Robert MacArthur began his career with the Army when he joined the Citizens Military Force in a little recruiting centre in Marrickville.
"I joined the militia first. I didn't know any better. Then found out, joined the AIF (Australian Imperial Force). Militia was for looking after Australia which is good. Good on them. But I wanted to do a bit more. You're willing to do anything. Go anywhere. I wanted to do something I felt worthwhile."
"I tried for the Navy. Turned out I was pretty dumb, and failed a maths test. And then they found out I was colour blind, which is no good in the Navy. So I joined the Army and I never looked back."
A portrait of Robert wearing his AIF uniform.
After enlisting with the AIF, Robert completed his training at Puckapunyal in Victoria with the Australian Army Tank Training Battalion.
"I did the gunnery course. Mostly on two American tanks, General Grant. They're like big pill boxes. I didn't want to be in one of them. They're easy to bowl over."
Robert on a tank.
In 1943, Robert was a Trooper stationed with 2/1st Australian Headquarters Guard Battalion in Morotai, an island in Indonesia, which was at that time the Dutch East Indies.
"I was over there a bit over 18 months. The Japs were there, the Americans were there. We were looking after and guarding our nurses up there. They were there and senior officers. There's no Japs within cooee of 'em sort of thing. But they're around. You could hear them shooting at night."
Robert was in Morotai when Japan surrendered in 1945. He remembers being told by an American soldier that the war was over.
"One day near the end of the war, we didn't know, we were on one side of the island, the Japs are on the other, and an American soldier come over to us."
"He said, 'You can pack up. We're going home. The Japs have surrendered.'"
"We didn't believe him and didn't know anything about it. But with that, he grabbed one of our rifles. He started shooting. Bang, bang, bang, up in the air. We had to jump on him quick otherwise he might have shot one of us."
"I can remember the Jap handed in his sword after they surrendered. Anyhow, that was the end of it. We didn't know, but we heard later it's fair dinkum. From there on, well, we just gradually got home."
After the surrender, Robert was deployed to Rabaul with the 2/4th Australian Armoured Regimental Group. He remained there until mid-1946 when he returned to Sydney on HMAS Katoomba.
"The ship came into Sydney. Must have been waiting for a pilot, but it went in and turned around and went out to sea again. Might have been waiting for a pilot to get into Sydney Harbour, but we all went crook. We're all hanging over the side wanting to get back home again."
Robert’s elder brother Donny also served during the Second World War. "He was in the Engineers. He was in New Guinea where he got badly hurt in a Jap air raid. That mucked him up for the rest of his life. But me, I was lucky. Didn't cop much. Just did my bit. Same as everyone else."
Robert's brother Donny.
Speaking of his service, Robert says, "I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Good mates, always there. We all relied on one another. You know, no one went without the other. We're all part of a team. You need a cook. You need an infantryman. You need everyone. Everyone is needed."
Robert with his gunnery division at Puckapunyal. Robert is in the second row, third from the right.
"Well, there’s stuff, couple of things, that I never talk about. They're in my head. They wake me up at night and that's enough. I try to forget everything. I don't want any of it digging it up again and buggering up the rest of my life with it. I want to forget, forget, forget."
But despite this, he would do it all again.
"In 5 minutes, I'd join up again. Give me back my rifles."
