What was it like - living in the Australia of the war years? Part B

While World War Two brought to Australians at home the inconvenience of rationing, shortages and the austerity campaign, there were of course much larger issues to be faced. And Curtin didn’t beat about the bush when giving the war news to the Australian people. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Curtin made a broadcast in which he said:

"This is our darkest hour, for the nation itself is imperilled. These wanton killings will be followed by attacks on the Netherlands East Indies, on the Commonwealth of Australia and on the Dominion of New Zealand if Japan gets its brutal way."

In another broadcast he urged people to steel themselves against the certainty of casualties if Japan attacked. No doubt many people did steel themselves, but there was also a large-scale movement of people away from the major cities, especially Sydney. Landlords in Bowral, Katoomba and similar places made a killing. People who took part in this evacuation were often referred to a ‘bomb dodgers’.

In Sydney, Anthony Hordern’s were advertising fire extinguishers for 15 shillings, gummed masking tape to help black-out windows at two shillings a roll, anti-shatter solution for sticking netting or muslin to windows at one shilling and seven pence. They were also selling anti-blast solution, made by Berger’s, to be painted over the netting or muslin on the windows.

We prepared for air raids by digging or building thousands of shelters throughout Australia and by sand-bagging buildings. Barbed wire was placed on the beaches of the major cities.

There was talk around Lismore of moving inland across the New England range, taking all our livestock with us and leaving only desolated farms and burnt bridges behind as part of a nationwide scorched-earth policy. Road signs were removed and names of railway stations were taken down to confuse the invaders should they arrive.

The Director of Education in NSW told teachers that community singing would be an effective antidote to panic if children had to be evacuated. He suggested 'It’s a long way to Tipperary, Keep the home fires burning and Pack up your troubles.'

Why were all these precautions taken? They were taken because we feared attack, and even invasion, by the Japanese. But here’s an interesting question: Did the Japanese intend to invade Australia? I’m sure that, at the time, we all believed that they did. In fact, the Government encouraged us to believe it. If you look at the propaganda of the time, the southward thrust of the evil Japanese towards Australia was the central theme.

But we now know that Japan had no plan to invade Australia. John Curtin knew it in the first half of 1942, but it was a year or more before he told us, because he didn’t want to see any slackening in the war effort. Perhaps, also, he didn’t want the Japanese to know that their codes had been cracked.

Of course, people being what they are, the burdens of war on the home front did not fall equally. When Curtin and his ministers wanted to travel to Melbourne for a Cabinet meeting in the spring of 1941, they couldn’t get seats on 'The Spirit of Progress', because the train was booked out by people going to the spring racing carnival.

When raceless Saturdays were introduced in Victoria, the Red Cross appealed to the 70,000 people who now had nothing to do on those days to help with Red Cross war work. Thirteen people responded.

Curtin was frustrated by the failure of so many people to respond positively to the restrictions of wartime life. He said:

'Those who refuse to accept with good grace the necessary sacrifices of war are not true citizens of the Commonwealth, and I am convinced that there is no greater enemy in our midst than persons who try to spread the insidious doctrine that the necessity for sacrifice has passed.'

There was a big impact on Australia from the arrival of the Americans - almost a million of them in the end. While the US troops were warmly welcomed, their high rates of pay and free-spending ways caused much controversy and bitterness, especially amongst Australian servicemen. There were some serious clashes.

But generally the Americans, with their Lucky Strike and Camel cigarettes, and silk stockings, were warmly welcomed, even if the Australians serving overseas were worried about what was going on at home - worried, in many cases, with good reason.

And what did we think of the black American soldiers who came? The Australian Government suggested to the US Government that only white soldiers be sent here. Apparently we were quite happy to be defended by white Americans, but not by black ones. Black Americans did come, but mainly they were kept segregated from their white colleagues and, when they did have contact with the white Americans, were badly treated by them in many cases.

