Chapter 6 World War II and Australia - · PDF file... was a failure. The United States, ......

HISTORY 2

148

In the 1930s, Hitler and the Nazi Party took

power in Germany. Italy, under Mussolini,

became increasingly nationalistic and in Japan

the military came to control decision making

within the government.

The League of Nations, established to

maintain peace, was a failure. The United States,

Britain and France took no action to curb the

growing ambitions of Germany, Italy and Japan.

In 1939, the world was again at war. By the

war’s end, 15 million soldiers and 35 million

civilians had died. Six million Jews perished in

Nazi extermination camps.

Nearly one million Australians served in

World War II in Europe, North Africa, South-

East Asia and the Pacific. In 1942, the war came

to Australia with attacks on Darwin and Sydney.

WORLD WAR II

AND

AUSTRALIA

Chapter 6

Historical knowledge and understanding

• Analyse the impact of World War II in the

twentieth century.

• Analyse the ways in which World War II

contributed to Australia’s social, political and

cultural development.

• Demonstrate understanding of key ideologies and

explain their influence on people’s lives, national

events and international relations.

Historical reasoning and interpretation

• Critically evaluate sources of evidence for context,

information, reliability, completeness, objectivity

and bias.

• Use appropriate historical language and concepts

in historical explanations.

• Use evidence to support arguments and select and

use appropriate written, oral and electronic forms

to communicate historical explanations.

• Recognise that in history there are multiple

perspectives and partial explanations.

aliens: people from a foreign country who do not have citizenship in the country where they are living

appeasement: the name given to the policy that Britain and France pursued towards Germany from the mid 1930s until 1939. Their intention was to give in to some of Hitler’s demands in the hope of avoiding war.

CHAPTER 6: WORLD WAR II AND AUSTRALIA

149

Recruitment poster for the RAAF. The Battle of Britain and other contests in Europe led to a growing interest in Australiain joining the RAAF. AWM ARTV04283

democratic republic: a government run on democratic principles with an elected rather than a hereditary head of statedouble burden: a term used to describe society’s expectation that women continue to perform their unpaid household work while also participating in the paid workforcefamily (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.fascist: someone who follows the political ideology that the individual should serve the state, which should be governed by a strong leader who embodies the national will. Mussolini led this movement in Italy from 1919 until his execution in 1945. fuzzy-wuzzy angels: term used by Australian soldiers for people of Papua who helped them during the warGeneva Convention: an international agreement on the rules for wartime treatment of prisoners of war and the woundedgenocide: the deliberate mass killing of a particular peopleinternment: the practice of keeping people under guard in a certain areaisolationism: the term used to describe the US foreign policy of withdrawing from involvement in international (and especially European) affairs except in defence of its own interestsprisoners of war: people taken prisoner during a war and held against their will

censorship: government control over what the public can read, view or hear

conscription: a system of compulsory service in a nation’s armed forces

counter-offensive: an offensive in response to the aggression of others

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 fighting or helping those who are fighting

Weimar republic: the name given to the German government in the period from late 1918 to early 1933

HISTORY 2

150

6.1

In late 1918, after more than four years ofhorrific warfare, the German government wantedto make peace with the Allies. The Alliesdemanded that Germany form a new and demo-cratic government. Germany’s Social DemocraticParty announced that Germany would become ademocratic republic.

There were key groups in Germany who werebitterly opposed to this idea. These included theleft-wing Spartacists (communists), who stagedan unsuccessful attempt to take power in January1919, and right-wing conservatives within theReichswehr (the German army), the civil serviceand the judiciary. They did not want to implementthe reforms put forward by the government ofGermany’s new Weimar republic. By acceptingthe harsh terms of the 1919 Versailles peacetreaty, the government became even moreunpopular with its left- and right-wing enemies.

Germany’s main losses under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles

The right-wing National Socialist GermanWorkers’ Party — the Nazi Party — hated theWeimar republic. It was a small party and one of

The ‘war guilt’ clause

Under Article 231, Germany

had to accept the blame for

starting the war.

Reparations

The ‘war guilt’ clause justified

the Allies’ demand that

Germany pay reparations

— an amount set in 1921 at

£6600 million.

Military restrictions

• Army limited to 100 000 men

• Conscription banned,

volunteers only

• Navy limited to 15 000 men

and 6 battleships, submarines

banned

• No airforce

• Heavy artillery, poison gas,

tanks banned

• No German troops allowed

in the Rhineland (on the

French border)

Loss of land and

resources

• Overseas colonies

• Loss of West Prussia,

Posen, Upper Silesia, part

of East Prussia, Alsace,

Lorraine, North Schleswig,

Eupen and Malmedy

• Forbidden to unite with

Austria

• Loss of 16% of coal sources

• Loss of 10% of land

Germany’s main losses under the Treaty of Versailles

Source 6.1.1

1918–23

its members, Adolf Hitler, worked hard to increaseits public profile. He issued a 25-point programoutlining the party’s goals, encouraged the use ofits symbol, the swastika, and organised massmeetings and a party newspaper to promote andspread its ideas to a wider audience. When theNazi Party formed in 1919, it had 50 members; by1923, it had over 50 000 members. Adolf Hitlerhad become the party’s leader and it had its ownarmed force of stormtroopers (the SA) to attackthose who opposed it.

An extract outlining Hitler’s goals, from the German newspaper, Kreuzzeitung, 28 December 1922

In November 1923, Hitler and the Nazisattempted to overthrow the government of theGerman city of Munich. This became known asthe Beer Hall putsch (coup) because it waslaunched in one of the large German beer taverns.The coup failed and Hitler was arrested, chargedwith treason, tried, convicted and imprisoned. Heserved nine months of a five-year sentence.

After his release from prison, Hitler reorganisedthe Nazi Party and worked to gain power bylegal means. In May 1924, the Nazi Party gained24 seats in Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag.

Source 6.1.2

Hitler is in close contact with the Germans of Czechoslovakia and Austria, and he demands the union of all Germans in a greater Germany . . .

Hitler demands the cancellation of the Treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain [the peace treaty that the Allies signed with Austria–Hungary] and the restoration of the German colonies.

A very important part of the Party Programme is the idea of race . . . He wants only people of German race to be citizens of Germany . . . He wants all immigrants into Germany since 1914 to be expelled.

Hitler opposes the parliamentary system. Hitler’s party wants first of all to set up a dictatorship which will last until Germany’s present troubles are ended . . . The dictator in question is evidently Hitler.

The party’s economic programme is as follows: . . . profit-sharing among workers of profits from large companies, public ownership of big shops, help for small industry and the middle class.

1924–32

HITLER AND THE

RISE OF NAZISM


151

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929created a situation that the Nazi Party could useto gain major support. Hitler flew all overGermany making speeches claiming that theWeimar republic’s policies had caused the Depres-sion, that Jews were also responsible for all ofGermany’s problems and the government’ssigning of the Treaty of Versailles had been a ‘stabin the back’ for the German nation. Crowds ofuniformed, flag-waving Nazis marched throughcity streets stirring up nationalist sentiment insupport of their leader. In the 1930 Reichstagelections, the Nazi Party won 107 seats.

By late 1932, about eight million people wereunemployed and those who had jobs worked part-time and/or at greatly reduced wages. The govern-ment — at this time a coalition of up to five parties— struggled to agree on policies that would helpthe problems of unemployment and homelessness.

In the November 1932 elections, the Nazisgained 196 seats and 33 per cent of the totalvote. While it did not have a majority, the NaziParty held more seats and a higher percentage ofthe vote than any other party. In January 1933,the German President, Paul von Hindenburg,invited Hitler to become Chancellor of Germanyand head a coalition government.

A modern artist’s impression of the groups who showed their support of Hitler at Nazi Party rallies

Source 6.1.3

Hitler acted quickly to reduce the power of hiscoalition partners. He encouraged fear of commu-nism and imprisoned thousands of his com-munist and other political opponents. By August1934, Germany was a one-party state and Hitlerwas its dictator to whom the German army sworean oath of personal loyalty.

Hitler reversed key decisions and limitationsimposed by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, heannounced the introduction of rearmament andconscription to the army. In 1936, he sent Germantroops into the Rhineland and introduced a four-year plan to get the German economy ready forwar. In 1938, his troops took over Austria. He waswell on the way to achieving his goals of unitingall Germans and creating more living space(lebensraum) for them.

1933–38

Hitler saw himself as a symbol of Germany. He tried at all times to appear casual yet powerful — both a statesman and a gentleman.

1Propaganda posters

contained the ‘simple imagery’ that Hitler craved. He understood the power of simple images and ideas.

2 Hitler blamed Jews for many of the problems facing Germany after the war, and incited violence against them.

3

By the mid 1930s, six out of every ten young German people had joined Hitler Youth. They were deluged with Nazi Party ideology, particularly anti-Semitism (anti-Jewish views).

4

Understand1. What was the Weimar republic and what

problems did it face?2. How would you define ‘Nazism’?

Communicate3. Write a paragraph to explain how Hitler and the

Nazis increased their power in the period from about 1923 to 1933.

Use sources4. Use source 6.1.1 and the information in the text

to create a two-column table showing (a) the main provisions of the Treaty of Versailles,

and (b) the actions Hitler took that went against the Treaty.

5. What do sources 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 indicate about the types of people who would have supported Hitler and the Nazis?

1

2

3

4

5

Hitler promised to take care of the workers and farmers, and to return the middle class to good fortune and peace. It seemed to them that Hitler, more than any other politician, had the ability to erase the damage done by the war and its aftermath. The crowds saluted him as a sign of respect.

5

HISTORY 2

152

6.2

The 1930s brought financial hardship, an increasein the power of right-wing parties and the weak-ening of democratic forces. The leaders of threenations in particular embarked on a series ofactions that made another war more likely:• In Germany, Hitler sought to revive German

power. • Italy’s fascist leader, Mussolini, dreamed of

re-creating the glories of the ancient RomanEmpire.

