The following is an account by Albert Austin Montague, an American and former WWII Submariner and retired Sergeant Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, now deceased, of time spent in Brisbane, on sly grog patrol:
“In the early part of 1945 I was transferred from the U.S.S. STINGRAY to the submarine relief crew based in Brisbane, Australia. I spent a very short time in the relief crew before being transferred to the shore patrol, and was then loaned to the [Queensland] Police Department’s bootleg detail. Our main function was to buy illegal whiskey from anyone who would sell it to us. My partner and I would operate with four Queensland police officers and acting very drunk we would go to known bootlegger’s houses and buy bottles of whiskey. After making the buy we would tip our hats and the four police officers would make the arrest.
Submariner Albert A. Montague, 1921 – 2014.
Image c1941 and courtesy of Young’s Funeral Home, Tigard, Oregon
Two of the arrests stand out in my mind as being somewhat unusual. The first is when we made a buy from a female and when the officers arrested her, her husband went berserk. It seems that he had just been released from a 6 month jail term that morning and low and behold they were taking his wife away for another 6 months! I would have hollered too. The second [memorable] case occurred when we were attempting to make a buy from a group of men and had a marked patrol car pass by. The leader of the gang accused us of being undercover agents for the police and pulled a gun. We had not as yet made a buy so could only talk our way out of the situation. We finally got clear of the gang and advised the officers of what happened and they arrested them. We felt kind of funny riding next to them in the police car.
Sketch of a Spirit Still.
Image Courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum
My partner and I worked from 1500 hours to 2300 hours every other day. Another thing that happened later on our tour with the [Queensland] Police Department was when we would encounter suspects that we had help arrest before and would again buy illegal whiskey from them which would lend to there being arrested once again. After being in law enforcement for 20 years I can appreciate the professional way in which the [Queensland] police officers protected us during our tour on Brisbane bootleg detail.”
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. The content was written by Albert A. Montague during his retirement, and compiled by Police Museum Assistant Georgia Grier.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – Sly Grog Patrol” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence.
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