War-time life is not something Max Sydenham has to imagine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He lived it.
Mr Sydenham, one of Wagga’s remaining World War II veterans, joined residents of the RSL Remembrance Village for an early Anzac Day service on Friday.
The commemoration is performed for those residents who can no longer physically attend the traditional April 25 march and services.
For these men and women, the annual day triggers memories of another world – a world where the fear of loss, the threat of invasion and the perils of war were very real.
Mr Sydenham was 17 when he signed to dotted line to join the army in 1941.
Even though he was too young, he had needed a stable income at the time and had “bumped up” his age.
The teen who left home for war, like many other Australian men and women, was forced to grow up too fast.
Mr Sydenham said he still remembered the bombing of Darwin and the battles fought against the Japanese forces in New Guinea.
“We lost a lot of good men,” Mr Sydenham said. “I pray for them every day.”
As the cenotaph party stood solemnly beneath a softly billowing Australian flag at the nursing home, Mr Sydenham and other residents bowed their heads in honour of those who had served Australia across 100 years and those who still served today.
”I remember a brave man, Owen Williams, he was a doctor – a wonderful man,” he said.
“We had taken position. One of the blokes got shot. The doctor ran to help.
“Of course, he was killed.”
Mr Sydenham’s Anzac Day message was simple: Don’t take peace for granted.
It was a message shared by other Remembrance Village residents.
When soldiers “fell with their faces to the foe”, it was these men and women who shed tears for someone they knew – someone they loved.
Aside from dodging whistling bullets fired to kill, guest speaker Warrant Officer (second class) Trevor Thomson said the hardest thing to do as a soldier was to leave family behind.
“Everyone here has either been a soldier or supported one from back home,” WO2 Thomson said. “Nothing beats that support.”
WO2 Thomson joined fellow Kapooka soldiers, RAAF Base Wagga airmen, RSL Sub-Branch members and other special guests at the small Mount Austin service.
Here, RSL LifeCare coordinator Kim Dean urged residents to “mourn with pride” and to “remember with equal pride, those who served and still live”.