• Japan’s military-dominated government wasdetermined to create an empire in Asia.Other nations did not take effective action to

control the aggression that these three powersunleashed. The League of Nations, the inter-national peace-keeping body created in 1919, wasa failure. The United States had never joined itand pursued a policy of isolationism. Franceand Great Britain were League members and fol-lowed a policy of appeasement that encouragedHitler to believe he could continue his aggressionwithout penalty.

In December 1934, Italy laid claim to part ofAbyssinia in east Africa. Haile Selassie, the

Abyssinian emperor, asked the Leaguefor help. While the League was workingon a settlement of the dispute, Musso-lini prepared his army for invasion. InSeptember 1935, the League pro-posed that Abyssinia settle the issueby giving some of its land to Italy. Thefollowing month, Italian troops

invaded Abyssinia. Italy was clearly at

fault. The Leagueimposed a series of tradebans on Italy. Leaguemembers were not tosell arms, rubber ormetals to Italy, couldnot lend money to Italyand could not importgoods from Italy. TheLeague did not, how-ever, ban oil sales to

ITALY AND THE ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II

Italy. Britain and France gave only half-heartedsupport to the bans. They feared the negativeimpact of the bans on their economies and secretlyplanned a deal that would allow Italy to take two-thirds of Abyssinia. In May 1936, Italy took con-trol of all of Abyssinia and, in November, joinedGermany in an agreement known as the Rome–Berlin Axis. In April 1939, in another expansionistmove, Italy invaded Albania.

Hitler withdrew Germany from the League ofNations in 1933 and set about overturning keyrestrictions on Germany’s power imposed by the1919 Treaty of Versailles (see section 6.1). Britainbelieved that some of Germany’s claims werejustified, and was economically and militarilyunprepared to risk war with Germany. Britainresponded with attempts to appease Germany.

The German Fürher (leader), Adolf Hitler

Germany’s actions in the Rhineland in 1936were a direct threat to French security. YetFrance did nothing to stop these actions. Francewould not act without British support and wasweakened by internal tensions between left- andright-wing forces.

The high point of the appeasement policy wasthe response to Hitler’s claim, in May 1938, toGerman-inhabited parts of Sudetenland, inCzechoslovakia. France and Britain had bothpromised to protect Czechoslovakia againstHitler’s aggression. The people of Europe

GERMANY AND THE ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II

Source 6.2.2

ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II

Source 6.2.1

Fascist leader of Italy, Benito Mussolini


153

expected war. In September 1938, France andBritain proposed that Germany should beallowed these areas of Sudetenland. Hitler thendemanded all of Sudetenland.

On 29 September 1938, the leaders of France,Britain and Italy met with Hitler in Munich.Without consulting Czechoslovakia, they signedthe Munich Agreement giving Hitler all of theSudetenland. Hitler said he would not demandany more territory. British Prime Minister, NevilleChamberlain, then came to a private agreementwith Hitler stating their joint commitment to theuse of consultation and negotiation to resolve anyfuture issues between them. Chamberlain claimedthis would bring ‘peace in our time’.

In March 1939, Hitler’s troops took over the restof Czechoslovakia, and Poland was his next likelytarget. Britain and France told Hitler they wouldgo to war with Germany if he invaded Poland.Hitler did not take this threat seriously. On1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.On 2 September, Britain and France declared waron Germany. Appeasement was at an end andEurope was at war. Within the next few months,German forces took over Belgium, Norway, theNetherlands and 60 per cent of France.

The famous photograph of 1 October 1938 showing British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waving the piece of paper that he claimed would create ‘peace in our time’

Source 6.2.4

N O R T H

S E A

M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A

B L A C K S E A

CA

SPIA

N

SEA

SuezCanal

Tobruk

Damascus

Crete

Sicily

To Abyssinia(Ethiopia)

SWEDEN

BELGIUMGERMANY

FRANCE

PORTUGAL

SPAIN

EGYPT

ROMANIA

BULGARIA

UNITED

KINGDOM

TURKEY

IRAN

SAUDI ARABIA

LATVIA

ESTONIA

TRANSJORDAN

IRAQ

East Prussia

MOROCCOALGERIA

LIBYA

SYRIA

LUX.

SWITZERLAND

YUGOSLAVIA

HUNGARY

GREECE

NETHERLANDS

DENMARK

LITHUANIA

TUNISIA

ITALY

ALBANIA

UNION OF SOVIET

SOCIALIST REPUBLICSPOLAND

PALESTINE

CZECHOSLOVAKIAAUSTRIA

1000 km5000

N

German conquests 17 March 1938to September 1939

Italian conquests October 1935to April 1939

Soviet advance into PolandSeptember 1939

Source 6.2.3

A map of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in the 1930s

HISTORY 2

154

Japan suffered significantly during the GreatDepression, especially when both China and theUnited States placed trade barriers on Japaneseimports. In the 1930s, the military graduallyextended its influence within Japan’s govern-ment. Its goal was to make Japan a world powerand solve its problems by forcefully taking landelsewhere.

In 1931, Japanese forces invaded Manchuriaand, in 1932, established it as the ‘independent’state of Manzhuguo (Manchukuo). This gaveJapan access to important timber, coal, iron, oiland gold resources. Military commandersrefused to obey the civilian government’s ordersto withdraw and also began attacks on theChinese city of Shanghai. In early 1933, theLeague of Nations ordered the Japanese out ofManchuria. Japan resigned from membership ofthe League. The League had no army to enforceits decision and could not rely on its members toprovide one.

‘The Doormat’, a cartoon by famous New Zealand cartoonist, David Low, that appeared in the London newspaper The Evening Standard on 19 January 1933. His work for The Evening Standard in the 1930s and 1940s led to the Gestapo placing him on a death list.

In July 1937, Japanese forces invaded eastChina. In 1940, Japan occupied French Indo-china (see source 6.2.6). Japan was takingadvantage of the weaknesses of the powers thatwere involved in war in Europe. Its next targetwould be the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). The

JAPAN AND THE ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II

Source 6.2.5

American president, Franklin Roosevelt,responded by giving loans and military assis-tance to China, freezing Japan’s US assets andplacing increasingly severe restrictions on tradewith Japan.

On 7 December 1941, 300 Japanese planesattacked the United States naval fleet at PearlHarbor in Hawaii. The following day, the UnitedStates announced that it was at war with Japan.The war in the Pacific had begun.

On 11 December 1941, Hitler declared war onthe United States and, as a result, brought theUS into the European war.

In 1940, Japan, Italy and Germany had signedthe Three Power Pact, cementing their Axispower partnership. Britain drew her formercolonies into the conflict.

In June 1941, German troops, in what wasknown as ‘Operation Barbarossa’, invaded theSoviet Union. This meant that Germany was nowfighting on two fronts in Europe. The war, whichnow involved nations around the globe, wasbasically fought between:• the Axis powers (supported by pro-Nazi

governments in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romaniaand Slovakia)

• the Allied powers, which included Britain, theSoviet Union (USSR) and the United States.

Map showing the extent of Japanese military expansion in South-East Asia from 1931 to 1942

Source 6.2.6

CHINA

BURMA

JAPAN

THAILAND

FRENCHINDO-CHINA

PHILIPPINES

KOREA

OUTER MONGOLIA

Hawaii(U.S.A.)

MALAYA

INDONESIANew Guinea

0 1000 2000 km

N

Marshall Islands

Caroline Islands

Guam

MidwayIslands

1932

1937

1942

1942

1941

December 19411940

AUSTRALIA

PACIFIC

OCEAN

INDIAN

OCEAN

Japanese empire 1931

Japanese expansion 1932–1942

Area under Japanese control by 1942

The

Brit

ish

Car

toon

Arc

hive

, U

nive

rsity

of

Ken

t


155

Interpreting poster propagandaPosters are a simple and direct way to spread a powerful message. Repeated exposure over time can manipulate an observer to view the poster’s message as fact. This German propaganda poster was issued as German forces prepared to overrun the Soviet Union.

German propaganda poster

SKILLS essentials

Source 6.2.7

Imperial War Museum IWMPST4712

ICT

MADE EA

SY

www.jaconline.com.au/ict-meComputer graphics

Understand1. What was the policy of appeasement?2. List Hitler’s acts of aggression between 1936 and 1939.3. What action did President Roosevelt take against

Japan in 1940 after its invasion of China and French Indochina?

Use sources4. What agreement did Chamberlain make with

Hitler that led to the photograph in source 6.2.4? Write two alternative captions for source 6.2.4, one supporting the event shown in the photograph and one critical of it.

5. What does source 6.2.5 indicate about cartoonist David Low’s attitude to (a) Japan and (b) the League of Nations? What techniques does he use to convey this message?

6. Use the text and the map in source 6.2.6 to create a timeline summarising Japanese expansion to 1941.

Design and create7. Using appropriate historical terms, draw or use

computer graphics to create a mind map or flow chart to explain the factors leading to World War II. You could shade these in different colours to indicate long- and short-term factors and/or those linked to specific countries or issues, then create a key to show what your colours represent.

Propaganda often highlights the strengths and weaknesses of its subjects. Its creators can use vivid colours to indicate power.

They can also use scale (or size) to make some elements appear more important than others.

Political propagandists often use symbols to depict countries and communicate a viewpoint about their characteristics.

Identify (and make notes on) the main features of the poster using the headings ‘Colour’, ‘Scale’, ‘Symbols’ and ‘Interest’.

Using the heading ‘Interest’, record anything else interesting you notice about the creators’ methods.

Look carefully at the German propaganda poster (source 6.2.7).1. What message does this poster send

about the people of England and its leaders?

2. How is Germany portrayed?3. Why do you think the German military is

represented by an iron fist?4. What words would you use to describe

the way the Russian leader Stalin is represented?

