The annual Kapooka Tragedy Memorial Service continues to grow in status, significance and historical importance.
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This is attributable not just to Wagga’s defence community, in particular the men and women at Kapooka, but to the city’s many ex-service organisations.
Noteworthy in Colonel Mick Garraway’s address last Sunday was his reference, for the second year, to Wagga as a garrison town and that 73 years on from that tragic day on May 21, 1945, the 26 soldiers who perished were “young men, and like those who trained here before and after them, were involved in social and sports events across the town”.
It is a key point, one that should not be lost on a daily basis by all citizens. All three elements of the military services are now represented in our garrison town.
The sacrifice of the 26 soldiers of the Royal Australian Engineers, as Col Garraway pointed out, was no less significant than that felt by families of young sailors, soldiers and air crew lost on foreign battlefields.
It was notable that third generation representatives of the sappers killed were among those at Sunday’s service; some came from Queensland and Western Australia; one man has come from Griffith each year.
There were some new touches this year. When Bill Boydell released his 26 pigeons – there were two white ones to signify the two sergeants (Ron Linthorne and Herb Pomeroy) killed, greys for the other 24. Musician Angie Currington added some poignant touches to the song 21 May, 1945, composed by Air Commodore Robert Rodgers, who was a commanding officer at RAAF Forest Hill when he wrote it. A lone piper, Corporal Ewen McLachlan, played during the mounting and dismounting of the catafalque party and laying of wreaths.
Col Garraway noted: “In addition to the terrible tragedy for the families and loss for the army, it was also a significant loss for the community of Wagga.”
It has been written that Wagga Wagga was a key centre in the defence of Australia in World War II. In 1940, RAAF Forest Hill was established; in 1941 RAAF Uranquinty was built and in 1942 construction began of Kapooka camp and by 1943 there were 8000 troops training there.
Significantly, less than a year after the Kapooka tragedy Wagga was proclaimed a city on April 17, 1946. And given that the usual population requirement for a town to be granted city status in NSW at that time was 20,000, the fact that 13,000 people lined Edward Street for the funeral procession underlines Col Garroway’s comments about the significant loss felt by the community.
It should be remembered, too, that from World War II, two Wagga citizens distinguished themselves. Sir Thomas Blamey became Australia’s first and only field marshal and Corporal John Edmondson was the first Australian during the war to win the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Siege of Tobruk.
Subsequently, Kapooka military area was re-named Blamey Barracks. Edmondson has more than a dozen sites named in his honour throughout NSW and the ACT, including a plaque in Wagga’s Walk of Honour in Baylis Street and the Edmondson VC Club at Blamey Barracks.
Perhaps in coming years, the Kapooka Tragedy Memorial afternoon service might be further enhanced to include a morning march through our CBD featuring veterans and serving sappers of the Royal Australian Engineers. Wagga must maintain the heritage.