Cecil McFarlane

Who is Cecil McFarlane?

In 1937 I was about seventeen years old. At the time in the same year a military platoon was formed in the town of Wentworth, where I was born.I joined up although I was only seventeen. I was Cadet until I reached the age of eighteen then I became a Private, I attended parades and the yearly camps. The when I reached the age of nineteen, when at camp, they brought a form for joining the Permanent forces to go to Darwin. That was in 1938, around about October of that year.You had to apply to get into the permanent forces. They only accepted servicemen from the military forces. After the camp and we had returned back to our own homes, we waited for an answer to our application. I was accepted, one of seven, to get in.Later on I had to go down to Victoria Barracks for a medical test, after which I was accepted into the Permanent forces. I had to return a rifle and equipment, and my uniform to the Drill Hall before going away. That was 1938. At the age of 19 with a rail warrant I went down to Melbourne, again to Victoria Barracks. We had to wait for the Western Australians and the South Australians to arrive by train and then all the others who were waiting in Melbourne to join the train which took us into Liverpool, NSW.In Liverpool the whole unit trained, then finally we traveled to Darwin. We were there nearly three months after the training, we were issued tailor made uniforms. K.D.S (Khaki Dress Service?) with drill (?corps) cadet red hat bands, artillery badges of blue and red. Peak caps, black shoes, long stocking blue and red flashes.After training in Liverpool there was a march through Sydney, then down to the docks to board the Mantra, bound for Darwin. Our first stop was at Brisbane and a march through the city, then on the next day along the Queensland coast, until we got to Thursday Island, after some hours there walking looking at the sights, then it was on to Darwin.We arrived in Darwin at the end of march 1939. From the ship at the Port, we marched up to the town. On the edge of the town the Garrison Artillery Unit was formed up. We halted facing each other, we presented arms to each unit. There were inspections then we marched through town out to our barracks.I remember marching that day we all were wearing our high black shoes, I could fee the heat through the soles of the shoes. Off the tarmac sealed roads led by some Pipers and their drums. Our barracks were temporary, at an old Western Meat Works. They had her closed down for years, that was our home from the end of march 1939 until may 1940.Getting back to 1939, we were marching back to our barracks. On the way grass was about 6ft tall, the old works had railway lines and platforms; when Western Meat Works was working back in the thirties, the rail was busy pulling the meat wagons away to be loaded onto ships, which was then shipped after arriving at the old works.We turned into our barracks and sleeping quarters, beds were made up every day - steel sheds with mosquito nets. All of the beds were in rows, the meat hooks hanging over our heads to hold the mosquito nets; steel lockers for the rifles and equipment, and the clothing and boxes at the foot of the beds.In spite of having the nets to keep the mosquitoes away we got Dengue fever. It was the life of having an attack of flu, it really knocked us, the sand flies were bad in the evenings, especially during guard duty. We had to wear long K.D.S longs socks. A lot of us went to town for entertainment, to the picture shows. We could wear civilian clothes on leave before the outbreak of war. It was showering every day. We got prickly heat and Tinia and had to dry our feet well, to see that Tinia did not get a hold of our feet; it was an offence to go bare footed, we could have caught ringworm and other things. The prickly heat used to sting when showering, putting powder on it used to help.With the outbreak of war in 1939, all of our civilian clothes disappeared. We were issued new uniforms of the A.I.F...