5. What do you think the words at the bottom of the poster might say?

HISTORY 2

156

6.3

For Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies,Britain’s involvement in war against Germanyrequired Australia’s involvement as well. ManyAustralians did not accept this pro-British con-clusion. The Australian Labor Party declared itsopposition to Australians serving outside Aus-tralian territory and men did not rush to enlistas they had in 1914.

In January 1940, Australian troops of theSecond AIF were sent to fight with the Allies in theMediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East.

An extract from Prime Minister Menzies’ announcement of Australia’s entry into World War II, broadcast on 3 September 1939

‘MY MELANCHOLY DUTY’

Source 6.3.1

Fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially 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 Hitler’s 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.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies

German forces gained control of Poland veryquickly and then for some months, during whatbecame known as the ‘phoney war’, there wasvery little fighting. From 9 April 1940, Germantroops began their occupation of Norway andDenmark and then moved to take control of theNetherlands, Belgium and 60 per cent of Franceby late June 1940.

Italy’s leader, Mussolini, hoped to gain bothland and prestige through attacks on British-occupied Egypt and on Greece in late 1940. InEgypt, the Australian 6th Division played animportant role in forcing back the Italians and,for several months from September 1940, Aus-tralian troops defended the strategic Suez Canal.

When the British gained control of the airfieldsof Greece and Crete, the German leader, Hitler,intervened. His troops attacked Greece, forcedthe British to withdraw and, in so doing, pre-vented a likely British attack against Romania’soilfields. Australian troops fighting in Greecewere forced to evacuate to Crete where 274 sol-diers died in the Germans’ attacks on the island.Another 416 Australian soldiers died in a five-week campaign against the French in Syria.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was alsoactive in the war in the Mediterranean. In onebattle in July 1940, the Italian cruiser Bartolomeowas sunk by HMAS Sydney.

The Rats of Tobruk

In early 1941, when the Allied troops forced theItalians to retreat into Libya, Germany sent inGeneral Irwin Rommel and his tank unit, theAfrika Corps, to assist the Italians. Rommel’stroops were well trained and skilled in creatingan impression of superior strength and numbers.

From 10 April 1941, Rommel’s Afrika Corpslaid siege to the Libyan port of Tobruk. LordHaw-Haw, the nickname of the announcer onGermany’s English-language propaganda pro-gram Germany Calling, called the Allied forces‘rats’ — a term that became a symbol of pride.Over 50 per cent of the 14 000 Allied soldiers whodefended the garrison were Australians. They

AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA

WAR IN EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA

AND THE PACIFIC


157

faced a force twice as large, which had tanks andeasy land access to additional supplies of men,food and equipment. The ‘rats’ could obtain sup-plies only via sea.

In the months that followed, the ‘rats’ ofTobruk strengthened the garrison’s defences.They began night-time raids to sabotage enemyequipment and to move unobtrusively usingbayonets to attack enemy soldiers. It was eightmonths before Allied reinforcements arrived withthe numbers and supplies necessary to defeat thesiege. Tobruk represented Germany’s first majorsetback. A report on the Australian WarMemorial website states: ‘The heroic defence ofTobruk is a notable military achievement and aworthy addition to the long list of deeds of valourperformed by Australian soldiers.’

An Australian soldier’s description of fighting conditions at Tobruk

A photograph of Australian soldiers of the 2/13th Battalion, among those who successfully defended the garrison of Tobruk in 1941. They are shown in a typical shallow trench on the flat, exposed land around Tobruk’s perimeter.

Source 6.3.2

Dust storms, heat, fleas, flies, sleepless nights, when the earth shook with the roar of the enemy’s fury, daring raids into no man’s land through mine fields and barbed wire, scorching day after day in the front line, where no man dared stand upright, but crouched behind a knee-high protection of rocks — all these things had been the lot of the defenders of Tobruk.

Age, 24 November 1941.

Source 6.3.3

With Montgomery at El Alamein

In 1941, the British, depleted in numbers andreliant on men with little training, lost many bat-tles to Rommel. Then the British General BernardMontgomery took charge and began to putRommel under pressure. On 13 October 1942,Montgomery launched a counter-offensive

against Rommel’s Afrika Corps at El Alamein. On4 November 1942, Montgomery’s army brokethrough the German lines. Montgomery praisedthe role of the AIF’s ‘magnificent’ 9th Division inthis campaign.

Four days later, the British took control ofAlgiers and then a combined British and USforce took Oran and Morocco. In January 1943,the British took Tripoli and then Tunis andBizerte. They captured 250 000 prisoners of war,although Rommel was not among them.

Involvement in the North African campaignweakened Germany by involving its troops in yetanother theatre of war. The battleground was onewhere, unlike mainland Europe at this time, theAllies could win.

The Allies’ success in the North African campaigngave them a base from which to launch futureattacks on Italy and on the Balkans and gave themcontrol of shipping in the Mediterranean.

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on7 December 1941 (see page 154) was part of a seriesof Japanese attacks in the Pacific. On 9 December,after Japan’s declaration of war on Britain and theCommonwealth, Australian Labor Party PrimeMinister John Curtin announced Australia’sdeclaration of war on Japan (see page 172).

Australians fought with other Allied forces inlargely unsuccessful attempts to repel Japaneseattacks in Ambon, Java, Malaya, New Britain,Singapore and Timor. War was coming closer toAustralia and the British navy was clearlyunable to protect Australia. The British navywas weakened in December 1941 when Japanesebombers sunk the Repulse and Prince of Wales,two of its warships, off the coast of Malaya. Thefall of Singapore and its British naval base on15 February 1942 was a significant blow. Alliedattempts to hold Singapore led to the capture of85 000 troops, including 15 000 of the Australian8th Division. Prime Minister Curtin had already,in late 1941, announced that Australia must lookto the United States for assistance (seepage 172). He now called Australian troops homefrom the Middle East.

WAR ON JAPAN IN THE PACIFIC

HISTORY 2

158

Imita Ridge

BootlessBay Musa

Laloki

Kum

usi

Mam

bare

River

River

River

River

OW

EN

STA

NLE

Y R

AN

GE

OW

EN S

TANLE

Y R

ANG

E

0 50 100 km

IsuravaAlola

Port Moresby

N

Gona Sanananda

Buna

DoboduraSoputa

WairopiKokoda

Oivi

Owers’ Corner

IoribaiwaMenari

Efogi

2000 to 4000 metres

1000 to 2000 metres

500 to 1000 metres

200 to 500 metres

0 to 200 metres

Height above sea level

Kokoda Trail

CORAL SEA

CORAL SEA

Port Moresby

Lae

Cairns

PAPUA

NEW GUINEA

Gona

X

Battle of

Coral Sea

AUSTRALIA

Source 6.3.5

Map showing places significant to the war in New Guinea

By early 1942, 2000 Australians had diedfighting the Japanese and 22 000 had becomeprisoners of war. The Japanese continued to gainterritory.

War comes to Australia

On 19 February 1942, 188 Japanese aircraftbombed Darwin and 54 bombers attacked itsRAAF aircraft base. This brought the war toAustralia’s home territory. Two hundred andforty people died, although the governmentreported only 15 deaths. On 1 June, the Japanesesent three midget submarines into Sydney Har-bour. One of the submarines fired a torpedo thatexploded near HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors;another submarine was caught in the harbour’sboom net and the third sunk.

Photograph of a Sydney house damaged by Japanese shelling in 1942 AWM 012594

Source 6.3.4

The Japanese continued to attack shipping alongthe coastline of eastern Australia and, on 7 June1942, torpedoed Bondi (Sydney) and Newcastle. On14 May 1943, the Japanese sank the hospital shipCentaur, killing 268 men and women.

Halting the Japanese advance

The Australian and American victory at the Battleof the Coral Sea in early May 1942 marked a sig-nificant defeat in the Japanese advance towardsPort Moresby (New Guinea). In June, US navalforces sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and300 aircraft at the Battle of Midway.

From July 1942, Australian troops in NewGuinea fought to halt a Japanese advance alongthe Kokoda Trail (or Kokoda Track), the routelinking Gona and Buna in the north and (via thevillage of Kokoda) the airfield at Port Moresby.Control of this airfield would give the Japanese animportant base from which to attack Australia.

Fighting for control of the Kokoda Trail beganwith the Japanese landing at Gona on 21 July1942, and heavy fighting continued until earlyJanuary 1943. Conditions were extraordinarilydifficult as the track was narrow, poorly definedand passed through thick, dark jungle, fast-flowing rivers and two mountain ranges. Tobegin with, the 39th Militia Battalion, com-prising mainly young conscripts, took on thedefence of this territory. They faced an enemywith a reputation as successful jungle fightersand that outnumbered them significantly; theAustralians’ khaki (light-brown) uniforms didlittle to camouflage them and they lackedadequate equipment.


159

An extract from an Australian soldier’s description of the Kokoda Trail

By mid September 1942, despite the incredibleefforts of Australian forces, the Japanese were atIoribaiwa in reach of Port Moresby, only 50 kilo-metres away. Spurred on by news of a largely Aus-tralian defeat of Japanese forces at Milne Bay inearly September, the Australians, now reinforcedby experienced troops from the Middle East,began to push the Japanese into retreat. By earlyNovember, they had forced the Japanese back toKokoda and, from 16 November, a combinedAustralian and US force began campaigns for therecapture of Gona, Buna and Sanananda.

Victories at Milne Bay and on the KokodaTrail marked the first two land defeats ofJapanese forces and the beginning of theirretreat. The ‘fuzzy-wuzzy angels’ of New

Source 6.3.6

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 first 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 fire, 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.

Guinea supported the Allied Kokoda campaignby bringing in supplies and carrying out thewounded to where they could get medical help.Over 600 Australians died in the Kokoda cam-paign; 1600 were wounded and over 4000 werecasualties of tropical disease and other illnesses.

Japan in retreat

In early 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guad-alcanal, one of their key bases in the Pacific. ByAugust, Australian troops had largely defeatedthe Japanese advance into New Guinea.Japanese forces could no longer control all of theterritory they had taken and were in retreat onboth land and sea.

