Reg Chard

Today we remember Reg Chard, who fought on the treacherous Kokoda Track. Reg recalls making plans with his mates Dick Kayess and Alan Davidson as they felt the end was near. Tragically, the unpredictability of war prevailed.

Reg Chard audio file (MP4 23.86 MB)

Reg Chard audio script

75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

Audio actuality

“Fellow Citizens, the War is over” — (The Hon J B Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia)

On the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War, Australia remembers Reg Chard, who fought on the treacherous Kokoda Track.

But it was in 1942, at Sanananda in northern New Guinea, that Reg came closest to not making it home.

Reg Chard

I was standing in the middle — and there was Dick Kayess on the left-hand side of me, from Ingleburn; and there was Alan Davidson on the other side of me — he came from Dulwich Hill in Sydney.

Anyway Dick said to me: “You know, if we get out of this here”, because we knew that the Coral Sea was right there and once we got rid of these Japanese that was the end of the campaign. So he said, “Looks like we’ll get home”. So he said to me: “When we get home”, he said, “the moment I get home, I’m going to marry Isabel” — that was his girlfriend. Anyway, he said: “I want you to be my best man”. I said: “Yeh, fine, Dick” … you know, just like that. And he took one step forward, and a sniper in a tree put a bullet straight through his brain. It didn’t even bleed — he was dead before he hit the ground. And Alan Davidson on the other side of me … and he got one through his temple. And I’m standing in the middle.

Saturday, August 15 marks the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. Let’s pay our respects to that amazing generation of Australians.