Five Illawarra WWII veterans acknowledged on Victory in the Pacific Day

The veterans, aged between 99 and 101, were the VIP guests at the Wollongong service commemorating the end of the Second World War.

As the veteran group arranged ties and medals accordingly, 101-year-old Irene Walker stood arm in arm with 99-year-old Fred Gregory.

Veterans, police, family and community members gathered at Wollongong Cenotaph on August 15 for the Victory in the Pacific Day commemorative service.

VP Day, formerly known as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day), marks Japan's surrender and the end of the war.

Fred Gregory remembered the day the war ended 78 years ago, he was stationed in Germany.

"When the war was over I couldn't be happier thinking about going home," Mr Gregory said.

"It didn't work out that way there was still a bit more to do."

Despite the war being declared over, Mr Gregory, a trooper in World War II, didn't arrive home till two years later in 1947.

The 99-year-old explained that the British Army didn't let everyone leave at once, servicemen and women had a 'demob' demobilise number.

In those two years in Germany, he went from driving reconditioned tanks to picking up tanks.

"In that bit, we enjoyed it because there was no fear, it was an ordinary life, we were just driving around picking this up and putting that over there."

Mr Gregory enlisted when he was nearly 18 years of age, he was a truck driver before the war.

"Our country emerged from the Second World War with a new sense of economic and political and social independence," City of Wollongong RSL Sub-Branch president, John Sperring, said in the address speech.

"These veterans inspire us with their example and our nation rightly owes them its deepest gratitude. Thank you for your service."

The day is personal for Mr Sperring not only as a veteran himself but because it reminds him of his late father Stan Sperring, a signalman in WWII.

"I get a little bit emotional because my father is no longer with us," Mr Sperring said

After his father died, Mr Sperring found a collection of war diaries that had been written as letters to his mother.

"I discovered that dad had written war diaries so from the very start of the war from 1939 right through to the end of 45, he wrote all his experiences."

He is still working his way through reading them.

Read more: VP Day goes the full circle for Borneo veteran

The VP Day commemoration included a wreath laying ceremony accompanied by Scottish bagpipes, the Last Post, and two hymns led by singer Carmel Leonard.

"It's always good to get with fellow veterans, and you remember your mates and you remember the sacrifice that some of them made, the supreme sacrifice that died in service," Mr Sperring said.

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