BARMERA’S Gordon Bartlett was just 17 years old when he, against his mother’s wishes, made the decision to enlist in the army in 1942, during the height of World War II.
Seventy-eight years later, Mr Bartlett, now 95, was one of only 12,000 Australians who received medallions last month recognising the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.
Mr Bartlett, who was serving in Bougainville when Japan surrendered to the allies in August 1945, said he had mixed feelings about receiving the medallion.
“It’s a funny feeling,” he said.
“I still don’t think I deserve it, but then I’m part of the mob I suppose.
“I try not to remember it too much; I want to forget.”
Mr Bartlett, whose father served in Gallipoli during World War I, said he initially joined the Adelaide Steamship Company to assist with the war effort.
“I wanted to be a seaman and I wanted to see the world,” he said.
“So, when the AMS Manunda got bombed they called for volunteers to take the Manunda back as a hospital ship… and I put my name down.
“I went in and said to Mum, ‘I’m going to America’ and she asked how come, and I said I put my name down to go back with the hospital ship and she told me I was too young.”
After working in the merchant navy, Mr Bartlett and several friends made the decision to enlist to go to war.
“We all used to drink at the Colac Hotel, and about four or five of my mates were down and I said I was going to join the navy,” he said.
“We all went down together and the navy didn’t want me because I had flat feet, and the air force didn’t want me because of my education because I left school in year 4, so I joined the army.
“Within two or three days (of enlisting) I was off to Cowra.”
During his time in Bougainville, Mr Bartlett served as an engineer and helped maintain supply lines.
“We were one of the most important parts of the army because it is like a car – if you’ve got no petrol it won’t go, and if you don’t have food or supplies, you can’t go either,” he said.
“We were virtually a must because we had to do the bridges and the crossings to get over the trenches to keep up supply lines.
“We got hurt, the same as the (front-line infantry) did, but not mutilated like some of them did.”
Mr Bartlett said he and a group of mates were laying back one night when they made a discovery that helped turn the tide in the campaign.
“When we were laying back all of a sudden, we saw this light flick on in the distance and we didn’t know what it was but we reported it,” he said.
“They investigated and it was a Japanese lookout stationed in a huge tree, and it was so high they could probably see 40 miles on all sides and knew all of our movements.
“The Kiwis came in and blew the top out of the tree and right after that, things started to turn our way.”
Mr Bartlett said he struggled to remember the end of the war, as fighting on the island continued some days after the Japanese surrender.
“We didn’t know that the war had ended until about five days later,” he said.
“It took a long time for us to get used to it too because the Japanese kept fighting.”
After returning from war in 1945, Mr Bartlett married Brenda, his wife of 74 years who passed away in May, and took on various jobs before receiving a fruit block in Loxton in 1955.
Mr Bartlett spent 30 years in Adelaide before returning to Barmera in 2013.
His daughter, Liz, said her family were proud of Mr Bartlett’s service.
“I know Dad doesn’t like talking about it, but I’m proud of Dad, and I know my kids and grandkids are,” she said.