My father, although involved in WWII was in convoys in the North Atlantic and also the Indian Ocean. He never really talked about his experiences except to tell a few stories of ships disappearing in the middle of the night, the hardships and the fertility of war. I guess he lost many friends and saw many things that he would rather forget. He did tell me of coming into Bombay I think it was several days after an ammunition ship exploded in Bombay Harbour and finding the wharf area and all around it just flattened. Limbs were left hanging from trees and poles and the stench he said you could smell it from many miles out.

My parents never really influenced me in my passion for memorabilia of the war years except to say "don't go near there, don't go near there" but I was hooked and a dark Japanese cave was all I needed to get excited. I never really found much in the caves of Rabaul or Lae, most of my collection of relics come from wrecks.

I remember a very good friend of mine Dave Pennefather and myself did a stint in my old boat around some of the hot spots of PNG such as Arawe, Cape Gloucester, Gasmata and other Japanese held areas in perhaps one of the last souveniour hunts of the 20th century. These were in the days when souvenir hunting was looked upon as a right.

We returned to Lae some 3-4 weeks later with the back hatch full with lovely trinkets of war. The best we had was an iron box we had found and when we opened it, it contained a complete mortor sight for a 88mm Japanese mortar, still packed in greese proof paper and wood wool. This sight is now in a private museum in Adelaide Australia and this was just one of the finds. (This particular ship still has more iron boxes in it.)

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