By Rene N Panagiotelis (Poulos)
Service No: N168040 & NX128588 Rank on Demobilisation: Corporal
Continuous Full Time Service (CMF/AMF): 01 Oct 1941 – 17 Jan 1946 (1570 days)
Special Service Areas:
- Dutch New Guinea, 24 Sept 1943 – 27 March 1944
- South West Pacific Area (SWPA), Netherlands East Indies (NEI), Merauke, Morotai 19 Jun 1945 – 4 Jan 1946
Other Areas:
- Australia: Newcastle, Blackalls, Darwin, Brisbane, Cairns
Posting at Discharge: 13 Aust Advance Workshops
Trade Group: Telecom Mechanic (Radar)
Medals:
- 1939/45 Star (Operational Service)
- Pacific Star (Operational Service in the Pacific theatre)
- War Medal 1939/45 + Mention in Despatches (Bronze Oak Leaf Emblem)
- Australia Service Medal (Service Qualification – Dip. In Radio Engineering)
Postings 1941-1946:
- 2/33 Infantry Battalion
- 42 Fortress Signals Fixed Defence
- 2 Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (AEME) – Australian Radio Maintenance Section (Northern Territory Forces)
- Heavy Artillery Newcastle, Fixed Defence (Coastal Artillery)
- 56 Australian Anti-Aircraft Company RAE (Royal Australian Engineers)
- 52 Australian Anti-Aircraft Regiment, New Guinea
- 38 Australian Anti-Aircraft Battery
- 13 Australian Advanced Workshops
Nicholas, the first child of Theodore N and Eirini Tzortzopoulos, was born in Sydney, Australia in 1917. In 1922 his family moved to Crookwell where his parents established and ran the Niagara Café. This was a very successful enterprise and in 1929, some seven years later, the entire family, now with four children, relocated to Kythera and Athens. Eight years later, in 1937, with war clouds looming, the family returned to Australia.
Nicholas was educated in Greece between the ages of 12 and 20 yrs of age and completed four years of secondary education at Anastasias Evangelinidou High School in Kallithea, Athens. He returned to Australia with an excellent command of both spoken and written English and Greek. Nicholas hoped this skill would take him back to his beloved Greece as an interpreter with the Australian Army, but upon enlistment in 1941, other factors took hold.
On arrival back in Australia in 1937, Nicholas enrolled at the Australian Radio College and received a Diploma in Radio Engineering. This qualification served him and the Army well and he continued with his telecommunications training throughout the war years, eventually specialising in telephone, radio and more importantly radar. His record shows that both in Australia and during active service in the Pacific theatre of war, his duties were, signals, defence and radar.
After the war, Nicholas married Mary Louise Caling (Kallinikos), and together they had three children, Theodore, John and Rene. Nicholas remained employed in the technical world of radio, TV, video and computers. He was a firm believer in the value of education and was, himself, a lifelong learner, gaining a TAFE Diploma in Fine Arts during his retirement. He never lost his love for Kythera and Athens, and he proudly served on the Board of the Kytherian Brotherhood for some years including the 50th Anniversary year in 1972, where he was MC at the Anniversary Ball.
