Letter to the editor

Dear Sir

I can empathise with Phillip Daniel and his letter to the editor in the July 2021 edition.

I too joined the Australian Imperial Force at 18 in 1944 but did not make a posting to a war zone until late April in 1945. I was with my unit at two of the amphibious landings on Borneo – at Tarakan and Balikpapan.

When the war finished in August, I was a few weeks short of the six months needed to have been granted the 1939–45 Star.

As I was apparently not deemed to have been at the Second World War, I have not attended an Anzac Day march since 1948 as I have felt I didn’t belong.

Best regards

Brian Winchcombe
Dunsborough, WA

If you have at any point served in the Navy, Army or Air Force, you are as entitled as anyone to feel immensely proud of your service, and to march on Anzac Day. All Australians owe you an enormous debt of gratitude.
– DVA