VP 70: Townsville women forge strong WWII bond

FOR the past 73 years four women have been linked forever by a bond forged when Townsville was at the front lines during WWII.

Lillian Somers, Margaret Eade, Lorna Mark, Lorna Docherty and Lorna Mark have been friends for 73 years after they met and served together during WWII in the Australian Women's Army Service her in Townsville. Picture: Zak Simmonds

FOR the past 73 years four women have been linked forever by a bond forged when Townsville was at the front lines during WWII.

They were active members of the Australian Women’s Army Service, aged between 18 and 20, working as aircraft spotters and plotters in support of locally-based artillery units.

Lilian Somers and Lorna Docherty were plotters in the gun operations room, at the Grammar School in North Ward, while Margaret Eade and Lorna Mark were stationed on search lights — first at Mount St John and later at a site in North Ward which is now known as Strand Park.

Now: With her treasured medals.

Then: Lillian Somers during wartime

The women, now aged in their 90s, still have a vivid memory of that exciting period between 1942 and 1945, when Townsville was at the frontline as a hub for Australian and American armed forces.

By March 1942, the Japanese were advancing on Northern Australia through Malaya, the Dutch Indies and New Guinea.

Townsville schools were forced to close and up to 7000 citizens had fled, but many also stayed.

Women were called to action in communications and plotting aircraft, hospitals and driving army vehicles so the men could go abroad to fight.

Mrs Docherty said she was just 15 when her life was first turned up-side-down as a result of the war.

Her three-bedroom family home in Love Lane was taken over by military forces to be used as a hospital, with the family given six days to evacuate the house.

She enlisted two years later.

Lorna Docherty was 17 when she joined the Army.

“I was 17 when I joined the Army and I was later posted back to work at my old house,” Mrs Docherty recalls.

“Even after the war, they never gave us back our house.”

Mrs Docherty said she spent the priority of her service learning to recognise planes and differentiate allies with potential threats.

“We had to be able to identify every plane that came in,” she said.

“At first it was hard to identify them but then you would hear them every day and it became easier.”

If plane spotters were unable to identify an aircraft, personnel and residents alike would hide in many of the city underground bunkers.

“We had underground shelters in which we would go into and hide until they had flown over,” Ms Docherty said.

“I was in Acker street at the time in Hermit Park and they had bomb shelters there but I don’t think they still exist today.

“It was common to have bunkers.

“A lot of residents had their own in their back yard in case of an attack.

“It was scary to sit in of the bunkers — often for a number of house but we were mainly hungry.”

Now: Lorna Mark in uniform

Then: Lorna Mark in the 1940s

But the war wasn’t just work and no play with the friends recalling many nights of running back to the YWCA in Denham St where they slept in barracks, after a dance.

“We danced every night of our lives, six nights a week,’’ Mrs Somers said.

“There was the Roof Garden (which is the rooftop of the Brewery Bar in Flinders St today) and the Olympia (Woolworths opposite the Herbert Hotel in the city) and at five minutes to 12, we would be pacing down the street to the YWCA.”

Mrs Somers said it was an experience they would never forget and with upcoming VP70 celebrations, it was a chance to remember women at war.

“There’s not many of us left, we only have about eight AWASs who come to our meetings,’’ Mrs Somers said.

“It was 73 years since we met and we still remain friends.

“Townsville was big for women during the war and there were a lot of WAAFs here and we always say we fought the battle of Townsville.’’

Now: Proudly wearing her medals

Then: Margaret Eade during the war

Originally published as VP 70: Townsville women forge strong WWII bond