A Melancholy Duty - Australia and World War Ii: Inquiry

Chapter 5
A MELANCHOLY DUTY AUSTRALIA AND WORLD WAR II

World War II was far more widespread than World War I. In Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacic there was a terrible loss of life and human suffering in the years from 1939 to 1945. Many ordinary people were killed in their homes from bombing raids. Some were moved into camps where they were subjected to torture and cruelty. Most experienced the horror of modern war or were expected to participate in the war effort of their country.
INQUIRY
Why was Australia involved in World War II? What were some of the experiences of Australians as a result of their involvement in the war? What was the impact of the war on the Australian home front? How did Australias relationship with Britain and the United States change during World War II?
Australian troops parading through the streets of Sydney on their return from the Middle East in 1942
AWM 026499
A student: 5.2 assesses the impact of international events and relationships on Australias history 5.3 explains the changing rights and freedoms of Aboriginal peoples and other groups in Australia 5.4 sequences major historical events to show an understanding of continuity, change and causation 5.5 identies, comprehends and evaluates historical sources 5.7 explains different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the past.
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ACTU: Australian Council of Trade Unions aliens: people from a foreign country who do not have citizenship in the country where they are living austerity: living simply; managing with only the basic needs and wasting nothing boom net: a net put across the entrance to a harbour, which can be raised or lowered censorship: government control over what the public can read, view or hear conscription: a system of compulsory service in a nations armed forces double burden: a term used to describe societys expectation that women continue to perform their unpaid household work while also participating in the paid workforce evacuate: to move out of an area, usually because there is a potential danger or threat family (or basic) wage: the concept introduced by Justice Higgins in 1907 that set a basic wage for a male breadwinner at an amount that would allow an unskilled worker enough money to support a wife and three children. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court set female wage rates at 54 per cent of this amount on the assumption that the male was the breadwinner. fuzzy-wuzzy angels: term used by Australian soldiers for people of Papua who helped them during the war Geneva Convention: an international agreement on the rules for wartime treatment of prisoners of war and the wounded internment: the practice of keeping people under guard in a certain area khaki: the colour of Australian soldiers desert uniforms in World War II. The khaki uniforms had to be dyed green before being used in jungle ghting. Lend-Lease: an Act passed by the United States Congress on 11 March 1941 to sell, transfer, lend or lease armaments to the Allies without the United States being directly involved in the war munitions: weaponry, ammunition and other materials used in ghting war newsreel: a short lm presenting current news events, shown at cinemas prisoners of war: people taken prisoner during a war and held against their will while the conict continues rationing: a system involving the exchange of coupons for goods and foods that were in short supply during the war, to ensure everyone could obtain a share reserve labour force: a term used to describe how women have been used as a spare labour force in times of need, leaving their traditional roles in the home and taking up jobs in the paid workforce siege: the surrounding and blockading of a place total war: a war in which everyone in a country is involved by either ghting or helping those who are ghting
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CHAPTER 5: A MELANCHOLY DUTY AUSTRALIA AND WORLD WAR II
5.1
AT WAR AGAIN
The Great War of 191418 was called the war to end all wars. The extent of killing and destruction led people to hope that there would be no such war again. However, three countries Germany, Italy and Japan took steps after World War I to achieve their own goals, even if it meant another war. Germany resented its defeat in World War I and the way in which the Versailles Treaty at the end of the war punished it. Adolf Hitler used this resentment, and the devastation caused by the Great Depression, to take advantage of the weaknesses in Germanys democracy and create a one-party dictatorship. Italy and Japan had both been allies of Great Britain in the Great War, but both felt that their contribution was not recognised after the war. Both countries also became dictatorships and adopted aggressive foreign policies.
OUTBREAK OF WAR IN EUROPE

In September 1938, Britain, France and Italy agreed to allow Hitler to occupy the Germanspeaking area of Czechoslovakia. In March 1939, Hitler broke the agreement by seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia. When this was followed by the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Source 5.1.1
NORTH SEA
UNI T ED K I NGDO M
NETHERLANDS
SWEDEN ESTONIA
0 500 1000 km
DENMAR K
LATV IA LITHUA NIA

E a s t Pr us s ia
N
UNION OF SOV IET SOC IA LIST REPUBLIC S
B ELGI UM
LUX.
GER MANY
POLA ND
FR ANCE
SWITZERLAND
AUSTRIA
C ZEC HOSLOVA KIA HUNGA RY ROMA NIA
IA SP CA E A S N
PORTUGAL S PA I N
I TALY
YUGOSLAV IA BULGA RIA ALBANIA
BLACK SEA
IRA N TURKEY
GREEC E MOROCCO Sicily ALGER I A

German conquests 17 March 1938 to September 1939 Italian conquests October 1935 to April 1939 Soviet advance into Poland September 1939
SYRIA T UNI SI A
MEDITERRANEAN
Crete
SEA
IRAQ Damascus PA LESTINE TRA NSJORDA N
Tobruk LIBYA
Suez Canal
To Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
Tobruk
Significant battle area for Australians
EGYPT
SAUDI A RA BIA
Map showing German and Italian aggression (193539) and some of the main sites of Australian involvement (194042)
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Source 5.1.2
Key events in the lead-up to war in Europe
Source 5.1.4
ITALY
The front page of the Melbourne Sun, 2 September 1939, at the start of the war in Europe
October 1935: invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia) April 1939: invades Albania
GERMANY
March 1938: union with Austria September 1938: occupies German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia March 1939: invades the rest of the Czech state September 1939: invades west Poland
NAZIS START WAR

BRITAIN, FRANCE MOBILISE: POLES SEEK AID
Australian Associated Press ONDON, Friday.Britain and France to-day ordered a general mobilisation following the German invasion of Poland.
SOVIET UNION
September 1939: invades east Poland
L
MY MELANCHOLY DUTY
Australians were aware that the German, Italian and Japanese invasions of other countries in the 1930s made war a possibility. (See source 5.1.1 for Germany and Italy and source 5.2.1 for Japan.) In 1939, Australia had a United Australia Party Prime Minister, Robert Menzies. It appeared to Menzies that if Britain was at war, Australia as part of the British Empire was also at war.
The King signed an order for a general call-up after the Privy Council had met this morning for 12 minutes.
A Polish ofcial source informed United Press that Poland has invoked the military alliance with Britain and has asked her aid. The French Premier conferred with the French war leaders. Subsequently Cabinet decided to put 6,000,000 men in the eld.
King George VI
First News of Fighting
German troops, converging on three fronts, have crossed all Polish frontiers.
Polish sources say that the Polish Army is falling back slowly on previouslyprepared positions in Upper Silesia.
The Polish Embassy reports that many lives, including women and children, were lost in air raids on Warsaw. The British Embassy at Warsaw, however, reports that there had been no bombings there today.
Source 5.1.3
An extract from Prime Minister Menzies announcement of Australias entry into World War II, broadcast on 3 September 1939 Fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you ofcially that, in consequence of the persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war on her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war . . . It may be taken that Hitlers ambition is not to unite all the German people under one rule, but to bring under that rule as many countries as can be subdued by force. If this is to go on, there can be no security in Europe and no peace for the world. A halt has been called. Force has had to be resorted to, to check force. The right of independent people to live their own lives, honest dealing, the peaceful settlement of differences, the honoring of international obligations all these things are at stake. There was never any doubt as to where Great Britain stood in regard to them. There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands, there stands the people of the entire British world.
Published in the Advertiser, Adelaide, 4 September 1939.
Other Crisis News on Inside Pages
THE CABLE MESSAGE which announced the beginning of hostilities between Germany and Poland. It came from an American source.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies
131
The Second AIF (Australian Imperial Force) left Australia in January 1940 and joined the ghting in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa. When Italy invaded Egypt in September 1940, the Australian 6th Division forced them back. Some troops were then sent to Greece. Here, Germany had control of the skies and its planes attacked soldiers, cities and supply ships. The Australians were forced to evacuate to the nearby island of Crete. The Germans attacked the island using parachute troops to overcome opposition, and 274 Australians were killed. The situation changed dramatically when Italy declared war on England and France on 10 June 1940; France surrendered to Germany two weeks later. The Australian troops were now deployed in ghting the Germans and Italians in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East. From September 1940 to July 1941 Australian troops fought in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal.
the town and their only supply route was by sea. Despite attacks from dive bombers, tanks and infantry, the defenders Australian, Polish, Indian and British soldiers held on for eight months, from 11 April to 10 December 1941. The Germans called them the Rats of Tobruk, which the Australians considered a mark of respect. Late in 1941, a British counter-attack forced the Germans to lift their siege. From October to November 1942, the 9th Division of the AIF fought at the Battle of El Alamein, where the Germans were nally defeated by the Allies and forced to leave North Africa. The British commander, General Montgomery, expressed admiration for the Australian soldiers for their determination in appalling conditions, saying that we could not have won the battle in twelve days without that magnicent 9th Australian Division.
Source 5.1.6
An Australian soldiers description of conditions in Tobruk Dust storms, heat, eas, ies, sleepless nights, when the earth shook with the roar of the enemys fury, daring raids into no mans land through mine elds and barbed wire, scorching day after day in the front line, where no man dared stand upright, but crouched behind a kneehigh protection of rocks all these things had been the lot of the defenders of Tobruk.
Age, 24 November 1941.
WAR IN NORTH AFRICA

