Research Questions

[willedoo]

I'm currently researching my father's wartime service in the A.I.F.. The purpose is to combine Army records, independent research and family knowledge into one easily understood format.

 

I have a couple of questions just on spec that someone might be able to offer some suggestions. Firstly, on the certificate of Discharge, the date service started is under the heading ' Date Commenced F.T.D.'. I don't know what F.T.D. represents; the only thing I can think of is Full Time Duty.

 

Secondly, I'm trying to trace the movements of the HMAS Kanimbla on it's troop ship voyage in January 1946 bringing troops back to Australia. I know it brought the Victorian 2/14 Battalion home, starting the voyage at Maccassar in the Celebes. I'm fairly sure they went to Rabaul and sailed to Australia from there. I'm trying to find some evidence that they went via Ambon, Port Moresby and Rabaul. I've plucked a few names off the 2/14 Association Facebook page and checked their National Archives records with no luck. Most will only note embarked Maccassar, disembarked Brisbane, with no mention of stops on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willedoo]

Edit to the above post. I found out that F.T.D. does stand for Full Time Duty. It's on this National Archives webpage on abbreviations used in WW1 and WW2 Army records.

 

https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/defence-and-war-service-records/researching-war-service/abbreviations-used-world-war-i-and-world-war-ii-service-records

[old man emu]

After the cessation of hostilities Kanimbla was engaged in repatriating Australian servicemen from the Pacific Islands and returning Dutch dependents to the East Indies  Lieutenant Commander Stanley Crawford, RANR(S)  became her Commanding Officer from 6 September 1945 until 18 January 1948

 

That's all the stuff I could find from a quick look.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

After the cessation of hostilities Kanimbla was engaged in repatriating Australian servicemen from the Pacific Islands and returning Dutch dependents to the East Indies  Lieutenant Commander Stanley Crawford, RANR(S)  became her Commanding Officer from 6 September 1945 until 18 January 1948

 

That's all the stuff I could find from a quick look.

Thanks ome. It's a bit of a needle in a haystack trying to find ships logs or records. I'll keep Googling the 2/14th. Battalion and hopefully might stumble across a written anecdote of one of the blokes who traveled on it from the Celebes to Brisbane. I've had one win. I found the 13/33 Battalion War Diary on the AWM site. After Cowra, my father was posted to it for a while. He was in it in September 1944 when they marched 147 miles from St. Ives to Singleton up the Putty Range. The details of the trip are in the Battalion records. I learnt something new that my father hadn't told me. The original route was to be  via Gosford and Cessnock. On the first day, they marched to Kuring-Gai from St.Ives and found out the ferry over the Hawkesbury was broken down. The next day they headed West via Galston to Windsor and then on up the Putty. It took them 10 days.

Edited January 26, 2021 by willedoo

[old man emu]

The more you dig, the more you find. I found a picture in the AWM archives of my Dad in the Pacific. I recognised it because we have had a print of it in the family records for yonks. The AWM one names him in the caption. At the time he was attached to 2 AGH - a hospital. He was disabled in the Middle East before his battalion went to Greece, so he wasn't involved in that Churchillian mess. He spoke a little about his Middle East adventures, but virtually nothing about his Pacific experiences, except that one day a Yank pilot took him for a flight in a Lightning and pulled some hairy aerobatics, including asymmetric turns.

 

He always remained a member of his infantry battalion association, and never seemed to worry about his time at the AGH.

 

I think that it is time that I made up a memorial board  for the family with his medals and details of his service.  I should get it for Mum before she joins him, "over the river". 

[willedoo]

22 hours ago, old man emu said:

He always remained a member of his infantry battalion association, and never seemed to worry about his time at the AGH.

ome, the Certificate of Discharge has an entry 'Unit (for discharge purposes)........'. Often for discharge purposes they listed the unit the soldier fought under rather than the unit they were in at the actual time of discharge. Your Dad's discharge papers might have him listed under the Infantry Battalion.

 

After the war ended, a lot of blokes were juggled around different units, so I suppose listing their active service battalion on the papers was simpler and fairer to the soldier from a pride point of view. My father went to Morotai as a reinforcement and was placed in the 2/9th. which was the unit he fought with in Borneo. A couple of months after the war, his battalion was disbanded, so he was put in the 2/14th. for two months. Then on to Rabaul with a posting to the 55/53 Battalion. He was only with them for two weeks before spending five months in hospital and then discharged. But his discharge papers listed him as 2/9th. which he fought under.

 

I guess it was a lot better for the Diggers that way. They signed up for the duration of the war plus twelve months after. Some that had spent a lot of time fighting in an infantry battalion and then had to see out their post war time as a clerk in a stores unit would be a lot happier to see their fighting battalion on their official record.