John Wyatt Part One
John talks about fighting the Japanese in the Second World War.

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We withdrew to a place called, a place called Gurum. And the place called Gurum had to be held like, you know. I remember we’d been marching about seven days, we’d had no sleep at all.  It was dawn and Captain Caser, he said, ‘We got to stand, stand there men,’ he said. ‘Smoke your last cigarettes, last man last round, you got to stay here.’ 

 

We had our rifles and I was scared then, I thought we were all going to die you know, sure, I was shaking, because we all had to shake hands with each other, like, we – cheerio Jack, or whatever and, the, about dawn some Japanese tanks had already attacked our Headquarters about a mile away. They came down this road, the Japanese tanks, and they fired at us and we ducked and every time we went to fire back at them like you know, the shells were flashing down here, the trench was shuddering, with the impact of the shells all around us. We put our heads down, like, and every time we put our head up, so we got sniped at. As these tanks, about four tanks came down the road, we were being bombed from either side and some aircraft came over as well, and they bombed us.  The aircraft, the bombers and also hit by tanks, rifle fire, mortar fire and these bombs and these fighter planes, Zeroes that came over they were… Anyway so we, we survived that and in the meantime Corporal Bartram had been hit in the leg and the orders were that nobody - you must leave your mates, very very sad, very, you must leave your mates, you mustn’t take them, they were a hindrance, like, you know.  They said, ‘John go and take his rifle to him like, you know.’ So when I took it, he was sitting against a tree, sitting against a tree, he was helpless, so I gave him a water bottle and a rifle fixed bayonet at the side of him and that’s how we left him, and we ran through the jungle.  In my mind I can still see him sitting there now, helpless, looking, propped against this tree like, you know, his rifle and his water bottle beside him and these advancing Japanese, they took no prisoners at all. Yeah, Corporal Bartram that was, so, so sad.