Understand1. What was Robert Menzies’ ‘melancholy duty’ on

3 September 1939 and how did he justify it?2. List the Axis powers’ successes in the early stages

of the war in Europe.3. Why do you think the Australian government

concealed the correct death toll resulting from the bombing of Darwin?

4. How would people in Australia have reacted to the attacks on Sydney and the east coast?

Think5. On a copy of the map in source 6.2.3 (page 153),

or using a blank A4-sized map of Europe and North Africa, create text boxes summarising the main events of World War II in that area in the period 1939–43.

Use sources6. List the features of ‘the lot of the defenders of

Tobruk’ mentioned in source 6.3.2.7. Use source 6.3.4 and your own knowledge to

explain how 1942 was a turning point in the Australian experience of World War II.

8. Use sources 6.3.5 to 6.3.7 and your own knowledge to explain the main features of the Kokoda campaign.

Use ICT9. Visit the website for this book and click on the

Tobruk weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page vii). Read the information, then imagine you have the opportunity to interview a survivor of Tobruk. Think of five questions to ask the soldier about the conditions there and his experiences, then compose the responses that he might have given.

Worksheets6.1 Armed forces graph

A photograph of a steep part of the terrain on the Kokoda Trail showing the difficulties the Australian troops experienced AWM 054746

Source 6.3.7

HISTORY 2

160

6.4

On 9 September 1939, by means of the NationalSecurity Act, the Australian government gainedthe additional powers it would need to control thewar effort and impose total war. The government:• introduced conscription for service in defence

of Australia and its territories• called up its 80 000-strong Commonwealth Mili-

tary Force (CMF)• introduced compulsory military training for

20-year-old males• encouraged voluntary enlistment to serve over-

seas in the Australian Imperial Force (the AIF).From 1941 onwards, the government ordered

all 18-year-old males to register in the expec-tation that they would be needed to defendAustralia from the Japanese. The following year,

CONSCRIPTIONit called them up for army service in the Aus-tralian territory of Papua. In 1943, the govern-ment extended the area where conscripts couldserve to include all Japanese-occupied islandssouth of the Equator, that is, beyond Australianterritory. Government amendments to theDefence Act in 1943 resulted in women beingconscripted for work in the auxiliary services(see page 166).

In early 1942, the government introduced lawsto ensure that both men and women would workin industries essential to the war effort. Thosealready employed in essential war industrieswere expected to stay there and the governmentdirected other people to work in such industries.

Menzies’ government introduced censorshipwithin days of war breaking out and establisheda Department of Information to administer it.For the next six years, censors judged whataspects of radio broadcasts, newspapers, tele-graph, telephone and postal communicationswere or were not safe for private individuals orthe general public to know about. It bannedservicemen and serv-icewomen from gos-siping and writingdiaries about thewar. Censors checkedletters and blackedout any informationthat might be usefulto the enemy. News-papers and radiosprovided positivereports of the warthat highlighted vic-tories and minimisedlosses.

CENSORSHIP AND PROPAGANDA

ON THE

HOME FRONT

A 1943 poster warning Australians of the importance of security

AWM ARTV02497

Source 6.4.2

A 1942 Australian recruitment poster

Source 6.4.1


161

Australians captured about 19 000 soldiers —Italians, Japanese and Germans — who becameprisoners of war (POWs) within Australia. Theywere generally treated in accordance with theterms of the Geneva Convention. On 5 August1944, three groups of Japanese prisoners brokeout of their camp at Cowra, killing five people asthey made their escape. Within ten days, 334 hadbeen recaptured, 234 were dead (including severalwho hanged themselves) and 108 were wounded.

The National Security Act 1939 (Cwlth) alsogave the Australian government power to putthose designated ‘enemy aliens’ into internment

camps. These included Germans and Italians,‘naturalised’ Australians, Australian-born peopleof ‘enemy’ descent, ‘enemy aliens’ transferredhere from overseas and some Australians labelled‘enemies’ because of their political activities.

Photograph showing two families of German internees in Australia at the Tatura Internment Camp in March 1945

AWM 030242/13

The government introduced petrol rationing inAustralia in October 1940. In August 1942, JohnCurtin announced the need for Australians toembark on a ‘season of austerity’ and ‘deprivethemselves of every selfish comfortable habit’. Inpractical terms, this meant rationing of othergoods that were in short supply or for which themilitary had priority. The government distributed

POWs AND ‘ENEMY ALIENS’

Source 6.4.3

RATIONING, DRILLS AND DEFENCE

ration books of coupons that enabled people topurchase butter, meat, sugar, tea and clothing instrict accordance with the quantity allowed.

From late 1941 onwards, Australians preparedfor air raids by constructing air-raid trenchesand shelters. People practised air-raid drills andevacuation procedures. Home defence groupsappointed local air-raid precaution wardens(ARPs) to prepare for bomb disposal and checkthat people followed security procedures.

Air-raid drills included kindergartens, where children were issued with earmuffs and mouthguards to lessen the potential impact and damage if bombs exploded nearby.

Understand1. List five actions that the Australian government

took to control the war effort on the home front. 2. What evidence was there of both censorship and

propaganda during the war?3. What types of people were classified as ‘enemy

aliens’ and what was the government’s attitude towards them?

4. How did being at war affect the patterns of everyday life?

Use sources5. Examine the posters in sources 6.4.1 and 6.4.2 and

explain:(a) the intended audience for each poster(b) the purpose of each poster(c) the techniques used by each creator to

achieve the purpose.

Communicate6. Write a brief evaluation of sources 6.4.3 and 6.4.4

in terms of their contexts, information, reliability, completeness, objectivity and/or bias for someone investigating ‘War on the home front’.

Source 6.4.4

ON

THE CD-R

OM

Australia and

World War II

HISTORY 2

162

6.5

In the course of World War II, approximately37 000 Australians became prisoners of war(POWs).

• German and Italian forces captured about15 000 Australians in campaigns in Europeand the Middle East. They became prisonersof war in camps in Austria, Germany andPoland.

• The Japanese forces captured over 22 000 Aus-tralians, who then became POWs in campsthroughout east Asia.

Those in prisoner-of-war camps in Europe had amuch better survival rate than those in Japanesecamps, where 36 per cent of the prisoners diedand where forced labour, beatings, disease andstarvation were common.

On 12 February 1942, 65 Australian nursesattempted to avoid capture by the invadingJapanese by leaving Singapore on the ship theVyner Brooke. Two days later, Japanese bombersattacked the ship and it sank just off BangkaIsland. Twenty-two nurses made it to shore, onlyto be shot by Japanese soldiers. The sole survivorof this group, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, spent10 days in the jungle before being captured. Shebecame a prisoner of war in Indonesia, alongwith 31 other nurses who had survived thesinking. Only 24 of these women survived thewar.

An account of the prisoner-of-war experiences of the Australian nurses who survived the sinking of the Vyner Brooke

Source 6.5.1

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 final months.

G Hunter-Payne, quoted in On the Duckboards:Experiences of the Other Side of War, Allen & Unwin,

Sydney, 1995, pp. 44–6.

Changi, in Singapore, was the main Japaneseprisoner-of-war camp. It comprised a formerBritish army barracks set amid thousands ofacres of land at Selarang and a fairly new andmodern civilian prison in the village of Changi,two kilometres away. While Changi had to accom-modate 15 000 prisoners in facilities designed forthe use of about 1500, initially the conditionsthere were comparatively better than those inother Japanese-run POW camps. The captorsprovided adequate food and medicine; the soldiers(at Selarang) continued to observe the militarydiscipline of their former lives and had freedom toorganise their own entertainment.

The Japanese organised prisoners into workparties and then often sent them to forced-labourcamps in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,Indochina, Burma, Manchuria, Korea, Formosa(Taiwan) and in Japan itself. Sea voyages to theseplaces left the prisoners vulnerable to attacksfrom US submarines patrolling these areas. Threesuch attacks resulted in the deaths of 1700 POWs.

The Japanese were not prepared for the largenumbers of Allied prisoners they had under theircontrol. The Japanese thought it was dishonour-able to be taken prisoner and Japanese soldierswere more likely to commit suicide than allow thisto happen. For them, a soldier’s duty was to fight‘to the death’ and they had little respect for thosewho surrendered. The treatment of prisonersreflected their attitude that those who had chosento live, rather than die honourably, deserved little.

Australian prisoners at Changi organised an

Australian Rules football competition that

ended with the award of the ‘Changi Brownlow

Medal’, won by Corporal Peter Chitty, whose

widow donated the medal to the Australian

War Memorial in 2004.

CHANGI

HISTORY

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR

AUSTRALIAN

PRISONERS OF WAR


163

By late 1942, conditions at Changi, like thoseat most camps, were more in line with these atti-tudes. Changi POWs worked on heavy labourtasks around Singapore, loading ships, clearingsewers, building roads and repairing the docks.The Japanese made dramatic cuts to food andmedical supplies. They had not signed theGeneva Convention and did not abide by it.

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

Some of the worst experiences were those suf-fered by prisoners in Indonesia and Thailand. In1942 and 1943, the Japanese forced 60 000 pris-oners to work on the construction of the Thai–Burma railway (see page 164). There were 2815Australians among the 16 000 who died there. In1945, the Japanese ordered two forced ‘deathmarches’ of Australian and British POWs fromSandakan on the coast of Borneo (Indonesia) toRanau, 2000 metres higher. Six of the original2345 POWs survived.

Source 6.5.2

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 [on the Treatment of POWs].

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 . . . There were virtually no vegetables, except those grown by the internees, and absolutely no fruit, no meat, and no fish.

Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1945.

An extract from Stan Arneil’s description of his period on the Thai–Burma railway in May to December 1943

Understand1. How many Australians became prisoners of war

and where were they imprisoned? 2. What was the Japanese attitude towards POWs?3. What kind of work were prisoners forced to do?

Use sources4. Use sources 6.5.1 to 6.5.4 and your own

knowledge to list the main experiences of prisoners of the Japanese during World War II.