With Europe now under German control, the Australian 7th Division was sent to ght against the French in Syria, where, in a ve-week campaign, 416 Australians were killed. One of the most famous events of the north African campaign was the siege of the town of Tobruk. The town was cut off by the German general Rommel. There were 15 000 Australians in
Source 5.1.5
A photograph of Australian soldiers in action in North Africa during World War II
AWM 010580
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The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) fought several battles in the Mediterranean, including one on 19 July 1940, in which HMAS Sydney sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo. The navy also lost two ships: HMAS Waterhen and HMAS Parramatta were sunk off Tobruk in June and November 1941 respectively. HMAS Nestor was sunk after a ght with German aircraft in June 1942.
Australian aircrews from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) went to Britain and Canada for training at the outbreak of the war. They then helped to defend England against Germany during the Battle of Britain from July to October 1940. Later, these men served on British planes which bombed German cities such as Cologne and Dusseldorf. RAAF members also served in Crete, Greece, France, Italy and North Africa.
Source 5.1.7
A recruitment poster for the RAAF. The Battle of Britain and other contests in Europe led to a growing interest in Australia in joining the RAAF.
AWM ARTV04283
2. What do sources 5.1.3 and 5.1.4 reveal about 3. List ve points that can be observed about the Check your understanding 1. What reasons did the Australian government have for 2. 3. 4. 5.
going to war in September 1939? Name three areas in which Australia fought during 1941 and 1942. How were the Germans able to capture Greece and Crete so easily? Why is the siege of Tobruk an important event for Australians? In what ways were the RAAF involved in the war in Europe? Australias relations with Britain? soldiers uniforms in source 5.1.5. what is said in source 5.1.6?
4. What evidence is there in source 5.1.5 to support 5. Study source 5.1.7. Imagine you are a young
Australian keen to join the armed forces. Write a diary entry describing your reaction to this poster.
Researching and communicating

Go to www.jaconline.com.au/retroactive/retroactive2 and click on the Tobruk weblink. Download the map at the start of this site, then conduct an imaginary interview with a survivor of Tobruk. Ask him how they got the name Rats of Tobruk and what conditions were like for them. Worksheets 5.1 Armed forces graph
Using sources 1. From sources 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 and the text, construct a
timeline starting with the lead-up to war in 1938 and nishing at the end of 1942.
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5.2
AT WAR WITH JAPAN
At the same time that Germany and Italy were expanding in Europe and Africa, the Japanese were in the process of creating an empire in East and South-East Asia (see source 5.2.1). The war entered a new phase in the Pacic and came closer to directly threatening Australia when the Japanese attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday 7 December 1941.
Source 5.2.2
Source 5.2.1
OUTER MONGOLIA 1932
CHINA
1937
KOREA
JAPAN
Midway Islands
BURMA 1940 1942 THAILAND PHILIPPINES Marshall Islands FRENCH INDO-CHINA Guam 1941 MALAYA Caroline Islands 1942 INDONESIA
New Guinea
Hawaii (U.S.A.)
A photograph of Japanese planes attacking Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. This photograph was taken from one of the planes.
December 1941
Source 5.2.3
How one newspaper told of the start of the Pacic War
PACI F I C OCEAN
INDIAN OCEAN AUSTRALIA

N
Japanese empire 1931 Japanese expansion 19321942 Area under Japanese control by 1942
JAPAN FIGHTING BRITAIN, U.S.

War Declared in Tokyo
SUDDEN TREACHEROUS BOMBING OF AIR AND NAVAL BASES IN HAWAII
American Fleet Goes To Sea: Naval Action Rumored
Australian Associated Press
1000
2000 km
WASHINGTON, Sunday Japan has declared war on Britain and the United States.
Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo announced at 6 a.m. today that Japan had entered a state of war with the United States and Britain in the Western Pacic as from dawn today. The Premier (General Tao) held a 20-minute Cabinet meeting at 7 a.m. The Foreign Minister (Mr Togo) then summoned the British and American Ambassadors. Following swiftly on news of the Japanese action against Britain and the United States, the Netherlands East Indies declared itself at war with Japan. General mobilisation was ordered, and the Government invited the Royal Air Force to station planes at strategic points in the Indies. Canada also declared war on Japan. Hostilities broke out early today, when sudden and treacherous attacks were made by Japanese aircraft on American naval and air bases in Hawaii. Simultaneously Japanese Marines took over the waterfront of the International Settlement at Shanghai. The British gunboat Peterel (310 tons, complement 55) was sunk at Shanghai. The Japanese Domei (ofcial) newsagency announced in Tokyo that naval operations were in progress off Hawaii, with at least one Japanese aircraft carrier in action against Pearl Harbor, the U.S. naval base in the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It said that Japanese bombers raided Honolulu at 7.35 a.m., Hawaii time. Later it was reported that a naval battle was in progress in the Western Pacic between Japanese and British and American units. The United States Fleet steamed out of Pearl Harbor tonight.
A map showing the Japanese empire in 1931 and Japans military expansion, 193242
The Japanese attacked without warning and without having declared war on the United States. The United States Pacic eet was nearly wiped out, but four of its aircraft carriers were out of the harbour at the time. This was very important later in the war. On 9 December 1941, after Japan had declared war on Britain and the Commonwealth, Australias new Prime Minister, John Curtin, announced that Australia was at war with Japan. Most people now realised Australia was in danger. It was even suggested that a line be drawn on a map from Brisbane to Adelaide, and that only places south of this Brisbane line would be defended. Fortunately, the idea was rejected by the government.
Herald, 8 December 1941
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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was followed by attacks on Burma, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Malaya and other parts of South-East Asia. The island of Singapore was strategically important for the British and Allied forces in South Asia at the start of 1942. It was the location of Britains naval base for the defence of the Far East, and Australian troops were posted there in support of the British effort. Singapore appeared to be a stronghold whose coastlines could always be defended from invasion. So long as Britain maintained its presence there and continued to defend the island and the seas around it, Australia felt protected.
devastated Singapore, and Allied resistance was ineffective against the Japanese troops who crossed over the strait from Malaya by boat. On 15 February 1942, Singapore was captured; around 85 000 Allied troops surrendered, including 15 000 Australians of the 8th Division. Many became prisoners of war and died of starvation and ill-treatment in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps (see page 138). For Australians, the fall of Singapore was a serious development in the war. For the rst time, Australia was alone and defenceless. Curtin called on all Australians to focus their efforts on the war that was now on their doorstep.
Source 5.2.5
THE FALL OF SINGAPORE

On 10 December 1941, two British warships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, were sunk by Japanese bombers off the coast of Malaya. This was a serious blow for Britain and its naval strength. Singapores defences were severely weakened and there was increasing concern in Australia. At the end of December 1941, Prime Minister John Curtin appealed to the United States for help with defence.
Prime Minister John Curtin describes what he expected of Australian citizens after the fall of Singapore.
. . . For Australia our utmost, which means everything we have and everything that belongs to us, must now be mobilised. . . .The protection of this country is no longer that of a contribution to a world at war but the resistance to an enemy threatening to invade our own shore. . . . It is now work or ght as we have never worked or fought before. . . . The hours previously devoted to sport and leisure must now be given to the duties of war. Every citizen has a parallel duty to that of the man in the ghting forces. . . . And brains and brawn are demanded in every place of war endeavour. We have to pep up the production of every essential requirement.
West Australian, 17 February 1942.
Source 5.2.4
Extract from an announcement by Prime Minister John Curtin that Australia would look to the United States for help with defence
[The] United States and Australia must have the fullest say in the direction of the [Pacic] ghting plan . . . I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom. We know the problems the United Kingdom faces. We know the constant threat of invasion . . . but we know too that Australia can go, and Britain can still hold on . . . We are therefore determined that Australia shall not go and we shall exert all our energies towards the shaping of a plan, with the United States as its keystone, which will give our country condence of being able to hold out until the tide of battle swings against the enemy.
Herald, 27 December 1941.
Check your understanding 1. Why were the Japanese so successful in their attack on
Pearl Harbor?
2. Who was Australias Prime Minister in December

1941? Which country did he turn to for help? Why?
3. Explain why the fall of Singapore was such a