Many of the Americans must have wondered why they had been conscripted and sent to defend Australia while large numbers of Australian men, who were not at that time subject to conscription for service overseas, swam in the surf at Bondi, crowded the hotel bars or attended the races every week at Randwick or Flemington. While they were enjoying these things, other Australians were dying.

Fifteen thousand Australian girls married US servicemen. A lot of those marriages were successful, but hundreds of girls were deserted by their American husbands. As Dorothy Dix said in the Women’s Weekly in July 1942, the war resulted in a matrimonial hysteria that swept across Australia like a devastating plague. There were vastly more marriages in the first years of the war than there had ever been before, or have been since.

And while all this was going on, we were participating, with varying degrees of enthusiasm I suppose, in the 'V for Victory' campaign and the 'Bundles for Britain' drive - and we were listening to the wireless - not the radio - the wireless. We listened to Chester Wilmot bringing us the war news, 'Dad and Dave', 'Calling the Stars', 'Fred and Maggie', 'Yes What?' (remember Bottomly, Stanforth, Greenbottle, Marmaduke de Pledge and Dr Pym?), the 'Lux Radio Theatre', the 'Amateur Hour' with Harry Dearth, the 'Quiz Kid's with John Dease, the 'Argonauts' and 'The Search for the Golden Boomerang'.

And we listened to the music: Jim Gussey’s band, Jim Davidson’s ABC Dance Band, the Lester Sisters, Vera Lynn singing 'There’ll be Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover', the Ink Spots with 'Don’t Get Around Much Any More' and Bing Crosby crooning 'White Christmas' and the 'Victory Polka'.

We heard the American bands led by Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Duchin and the others playing In the Mood and Elmer’s Tune, and we listened to songs like 'Amapola', 'Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer', 'I Don’t Want to Walk Without You Baby', 'Lili Marlene' , 'Paper Dol', 'Moonlight Becomes You....' and all the rest. We danced 'Booms-a-Daisy' and sang 'Roll Out the Barrel'.

On the wireless and in the newspapers there were advertisements for Hearne’s Bronchitis Cure, Nyal Figsen, DeWitt’s Antacid Powder, Jantzen swimsuits (actually, the Jantzen ads during the war explained how to make your swimsuit last longer), Kruschen Salts, Bile Beans and Bidomak, Horrockses sheets and pillow-cases, Clements Tonic and Dr McKenzie’s Menthoids, Lantigen B and Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills. Bonnington’s Irish Moss, we were told, was made from ‘pectoral oxymil of carrageen’, a seaweed found only on the west coast of Ireland.

We read Bluey and Curley and we put money into War Bonds and War Loans, encouraged by visits by the Lancaster bombers 'Q for Queenie' and 'G for George'. George is still here. I remember saving up to buy special stamps from Mrs Nelson at the Post Office to stick in a card which, when we had bought sixteen shillings’ worth, was exchanged for a one pound War Savings Certificate - then we had to wait seven years to get our pound.

But eventually the war came to an end. Our family now was busy playing and singing at the welcome-homes. Sadly, there weren’t as many welcome-homes as there had been farewells.

The Second World War had a greater impact on Australia than any other event in our history. It affected more Australians, and more were involved, particularly on the home front, than had been the case in The Great War, although many more had died in The Great War. Half a million people had been compulsorily taken out of their peacetime jobs and put into war-related work.

Perhaps the biggest and most lasting social effect was on the lives and role of women - and that is a major topic in itself. The housing shortage was to have a major impact on huge numbers of people, both during and after the war.

People had served at home in different ways. Larry Anthony senior (Doug Anthony’s father), a minister in the Menzies Government, who was wounded at Gallipoli in the Great War, gave the whole of his parliamentary salary to the Red Cross during the years of the Second World War. Australian women knitted more than three million pairs of socks for the Comforts Fund alone, more than a million balaclavas, and hundreds of thousands of jumpers and gloves.

Barrie, Jerrabomberra, NSW

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