5. Visit the website for this book and click on the Changi Museum weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page vii). Click on ‘Chronicles’ and ‘Wartime stories’ to read about a wartime photographer. How are his photographs significant for historians?

Source 6.5.3

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 . . . 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.

. . . there was not time, and not sufficient men strong enough, to dig graves. The dead were cremated on bamboo fires and a handful of ashes of each man collected . . .

Many of those who returned from the railway never recovered their former health . . .

Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, Sun Books (Pan Macmillan),Melbourne, 1982, p. 91.

SKILLS essentials

Analysing a photographAnalysing a photograph is an important historical skill. Understanding the following aspects helps us to judge the reliability and value of the photo:• Who created the photo (if known) and why was

it taken?• What information does the photo provide? • What extra information do the minor details

add?• What information does the caption provide and

is this useful?• How does the photo help our understanding of

the topic?

A photograph of a hospital ward in the Changi prisoner-of-war camp, September 1945, showing members of the 8th Division, recently released after the Japanese surrender. All were suffering from malnutrition. AWM 019199

Source 6.5.4

HISTORY 2

164

6.6

Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was a hero of theprisoner-of-war camp where he spent over threeyears from 1942 to 1945. He was a skilledsurgeon who, as a prisoner of war, was renownedfor his courage, resourcefulness and fine leader-ship qualities.

Edward Dunlop was born in country Victoria on12 July 1907. He attended Stewarton PublicSchool and Benalla High School before begin-ning work as an apprentice pharmacist in 1924.On completion of his pharmacy studies, he wona scholarship to study medicine at MelbourneUniversity, where he gained the nickname‘Weary’ (a pun linking Dunlop tyres and theword ‘tired’).

Dunlop graduated with first-class honours in1934 and became a surgical resident at the RoyalMelbourne Hospital and later at the Children’sHospital. He gained his Master of Surgery degreefrom Melbourne University in 1937 and thefollowing year left Australia tofurther his medical experiencein London, where he became aFellow of the Royal College ofSurgeons.

Dunlop was a talentedsportsman. He was a cham-pion boxer at university and,in 1932, represented Australiaat Rugby Union. He was alsocommitted to part-time armyservice. In 1935, he gained therank of Captain in the Aus-tralian Army Medical Corps.

Edward Dunlop enlisted in theAustralian Army MedicalCorps in November 1939, ser-ving first in Jerusalem, then inGaza and Alexandria in 1940,then in Greece. He worked assenior surgeon and second-in-charge of the medical unit at

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

WARTIME SERVICE

Tobruk and, from February 1942, was in charge ofthe No. 1 Allied General Hospital at Bandoeng(Bandung) in Java, Indonesia. The Japanese cap-tured the hospital in March 1942. Dunlop, alongwith other prisoners of war, went first to Changiin Singapore and then to a camp in Thailand.

Life in a prisoner-of-war camp was a dailystruggle for survival. As an officer, Dunlop wasresponsible for the care and protection of over1000 prisoners, who became known as ‘DunlopForce’. As a surgeon, he worked with limitedmedical supplies and without proper medicalinstruments to help men survive life as POWs.

The Japanese expected officers like Dunlop tomaintain discipline and to provide prisoners whowould work as slave labour constructing theinfamous Thai–Burma Railway. The railway, over400 kilometres in length, would link Thailandand Burma and enable the Japanese army totransport supplies to its forces. The goal was to

complete the railway in timefor a proposed campaignagainst the British in the dryseason. Over 25 per cent ofthe 9500 Australian POWswho worked on the railwaydied there.

Dunlop suffered the hard-ships and diseases of prisonlife with, at different times,swelling from beri-beri, ulcerson his legs, dysentery andmalaria. He continually bat-tled with his Japanese cap-tors in the attempt toimprove living and medicalconditions. He risked and suf-fered beatings when he madeexcuses for, and protected,those who were least able towork. On one occasion, theJapanese punished him bymaking him kneel for hoursin the hot sun holding a pileof heavy stones.

‘THE RAILWAY OF DEATH’

A SIGNIFICANT INDIVIDUAL:

SIR EDWARD ‘WEARY’ DUNLOP

A 1956 painting of Colonel Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop (1907–93), by Murray Griffin

AWM ART26999

Source 6.6.1


165

An extract from former POW Laurens Van Der Post’s introduction to EE Dunlop, The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Penguin, Melbourne, 1990

A comment from former POW Tom Uren in Sue Ebury’s biography, Weary: The Life of Sir Edward Dunlop, Viking, Melbourne, 1994, p. 352

Source 6.6.2

BangkokBampong

Moulmein

Mergui

T H A I L A N D

Thanbyuzayat

BU

RM

A

Thai–Burma Railway

0 80 160 km

N

Source 6.6.3

It lasted barely three months, but in those three months [when Dunlop was made officer in charge of the camp] an astonishing transformation took place in our camp. All traces of confusion, bitterness and incohesion vanished. We rounded up all the public money we could find in the possession of senior officers in the camp, established contact with Chinese merchants outside prison and bought food on the advice of the Australian medical team to supplement inadequate and unbalanced prison rations . . . those three months . . . were to become a kind of golden prison age in the totality of our prison memories . . . it is hardly necessary to add that Weary Dunlop and his team of doctors built up a model prison hospital in which the most advanced operations were successfully performed on men who would have died otherwise.

Source 6.6.4

‘[Under Dunlop] we lived by the principle of the fit looking after the sick, the young looking after the old, the rich looking after the poor.’ The wisdom of [taking a proportion from] all those who were paid so that the Camp fund could furnish food and drugs was plain and the difference between the Australian and British camps was obvious. ‘Only a creek separated [them] . . . but on one the law of the jungle prevailed, and on the other the principles of socialism.’

After the war, Dunlop continued his medicalcareer in Australia. He travelled overseas toextend Australian links with other cultures andteach medicine in South-East Asia. He used theprofits from the publication of war diaries to helpThai surgeons gain further knowledge and skillsthrough study in Australia.

In 1993, 10 000 people came out onto thestreets of Melbourne to show their respect for‘Weary’ Dunlop at his state funeral. The people ofAustralia have honoured him with statues ofcommemoration in King’s Domain, Melbourne, atthe Australian War Memorial in Canberra and inhis hometown, Benalla.

Understand 1. What strategies did Weary Dunlop use to aid the

survival of fellow prisoners?2. If someone asked you who ‘Weary’ Dunlop was

and why he was a ‘significant Australian’, what would your answer be?

Think3. Of his time as a POW, Edward Dunlop said, ‘I

have a conviction that it’s only when you are put at full stretch that you can realise your full potential’. What do you think he meant by this and to what extent do you agree with him?

Use sources 4. Based on your knowledge of Edward Dunlop,

create another caption for source 6.6.1.5. How useful and reliable are sources 6.6.3 and

6.6.4 for gaining an understanding of Edward Dunlop’s contribution to Australia’s history? Find out more about the authors of the sources and, in your response, consider the context of the sources, the nature of the information they provide and factors related to objectivity and/or bias.

A British POW, Bill Griffiths, was blind and

had lost both his hands. When the Japanese

were preparing to execute him, Edward Dunlop

stood in front of the soldiers’ bayonets and

refused to move. This saved Griffiths’ life.

HISTORY

LEGACY OF AN INSPIRING AUSTRALIAN

A map showing the route of the Thai–Burma Railway

HISTORY 2

166

6.7

Australian women played a more active and impor-tant role in the World War II war effort than theyhad during World War I. They volunteered in tensof thousands for work in and beyond areas associ-ated with their traditional roles. Women movedinto the paid workforce, taking on men’s roles inbusinesses and on the land. They departed fromtheir traditional roles to join all three branches ofthe military service, though not in combat.

Women knitted balaclavas, gloves, jumpers andsocks to provide items for the Australian ComfortsFund to send to men serving overseas. They organ-ised entertainment for men on leave and theyformed organisations to coordinate less traditionalvoluntary work.

The Women’s Australian National Service(WANS) organised women to drive and servicearmy vehicles, ambulances and aircraft. It alsotrained women in air-raid drills, first aid and basicmilitary drills. More specialised training targetedthe development of skills in shooting, signalling andmechanics. Three hundred women trained with theWomen’s Emergency Signalling Corps so that malepostal workers could enlist in the armed services.

Women responded diligently to the increasedneed for their efforts following Japan’s 1941 entryinto the war. The Auxiliary of the National DefenceLeague of Australia made most of the camouflagenetting needed to disguise military equipment andpotential targets from enemy aerial surveillance.The Red Cross worked tirelessly to raise money tofund its free blood transfusion service and toprovide books and toiletries for wounded men beingtreated in hospitals. Some women in Red Cross AidUnits and Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs)provided medical support services in hospitals.

In the paid workforce, women filled the increasedneed for workers in traditionally ‘female’ jobsand also took on ‘men’s jobs’, replacing those whojoined the armed services. Women worked in fac-tories in tasks ranging from food production tosteel production. They became bus drivers anddrove delivery carts and vans.

VOLUNTARY WORK

WOMEN DOING ‘MEN’S WORK’

A photograph showing a woman checking and counting bullets in a World War II munitions factory AWM 007731

Japan’s entry into the war and then the fall ofSingapore in 1942 created huge growth in demandfor munitions. The Commonwealth Governmentcampaigned to increase women’s involvement inthis area. Women took on jobs making all kinds ofweaponry from bullets to anti-tank shells. Univer-sities and government laboratories employed themin optical munitions work, where they took measure-ments, did the complex mathematical calculationsneeded for lens manufacture, designed and groundlenses and tested optical instruments. They made asignificant contribution to Australia’s wartimeproduction of binoculars, bomb and gun sights,cameras, periscopes, range finders and telescopes.