signicant event for Australians.
An attack on Singapore was expected to come from the sea. There were no permanent defences on the landward side, and Singapores big guns pointed towards the ocean and couldnt be turned around. The Japanese advance continued by land and the troops moved quickly down the Malay Peninsula, many on bicycles. Allied troops, including the soldiers of the Australian 8th Division, tried valiantly to hold back the Japanese advance, but were forced down the peninsula and across to Singapore. Japanese air attacks
Using sources 1. Using source 5.2.1 and the text, put the events from
this section in chronological order and place them on a timeline from 1931 to 1942. 2. Read source 5.2.3 and answer the following questions. (a) What attacks, apart from the one on Pearl Harbor, did Japan launch on 7 December? (b) Name one country, apart from Britain and the United States, that joined in a declaration of war on Japan. 3. Explain what Curtin is saying in source 5.2.4 about Australias links with Britain and the United States.
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5.3
EXPERIENCES AT KOKODA AND MILNE BAY
Early in 1942, the war came directly to Australia when Darwin and other northern Australian cities were bombed (see page 140). The Japanese had plans to capture and occupy Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (PNG), but they were prevented by defeats in two crucial naval battles: the Battle of the Coral Sea (48 May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (57 June 1942). US aircraft carriers played a vital role as landing platforms for planes used to bomb Japanese ships. The Japanese then decided to land on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea and approach Port Moresby overland. They arrived at the coastal town of Gona on 21 July 1942; their intended route to Port Moresby would be the Kokoda Trail. The Kokoda Trail (also called the Kokoda Track, although Trail is now more common) took its name from the village of Kokoda on the northern side of the Owen Stanley Range and the site of the only aireld between Port Moresby and the north. The distance to Port Moresby from Gona was only about 200 kilometres as the crow ies, but the trail ran over some of the toughest terrain in the world. It was a narrow, rugged track through dense jungle, swift-owing rivers and steep mountains. It climbed two mountain ranges, reaching a height of 2200 metres. At rst, the 39th Militia Battalion defended it. This battalion was hastily made up of conscripts; their average age was only 18.5 years. At the start they were hopelessly outnumbered and had little equipment. Even their khaki uniforms were the wrong colour for jungle ghting and had to be dyed green. However, they were helped by the local people of Papua, who the Australians called fuzzy-wuzzy angels. These locals would bring supplies up the track and take wounded men back for medical help. Many Australians owed their lives to these people. Despite all the difculties, the Australians were able to prevent the Japanese reaching their objective of Port Moresby. The Australians made the Japanese ght for every centimetre of jungle. On 29 July 1942 the Australians were forced to retreat from the town of Kokoda, and on 11 August the aireld there fell into Japanese hands. On 17 September 1942, the Japanese reached Ioribaiwa Ridge. In the distance they could see Port Moresby, which was only 50 kilometres away, but on 25 September the Australian troops began the long process of forcing them back. The Australian troops were encouraged by news of the success against the Japanese at Milne Bay on the eastern coast of PNG. Japanese troops had landed there on 25 August 1942 in an attempt to capture a newly built Allied aireld, which they could then use as another base to attack Port Moresby.
Source 5.3.1
location of places mentioned on these pages and detail of the Kokoda Trail
Sanananda Buna Dobodura Wairopi
EN OW
NEW GUINEA PAPUA

Port Moresby Lae Gona
Ri ve r
am
ba
re
River
Gona
Kumusi
AN ST LE Y RA
X Battle of Coral Sea
Soputa
NG E
Kokoda Oivi
AUSTRALIA Cairns
CORAL SEA
Isurava Alola
Lalok i
Menari Ioribaiwa Imita Ridge

CORAL SEA
N
Efogi Ri ve r
Owers Corner Port Moresby

Bootless Bay
OW EN ST AN LE Y Musa RA NG E
er Riv
Kokoda Trail Height above sea level 2000 to 4000 metres 1000 to 2000 metres 500 to 1000 metres 200 to 500 metres 0 to 200 metres
50
100 km
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Source 5.3.2
An Australian soldier describes conditions on the Kokoda Trail I was one of a party of considerable size, who were cut off in the dense jungle for fourteen long weary days without food. All I had to eat for the rst ten days was one tin of bully beef, one packet of hard biscuits, half pound dehydrated ration and a little chocolate ration. . . . When we were permitted to light a re, it was often too wet, as it rains up here every day and every night. We would be wet through and have to sleep in wet clothes, and would we shiver! . . . All we had to sleep in was a holey ground sheet. The ground up in the jungle is never dry, and smells terribly, the leaves and trees are simply rotten through no sun ever penetrating the thick foliage.
After days of bitter ghting in mud and rain, the Australians successfully defended the airelds and forced the Japanese to retreat (6 September 1942). This was the rst defeat of the Japanese on land in the Pacic and it destroyed the belief that the Japanese were unbeatable in jungle ghting. The Australian troops, which now included those who had returned from the Middle East, slowly forced the Japanese back along the Owen Stanley Track to Kokoda (on 2 November). On 16 November Australian and United States troops began attacking Buna and Gona. Gona fell to the Allies on 1 December and a month later, on 2 January, Buna was captured.
Source 5.3.5
Source 5.3.3
A photograph of conditions in Milne Bay, New Guinea, for Australian soldiers in 1942 AWM 013339
The Australian victory on the Kokoda Trail was Japans second defeat on land and marked the start of the Japanese retreat in the Pacic. Although the last pockets of resistance were not wiped out until the war ended, the threat of Japanese invasion was over for Australia. In the Kokoda campaign, 625 Australians were killed and over 1600 wounded. Another 4000 casualties were due to sickness.
A photograph showing how difcult it was to move supplies along the Kokoda Trail. Although conditions in the jungle were terrible, the Australians never gave up. They were ghting to defend Australia only 800 kilometres away.
AWM 054746
Check your understanding 1. How was the Japanese strategy in PNG altered
because of its defeat in the Coral Sea?
Source 5.3.4
Extract from the translation of a Japanese soldiers diary, believed to be that of Lieutenant Noda Hidetaka, probably of the 3rd Battalion, 144th Japanese Infantry 22nd August, Saturday Cloudy Got up at 0400 hrs. Left for KOKODA at 0500 hours . . . reached a spot just below KOKODA at 1200 hours . . . I hear that the enemy are young, vigorous and brave. Against this enemy we have this terrain also. It will be necessary for us to put forth our utmost endeavour and uphold the prestige of our Imperial Army . . .
Australian War Memorial, Captured Documents, nos 3235, 1942. www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/kokoda/ awm54-japanese.pdf
2. What initial difculties were faced by the Australian

troops who tried to stop the Japanese advance?
3. Find the date for each of the following events and

place them on a timeline: Battle of Coral Sea; Japanese land in PNG; Japanese capture Kokoda aireld; Milne Bay defended from Japanese attack; Allies recapture Kokoda; Gona captured; Buna captured.
Using sources 1. Using the text and sources 5.3.1, 5.3.3 and 5.3.5,
describe the features of the terrain that made ghting difcult. 2. Carefully read sources 5.3.2 and 5.3.4. (a) What features of warfare did the soldiers face?
(b) What was the Japanese view of the Australian soldiers?
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5.4
EXPERIENCES OF PRISONERS OF WAR
The Japanese military code assumed that soldiers would ght to the death; this meant that very few Japanese soldiers allowed themselves to be taken prisoner. They chose instead to die by suicide. The Japanese, therefore, were not prepared for the large number of Allied soldiers who became their prisoners after the surrender of Singapore on 15 February 1942. The Japanese did not always respect people who had surrendered. A total of 130 000 Allied prisoners were taken, including over 22 000 Australians. The majority of prisoners were kept in Changi, which had been built in Singapore six years earlier as a civilian prison. It was therefore quite modern for the time, with sewerage and ushing toilets, but it had to accommodate thousands more prisoners than the numbers for which it had been designed. Other soldiers were sent from Changi to prisons in places such as Japan (where they were forced to work in war industries), Burma, Manchuria and Formosa. The sea voyages to these camps were themselves dangerous. On three occasions, US submarines sank ships carrying prisoners, with a loss of over 1700 lives. On 14 February 1942, the Japanese sank a ship carrying 65 nurses being evacuated from Singapore. Twenty-two nurses made it to land but 21 were shot by Japanese soldiers. The only nurse to survive was Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, who remained in a Japanese prison on the island of Sumatra throughout the war (see source 5.4.5 and page 150). Only 22 nurses returned to Australia at the end of the war; the rest died in captivity. The worst experiences of the war took place on the island of Ambon, in what is now Indonesia, and at Sandakan in East Malaysia. In Ambon, over 200 Australians were massacred in February 1942. In Sabah (North Borneo), there were two forced marches of soldiers from a camp in the coastal town of Sandakan up to Ranau, over 2000 metres high. When soldiers became ill on the march, they were shot or bayoneted by the Japanese. Out of the 2345 Australian and British prisoners of war on these marches, only six survived.
Source 5.4.1
BURMA CHINA
SOUTH CHINA SEA
Moulmein
ThaiBurma Railway
THAILAND Bangkok
FRENCH INDO-CHINA
PHILIPPINES
PHILIPPINE SEA
Source 5.4.2
M A L AYA Singapore Sandakan Ranau Sabah
A newspaper account of conditions for Australians in a Japanese prison camp, 1945

