about her husband and his service during World War II.
“The commanding officer was carrying it over his heart when he brought it in… the soldiers were as proud as I was,” Mrs Nagel said.
“I’m just so proud to think they’ve done this for Roy and his memory.
“He has had plenty of acknowledgement over the years, but this was worth more than all of it.”