The Country Women’s Association (CWA) beganorganising women to do men’s farm work as earlyas 1939. The Commonwealth Government formallytook over this task when it established the Aus-tralian Women’s Land Army (AWLA) in July 1942.Members had to be British subjects aged between18 and 50. The farmer, not the government, paidthem for their work, because they volunteeredrather than officially ‘enlisted’ for service.

Source 6.7.1

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S LAND ARMY

WOMEN AND

WORLD WAR II


167

Women could join the AWLA for twelve monthsas full members, travelling to different areasaccording to demand, or they could join asauxiliary members doing seasonal work in theirown areas. AWLA members did a four-weektraining course and then learned though prac-tical experience. While they made useful con-tributions to the war effort, they took on rolesthat many women in rural areas considered thenorm on properties where family members ofboth sexes always shared the farming workload.

Just under 80000 women enlisted in Australia’sarmed services during World War II, and about fiveper cent of these served overseas. Many Austral-ians, including military personnel, were prejudicedagainst women’s participation in the militaryservices and accepted it only because of need.

The Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force

Australia’s air force took the lead in enlistingwomen when, in October 1940, it announced theestablishment of the Women’s Auxiliary Aus-tralian Air Force (WAAAF). By 1944, it employed18 000 women. They worked on the ground in com-munications as wireless and teleprinter operatorsand also undertook mechanical repair work.

The Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service

The Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service(WRANS) began in 1941, amid general reluctance

from the Naval Board. Like theWAAAF, it too confined womento service on land. They workedas interpreters, wireless telegra-phists, coders, typists, clerks,drivers and in many other roles.

The Australian Women’s Army Service

The Australian Women’s ArmyService (AWAS) began enlistingwomen in November 1941 andby the end of the war had takenin 31 000 recruits. These womentook over ‘male’ jobs in com-munications, maintenance andtransport. As full members ofthe army, they also trained in

WOMEN IN THE ARMED SERVICES

Source 6.7.3

A poster encouraging Australian women’s participation in the war effort

AWM ARTV00332

Recruitment poster for the Australian Women’s Land ArmyAWM ARTV06446

Source 6.7.2

HISTORY 2

168

combat with the expectation that they wouldparticipate in Australia’s defence if Japaninvaded. While this did not occur, 100 AWASmembers served at Cowra, which was officiallydesignated a theatre of war when Japaneseprisoners of war broke out of the camp there inAugust 1944 (see page 161).

The Australian Army Medical Women’s Service

The Australian Army Medical Women’s Service(AAMWS) began in December 1942 as a full-timeservice incorporating 10 000 workers previouslyassociated with Voluntary Aid Detachments.These women worked in nursing and radiographyunits and in laboratories, as well as assisting withdental, clerical and kitchen tasks.

The Australian Army Nursing Service

The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) wasalready in existence when war broke out. Itsnurses were the only Australian women to serveoverseas during World War II, beginning withservice in Palestine in 1940. They worked on landand in hospital and transport ships wherever theAustralian Army fought.

AANS nurses suffered the dangers associatedwith fighting and capture. In February 1942,65 members of the AANS were escaping Singa-pore aboard the Vyner Brooke (see page 162),when the Japanese bombed the ship. In May1943, 11 nurses were among the 332 people whodied when a Japanese submarine sank the hos-pital ship Centaur just off the Queensland coast(see source 6.7.4).

A poster encouraging Australians to increase their war efforts following the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur

Artist unknown, Work, Save, Fight 1943–45, Lithograph 50.2 × 63 cm AWM ARTV09088

Source 6.7.4

Australians were generally slow to support theefforts of women who moved out of the privatesphere of family and home and into the publicsphere of the paid workforce. They often ridi-culed women for attempting ‘male’ work.

Archbishop Daniel Mannix was one of a numberof church leaders who criticised the governmentand employers for encouraging married womeninto the paid workforce. They viewed this as aprecedent that could threaten the family life thatwas seen as women’s primary role.

Neither the government nor employers made anyallowances for the double burden of women’sresponsibilities in the home and workplace. Theyjuggled housework, child care and shopping along-side work in factories and essential services. Somepeople criticised working women for not caringadequately for their children; others criticisedthem for taking time off to look after their children.

This 1944 cartoon makes a comment about the roles that women were given during the war.

The Women’s Employment Board

Employers soon benefited from women’s workskills and from initially being expected to paythem only 54 per cent of the male rate for thesame or similar work. Trade unions feared thatwomen’s cheap labour would undermine men’spositions and wage levels in the workforce. TheACTU campaigned for women in heavy

ATTITUDES TO WOMEN IN PAID WORK

Source 6.7.5

“I don’t think I could ever go back to housework after this!”


169

industries to receive the same wages as men forthe duration of the war. The CommonwealthGovernment feared that this would cause womento expect improved pay in all areas of work andthat it would lose the support of employers if itallowed such a measure.

As a compromise, the government establishedthe Women’s Employment Board (WEB) to decidewomen’s rates of pay within a range of 60–100 percent of male rates. About nine per cent of femaleworkers benefited significantly from this system,with women in the aircraft, metal and munitionsindustries earning 90 per cent of the male rate. Asmall number of women — federal public serviceclerks, medical officers, telegraphists and tramconductors — earned 100 per cent.

The WEB also had to replace women with menwhen they returned from military service. Manyemployers and United Australia Party (UAP)

politicians fought the WEB largely because it wasbased on the principle of assessing women’s payscales on the basis of their efficiency and prod-uctivity rather than on the cheaper optionestablished under the Commonwealth ArbitrationCourt’s family (or basic) wage.

For a few years, war allowed women (and per-haps even forced them) to move beyond theirtraditional roles. At the same time, women’s warefforts outside the home did little to changepeople’s traditional view of their role withinsociety. Society as a whole showed little realappreciation of women’s participation in thepaid workforce, especially in ‘male’ jobs. Ittreated women as a reserve labour force.Many women saw the end of the war as achance to return to a life centred on the world offamily and domestic duties. Society reinforcedthis view.

Understand1. Write a paragraph to explain the similarities and

differences between women’s 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?

Use sources 3. What feature of women’s World War II work is

shown in source 6.7.1?4. What was the purpose of the artist in creating

source 6.7.2 and what methods were used to achieve this?

5. Examine source 6.7.3.(a) What do the women represent?(b) Who is the audience for this source?(c) What is the message of the source?

6. What attitude towards women is suggested by source 6.7.4?

7. How do you interpret the message of the cartoon in source 6.7.5? Rewrite the caption so that it expresses what the women really think about their service roles.

8. What conclusion could you draw from source 6.7.6 regarding how The Australian Women’s Weekly viewed women’s role?

Worksheets6.2 My war experiences: a news story6.3 Women’s efforts: complete a table

AFTER THE WAR IS OVER . . .

A page from The Australian Women’s Weekly in June 1944

Source 6.7.6

La T

robe

Col

lect

ion,

Sta

te L

ibra

ry o

f Vic

toria

, co

urte

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alia

n W

omen

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y

HISTORY 2

170

6.8

Winston Churchill was Britain’s wartime PrimeMinister. He had been an outspoken opponent ofappeasement and had warned of the dangers ofHitler’s leadership and Germany’s rearmament.On Neville Chamberlain’s resignation in 1940,Churchill became Prime Minister of an all-partygovernment. He remained firm when other poli-ticians, fearful that Germany might defeat Eng-land, were tempted to try and negotiate withHitler. This later became significant as it meantthat Britain ultimately played a key role in thedefeat of Germany, in the liberation of Europefrom the west and in key post-war decisions.

Churchill took on the additional position ofMinister of Defence and succeeded in facilitatingdramatic improvements in the organisation ofBritain’s aircraft production. He was a skilledorator whose speeches were renowned for theirpatriotic enthusiasm and inspiration at a timewhen Britons were suffering from nightly Germanbombing campaigns during the Battle of Britain.

Churchill had a good relationship with theAmerican president, Franklin Roosevelt. This

WINSTON CHURCHILL (1874–1965)

helped Britain gain US assistance for the Britishwar effort despite the United States’ policy of iso-lationism. The 1941 Lend Lease Act, whereby theUS Congress approved the loan or lease of warmaterials to Britain and its allies, formalised thisscheme. Roosevelt convinced Congress that thiswould indirectly defend the United States andcame at a time when Britain was very vulnerableto defeat by Germany. Following US entry into thewar in 1941, Churchill convinced Roosevelt tofocus on defeating Germany and its allies else-where before attacking them in western Europe.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the thirty-fourthpresident of the United States and the only oneto have served four terms in office (the tradition,nowadays formalised, was always two terms).

By the time Roosevelt became President in1933, he was an experienced Democratic Partypolitician known for his charm, charisma, abilityand hard work. Stricken with poliomyelitis in1921, he managed with great difficulty to givethe impression that he had largely recoveredfrom it. In his first two terms of office, his ‘New

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT (1882–1945)

THE ALLIED LEADERS: CHURCHILL,

ROOSEVELT AND STALIN

Photograph showing, from left to right, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in February 1945

Source 6.8.1


171

Deal’ policies helped people cope with theDepression and maintain faith in democracy.

When World War II broke out in 1939,Roosevelt was beginning to move away from theisolationist policy of his predecessors. He soughtways to provide military assistance to the Alliesand limit the threat that Japan posed to USinterests. By 1941, at the beginning ofRoosevelt’s third term in office, the US was sup-porting the Allies as much as possible withoutactually going to war. While his governmentknew that Japan was mobilising for war, itrefused to accept warnings of an imminentattack on the United States. The destruction of alarge part of the American Pacific fleet at PearlHarbor in December 1941 (see page 154) was ashock that brought an end to isolationism.

In Roosevelt’s view, defeating Hitler was themain goal. By late December 1941, he andChurchill had come to an agreement to focus firston stopping German forces in North Africa and theSoviet Union, then to engineer Germany’s defeatthrough a two-front attack comprising the invasionof western Europe and the advance of Soviet troopsfrom the east. Once Germany was defeated,Japan’s defeat would become the main goal.