During the past six months the Japanese High Command in the Philippines has insisted that it does not recognise any form of international law, although the Japanese Premier told America in 1942 that Japan would honour the Geneva Convention. [Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War]. In the camps, men, women and children, including the aged and sick, were supplied with less than 900 calories per person per day, although 1700 are required to keep a sleeping person healthy. Everyone in the camp suffered from malnutrition and because of the lack of protein they were not able to control urination. During the penultimate six months of our internment, rations were reduced to six ounces of corn and rice per person per day, plus 150 kilos of soya bean meal. There were virtually no vegetables, except those grown by the internees, and absolutely no fruit, no meat, and no sh. We were supplied with a pinch of salt.
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1945.
Borneo Sumatra
N
New Guinea
Palembang
JAVA SEA
INDIAN OCEAN
0
Ambon Island
Map of South-East Asia, showing places and events mentioned in the text
From Changi, prisoners were sent by train and then on foot to work on the ThaiBurma Railway. The Japanese planned to use this to carry supplies for an attack on India. Conditions there were quite different from those in Changi (see source 5.4.4).
T C H
Java E A S T I N D I E S
1000 km
500
AU S T R A L I A
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Source 5.4.3
Source 5.4.5
An account of the experience of survivors from the Vyner Brooke, a ship sunk by Japanese bombers on 14 February 1942 while evacuating nurses and civilians from Singapore The nurses sent the civilian women and children on ahead, remaining with the wounded on the beach. When the Japanese arrived, they marched the men around the corner of the beachhead, returning minutes later with bloodstained bayonets. The Australian nurses were then forced into the water and shot from behind. Only one, Staff Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, survived the shooting. That is how we know about it. She was the tallest of the women and the bullet that struck her passed through her side just below waist level. After many days of living in the jungle, scrounging for food in the native villages and caring for the only male survivor, Private Kingsley, the two . . . once more surrendered to the Japanese. This time they were taken into custody. Kingsley later died, but Bullwinkel survived and was reunited with thirty-one of her colleagues [who became] prisoners of the Japanese on Bangka Island, together with hundreds of other women and men. The men were separated almost immediately. The women were to be moved many times during the next three and a half years, spending most of their time at Palembang in Sumatra. The Japanese refused to recognise the Australian nurses as military personnel . . . they received no Red Cross parcels and were not permitted to write home for eighteen months, or receive mail . . . through it all they retained dignity, close friendships, an ability to cope and adapt . . . the last few months were very hard . . . eight of the women died in those nal months.
G. Hunter-Payne, quoted in On the Duckboards: Experiences of the Other Side of War, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995, pp. 446.
A photograph of a hospital ward in the Changi prisoner-ofwar camp, September 1945, showing members of the 8th Division, recently released after the Japanese surrender. All were suffering from malnutrition. AWM 019199
Source 5.4.4
An extract from Stan Arneils description of his period on the ThaiBurma railway in May to December 1943 It has been estimated that 100 000 prisoners and coolies died during the construction of the railway, approximately 393 people for every mile of the track. Troops died from every known tropical disease and from sheer exhaustion. So constant was the torrential rain that the troops were wet for months on end, many of them had no shirts, others only lap laps and most in bare feet. Men died in such numbers that the traditional Last Post, the haunting bugle call normally played at military funerals, was played only once per week, for all those who had died during the week. It was thought that the sounding of the Last Post for every death, sometimes six or seven a day, would have had a depressing effect on the troops. The group of prisoners of whom I was a member was known as F Force and suffered the highest percentage of deaths of any force on the railway. Of a force of 7000 men, 3096 died, forty four per cent of its original strength, in nine months. Many more died later as a result of the disease and privation they had suffered on the railway. The rate of deaths was so great that there was not time, and not sufcient men strong enough, to dig graves. The dead were cremated on bamboo res and a handful of ashes of each man collected in a separate bamboo container cut straight from the bamboo. Many of those who returned from the railway never recovered their former health. It was a period when the Australians concentrated solely on the business of living, almost willing themselves to live.
Stan Arneil, One Mans War, Sun Books (Pan Macmillan), Melbourne, 1982, p. 91.
Check your understanding 1. What beliefs about ghting did the Japanese have that
often led them to have little respect for prisoners of war? 2. Prisoners were often moved from Changi to other locations. (a) List three locations to which they were moved. (b) State two ways in which the Japanese used the prisoners to help them ght the war.
Using sources 1. From the map in source 5.4.1 and the text, explain
what the Japanese were hoping to achieve by building the ThaiBurma railway. 2. Why do you think the photograph in source 5.4.3 was taken? Why are such photographs a valuable resource for historians? 3. From a study of all the sources, list the ways in which the Japanese treatment of prisoners during the Pacic War was often inhumane.
139
5.5
CIVILIANS UNDER ATTACK: DARWIN AND THE SUB ATTACK ON SYDNEY
The year 1942 was the rst period in Australias history when it came under direct attack. The perceived threat of invasion by Asia that had troubled Australians for decades suddenly became real.
ATTACKS ON SYDNEY AND NEWCASTLE

Despite the Japanese eets retreat after the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese bombers and submarines were still attacking Australia. Barbed wire was placed on beaches to stop any possible invasion, and everyone had to practise what to do in case of an air raid. Japanese submarines were very busy off Sydney during May and June 1942. A boom net was even placed across Sydney Harbour to stop submarines getting in.
BOMBING OF DARWIN AND NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

The fears of Australians were realised when the disaster at Singapore (discussed on page 135) was followed by a Japanese bombing raid on Darwin. The ships and aireld at Darwin were the Japanese targets; they needed to destroy these so they could invade New Guinea and then Australia. On 19 February 1942, in the rst enemy attack on Australian soil, Darwin was bombed by 188 Japanese planes. About midday on the same day, 54 Japanese bombers attacked Darwins RAAF base. In both raids, about 250 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Most of these were civilians. Damage to the town and ships in the harbour, including a hospital ship, was extensive. To avoid panic among the Australian people, the government stated that only 15 people had been killed and 24 wounded. Over the next two years, Darwin was attacked at least 58 times. The town of Broome and ships in the Torres Strait were also attacked. Even Qantas aircraft were shot down by Japanese planes.
Source 5.5.2
Source 5.5.1
A photograph of one of the Japanese midget submarines which was sunk in Sydney Harbour in 1942 AWM 012723
Les Barnett, an air force electrician, describes the Japanese attack on Darwin on 19 February 1942. They were making unusual sounds and going at odd speeds. Then we saw Kittyhawks ying close to the runway and other planes coming down and machinegunning them, and hitting them. There were explosions and aircraft crashing. We started to think this is fair dinkum! Out the other end of the building, looking south we could see all these aircraft coming in at low level. They were divebombing and machine-gunning the shipping in the harbour. Outside our block there was an air raid trench and we jumped in. There were bombs dropping all around us and you could see the machine-gun bullets running up the bro walls and through the roofs. We had our ries and tin hats and some of us did try to shoot the Jap planes but it was impossible. You think you can do these things but you cant. They were that fast, zooming down and past you. I didnt think about dying, I just thought about getting out of the way. Everyone was cursing the Jap! We were going to get them one way or another, but it was hopeless.
Quoted in Daniel Connell, The War at Home, ABC Books, Crows Nest, 1988, p. 44.
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Early on Saturday 30 May 1942, a Japanese seaplane ew down Sydney Harbour then to Mascot and back out to its mother submarine. No-one red at it and it was able to note where the important warships were. On the night of 31 May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour. Each submarine had two crew members and two torpedoes. One of the submarines was caught in the boom net but the other two followed a Manly ferry into the harbour.
Source 5.5.3
Judith Hunt recalls the evening when, as a nine-year-old girl, her home in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, was shelled by the Japanese. One of my aunts had been repairing an old wireless and as I was sleeping I was dreaming about it. Suddenly I heard a long low whistling sound, then another and another, and then the most enormous explosion. The next thing I remember was my mother lying on top of me. Then she pulled me under the bed. My grandmother was in the room behind ours. Fortunately she also crawled under her bed because the brick wall beside her collapsed. It fell straight across her bed. Afterwards you could see the imprint of her head on the pillow with the bricks all around.
Quoted in Daniel Connell, The War at Home, ABC Books, Crows Nest, 1988, pp. 667.
People only realised that Sydney was being attacked when the crew caught in the boom net blew themselves up to avoid capture. The second submarine was sunk but the third red its torpedoes at the USS Chicago. It missed but a torpedo exploded near the Kuttabul and 21 sailors died. One week later, on 7 June 1942, Sydney was attacked by a Japanese submarine off the coast. Ten shells were red and four exploded in the Bondi area. Newcastle was also shelled by Japanese submarines. Now Australians knew what it was like to be involved in total war.
Check your understanding 1. Which Australian fears were realised in 1942? 2. When in 1942 was Darwin bombed, and for what
reasons?
3. How did Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney

Harbour in 1942 and why?
Using sources 1. In source 5.5.1:

(a) what methods were the Japanese using to attack Darwin and its defences? (b) how were the Australians trying to defend Darwin? 2. Suggest why the submarine shown in source 5.5.2 was recovered from the harbour oor. 3. Imagine you are a reporter in 1942. Using the photograph in source 5.5.2 and the text, write a newspaper headline and brief article about the submarines discovered in Sydney Harbour. 4. From sources 5.5.2 to 5.5.4, explain why the attack on Sydney was such a cause for concern at the time.
Source 5.5.4

Go to www.jaconline.com.au/ retroactive/retroactive2 and click on the History Teachers Association weblink. Using their Attack upon Australia webquest, your task as a team is to prepare a museum display about the Japanese submarine attack upon Australia in MayJune 1942.
A photograph of the damage done to a home during the Japanese shelling of Sydney in 1942 AWM 012594
141
5.6
INTERNMENT OF ENEMY ALIENS
By August 1944, there were about 19 000 alien prisoners of war in Australian internment and prison camps. Most of these were Italians (14 720), most of whom had been captured in campaigns in the Middle East. The rest were made up mainly of Japanese (2223) and Germans (1585). As the war continued, the Italians were generally not seen as a great threat, and the majority of them worked on farms under supervision but often without guards. Japanese, the Japanese in Australian camps were very well treated, but they tended to see this as a sign of weakness (see source 5.6.4).
Source 5.6.3
Source 5.6.1
Photograph of Italian prisoners of war at the Liverpool Internment camp in New South Wales, 1945. The camp sold rewood and the internees worked in timber cutting as well as blacksmith work and farming. AWM 123717 Photograph of two families of German internees behind their identication number at Tatura Internment Camp in Australia, March 1945 AWM 030242/13
Source 5.6.4
An ofcer of the garrison guarding the Japanese at Cowra wrote as follows. They [the Japanese] did not understand the Articles of the Geneva Convention . . . and our strict adherence to its terms merely amused them and further convinced them of our moral and spiritual weakness. They read into our humane treatment of them a desire to placate them, and this they felt sprang from our secret fear of them.
www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/cowra/doc.htm
The Japanese were seen as a greater threat. Half of the Japanese prisoners (as well as some Germans, Koreans and Indonesians) were kept in a prison in Cowra, in the central west of New South Wales. Compared with the Australian prisoners of the
Source 5.6.2
Photograph of Australian soldiers marching a large group of Japanese internees to a prison camp
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CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP FOCUS

