CLEVELAND resident Len Mason has not been to the Suez Canal since he was on his way to fight in the battle of El Alamein, nearly 80 years ago.
This April, the 96-year-old will visit the canal to celebrate Anzac Day and commemorate two of the most significant battles of WWII.
Mr Mason was 18 when he joined the army, the youngest in his battalion of machine gunners, although he put his age up to 20.
Soon, he was on the RMS Aquitania bound for the Middle East.
Mr Mason spent five months in Egypt, fighting in both battles of El Alamein to protect the Middle East's oilfields and prevent Axis forces accessing the Suez Canal.
Mr Mason said he did not like to dwell on memories from the war but that he recalled his time in Egypt vividly.
"On October 23 1942, they had two big searchlights up in the sky," he said.
"At 10 o'clock at night when the searchlights tipped together, 1100 artillery pieces opened up on the Germans, and that was the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein."
Mr Mason also remembered the time troops in Egypt were visited by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
"Churchill was just walking past and I (asked when we were) going home and he just said 'one of these days'," Mr Mason said.
"It was quite incredible."
After the battle was over, Allied troops salvaged items from Axis bunkers and burnt-out tanks.
Mr Mason picked up a Nazi flag, which he had all of his battalion sign when they boarded the RMS Queen Mary headed to Australia.
After the ship arrived home, the flag disappeared for more than 70 years, to resurface six years ago just before Mr Mason's 90th birthday.
"I was looking up El Alamein on the internet and I saw the flag," wife Judy Mason said.
"It had obviously come back to one of the men, and when he passed away, it came back to the (Australian War Memorial in Canberra."
Mr and Mrs Mason visited Canberra to see the flag and Mr Mason said he was shocked that it had been uncovered after so many years.
It brought back a lot of memories for me.
- Len Mason
After returning to Australia, Mr Mason was shipped out to Papua New Guinea, where he was injured in the invasion of Lae when his landing barge was blown up.
As well as being wounded in the explosion, Mr Mason contracted malaria and dengue fever, spending months in a military hospital while he recovered.
He spent five years in the armed forces, with a total of 978 days overseas.
On his return to Australia, Mr Mason carved out a successful singing career for himself.
"I sang with the opera all over Queensland, sang with the symphony orchestra," he said.
"I would have sung with every hotel at every club that you can think of in Brisbane. It was a wonderful life."
Mr Mason still visits nursing homes to sing, sometimes performing to people significantly younger than himself.
"He has a wonderful voice," Mrs Mason said.
While he usually marches in Sydney on Anzac Day with the remaining members of his battalion, this year Mr Mason will mark the occasion on a cruise ship bound for the Middle East, where it all began nearly 80 years ago.
"I think the cruise is going to be incredible," he said.
"I think it will be a bit different, going on a luxury ship compared to a warship.
"(But) it's going to be unbelievable. I hope I don't break down and cry but you never know."
