Harold Cox could not hide his disgust at fashion models on television wearing what they said were replica war medals.

But what most enraged Mr Cox, 84, was the places most of the models wore their “medals” - the place of pride for all war veterans - on the left side of their chests.

Some models were even shown wearing medals in their navels.

Mr Cox, who lives at Benhome, knows what medals mean to war veterans.

As a sailor on the cruiser HMAS Australia in 1945, Mr Cox knew the horrors of the Japanese “divine wind” when they were struck by kamikaze suicide bombers.

“I saw the despicable behaviour of those models on television and it made me very angry,’’ he said.

“Do you know 86 of our sailors died in that attack on HMAS Australia?

“I was driving an ammunition hoist for a 4-inch gun when the kamikaze hit us.

“The blast flung me sideways, to crash into a bulkhead where I hurt my leg.

“A picture that still haunts me is our lads having to turn hoses on our dead so we could separate them.

“We didn’t even have time to bury them. We just rolled them up in canvas and threw them over the side, giving them a proper funeral when we arrived back in Sydney later.’’

“I lost a lot of mates.

“It’s the sort of thing those models and the people who employ them will hopefully never know.

“I will never forget only being able to recognise my best mate’s body by the boots he was wearing.

“We all paid a price for the medals we wear - with pride.

“Yet nothing stopped the models and their employer from insulting us.

“I saw pictures of the models wearing medals all over their bodies.’’

Among Mr Cox’s medals are the 1939-45 Star, the War Medal and the Victory Medal, and a US decoration awarded to all those who took part in the Liberation of the Philippines.

He had special thoughts for a fellow Maitland sailor, George Buxton, who joined the navy on the same day he did.

“My mum told him: ‘George, look after my little boy.’

“George told her: ‘I’ll do that Mrs Cox.’

“And he did.”