THE COWRA BREAKOUT
Early in August 1944, there were reports of a possible Japanese break-out at Cowra. On Friday, 4 August, the Japanese prisoners were notied that all of them, apart from ofcers, were going to be moved to Hay. At about 2 oclock the next morning, a Japanese bugle sounded and Japanese prisoners broke out in three groups, on three sides of the camp. By 14 August, 334 prisoners were retaken; 234 were killed (including 30 who killed themselves by such means as hanging) and 108 were wounded. Two guards were knifed and clubbed to death while ring a Vickers gun at the escapees. Two others were killed in the breakout and while rounding up escapees. Check your understanding 1. List the countries from which aliens in Australian
prison camps originally came.
2. What event preceded the Japanese break-out from

Cowra?
3. What were the Japanese and Australian casualties in

the Cowra break-out?
4. Why were there a high number of suicides and

attempted suicides among the Japanese casualties?
Using sources 1. Imagine you are one of the people in source 5.6.1 or
Source 5.6.5
5.6.3. Write a diary entry describing your typical day in the camp. 2. Read source 5.6.4 and explain in your own words how the Japanese interpreted the way they were treated in Australian prison camps. 3. From source 5.6.4 and the text, explain why there were more restrictions on the Japanese than there were on other prisoners such as the Italians. 4. What impression of the prisoners and their treatment can you gain from the photograph in source 5.6.2? Consider their clothing, appearance and possessions if they have any. 5. Study source 5.6.5 and read its caption. Working with a partner, make up names for each of the farmers in the photograph and compose a dialogue that might be taking place between them about the Cowra break-out, the noises they can hear in the distance and their concern for their families safety. Act out your dialogue for the class.

The Geneva Convention (as mentioned in source 5.6.4) is an international agreement about how prisoners and the wounded must be treated in wartime. Using your library or the Internet, nd out more about the Geneva Convention, such as when it was drawn up, which countries are signatories to it and what some of its rules are.
A photograph of two Cowra farmers standing guard at the gates of their property, with their families locked inside, on hearing of the Japanese prisoners escape in August 1944
143
5.7
WARTIME GOVERNMENT CONTROLS
CONTROLS ON THE HOME FRONT
Whenever a country is under threat of invasion or at war, governments take on increased powers and more control over peoples lives. People can be conscripted for military service or directed to work in particular industries that are thought to be necessary for the war effort. Clothing, food and fuel may be rationed. Freedom of the press, freedom of speech and peoples legal rights may also be limited. When such actions are carried out, there must be some balance between the rights of the individual citizen and the need to ensure that the country as a whole is protected. On 9 September 1939 just over a week after the start of World War II the Commonwealth Government was given wide-ranging powers in the National Security Act: An Act to make provision for the safety and defence of the Commonwealth and its territories during the present state of War. service. The upper limit was increased to 33 years. Early in 1942, and with the increased threat after the fall of Singapore, these young men were called up into the army. They were given from one to three months training and then sent to Papua. This was an Australian territory at the time, and their aim way to try to stop the advance of the Japanese (see pages 1367). For the rest of the war, AIF and AMF battalions fought side by side. Most conscripts joined the AIF when they turned 19. In January 1943, the area to which conscripts could be sent was expanded to include the entire island of New Guinea and the islands of Bougainville, New Britain and New Ireland. For the rst time, Australian conscripts were sent to ght outside Australian territory. Also in 1943, the Defence Act was altered to allow women to be conscripted into the auxiliary forces (see page 149) because there were not enough volunteers.
Source 5.7.1
CONSCRIPTION
Conscription was enforced by the government in World War II without a referendum or the debate that took place over the issue in World War I. Soon after war broke out in Europe, the Australian government decided to introduce conscription for the defence of Australia and her territories. Australia already had a militia of about 80 000 men who were immediately called up. Compulsory military training of 20-year-old single men was introduced in October 1939. This was opposed by the trade unions and members of the Labor Party but the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, believed that it was fair; other militia members had to give up their jobs, so these men should as well. Australia then had two armies: the Second AIF which was made up of volunteers for overseas service the CMF (Citizen Military Forces), later the AMF, made up of conscripts trained to defend Australia. They could not be sent outside Australia or its overseas territories (Papua, for example). In 1941, as the possibility of war with Japan increased, the Australian government made all men, when they turned 18, register for possible
A recruitment poster for World War II, published in 1942
144
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MANPOWER CONTROLS
In January 1942, the Labor government introduced regulations to control where and how people worked (see source 5.7.2). The number of people involved in production related to the war effort, such as munitions, steel production and military equipment, went from 36 000 at the outbreak of war to 1 400 400 by June 1944. (Australias population was about 7.5 million.)
Source 5.7.3
Source 5.7.2
The Labor governments regulation of manpower, January 1942 . . . the resources of man-power and woman-power in Australia shall be organised and applied in the best possible way to meet the requirements of the defence forces and the needs of the industry in the production of munitions and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community . . .
Paragraph 3 of the regulations.
A total of 900 000 people were placed in industries, but the vast majority of these placements were voluntary. One area in which enforcement was considered was in Goulburn, where women were required to can fruit for the troops. During the war, the Commonwealth Government also assumed increasing power over the states. In 1942, the states lost their power to collect income tax. Rates of taxation varied greatly between states, and the Commonwealth Government wanted to ensure that residents of all states shared equally the high cost of waging war.
THE ONCE-WELCOME STRANGER
In this 1944 Bulletin cartoon by Norman Lindsay, the effects of rationing and austerity are expressed families could not afford any more mouths to feed.
Source 5.7.4
An account by Unice Atwell, a child during the war years in Charters Towers, Queensland, describing some of the ways in which families coped with rationing Mothers became adept at making clothes last longer. They cut adult garments down to make childrens, and there was even more handing-down to younger brothers, sisters, even cousins, than before . . . Silk, most of which had come from China and Japan before the war, was now very scarce, and far too valuable [for parachute making] to be used for making ladies stockings. In those pre-nylon days, this meant that stockings all but disappeared. Since being caught without your stockings on was then more or less equal to being caught starkers these days, this was a serious problem for many women. Some overcame it by applying leg make-up . . . Stockings in those days had a seam down the back, so this too had to be painted on . . . Cars began to appear with charcoal-fuelled gas producers, or with gigantic bags of town gas on top of them. As tea substitutes, newspapers suggested tea-tree, as used by the early settlers, maidenhair fern, red clover blossom and lucerne.
Unice Atwell, Growing up in the 40s, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1983, pp. 457.
RATIONING
Most goods were in short supply during the war and substantial supplies of food and clothing were needed for the troops so they could continue ghting. A system of rationing was introduced by the government, which restricted the quantity and types of goods that people could buy. Every household was given a ration book, and goods such as clothing, tea, sugar, meat and butter could only be bought if the correct coupons were presented. In August 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin called for a season of austerity and asked Australians to deprive themselves of every selsh, comfortable habit. People would often swap coupons with neighbours for goods which they wanted. Meat was in such short supply that in 1944 the meat ration was only one to two kilograms per person per week. Petrol was also rationed.
145
CENSORSHIP
Within days of the Australian declaration of war against Germany, the Australian government introduced censorship of news on radio and in the press, and these restrictions applied for the rest of the war. Overseas communications by telegraph, telephone and post could also be censored. Radio telephone services to Britain and New Zealand were stopped. A Department of Information was set up and, for the next six years, Australians were told only what the government wanted them to know. The powers to control the press were extended in July 1940. From then, the government could have the nal say about the position, space or time allotted to any item published, broadcast or exhibited in any newspaper or magazine, on radio or at the cinema. The government believed that this would prevent misleading and untruthful stories being circulated which could weaken Australian morale. Many people believed that, by censoring the press, Australia would become no different from the countries that it was ghting against, which also controlled what could or could not be printed or heard.
Source 5.7.6
A 1943 World War II poster demonstrating that the security of Australia was everyones responsibility
AWM ARTV02497
Source 5.7.5
Prime Minister Menzies gives his reasons for introducing censorship, 7 September 1939. I agree in advance that we must preserve Australia that is why I have introduced this bill but we must also preserve liberalism of thought in Australia; we must preserve as much freedom of thought and action as is consistent with the safety of the country. I agree with what the leader of the Opposition (Mr Curtin) said, that we may reach a point where the safety of the country may require that Jones or Brown should be stopped from doing something or saying something; but in every case, the real test should be, Is this related to the safety of the country? not, Is this a golden opportunity to suppress the opinions of someone who does not agree with me? . . . I have no hesitation whatever in asking Parliament to do now what it did 25 years ago; that is, to arm the government with the authority necessary to carry on this struggle, which may become a very grim struggle even for Australia before we are much older.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 7 September 1939, vol. 161, pp. 1635.
Newsreels also presented a positive view of the war effort. Victories were celebrated while most losses were only briey mentioned. The truth about such events as the sinking of HMAS Sydney, the bombing of Darwin, the conditions experienced in the jungles of New Guinea and the treatment of Australian prisoners of war only became widely known after the war ended. Historians are still searching for evidence to help understand many of the events that occurred.
Source 5.7.7
Mail being censored during World War II AWM 001774
The government warned people not to gossip or spread information. Personal letters from servicemen and women to family and friends in Australia were heavily censored. Servicemen and women were not allowed to keep personal diaries in case the enemy obtained and used them for information. Letters could not include details of when ships were sailing or the numbers, locations, movements and destinations of troops.
146
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DRILLS AND DEFENCE
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, precautions against air raids became a fact of life in Australian towns and cities. Air-raid trenches were dug and shelters were built in playgrounds, parks and backyards. Adults and schoolchildren were drilled in airraid and evacuation procedures at the sound of the wailing siren. Home defence groups were formed, which included the appointment of air-raid precaution (ARP) wardens who practised bomb removal and monitored other security measures.
Other examples of defence precautions included the following: Beaches were spread with barbed wire, apart from a path to the water that was locked at night; guards patrolled the beaches. Windows in towns and cities had to be blacked out to prevent enemy planes seeing lights from the air and the ARPs would go around checking that residents were complying. Street lights were reduced. In Sydney, every second light had the globe removed. Street signs, railway station names and signs naming towns were taken down to confuse the enemy. Every building with more than 130 people working in it had to have an air-raid shelter.
Source 5.7.8
Check your understanding 1. Why was conscription in World War II not such a
controversial issue as it had been in World War I?
A photograph from the early 1940s showing air-raid precaution wardens practising bomb removal, while curious locals look on AWM 027451
2. What powers did the government have over where

people worked during the war, and why did they feel these powers were needed? 3. Why was rationing introduced? 4. Why did some people oppose censorship?
Source 5.7.9
Using sources 1. What does source 5.7.1 suggest as a 2.

