During the siege of Tobruk in 1941, an Australian soldier decided
it was high time to lighten the sombre mood.
Private Walter John ‘Jack’ Darnley fashion together this makeshift banjo
using an army mess tin called a dixie, a discarded drum, a plastic toothbrush and carved wood.
He used a .303 to put a hole in the dixie tin and had his wife send in the strings from Australia.
Jack's son John donated what became known as the Darnley Dixaline
and other paraphernalia to Birdwood Military Museum in Geraldton.
It’s called a dixaline because it’s made out of an army dixie.
Basically, the army dixie was their food tray.
He would have used it to entertain his mates in the trenches.
The interesting part about the dixaline is not so much the actual construction
but it had his whole battalion’s signatures on it and all the theatres of war he was in.
And the other part of interest, which is tragic, was that most of the people
who signatures are there, died at Ruin Ridge, which was a ridge that was taken
from the Germans by the battalion and were later not relieved by the British
as it was supposed to be and it was recaptured by the Germans and they all died.
Amongst the paraphernalia is a handwritten card Jack received in the trenches
announcing the birth of his son.
He was in his foxhole and he received a card nominating that he had a son
born on the fourth of April 1941 and that happened to be me.
After Jack's death, John also discovered reams of songs and poems
his father had penned about the battlefields.
The Rats of Tobruk. We give our thanks to the Navy for helping us in our fight.
They brought us supplies and ammo, and took out the wounded by night.
Six weary months we've been here and we're fed up to the eyes,
dodging shrapnel and bullets, and tortured with sand storms and flies...
John also heard whispers of his father's wild leisure time exploits,
including the time he and two buddies stole a plane while on leave in Egypt.
They got into all sorts of strife.
Another occasion they actually broke into the officers’ canteen and stole a case of beer,
which they distributed amongst their mates.
Together the artefacts and stories paint a picture of a bold and outgoing larrikin.
It wasn't until much later that John understood why the father he came to know
was so different to the man who once sang with his mates in the trenches of Tobruk
while strumming music on his handmade dixaline.
Though I didn't understand at the time, he liked to drink.
He used to have nightmares at night which I used to hear and I never understood.
But since my son's been in the army, and suffers from the same things,
I now know he was he was suffering from depression.
And had I known that at the time I probably would have viewed him differently.
I think he drank to forget