Joseph Stalin became Communist leader of theSoviet Union in the late 1920s. Through a series offive-year plans, he ruthlessly oversaw the modern-isation of the Soviet Union. By 1937, its economywas second only to that of the United States.

In 1941, Stalin refused to believe intelligencereports of German troop movements along theSoviet border. He maintained his belief that theNazi–Soviet Pact, a 10-year non-aggression pactsigned with Germany in August 1939, would allowmore time to strengthen his nation’s militarypreparedness.

Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June1941. By December, German troops were only25 kilometres from the Russian capital, Moscow.The city of Leningrad was under a siege thateventually lasted 28 months. The Soviet UnionGreat Patriotic War (1941–45) had begun.

Stalin oversaw the mobilisation of the Sovietwar effort. He ordered the transportation andre-establishment of all industry from the west tothe east (out of reach of German troops and aerialbomb attacks). He inspired the troops and peoplealike through appeals to Russian patriotism andnational feeling. He instigated a ‘scorched earth’policy, ordering the destruction of food and anyfacilities that could assist the German troops in

JOSEPH STALIN (1878–1953)

their advance — a terrible hardship on the Sovietcitizens who lived in these areas. From 1941,Soviet troops were pursuing a successful counter-offensive and, after the Soviet victory at the Battleof Stalingrad in 1943, began pushing the Germanarmies into retreat.

The ‘Big Three’ met at two wartime conferences.The first took place in Tehran (Iran) from28 November to 1 December 1943 and its mainbusiness was discussion of the long-plannedcreation of a second front in western Europe andstrategies to defeat Germany.

The Yalta Conference took place in the Crimea(then part of the Soviet Union) — Stalin havingrefused to travel any further — from 4 to11 February 1945. Here the three leaders putforward their views on the final months of thewar and the likely post-war settlement.

Roosevelt, by this time in very poor health,succeeded in his goals of having Stalin agree toenter the final stages of the Pacific war and tojoin the proposed United Nations. At the sametime, he gave in to Stalin’s demands to take partof eastern Poland in return for Poland gainingterritory from Germany in the west.

The ‘Big Three’ agreed on plans for the post-wardivision of Germany and its capital, Berlin (seepage 188); for the restoration of democracy in theEuropean nations; and the repatriation of refugees.Historians have since criticised Churchill andRoosevelt for giving too much to Stalin withoutassurances that he would keep his promises.

Understand

1. What were the strengths of each of the three Allied leaders?

2. What were the leaders’ roles in World War II? 3. What did the ‘Big Three’ have in common? 4. Why might they be considered ‘unlikely allies’?

Use sources

5. What information does source 6.8.1 provide about the Yalta Conference? What does it not tell you?

Design and create

6. Trace the photograph of the three leaders in source 6.8.1, and create a silhouette of the figures. Add a thought bubble for each leader in the silhouette, outlining what they might be thinking about the outcomes of their negotiations at the Yalta Conference.

THE ‘BIG THREE’

HISTORY 2

172

6.9

In December 1941, Australian Prime MinisterJohn Curtin announced that Australia would‘look to America’ for assistance in battles againstJapan.

An extract from Australian Prime Minister John Curtin’s announcement on 27 December 1941

In March 1942, US General DouglasMacArthur arrived in Australia to arrange forthe establishment of US bases on Australian soil.Under the National Security Act 1939, theCommonwealth Government requisitioned theTrustees Executive & Agency Co. Ltd building inCollins Street, Melbourne, and it was here thatMacArthur established his headquarters for theUS Army Forces in the Far East. Later that year,he moved to Brisbane and established newheadquarters at the AMP Building (now anapartment building) in Queen Street.

Australia was to serve as the base from whichan Allied force would recapture the Philippinesand ultimately defeat Japan.

While as many as one million Americans mayhave passed through Australia from late 1942 to1945, most US troops spent short periods of timehere. To begin with they were based largely inMelbourne, with smaller numbers in Sydney.From August 1942 onwards, two-thirds werebased in and around Brisbane and a significantpart of the remainder in other areas of Queens-land. By September 1943, 120 000 Americantroops were stationed here.

Source 6.9.1

[The] United States and Australia must have the fullest say in the direction of the [Pacific] fighting 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 confidence of being able to hold out until the tide of battle swings against the enemy.

Herald, 27 December 1941.

Australians and Americans generally got onwell together and this period marked a newphase in Australia’s relationship with the UnitedStates. American customs and attitudes openedAustralians’ eyes to ideas other than thoseemanating from British traditions. By late 1944,most Americans had left, some by this timehaving married Australian ‘war brides’.

There was considerable rivalry between Americanand Australian troops, some seeing this American‘invasion’ as worse than the threat of anyJapanese invasion. They complained that theAmericans were ‘over-paid, over-sexed and overhere’, competing with them for Australian girls. Tomany, it seemed that the American troops had anunfair advantage because:• their wages were as much as double those of

Australian troops• through their PX (a store providing goods from

home that US soldiers could purchase) they hadaccess to ‘luxury’ items such as silk stockingsand chocolate

‘OVER-PAID, OVER-SEXED AND OVER HERE’

AUSTRALIA AND THE US —

A NEW ALLEGIANCE

Source 6.9.2

A photograph of Australian Prime Minister Curtin and US General Douglas MacArthur


173

• they did not pay taxes on goods• their uniforms were made of better quality

fabric and were considered to be of a ‘smarter’design than those of Australian soldiers

• their ability and willingness to spend moremoney than Australian soldiers led to priceincreases.

An extract from a description of the American soldiers in Australia, by a resident of Charters Towers, Queensland

A Ted Scorfield cartoon from the mid 1940s that gives an insight into why some groups in Australia felt sad about the departure of the American soldiers

In 1942, tension between the troops becamemore serious when the American army tried, con-victed and executed an American private who hadmurdered three Melbourne women. In November1942, an event occurred that became known as the

Source 6.9.3

The Americans were an absolute sensation from their very first day in town. Everybody hurried up town just to look at them, almost as if they were from another planet . . . Instead of crumpled serge tunics and baggy trousers like the Australians, the Americans wore neatly pressed drill shirts and ties and trousers . . . jaunty little forage caps [and] . . . instead of cloddhopper boots, they wore shiny black shoes.

They had the charm of the exotic about them, called the local mothers ‘Ma’am’, and had about twice the spending power of the Australian troops, plus such wonders as Coca-Cola and American cigarettes. Some of them found the system of pounds, shillings and pence just too complicated, and would offer a handful of notes and coins, trusting the recipient to take only the correct amount, a trust not always justified . . .

Unice Atwell, Growing Up in the 40s, Kangaroo Press,Sydney, 1983, pp. 40–1.

Source 6.9.4

Battle of Brisbane. An American MP (militarypolice), called in to a huge brawl between a groupof Australian and American soldiers, shot dead anAustralian soldier who had been trying to disarmhim. Six others were wounded. Fighting betweenAmerican and Australian soldiers continued forthe remainder of the night and into the next daybefore order was restored.

Despite such events and attitudes, Australia wasre-evaluating its ties with Great Britain. WhenJapanese expansion began to threaten Australia inlate 1941, Curtin ordered Australian troops homefrom the Middle East — in defiance of Churchill —and refused him again when Churchill wantedthem sent to Burma in early 1942. In 1942, theFederal Parliament finally adopted the Statute ofWestminster, a 1931 act of British Parliamentgiving legal recognition to the independence ofdominions within the British Commonwealth.

Australia benefited from the US government’sLend Lease Scheme (see page 170) and respondedto MacArthur’s complaints regarding Australia’sconscription policy. MacArthur questioned whyAmerican conscripts should protect Australiawhen Australian conscripts could not servebeyond New Guinea. Curtin agreed to have Aus-tralian conscripts serve ‘overseas’ (see page 160)and thus put Australia in a better position to callon American protection and resources.

Understand1. Write a paragraph to explain how World War II led

to changed relationships between Australia and: (a) Britain(b) the United States.

2. Outline the changes made to Australia’s conscription policy and the reasons for the changes.

Use sources3. What reasons does Curtin give in source 6.9.1 for

seeking the assistance of the United States to defend Australia?

4. What were the wartime roles of the people shown in source 6.9.2? Explain how the source could be seen as symbolic of their relationship.

5. What message does the cartoonist of source 6.9.4 want to convey? Use source 6.9.3 and the text to put forward evidence supporting the view that the cartoonist’s message was reliable.

A NEW ALLEGIANCE

HISTORY 2

174

6.10

German forces were in retreat on the easternfront from the time of the Russian victory atthe Battle of Stalingrad in early 1943. Stalindemanded that his Allies establish a westernfront so that Russia did not have the fullburden of defeating Germany in Europe. Thiswas slow to eventuate and planning for aninvasion force to defeat Germany from the westcontinued throughout most of 1942 and 1943.

The British and American commanders finallyscheduled Operation Overlord to begin on 6 June1944. The Allies sent false radio messages andlaunched air attacks in other areas to divertGerman attention away from the beaches ofNormandy, where 130 000 troops and 23 000 para-troopers were landing. Floating harbours, knownas ‘Mulberries’, and floating piers brought acrossfrom Great Britain made the landings and thesupply of troops and equipment much easier.

Fighting was difficult and the casualty ratehigh. The Allies liberated Paris on 25 August1944. Resistance fighters within France joined inand resistance groups in other areas of westernEurope also began concerted attacks on Germanforces. Allied forces were advancing againstfascist forces in Italy at the same time and theSoviet army continued its advance from the east.

D-DAY: DEFEATING GERMANYIn March 1945, the Allies crossed into German

territory from the west. On 25 April, they metwith Soviet forces advancing from the east.Realising that defeat was at hand, Hitler com-mitted suicide on 30 April.

On 1 May, the Russians took Berlin, theGerman capital. On 2 May, German generalssurrendered in Italy. On 8 May 1945, followingGeneral Jodl’s signing of unconditional surrenderthe day before, all forces under German controlin Europe ceased fighting. On 9 May, Germanleaders signed a formal document of surrender tothe Soviet Union. The war in Europe was over.