reason for volunteering to join the AIF? From a careful study of source 5.7.2, list some of the industries the government would want to ensure had enough people working in them. (a) What do sources 5.7.3 and 5.7.4 tell us about life in Australia during the war? (b) In what different ways could these sources be useful to historians? In source 5.7.5, what reasons does Robert Menzies give for introducing censorship? What kind of information do you think the government was concerned about that led it to distribute posters such as source 5.7.6? Why did the government enforce the practice of air-raid drills?
3.
4. 5.
A photograph of kindergarten children in Sydney, in 1941, practising air-raid drill. The headgear was designed to mufe the sound of explosions, protect their teeth and prevent them from biting their tongues.
6.
147
5.8
THE CHANGING ROLES OF WOMEN DURING WORLD WAR II
Australian women played a more active and important role in the World War II war effort than they had during World War I. They volunteered in tens of thousands for work in and beyond areas associated with their traditional roles. Women moved into the paid workforce, taking on mens roles in businesses and on the land. They departed from their traditional roles to join all three branches of the military service, though not in combat.
Source 5.8.1
VOLUNTARY WORK
Women knitted balaclavas, gloves, jumpers and socks to provide items for the Australian Comforts Fund to send to men serving overseas. They organised entertainment for men on leave and they formed organisations to coordinate less traditional voluntary work. The Womens Australian National Service (WANS) organised women to drive and service army vehicles, ambulances and aircraft. It also trained women in air-raid drills, rst aid and basic military drills. More specialised training targeted the development of skills in shooting, signalling and mechanics. Three hundred women trained with the Womens Emergency Signalling Corps so that male postal workers could enlist in the armed services. Women responded diligently to the increased need for their efforts following Japans 1941 entry into the war. The Auxiliary of the National Defence League of Australia made most of the camouage netting needed to disguise military equipment and potential targets from enemy aerial surveillance. The Red Cross worked tirelessly to raise money to fund its free blood transfusion service and to provide books and toiletries for wounded men being treated in hospitals. Some women in Red Cross Aid Units and Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) provided medical support services in hospitals.
A photograph showing a woman checking and counting bullets in a World War II munitions factory AWM 007731
Japans entry into the war and then the fall of Singapore in 1942 created huge growth in demand for munitions. The Commonwealth Government campaigned to increase womens involvement in this area. Women took on jobs making all kinds of weaponry from bullets to anti-tank shells. Universities and government laboratories employed them in optical munitions work, where they took measurements, did the complex mathematical calculations needed for lens manufacture, designed and ground lenses and tested optical instruments. They made a signicant contribution to Australias wartime production of binoculars, bomb and gun sights, cameras, periscopes, range nders and telescopes.
THE AUSTRALIAN WOMENS LAND ARMY

The Country Womens Association (CWA) began organising women to do mens farm work as early as 1939. The Commonwealth Government formally took over this task when it established the Australian Womens Land Army (AWLA) in July 1942. Members had to be British subjects aged between 18 and 50. The farmer, not the government, paid them for their work, because they volunteered rather than ofcially enlisted for service.
WOMEN DOING MENS WORK

In the paid workforce, women lled the increased need for workers in traditionally female jobs and also took on mens jobs, replacing those who joined the armed services. Women worked in factories in tasks ranging from food production to steel production. They became bus drivers and drove delivery carts and vans.
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Women could join the AWLA for twelve months as full members, travelling to different areas according to demand, or they could join as auxiliary members doing seasonal work in their own areas. AWLA members did a four-week training course and then learned though practical experience. While they made useful contributions to the war effort, they took on roles that many women in rural areas considered the norm on properties where family members of both sexes always shared the farming workload.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED SERVICES

Just under 80 000 women enlisted in Australias armed services during World War II, and about ve per cent of these served overseas. Many Australians, including military personnel, were prejudiced against womens participation in the military services and only accepted it because of need.
The Womens Auxiliary Australian Air Force

Australias air force took the lead in enlisting women when, in October 1940, it announced the establishment of the Womens Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). By 1944, it employed 18 000 women. They worked on the ground in communications as wireless and teleprinter operators and also undertook mechanical repair work.
The Womens Royal Australian Naval Service
Source 5.8.2
Recruitment poster for the Australian Womens Land Army
AWM ARTV06446
The Womens Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) began in 1941, amid general reluctance from the Naval Board. Like the WAAAF, it too conned women to service on land. They worked as interpreters, wireless telegraphists, coders, typists, clerks, drivers and many other roles.
The Australian Womens Army Service

The Australian Womens Army Service (AWAS) began enlisting women in November 1941 and by the end of the war had taken in 31 000 recruits. These women took over male jobs in communications, maintenance and transport. As full members of the army, they also trained in combat with the expectation that they would
Source 5.8.3
A poster encouraging Australian womens participation in the war effort
AWM ARTV00332
149
participate in Australias defence if Japan invaded. While this did not occur, 100 AWAS members served at Cowra, which was ofcially designated a theatre of war when Japanese prisoners of war broke out of the camp there in August 1944 (see page 143).
ATTITUDES TO WOMEN IN PAID WORK

Australians were generally slow to support the efforts of women who moved out of the private sphere of family and home and into the public sphere of the paid workforce. They often ridiculed women for attempting male work. Archbishop Daniel Mannix was one of a number of church leaders who criticised the government and employers for encouraging married women into the paid workforce. They viewed this as a precedent that could threaten the family life that was seen as womens primary role. Neither the government nor employers made any allowances for the double burden of womens responsibilities in the home and workplace. They juggled housework, child care and shopping alongside work in factories and essential services. Some people criticised working women for not caring adequately for their children; others criticised them for taking time off to look after their children.
The Australian Army Medical Womens Service

The Australian Army Medical Womens Service (AAMWS) began in December 1942 as a full-time service incorporating 10 000 workers previously associated with Voluntary Aid Detachments. These women worked in nursing and radiography units and in laboratories, as well as assisting with dental, clerical and kitchen tasks.
The Australian Army Nursing Service

The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was already in existence when war broke out. Its nurses were the only Australian women to serve overseas during World War II, beginning with service in Palestine in 1940. They worked on land and in hospital and transport ships wherever the Australian Army fought. AANS nurses suffered the dangers associated with ghting and capture. In February 1942, 65 members of the AANS were escaping Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke (see page 139), when the Japanese bombed the ship. In May 1943, 11 nurses were among the 332 people who died when a Japanese submarine sank the hospital ship Centaur just off the Queensland coast (see source 5.8.4).
Source 5.8.5
Source 5.8.4
I dont think I could ever go back to housework after this!
This 1944 cartoon makes a comment about the roles that women were given during the war.
The Womens Employment Board

Employers soon beneted from womens work skills and from initially being expected to pay them only 54 per cent of the male rate for the same or similar work. Trade unions feared that womens cheap labour would undermine mens positions and wage levels in the workforce. The ACTU campaigned for women in heavy industries to receive the same
A poster encouraging Australians to increase their war efforts following the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur Artist unknown, Work, Save, Fight 194345, Lithograph 50.2 63 cm
AWM ARTV09088
150
RETROactive 2
wages as men for the duration of the war. The Commonwealth Government feared that this would cause women to expect improved pay in all areas of work and that it would lose the support of employers if it allowed such a measure. As a compromise, the government established the Womens Employment Board (WEB) to decide womens rates of pay within a range of 60100 per cent of male rates. About nine per cent of female workers beneted signicantly from this system, with women in the aircraft, metal and munitions industries earning 90 per cent of the male rate. A small number of women federal public service clerks, medical ofcers, telegraphists and tram conductors earned 100 per cent. The WEB also had to replace women with men when they returned from military service. Many
employers and United Australia Party (UAP) politicians fought the WEB largely because it was based on the principle of assessing womens pay scales on the basis of their efciency and productivity rather than on the cheaper option established under the Commonwealth Arbitration Courts family (or basic) wage (see page 32).
AFTER THE WAR IS OVER . . .

