The Soldier's Details

Review WX2844 Charles Parkin‘s military records held at NAA.

Parkin was recovered from Ohama POW Camp, Japan at the end of the war.  Please read further

Charles enlisted in AIF he declaring that he had been a member of militia’s 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment ww2 since 7 Nov 1937. On 1 Nov 1939 Charles was promoted Lance Corporal, and on 2 Feb 1940 promoted Corporal. He was discharged from the 10th Light Horse on 20 May 1940 in order to enlist in 2nd AIF, where he was initially allocated to 2/2nd Australian Machine Gun Battalion as a Private on 10 Jun 1940. From 12 – 18 Aug 1940 he participated in a Driver/Mechanics course at Northam camp, before boarding a train for Adelaide on 29 Oct 1940, arriving there two days later, where he was transferred to  2/3rd Australian Machine Gun Battalion.

Granted pre-embarkation leave from 25 Mar till 3 Apr 1941, he caught a train from Adelaide to Perth where he was to later rejoin his unit which had embarked in Sydney aboard SS Ilse de France.

On 16 Apr 1941 as part of Convoy US 10B, Charles embarked on SS Île de France which sailed early on 19 Apr 1941 for Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) which was reached on 26th where the ship then anchored until the morning of 6 May 1941 before proceeding to Port Tewfik where it arrived on 13 May 1941. It did not disembark its troops until next day (14 May 1941).

Upon arrival in the Middle East, 2/3rd MGB was assigned to  7th Division, the 2nd AIF’s second division and  subsequently joined them in Palestine, establishing a camp at Hill 95 north of Gaza. There the battalion undertook a vigorous physical training regime to regain the fitness lost from the sea voyage. A fortnight after arrival, on 28 May 1941 Charles was appointed Lance Corporal, and then on 5 Jun 1941 he was promoted Corporal. Along with the rest of 7th Division, the 2/3rd MGB was committed to the Syria–Lebanon campaign in early June, to secure the Allied eastern flank from attack. Due to the presence of Vichy French troops, the campaign was politically sensitive and as a result of heavy censorship not widely reported in Australia at the time as Vichy French were more numerous and better equipped than the Australians.

From 20 Sep 1941 to 25 Oct 1941 he was away from his unit for training at the Middle East Weapons Training Section. Admitted to  2/6th Australian Field Ambulance with cellulitis on 24 Nov 1941, he returned to battalion on 8 Dec 1941. On 31 Jan 1942 the battalion boarded a train which took them to Kantara where they were ferried across the canal to continue the journey to Port Tewfik where they boarded the troopship SS Orcades for Oosthaven in Sumatra, but disembarking instead on 15 Feb 1942 at Tanjung Priok, the port for Batavia (Jakarta). Soon after they moved to Batavia in Java where they were to attempt to hold up the Japanese advance.

On 8 Mar 1942 the Dutch forces capitulated and the next day the British Forces surrendered. On 30 Jul 1942 the Army was advised that Charles was a POW in Java, and in the meantime the Japanese had sought to transfer him, to Japan, but on 20 Jan 1944 the ship that he was travelling on was sunk off Sumatra. Charles was rescued, and subsequently on 1 Aug 1944 he was known to be interred in the Japanese Fukuoka POW Camp as of 15 August 1945.

On 9 Sep 1945 Charles was one of the POWs recovered from the Japanese and taken to 8th Australian POW Reception Camp in Manila. On 5 Oct 1945 he boarded HMS Formidable in Manila for Sydney where he disembarked on 13 Oct 1945. The following day he entrained for Perth, arriving on 20 Oct 1945. Granted leave, he was on 4 Dec 1945 admitted to 110th Australian Base Hospital for assessment after which he was transferred to 109th Australian Convalescent Depot in Melville from where he was discharged on 18 Dec 1945.

Charles was a POW recovered from Kawoya at the end of the war

In 1946 Charles married Molly English.

In 1949-63 Electoral Rolls, Charles and Molly were residing Megalong Road, Nedlands.  Charles was a Police constable.