223564 LAC Frank Venn Royal Air Force 99 Squadron (d.1st Nov 1945) LAC Frank Venn and I were very closely associated while serving in the 99 Squadron on the Cocos Island.I also happened to be an LAC and a Flight Mechanic and we worked together on the Liberator Heavy Bombers. A few months before the end of the war Frank and I had exchanged home addresses of each other's mother. After the cessation of WW2 in August 1945 life on the Cocos Island was more like a protracted holiday on a South Sea Island. We would spend the days lolling on the beach reading books and the nights playing the guitar while singing.
One day while resting on the beach I happened to observe two of the RAF boys on a makeshift raft waving as if seeking assistance. I recognized them through a telescope, knew that they could not swim and realized that the raft was fast drifting towards the second reef. I knew that the raft would soon be lifted by the waves and hurled onto the reef and end in a disaster.
I asked Frank, who happened to be around, to take a look through the telescope. On seeing their distress he hurled the instrument aside and ran on to the beach. He organized a team of volunteers to rescue the men in distress. A rope was tied around the waist of the first man and the far end of the rope was fastened to the trunk of a coconut palm. I took my position in the human chain, some ten men from the first man. Frank was supervising the exercise and on seeing me he ordered me to get out of the human chain and when I hesitated, he got me by the collar dragged me on to the beach and punched me on the jaw. I fell unconscious on the beach. Later when I came to I realized that the rope holding the human chain had given up and about 32 men including Frank perished in the ocean. This is my story of a great friend who saved my life and lost his own in the process. God rest his beloved soul.
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