For a few years, war allowed women (and perhaps even forced them) to move beyond their traditional roles. At the same time, womens war efforts outside the home did little to change peoples traditional view of their role within society. Society as a whole showed little real appreciation of womens participation in the paid workforce, especially in male jobs. It treated women as a reserve labour force. Many women saw the end of the war as a chance to return to a life centred on the world of family and domestic duties. Society reinforced this view.
Source 5.8.6
Check your understanding 1. Write a paragraph to explain the similarities

and differences between womens war roles in World War I and in World War II. 2. What information supports the view that Australian women in World War II were treated as a reserve army of labour.
Using sources 1. What feature of womens World War II work is

La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria, courtesy Australian Womens Weekly
shown in source 5.8.1?
2. What was the purpose of the artist in creating 3.

source 5.8.2 and what methods were used to achieve this? Examine source 5.8.3. (a) What do the women represent? (b) Who is the audience for this source? (c) What is the message of the source? What attitude towards women is suggested by source 5.8.4? How do you interpret the message of the cartoon in source 5.8.5? Rewrite the caption so that it expresses what the women really think about their service roles. What conclusion could you draw from source 5.8.6 regarding how The Australian Womens Weekly viewed womens role?
4. 5.
6.
A page from The Australian Womens Weekly in June 1944
Worksheets 5.2 My war experiences: a news story 5.3 Womens efforts: complete a table
151
5.9
VICTORY IN EUROPE, VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC
The war being fought in Europe ended on 8 May 1945 with the surrender of Germany. This surrender took place when Soviet Union forces from the east and British, French and US forces from the west came together and claimed Berlin. However, in the Pacic, the war against Japan was to continue for another three months.
THE ATOMIC BOMB

Both Germany and the United States had been working on a secret weapon to end the war. The United States was the rst to succeed. The atomic bomb was rst tested in New Mexico and then used against two Japanese cities: 6 August 1945, Hiroshima 70 000 killed 9 August 1945, Nagasaki 40 000 killed.
Source 5.9.1
Source 5.9.2
A photograph of a Russian soldier raising the Soviet ag in Berlin after a nine-day battle for the city
VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC

In the Pacic, US General Douglas MacArthur began a policy of island-hopping. He knew it would take a long time to capture each Japanese-occupied island so he decided to attack only the important ones, using United States troops. Bases could then be established close to Japan to allow large-scale bombing raids on Japanese cities. Australian troops were to continue clearing the Japanese from New Guinea, New Britain, Bougainville and Borneo. Many Australians felt that this policy was a waste of Australian lives, and many resented MacArthurs use of United States troops, instead of Australians, to island-hop. John Curtin wrote to MacArthur in February 1945, asking for a greater attacking role for Australians. Curtin was very ill at the time and died on 5 July 1945, six weeks before the war ended in the Pacic. The Allies realised that it was going to cost many lives to invade Japan. Attacks on Iwo Jima and Okinawa had been very costly and they knew that the Japanese would ght to the death.
A photograph of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb exploded (1945). A single bomb wiped out 10 square kilometres.
Japans military and government still refused to surrender. However, with the Soviet Union threatening to attack Japan from the west, the military were nally persuaded by the Emperor to agree to the United States terms of surrender on 15 August 1945. At 9.30 am (EST) the new Australian Prime Minister, Ben Chiey, announced the war was nished. More than one million people went into the streets for a day of celebration.
152
RETROactive 2
Source 5.9.3
DELIRIOUS JOY IN AUSTRALIA
JAPAN CAPITULATES
GENERAL DOUGLAS MacARTHUR, who has been appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of Occupation in Japan.
PLANS FOR SURRENDER

The announcement yesterday morning that Japan had capitulated was received with delirious joy by the peoples of the United Nations.
Cease fire in the Pacific was ordered by the Allies at 9.15 a.m. yesterday.
In Sydney immense crowds took part in scenes of unprecedented emotion and gaiety.
The Sydney Morning Herald announces peace (1945).
Events of Historic Day

Major events yesterday were:
9 a.m. (Sydney time), British Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, and President Truman announce Japanese surrender. 9.15 a.m., Admiral Nimitz orders cease re. 11.25 a.m. Japanese ordered to give cease-re order and send emissaries to General MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander. 11.55 a.m., Tokyo announces Japanese Cabinet has resigned, and War Minister, General Anami, committed hara-kiri. 1 p.m., Japanese planes shot down when they approach U.S. Fleet. 4.45 p.m., General MacArthur orders Japanese to cease hostilities immediately and send representatives to Manila for instructions. Also orders Japanese Government to place radio stations at his continuous disposal for orders.
Source 5.9.4
Check your understanding

1. Which allied nations fought together to claim Berlin and end the war in Europe? 2. What was the policy of island-hopping? What aspects of this policy did many Australians oppose? 3. Why was it decided to use atomic weapons against the Japanese? 4. Why was VJ Day of greater signicance than VE Day for Australians?
Using sources
1. Describe the scene in the photograph in source 5.9.1. Where is this and what is happening? 2. What does source 5.9.2 reveal about the destructive power of the rst atomic bomb? 3. Compare the article in source 5.9.3 with source 5.1.4 (page 131). What does this suggest about how Australia had changed as a result of World War II?

Research the rebombing of Dresden in Germany and Tokyo in Japan. Explain what rebombing was, what the casualties were and why they were so great.
A photograph of the celebrations in Sydney when it was announced that the war with Japan was over
Worksheets 5.4 Find out more on the war
153
5.10
AUSTRALIAS CHANGING RELATIONS
OVERPAID, OVERSEXED, OVER HERE
In March 1942, when US General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia, the continent became a base for troops ghting in the Pacic. By September 1943, there were 120 000 Americans here. At rst, the Americans were welcomed but trouble soon broke out, especially between the troops. There were many reasons for this. For example, the Americans: were paid twice as much as the Australian soldiers did not have to pay taxes on goods were able to impress Australian girls, as their uniforms were smarter could pay more for luxuries such as chocolates and stockings, so the prices went up even higher. Trouble between the troops occasionally led to brawls sometimes serious ones in which people were killed. The most famous was the Battle of Brisbane. It began on 26 November 1942 when Australians were refused entry to an American entertainment centre. An Australian soldier was shot dead and, for the next three days, Australian and American troops fought each other in the streets. A similar brawl in Melbourne between 2000 men stopped trafc for an hour. By late 1944, most US servicemen had left Australia. Many Australian women had married Americans but were not allowed to live in America until after the war. They became known as war brides. The inuence of the Americans on Australian society was felt in many ways. They brought new ideas and attitudes that sometimes challenged the traditional British ways. Many Australians began to see themselves as Australians, not simply as British subjects.
ISSUES AND CHANGING RELATIONS

The threat from Japan accelerated two processes that had already been taking place before the war began: Increasing our links with the United States. As early as 1928, the United States provided 24 per cent of our imports and took six per cent of our exports. (In comparison, the United Kingdom provided 43 per cent of our imports and took 38 per cent of our exports). Early in the war, Prime Minister Robert Menzies tried to involve the United States in supporting Australias security, and in 1940 Australia set up a diplomatic mission in Washington. In March 1941, while still ofcially neutral in the war, the United States began to supply military equipment to Australia under a Lend-Lease scheme. Re-evaluating our ties with Britain. After Federation, the British government retained powers over areas such as external affairs and international shipping. In 1931, a British Act, the Statute of Westminster, allowed Commonwealth countries to break such ties and become truly independent. However, this Act needed to be adopted by Federal Parliament before it became effective in Australia, and the Federal Parliament was reluctant to do this. As we saw when Britain declared war on Germany, the Prime Minister considered that, because Britain was at war, Australia too was automatically at war. However, in October 1941, Australia insisted, against the wishes of the British government, that Australian troops be brought back from the Middle East to ght against the Japanese. When these troops were being returned in February 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted them sent to Burma but Prime Minister John Curtin insisted that they be returned to Australia. At the heart of this conict was the fact that Australia needed to clarify what its powers were, particularly during a time of war. This caused Federal Parliament to rethink its reluctance to adopt the Statute of Westminster. The statute was nally passed in 1942 and made retrospective (backdated) to the start of the war.
Source 5.10.1
Many Australians were sad to see the Americans leave, as this Ted Scoreld cartoon from the mid 1940s shows.
154
RETROactive 2
Source 5.10.2
Source 5.10.3
A photograph of Prime Minister Curtin and US General Douglas MacArthur
Check your understanding 1. Why were the Americans popular with many
Australians in the 1940s?
2. What were the main reasons for conict between

Australian and American soldiers?
3. What disagreements did Australia have with Britain

over the use of Australian troops in the war?
4. What were three pieces of evidence of Australian

A poster advertising a meeting to support ties with the United States. The two men shown are President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
relations with the United States before Curtins speech of December 1941? 5. What change in Australias relationship with Britain took place after the Statute of Westminster was adopted in 1942?
CURTINS SPEECH OF DECEMBER 1941

These two processes increasing our links with the United States and re-evaluating our ties with Britain were brought together in John Curtins speech three weeks after Pearl Harbor (see page 135). Curtin acknowledged that success in the war against Japan could not come from our relationship with Britain, but instead Australia needed to look towards the United States and adopt a policy that had the United States as its keystone. This link between the two countries was heightened by a close personal friendship between Curtin and the US commander General MacArthur.
Using sources 1. In source 5.10.1, which groups does it suggest were

saddest to see the American soldiers leave? Why?
2. (a) From the evidence in source 5.10.2, in what year

was the meeting described held? (b) What additional evidence does this provide to support the argument that Australia had strong links with the United States before Curtins speech of December 1941? (See question 4 above.) 3. Who are the people shown in source 5.10.3 and what does the source show about the nature of the relationship between Australia and the United States during World War II? Worksheets 5.5 Crossword of World War II
155
Review & exam practice

