On 19 February 1942 the alarm sounded. At the time Darkie was having a shower. Grabbing his tin hat, boots and a towel he raced to his position near the Command Post where he manned a Lewis Machine Gun. As the Japanese staffed the position he found he had a field of fire so he moved into the open and set it up on a 44 gallon drum. But still he could not get sufficient elevation. His number 2, Gunner Garner, placed the gun on his shoulder and as a Japanese pilot came in on a low level staffing attack Darkie was able to pour accurate fire into the plane until it crashed. The plane was not the only thing to fall to the ground during the attack, Darkie’s towel had also gone south.
He remained at Berrimah for subsequent air raids but was then attached, with other members of his Battery’s anti-aircraft machine gunners, to 14th Heavy Anti-aircraft Battery to defend the Harbour Oil Installation near the wharf in Darwin. On 16 June 1942 the Japanese bombed the tanks and ruptured some setting them on fire. Darkie, Gunners Ron Crake and Jack Ryder were rescued but had received severe third degree burns. They were hospitalised at Adelaide River where through outstanding care by the doctors and nurses they recovered sufficiently to be transferred to Heidelburg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne. The three of them came to be known as the ‘Burn Boys’.
Upon recovery Darkie was posted to anti-aircraft sites in Sydney and discharged from the Army on 9 November 1943. He returned to Stirling Henry Company but left this job as his nerves were very bad. He married June Catto at St Marks Church, Granville on 2 June 1945 and settled in Greystanes where they built a house.
And after holding several jobs including postman and with the Water Board he settled into a job with the Attorney General’s Office in Sydney where he worked for 22 years until retiring in 1983.
For his actions on 19 February 1942 he was awarded the Military Medal, the first bravery awarded to be awarded for action on Australian soil. It was presented to him in Sydney by the Governor General in 1945.
Wilbert Thomas (Darkie) Hudson passed away on 7 July 2002. He was survived by his wife June and children Robert and Wendy. A memorial was unveiled to him by the Mayor of Holroyd City Council on 13 February 2010 in a park opposite his home. |