A photograph of a Russian soldier raising the Soviet flag in Berlin after a nine-day battle for the German city

The US General Douglas MacArthur employed astrategy of ‘island hopping’ to work towards vic-tory in the Pacific. The goal was to capture theimportant Japanese-held islands and then estab-lish bases on those closest to Japan. This broughtJapan within bombing range of US planes.

These battles were hard-won. The Japanesewere willing to die rather than surrender. From1943 onwards, they launched kamikaze missions(suicide bombings) against Allied shipping.The capture of the islands of Iwo Jima inFebruary 1945 and Okinawa in June 1945brought British and US troops closer to Japanbut at high cost. They killed or captured all ofthe 100 000 Japanese soldiers defendingOkinawa — no-one would surrender. The Alliesbegan fire-bombing Tokyo and other Japanese

Source 6.10.2

VICTORY IN JAPAN

VICTORY IN EUROPE

AND IN THE PACIFIC

Map of the D-Day (Deliverance Day) assault of 6 June 1944, showing the landing locations on the northern coast of France

Source 6.10.1

Le Havre

Caen

Bayeux

Carentan

Cherbourg

F R A N C E

UNITED KINGDOM

E n g l i s h C h a n n e l

S e i n e B a yUtah

Utah

Omaha GoldJuno

Sword

N

Landing areas, Normandy, 6 June 1944

Combat division codenames

0 25 50 km


175

cities and, as part of Operation Starvation,placed mines in Japanese ports and waterways.

The new US president, Harry Truman, laterargued that island hopping was — in terms oftime and casualties — too costly a means ofending the war. His advisers warned that theplanned invasion of Japan was likely to kill moreAmericans than had died in the war so far.Truman decided to try and force the Japanese tosurrender by unleashing the most powerful anddeadly weapon the world had ever known.

On 6 August 1945, the American bomber EnolaGay dropped a nuclear bomb, nicknamed ‘LittleBoy’, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Itdestroyed the city and 60000 of its residents, withanother 40000 dead in the following months due toinjuries and radiation poisoning. On 9 August, whenthe Japanese had still not surrendered, a USbomber dropped a second atomic bomb, ‘Fat Man’,on the city of Nagasaki, causing similar devastation.

A photograph of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb exploded in 1945. A single bomb wiped out 10 square kilometres.

On 15 August 1945, Japan’s Emperor Hirohitoannounced Japan’s surrender. Allied forces begantheir occupation of Japan and, on 2 September,the Japanese government signed the document ofsurrender aboard the USS Missouri in TokyoBay. This brought an official end to the war.

A photograph of celebrations in Australia when the end of the war with Japan was announced

Source 6.10.3

Source 6.10.4

Millions of people died in the war, including, in theSoviet Union, nearly nine million soldiers and20 million civilians. Allied soldiers movingthrough Europe began to uncover the Nazi concen-tration camps (see the map on page 177). TheNazis had imprisoned about 12 million people andhad killed six million Jews as part of theircampaign of genocide that became known as theHolocaust. The Japanese had killed 15 millionAsians and Allied POWs. Much of eastern Europewas under Soviet control. Thousands of Europeanswere refugees.

Understand1. Draw mind maps to summarise the events and

strategies that brought an end to the war:(a) in Europe(b) in Japan.

Think2. Based on your reading, what do you think VE Day,

VP Day and VJ Day refer to? 3. Research and write a definition for the term

‘Holocaust’.

Use sources4. What was the significance of source 6.10.2 for:

(a) the Russians(b) the British and American Allies?

5. What does source 6.10.3 indicate about why people criticised Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb?

Communicate6. Research the arguments for and against the

decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. Present your findings and give your viewpoint in a PowerPoint presentation.

Use ICT7. The movie Saving Private Ryan begins with the

action of Operation Overlord on the Normandy beaches. Find out more about the D-Day invasions by visiting the website for this book and clicking on the Normandy 1944 weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page vii). Using the information at the website, prepare a one-page report on why this event was a significant turning point in World War II.

Worksheets6.4 Find out more on the war6.5 Crossword of World War II

AFTERMATH

ICT

MADE EA

SY

www.jaconline.com.au/ict-mePowerPoint

HISTORY 2

176

Check & Challenge

YOU BE THE CENSOR

(a) Imagine it is August 1942 and you have a relative serving in the war overseas. Write a letter to the relative in which you describe how the war has changed your life as a 15 or 16 year old in Australia. Include relevant factual detail about life on the home front.

(b) Swap your work with a classmate who should act as censor, crossing out any information that is potentially useful to the enemy.

READ/WATCH/LISTEN

Read Come in Spinner, a novel by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James that deals with the experiences of a group of Australian women during the war. Alternatively, watch the 1990 ABC TV series adapted from it and/or listen to the Vince Jones and Grace Knight soundtrack of the series on CD. Write a review of the novel or series.

RESEARCH AND WRITE

Using the essay planning guidelines below, prepare an essay on one the following topics.1. On 24 August 1939, Germany and the Soviet

Union signed the Nazi–Soviet Pact, an agreement not to go to war with each other for ten years. Use the internet and book sources to research and make notes on: • the main terms of this agreement • what motivated each of the two main powers to

sign this agreement • French and British responses to the news of

this agreement.Use this information to write a three-page response to the question: ‘Explain the significance of the Nazi–Soviet Pact’.

2. Explain how Hitler extended his control over Europe in the period from 1939 and how the Allies defeated Germany.

3. Explain the main features of war in the Pacific and how it came to an end.

Essay planning guidel inesUsing the information provided in the text, draw up a concept map as a plan of your essay then write the first draft. Make sure your work is organised into paragraphs, each starting with a topic sentence then putting forward the evidence to support your topic sentence. Use books and the internet to do further research. Look for additional points that you can include in your essay and greater depth of

information for some of your existing points. Do a second draft of your essay. Check to see that:• it answers the question• your information is well organised and logically

sequenced• you have provided good depth of information to

support your main points• you have used historical terms and concepts in

your response. When you are happy with your corrections, do the final copy. Use footnotes and a correctly formatted bibliography to present your work in a professional manner.

INDIGENOUS SOLDIERS

Among the Australians serving in World War II were several thousand Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Carry out research into the life and achievements of Reginald Saunders, of the Gunditjmara people of Victoria, who became Australia’s first Aboriginal commissioned officer. Present your findings as either a two-page biography or a PowerPoint presentation.

ANALYSE A LEADER

In 2002, the BBC conducted a survey to identify the ‘100 Greatest Britons’. Many people thought that Winston Churchill not only belonged on the list but should head it. Franklin Roosevelt’s name regularly appears in the top three of surveys identifying who experts, both liberal and conservative, judge to be the United States’ greatest president ever. In 1939, Time magazine named Stalin ‘Man of the Year’. In the years since, history has come to judge him as ‘evil’ and, in many aspects, similar to Hitler.

Work in groups of three to five and use internet and book sources to do some further research on one of the three wartime leaders. Using your research, your group’s task is to devise:(a) a 3–5 minute radio announcement to inform the

world that the leader has died(b) a television interview with the makers of a

documentary filmed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the leader’s death. The interview, to publicise the documentary, should comprise:

(i) questions and discussion of the leader(ii) an overview of key events and key periods

in his life, especially his role during World War II

(iii) reference to praise and criticism of him.Share these results to inform (and entertain) your class.


177

ICT

MADE EA

SY

www.jaconline.com.au/ict-meInternet search

ANALYSE A MAPUse the information provided in source 6.11.2 to write 15–20 lines to explain:(a) what the map represents(b) what the map reveals about the treatment of

Jews during World War II

(c) who was responsible for this(d) what the map reveals about other victims of this

party’s policies(e) what questions you would ask in order to fully

understand these events.

A map showing the location of Nazi concentration camps in Europe in World War II

KloogaVaivara

Sajmiste

Jasenovac

Gospic

Mauthausen

Natzweiler

Dachau

Flossenberg

Buchenwald

Mittelbau Dora

Bergen-Belsen

Neuengamme

Ravensbruck

GrossRosen

Plaszow

Sachsenhausen

Stutthof

LITHUANIA

LATVIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Black

Sea

FRANCE

AUSTRIA

RUMANIA

HUNGARY

NORTH

SEA

POLAND

ESTONIA

GERMANY

USSR

Baltic

Sea

0 200

Treblinka

Sobibor

Maidanek

Belzec

Auschwitz

Chelmno

NORWAY

DENMARK

ITALY

BELGIUM

YUGOSLAVIA

1000

868

700

120

7500

106 000

24 000125 000

83 000

60 000

70 000

300 000

264 000

277 000

4 565 000

Treblinka

AuschwitzA concentration camp where

more than four millon people

were killed between 1941 and

1944, including Jews, gypsies

and Soviet prisoners-of-war

Camps which were set up

solely to exterminate Jews

Forced labour camps in which

Jews and others were starved,

tortured and cruelly murdered.

The majority of these had

satellite labour camps nearby.

Approximate Jewish death

toll in each country1000

400 km

LUXEMBOURG

NETHERLANDS

N

SKILLS essentials

Analysing political cartoonsOn the surface, political cartoons may be humorous, but they communicate a thought-provoking, often biting message. It is important to recognise the symbols and messages the cartoonist intends to convey. Study the cartoon at right by New Zealand cartoonist David Low (1891–1963).

1. Who is the main figure depicted?2. Who do the other figures represent?3. What is meant by the words ‘stepping stones to

glory’ and how does this relate to the comment ‘spineless leaders of democracy’? Who are these leaders?

4. What is the perspective of the cartoonist and what message does he want to convey to the readers of the Evening Standard?

5. Write a brief evaluation of this source in terms of its context, information, reliability, completeness, objectivity and/or bias.

David Low’s 1936 cartoon for the London newspaper the Evening Standard

Source 6.11.1

Source 6.11.2

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