Anzac Day 2022: War veterans who can’t march praise mates
These veterans have retired from marching on Anzac Day but have their own messages to their marching mates. These heroes and others like them share their story. Watch the video.
NSW
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They are the veterans who braved the beach at Normandy, terrifying air missions and the jungles of Vietnam but are unable to march on Monday.
Dennis Hensman is 96 but was just 19 when he stormed onto Gold Beach at Normandy.
The Scotsman, who has lived in Australia for most of his life, was a scared but determined Royal Marine back then.
While Gold Beach was nothing like the slaughter at Omaha Beach, made infamous by the film Saving Private Ryan, it still meant charging into the teeth of Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall”.
“It was horrific … the noise under the ships, a thousand aircraft in the sky,” he said.
On Monday Mr Hensman will be cheering on his marchers from Furlough House retirement home in Narrabeen with his fellow older veterans.
“Keep on marching for Australia, keep it alive — we need it more than ever,” he said.
“To me it’s the best day in Australian history to celebrate, Anzac Day, for people to come together.”
Another Furlough House resident sad to miss the march but glad to see the tradition continue is 100-year-old Leonard Mills, who was a wireless operator on planes during World War II.
Mr Mills was flying back to England at the exact time Mr Hensman landed in Normandy, and the two have become fast friends at Furlough House.
While Mr Mills can no longer march and is too humble to allow much fuss to be made about his service, he hopes the veterans marching on Monday feel the mateship he remembers so well from his time in the army.
“All times were spent mostly together, you got to know everybody and then the time would come when one wasn’t there, it’s a bit hard to talk about,” he said.
“(On Anzac Day) I do suffer a little from emotion and that’s all right.”
At 81, Vietnam veteran Dr Barry Wright, who worked as a staff officer, no longer goes into the city to march but said it’s incredibly important that those who are able to march can continue the tradition.
“It’s important to remember all of the young men that went to war and didn’t come home,” Dr Wright said.
“My message to everyone marching is well done, I think after Covid it is going to be well received.
“We are the luckiest country in the world and thank you to all of those who fought to keep it that way.”
Jack Donohue shares his memories of WWII
He was just a teenager when he went off to war but age has now wearied Jack Donohue and the 97-year-old can no longer attend Anzac Day marches.
He was just 14 when World War II broke out in 1939 but, by the time he was 18, he had enlisted and served in Borneo as part of the No. 5 Airfield Construction Squadron with the RAAF.
“I have mobility issues now. I was very devoted to Anzac Day but I’m getting too old. I have trouble walking and my balance is affected,” he said.
He is one of the last World War II Diggers not only in Lismore but in Australia.
“If I go to the meetings, there’s none (of us), that is why I’m not so fussed about going. I’m not too sure there is many of us left (in Australia). Some are over 100, most were four years older than me,” he said.
He doesn’t really like wearing his medals. Having spent only 1945 in service, he feels he didn’t earn them the way others did, like his late older brother who was in the army.
“I feel I don’t deserve them, I was really lucky,” he says humbly from his Lismore villa where he still lives independently.
Also luckily, his home was not affected by the recent flood.
What did he learn from war?
“Not to go again,” he laughed. “But really, I didn’t mind, it didn’t worry me, it was new to me. I had never left Lismore in my life.”
Born on January 6, 1925, Jack caught the mail train to Sydney at age 18 to join the air force in Richmond, where he trained for the Airfield Construction Squadron.
“It’s going back a while, almost 80 years, but we first went to Darwin before heading to Townsville and departed for Borneo as part of the 5 ACS,” he said.
“They called us the flying shovels. When you took an island you had to get the airfield constructed because, without air cover, you were useless.
“They made three landings in Borneo and we were the third ones … we had to finish off the Japs.
“We had the landing to take over Labuan … there was a lot of commotion. I never got hurt, I was very lucky.
“It was an adventure to me when it first started.”
He was philosophical about the devastating end of the war, when nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.
“In some ways the nuclear bomb did a lot of good, it saved many lives because the Japanese were never going to surrender unless they were forced to. They were terrific fighters, they’d kill you as quickly as looking at you,” he said.
The RAAF airfield construction units were on of the few to be retained at the end of the war, and formed part of Australia‘s contribution to the occupation of Japan from 1945.
“I was supposed to go to Japan with the 5 ACS after the war but my mother was getting a bit on and she was on her own and I came home in 1945,” he said.
Jack married and had two daughters, Ann and Louise, who now live in Sydney with their families. Jack has five grandchildren. His lost his wife Irene in 1997.
He still feels the Anzac spirit.
“It’s mateship really,” he said.
“What you need to realise is, when you go to war, you are lost. You join and you don’t know what you are doing. When you come home you are lost again, it takes a long time to settle back in, that is why so many commit harakiri,” he said, using the Japanese slang word for ritual suicide.
“When you come home to a wife and kids, it is an entirely different life,” he said, adding he had friends who committed suicide.
“They have counselling now (but) I think the most important thing is getting them back into some kind of work so they can keep their mind off things,” he said.
Vietnam vets vow to keep spirit alive
Vietnam veteran Russell Fozzard is ready to take the torch from the hands of the Diggers of World War 11 and carry on the Anzac legacy.
They, he says, helped the men and woman who came back from Vietnam cope with returning to civilian life by sharing stories of war.
Now it is the Vietnam veterans’ turn to counsel the men and women who have served in our most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the eve of this year’s Anzac Day, the 74-year-old says all people who have experienced war and worn a uniform are his brothers.
It’s a philosophy he wants to preserve and promote as WW11’s veterans grow fewer and fewer. The Veterans Affairs Department estimates there are about 5500 World War 11 veterans still alive in Australia.
“As soon as you see someone wearing medals you know you can give them a nod, shake their hand, have a beer with them … we’re all brothers, we’ve all been to war,” Mr Fozzard, from Cecil Hills, said.
Mr Fozzard served with the Australian Ordnance Corps in Vietnam and as a young man wasn’t interested in joining the RSL.
Now, as a leader among his generation of veterans, he is forever grateful he took up the chance to march in 1969.
“Us old Vietnam veterans will carry on for as long as we stay fit, we’ve all got to step up and do it,” he said.
Mr Fozzard said he wants to see the Vietnam veterans act as role models for the young men and women returning from the Middle East Operations, just as World War II veterans would share stories with him.
“Talking to the Diggers we got on fine, we told our war stories and they told us theirs,” he said.
Fellow Ordnance Corp veteran Bill MacDougall said attitudes have changed.
He says returning home from Vietnam, arguably Australia’s most controversial conflict, was marred with an icy reception from some older Diggers and disinterest from the RSL.
“The older Diggers used to say ‘that wasn’t a real war’ and some RSL clubs wouldn’t let you in the door and that went on for a fair while actually,” Mr MacDougall, from Hammondville, said.
“As the older blokes started to die off they were looking for members at that stage so I joined the RSL in 1969 and I’ve been a member ever since.”
“The Vietnam veterans are leading the way now but we aren’t getting any younger either, so we need some others behind us to come up and take over the reins more gradually so we can have a bit of a rest.”
Mr MacDougall said the mateship of his fellow Vietnam veterans, who get together every couple of months for a beer and to reminisce, is what he hopes will continue with younger veterans.
“The Vietnam blokes are doing alight, there’s a lot of them taking it up and they’ll work in the RSL, but they aren’t chasing recognition.
Mr MacDougall said he hopes the Middle East Operations veterans will be supported more as they return to civilian life, now that Vietnam vets are holding senior positions in veterans communities.
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