At 99 years of age, WWII Veteran and long-time Buff Point resident, Derrick Oliver, was very happy to attend an Anzac Day service again and lay a wreath after two years of COVID lockdowns.
One of 13 children, he has one remaining sister, now 104.
At 18, Derrick enlisted in the Army at Randwick in 1941 and trained in Dungog and Rutherford before serving in the 2/14th Field Regiment (8th Division) artillery unit, as a signaller.
His unit was stationed at New Guinea, and then New Britain.
Following Japan’s entry into the war, much of the 8th Division was captured and held as prisoners of war.
The 2/14th Field Regiment was the only major combat unit of the 8th Division that was not captured.
The regiment’s colour patch was later changed in part to acknowledge this, with a perpendicular “break” inserted into the colour patch – the intention was to remove the break when the prisoners were liberated and the division reformed.
Derrick said he doesn’t like to talk much about his time in the war but did share one story that still makes him laugh today.
“I was on guard duty doing the midnight til 2am shift, and I was standing under a tree, when I suddenly heard something, a very loud bang on the ground.
“I looked around and discovered it was a (just) coconut that had fallen from a tree.”
He also says his time serving in WWII led him to find the true love of his life.
“Whilst in New Guinea the Sergeant would come around from time-to-time to deliver the mail.
“I never got a letter because I didn’t have anyone to write to, and nobody wrote to me.”
Derrick said one of his mates in his unit, Billy Baxter, took pity on him and asked him one day, “Mick would you like to write to a young lady?”
Derrick then began to write letters to a young lady, Mavis Smith, a friend of Baxter’s.
When Derrick’s returned to Australia in 1946 aboard the MS Anatina, upon docking in Sydney Harbour, a young lady was waiting at the dock, holding a cardboard sign that just said, ‘I am Mavis’.
“That beautiful lady became my darling wife,” Derrick says.
The two were married in 1947 until Mavis sadly passed away in 2014.
Derrick says he is very fortunate now to have two lovely daughters, Marilyn Violet Ort and Beverley Joy Duncan, four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
This year, Derrick attended the Palmdale ANZAC Day service with his daughters and his son-in-law.
“It is a privilege to accompany my dad to the Anzac Day Service at Palmdale, as we have done now for a great number of past years to help him celebrate and reflect on his time serving in World War II and remember those less fortunate that did not return home,” his daughter Beverley said.
“Dad feels at peace here, as this is his wife Mavis, and our mum’s final resting home, a place of serenity for him,” his other daughter, Marilyn, said.
A book was written about the 2/14th Australian Field Regiment by Ron Jackson, who joined the Regiment in Darwin in 1942 and served with them until the end of the war.
It can be found at https://regimental-books.com.au/product/the-broken-eighth-history-of-the-2_14th-australian-field-regiment/
Kayleen Bell