S CHOOL C ERT IFICAT E Australia and P RAC TI C E World War II
Multiple choice
Choose the letter that provides the most correct answer. 1. What was the most important reason for Australia declaring war on September 1939? (A) Hitler had occupied Austria. (B) Australians opposed Nazism. (C) Australians feared a Japanese invasion. (D) Germany had declared war on Great Britain. 2. Which of the following is a list of places in which Australians fought in both World War I and World War II? (A) Palestine, Syria and France (B) Palestine, Greece, France (C) Malaysia, Greece, Egypt (D) Malaysia, Italy, Egypt 3. Which of the following is a list of nationalities who were placed in internment camps as enemy aliens and prisoners of war during World War II? (A) Japanese, Italians, Germans (B) Japanese, Russians, Germans (C) Vietnamese, Russians, Italians (D) Vietnamese, Italians, Germans 4. Carefully read John Curtins speech (source 5.2.4, page 135). Which of the following statements about this source is true? (A) It shows no concern for the problems of Britain in the war. (B) It is reliable as an expression of government policy at the time. (C) It was written before Pearl Harbor. (D) It is biased because it was published in a newspaper. 5. Study the poster in source 5.7.6, page 146. Which aspect of government control during the war does this represent? (A) Rationing (B) Conscription (C) Allocation of manpower (D) Censorship 6. Study the poster in source 5.8.2, page 149. Which aspect of government policy during the war does it represent? (A) Rationing (B) Conscription (C) Allocation of manpower (D) Censorship 7. What was the name given to the military campaign against the Japanese in the Owen Stanley Range region of New Guinea? (A) Alamein (B) Changi (C) Kokoda (D) Midway 8. Which of the following lists includes the three prime ministers of Australia during World War II in their correct sequence? (A) Curtin, Chiey, Menzies (B) Menzies, Calwell, Curtin (C) Calwell, Menzies, Chiey (D) Menzies, Curtin, Chiey 9. Which of the following organisations did women join to contribute to farming work during World War II? (A) The AWLA (B) The AWAS (C) The WAAAF (D) The WRANS 10. Which of the following statements most accurately reects societys attitudes towards womens involvement in military service during World War II? (A) Women should share the burden of war equally with men. (B) Womens war work is useful because it frees men to enlist in the armed forces. (C) War work allows women to begin new careers outside the house. (D) A womans place is in the home.
Extended response
1. Discuss the ways in which the Commonwealth Government during World War II increased its control over the daily life of its citizens, and how effective these methods were. In your answer, discuss at least three of the following: conscription manpower controls rationing censorship. 2. Explain how their involvement in the war effort during World War II affected womens roles in Australian society. 3. Outline the process by which Australias relationships with Britain and the United States changed during the time of World War II. Your response to this question should be about 30 lines in length and should include reference to the following, as well as any other points you think are important: Our relationship with Britain at the start of the war and our reasons for joining the war Japanese expansion towards Australia in the late 1930s and early 1940s Pearl Harbor Prime Minister Curtins speech of 27 December 1941 (source 5.2.4) War in the Pacic 194145
156
RETROactive 2
WOR K ING HISTORICALL Y

It can be difcult for historians to uncover the truth about what happened in an event, especially when there is little evidence on which to base conclusions. The sinking of HMAS Sydney in World War II was an event that shocked the country, yet its loss is still as mysterious as it was in 1941. The 7000-tonne ship and 645 men simply disappeared without a trace. The only eyewitness accounts were from the crew of the German ship Kormoran, which attacked the Sydney without warning. More Australian men died in this one event than in the entire Vietnam War.
Source 5.11.2
Twenty statements about the sinking of HMAS Sydney
1. HMAS Sydney was a cruiser, the Kormoran merely a raider. 2. HMAS Sydney had thicker armour than Kormoran and its guns had a longer range. 3. On the afternoon of 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney approached the Kormoran off Shark Bay. 4. The Kormoran was disguised as a Dutch ship. Its guns and torpedo launchers were camouaged. 5. According to some Germans, HMAS Sydney was originally at battle stations then its crew relaxed and the Kormoran was told to proceed. 6. Some believe HMAS Sydney was going to board Kormoran and came too close. 7. HMAS Sydney asked for a secret identication signal. 8. The Kormoran launched a torpedo and starting ring. HMAS Sydney returned re and both ships were badly damaged. 9. Captain Detmers of the Kormoran abandoned his ship and charges were set to sink it. He last saw HMAS Sydney on re and heading for the horizon. Then it disappeared. He made no attempt to look for survivors. He also believed that the re had reached the magazine, then the ship blew up and sank. None of the other Germans reported hearing an explosion. 10. People at Yallabathra, near Port Gregory, reported hearing explosions and seeing ashes off the coast on a night in late November about midnight. Fifteen visitors to Dirk Hartog Island on 19 November reported seeing a ship heading south at high speed at 1000 hours. 11. HMAS Sydney disappeared 18 days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 12. Many believe a Japanese submarine sank the HMAS Sydney. There was a rumour that survivors were being held in Japan. 13. Reports of a possible distress signal from HMAS Sydney were not followed up. There is no surviving record of these calls. 14. Air and sea search for HMAS Sydney began on 24 November, ve days after sinking. Many Germans had already been rescued. The search was called off on 29 November. No trace was found of any survivors or the ship, except for an empty Carley life-oat damaged by gunre. 15. According to some, the Cape Otway found bodies in the water but was told to leave the area immediately. Its logs for the period are missing. 16. On 1 December, the Prime Minister ofcially announced the loss of HMAS Sydney. 17. For the previous 12 days there was strict secrecy, with 11 censorship notices preventing publication of any details. 18. Three hundred and fteen members of the Kormoran were rescued. Their story is the basis of the ofcial account of what happened. 19. A Carley life-oat was found off Christmas Island, to the north-west of Australia, on 6 February 1942, possibly from HMAS Sydney. 20. Many of the les related to this event were classied not to be released for 75 years when the war ended.
Source 5.11.1
Exmouth
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
orn Tropic of Capric
INDIAN OCEAN
Dirk Hartog Island
Carnarvon Shark Bay
Port Gregory
Houtman Abrolhos
100
200 km
Geraldton
A map of the area off the coast of Western Australia in which HMAS Sydney went missing
The statements in source 5.11.2 are related to the sinking of the HMAS Sydney. Read them and complete the following activities in an effort to decide what really happened. 1. Draw up a table with three columns headed Denitely true, Possibly true and Uncertain. In small groups, discuss each statement in source 5.11.2 and place it in one of the three columns according to your opinion of its truth. Report your group ndings to the class. 2. As a class, discuss the possible reasons why no trace was found of the Sydney or its crew. 3. As a group, use the Internet to locate additional information about the sinking of HMAS Sydney. You could start by going to www.jaconline.com.au/ retroactive/retroactive2 and clicking on the HMAS Sydney weblink. Present a summary of this research to the class. 4. Write a feature article for publication, giving your opinion of what happened to HMAS Sydney. Use the evidence to support your opinion.
157

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Chapter 5

A MELANCHOLY DUTY AUSTRALIA AND WORLD WAR II

OUTBREAK OF WAR IN EUROPE

LATV IA LITHUA NIA

UNION OF SOV IET SOC IA LIST REPUBLIC S

C ZEC HOSLOVA KIA HUNGA RY ROMA NIA

YUGOSLAV IA BULGA RIA ALBANIA

GREEC E MOROCCO Sicily ALGER I A

IRAQ Damascus PA LESTINE TRA NSJORDA N

Significant battle area for Australians

October 1935: invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia) April 1939: invades Albania

NAZIS START WAR

First News of Fighting

Other Crisis News on Inside Pages

Prime Minister Robert Menzies

WAR IN NORTH AFRICA

A photograph of Australian soldiers in action in North Africa during World War II

Researching and communicating

INDIAN OCEAN AUSTRALIA

JAPAN FIGHTING BRITAIN, U.S.

Herald, 8 December 1941

THE FALL OF SINGAPORE

2. Who was Australias Prime Minister in December

3. Explain why the fall of Singapore was such a

NEW GUINEA PAPUA

X Battle of Coral Sea

Menari Ioribaiwa Imita Ridge

Owers Corner Port Moresby

2. What initial difculties were faced by the Australian

3. Find the date for each of the following events and

(b) What was the Japanese view of the Australian soldiers?

A newspaper account of conditions for Australians in a Japanese prison camp, 1945

ATTACKS ON SYDNEY AND NEWCASTLE

BOMBING OF DARWIN AND NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

3. How did Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney

Using sources 1. In source 5.5.1:

Researching and communicating

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP FOCUS

2. What event preceded the Japanese break-out from

3. What were the Japanese and Australian casualties in

4. Why were there a high number of suicides and

Researching and communicating

A recruitment poster for World War II, published in 1942

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP FOCUS

THE ONCE-WELCOME STRANGER

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP FOCUS

2. What powers did the government have over where

Using sources 1. What does source 5.7.1 suggest as a 2.

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMENS LAND ARMY

WOMEN DOING MENS WORK

WOMEN IN THE ARMED SERVICES

The Womens Auxiliary Australian Air Force

The Womens Royal Australian Naval Service

The Australian Womens Army Service

ATTITUDES TO WOMEN IN PAID WORK

The Australian Army Medical Womens Service

The Australian Army Nursing Service

I dont think I could ever go back to housework after this!

The Womens Employment Board

AFTER THE WAR IS OVER . . .

Check your understanding 1. Write a paragraph to explain the similarities

Using sources 1. What feature of womens World War II work is