World War II efforts remembered

As they called a thousand years, calling to me;

They woke me from my dreaming in the dawning of the day

The bugles of England - and how could I stay?

That is an excerpt from the poem For England, by Corporal James Drummond Burns, who died at Gallipoli (1915).

Ii is a verse Richard and Nancye Leigh know well as it reflects the feeling in their hearts when they decided to put their hands up for service in the World War II.

Though they did not know each other during their services, both declared they served for "god, king and country".

Like almost a million other Australians patriotism was a purpose and to serve was their duty.

Richard was a part of the 2/1 Australian anti-aircraft battalion with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

From the age of 20 he served for a total of five years and 87 days, with exactly three years and 60 days of that spent in campaigns overseas.

Nancye joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) when she was just 21-years old and served until 1946, after the war ended.

Richard said the call of his country came when he was just 16 and living in Melbourne.

"My mates and I decided we'd go to the news reel theatres, as they were known in those days because we didn't have TV or anything like that, and we used to see all this trouble in Europe with Hitler," he said.

"We had a wonderful life until it started to get a bit serious so we decided something had to be done.

"In about 1937 all the guys like me joined the militia of our own free will because we just knew something was going to happen.

"As soon as the war was declared we had to go into camps, where we learnt a little bit but still weren't armed in any way, shape or form."

Following that training, Richard said he and his friends heard the AIF were recruiting.

"My mates and I decided we'd join up, we heard about a very secretive sort of a set-up and we had no idea what it was," he said.

"We had to provide references and it wasn't until we were called up for full-time we learnt we were going to be in the anti-aircraft, which at the time was very new to Australia."

Richard's first stint overseas was as part of a campaign with British units in Palestine, where his battalion were charged with protecting oil convoys from German bomber planes.

He recalls how naïve they all were.

"On one occasion they (the Germans) bombed us and they sent down huge land mines which landed within 100 metres of us," he said.

"We went out moseying around and we noticed the mines had lovely ropes attached that we hadn't seen before, apparently they were made from nylon, and our fellas started to pull on them until the bomber disposal fella screamed 'you bloody fools don't pull on those, that's how they go off' - that just shows our ignorance because we were only 21 at the time."

It was during his second and longest continued (26 month) stint overseas with American units in New Guinea that caused Richard's family the greatest concern back home.

"We were lost, well according to the army we were," Richard said.

"Our families kicked up a stink to find us and get us back home."

Richard's final campaign overseas was in Borneo, where he was finally given the opportunity to use the 3.7 anti-aircraft guns they had been originally trained to use.

"This time we were shooting Japs, not planes," he said.

While Richard was proud to serve Australia, he said after he was discharged he struggled with the loss of his young adult years.

"I felt it was a complete wast of years, from the age of 20 to 26, what a waste of life," he said.

"After the war you look back and think in those six years what you've missed."

For Nancye, joining the WAAF was inspired by a friend's suggestion.

"I was working for the Bank of NSW and I had a friend who was in the Airforce and he said to me you're a very shy person why don't you join," she said.

"Everyone was joining up, we all felt very patriotic towards the whole thing, which you don't have these days."

Nancye said the odd shift times, which rotated 8am to 4pm, 4pm to midnight and midnight to 8am were the toughest part.

"You would have two days off a week, I suppose one day to sleep and the other to do your washing," she said.

"I only got leave twice the whole time I was there."

Splitting her service between Point Piper and Townsville, it was during one of her leave breaks when she was at home in Kirribilli that the Japanese submarines attacked Sydney Harbour.

"Suddenly we heard all this noise and wondered what it was," she said.

While Nancye was quick to play down her role, she admits, "I do remember feeling like we were all part of something pretty important".

For Richard his war experience, which involved "95 percent inaction and 5 percent action", was not much of a story when compared to his 39 years married to Nancye.

"Now that's a story (laughs)," he said.