Anzac Day 2022: 80 years on, the horrors of the Kokoda Trail still haunt survivor

The horrors of the Kokoda Trail still come crashing back for WWII veteran Reginald Chard, forcing him awake with a jolt in the dead of night 80 years later.

Veteran Reg Chard at the Kokoda memorial in Concord in Sydney’s west. Picture: John Feder

The horrors of the Kokoda Trail still come crashing back for World War II veteran Reginald Chard, forcing him awake with a jolt in the dead of night 80 years later.

One of only a handful of Kokoda veterans remaining, Mr Chard has never marched on Anzac Day, too traumatised by memories of the lives he couldn’t save.

Instead, he enjoying a quiet day on Monday with family and dinner at an RSL.

The 98-year-old, who served in the 55th and 53rd battalions in Papua New Guinea, endured oppressive heat, tropical diseases and near-starvation and saw his mates gunned down in front of him in his 14 months on the trail.

Yet the proud former soldier is determined the Kokoda story will never be forgotten, and still runs regular tours at Kokoda Memorial Park in Concord in Sydney’s west.

He began working as a guide 11 years ago, shortly after his wife of 66 years, Betty, died. That had left him broken and unsure whether he “could go on”. Though he used to be part of a group of almost a dozen veteran tour guides, he is now the only one left.

The grandfather of five, who grew up in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west, enlisted at 18. After a few months of bare bones training, he was shipped off to face jungle warfare.

It was 1942 and the Allies were locked in a fierce struggle to defend Port Moresby after Japanese forces took control of Rabaul in PNG’s north in January that year.

Mr Chard fought in the Battle of Milne Bay in August that year, which marked the first comprehensive defeat of the Japanese in a major land battle, turning the tide of the war in the Pacific.

“(The Japanese soldiers) just rushed at you; if you were in the open, they would rush at you,” he said. “They would just tear at you, and they would just do the same thing over and over again.

“We used to trap them at their own game but they never seemed to have any fear, they just kept charging at you the whole time.”

One day shortly before dawn, his mate Dick Kayess asked him if he would be his best man when he married his sweetheart Isabelle when they made it home.

“Then he took one step forward and got a bullet straight through his brain; he was dead before he even hit the ground and there was no blood,” Mr Chard said.

“Alan Davidson on the other side got one through the head too – I must have been behind a tree.

“I stood there for an eternity then lay on the ground and crawled away. You never buried anyone.”

On December 7, 1942, his regiment was attacked, losing more than 350 men the first 20 minutes.

That same day he got wind that about 25 “white ladies” had been captured by the Japanese and formed a group to rescue them.

“We walked most of the day … one (Digger) went up and had a look and said, ‘Jesus, you’ll never guess what is up there’ … They were naked and all had been killed,” he said.

“That is why I wake up at 2.30 in the morning. You just can’t believe a human being could do the things they did.”

He can still name every face in the photos captured on the trail. “It’s our history; if it wasn’t for those men and ladies, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.