[Nathan O'Malley]

Clarence served with Headquarters 4th Military District as a Staff Sergeant until August of 1944 when he was enlisted by the AIF and employed as the foreman of works for the 63rd Deputy Commander Royal Engineers.

The 63rd was responsible for the area of Katherine to Larrimah and spent much of their time making sure the RAAF ice machines were in full working order at the various airfields in the area one can only imagine how the war would have gone at this point if the RAAF didn't have ice for their Whiskey!

Manbulloo Abattoir caused significant grief in this period too with their Blackstone engines running the freezer plant constantly playing up with the 63rd spending months trying to repair them eventually replacing them with Deutz engines that had to be flown in by the Americans from Adelaide only for Headquarters to tell them not to worry about installing them as the war is nearly over.

Clarence stayed with the 63rd until May of 1945 before being transferred to the 105th Field Hospital in Sydney for an operation on his shoulder which had been dislocating itself this was a preexisting injury he'd sustained falling down an elevator shaft as an apprentice in Adelaide and had prevented his Enlistment in the AIF at the outbreak of the War. He cursed the army for this operation as apparently they made it worse