Kamikaze attacks still fresh in the mind of Doug Morcom

NOT even the stories beheadings and bayoneting were enough to stop this local hero from joining the Royal Australian Navy when he was just 18.

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DOUG Morcom was a fresh-faced 18-year-old when he joined the navy.

Now 90, the former radio operator was on board the HMAS Australia when it became the first allied ship to be hit by a kamikaze in the Philippines in 1944.

“They liked to know which ship was which, and they knew we were a capital ship with an admiral, so they decided we were the ones that were going to get the hiding,” Mr Morcom said.

The captain of the Australia, Cpt Emile DeChaineux, was killed along with 29 other officers and men, and 64 were wounded when a Japanese Val dive bomber deliberately hit the ship.

Mr Morcom had just finished his shift on the bridge and was luckily down below when the attack occurred.

“The kamikaze was only to take off – he never learnt to land. His job was to go and smash into a ship and take as many as he could with him.”

When he joined the navy, The Gap resident said he didn’t worry that he may not make it back home.

“We heard all the stories of the beheadings and bayoneting to death, but it just went in one ear and out the other. You were there to do a job. You volunteer to do it so you’ve got to do it the best you can,” he said.

Anzac Day continues to have special meaning for Mr Morcom. “We used to get ­together and go to one of the pubs in town and have a few drinks and tell a few stories. We shot down about 200 more than we actually did, and sunk that many ships they didn’t have time to build them,” he laughed.

“Unfortunately it’s all dropped off now. The most I do about Anzac Day here at home is I generally have a rum and Coke in my hand, put my medals on and march around the room.”