Victorians at War - Oral History Project

Active Service
World War II veteran Ted Kenna won a Victoria Cross medal for his efforts fighting the Japanese in New Guinea. Ted was an apprentice plumber when he was called-up to join the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a rifleman. In New Guinea Ted saw most action along a very hilly track from Aitapi to Wewak. The climate was hot and he existed on dried rations, carrying his own tent and blanket. The Japanese tended to ambush the Australian soldiers while they were on patrol. During one such ambush, Japanese soldiers forced Ted's unit onto the ground by shooting down on them from further up a hill. Ted attempted to shoot back from the ground where he lay on his stomach but was unsuccessful. He decided to stand up and shoot. 'Actually', he said, 'I don't know why, I thought it was better if I stood up and I had a couple of shots'. In full view of the Japanese Ted fired several rounds and hit his target. The rest of his unit was then able to advance up the hill.
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Lester Marks Harradine left school at the age of 13 to work in market gardening. He was called up as a soldier in 1940 when he was 20 years old. A machine gunner, Lester was sent with his platoon to Darwin to protect the city from potential invasion by the Japanese. Lester camped out on Cameron's Beach and the platoon set up four machine guns in the sand. Further up the beach he made his own bed from pandanas palms and constructed a tent-like structure over the top. Lester was on Cameron's Beach at the time of the first Japanese raid on Darwin, and describes the noise of the planes flying over the town: 'I think it was about 10 a.m. in the morning, round about 10 o'clock and eh we were there and we saw these planes coming over, like you know in formation. Seemed to be a lot of planes and we just thought, oh, you know, might be the Americans, might… they expected like some reinforcements you know, like planes to come to Darwin in the near future and they just thought that it could have been American planes, like coming… and all of a sudden we heard these explosions and then sirens goin' and we thought oh well, it must be a raid'.
Hear complete interviews with veterans in the "Personal Stories" section of the Archives