Chapter 6 World War II and Australia

Transcription

Chapter 6
WORLD WAR II
AND
AUSTRALIA
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, SouthEast Asia and the Pacific. In 1942, the war came
to Australia with attacks on Darwin and Sydney.
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.
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HISTORY 2
Recruitment poster for the RAAF. The Battle of Britain and
other contests in Europe led to a growing interest in Australia
in joining the RAAF.
AWM ARTV04283
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
democratic republic:
a government run on democratic
principles with an elected rather
than a hereditary head of state
double burden: a term used to
describe society’s expectation that
women continue to perform their
unpaid household work while
also participating in the paid
workforce
family (or basic) wage: the
concept introduced by Justice
Higgins in 1907 that set a basic
wage for a male breadwinner at
an amount that would allow an
unskilled worker enough money
to support a wife and three
children. The Commonwealth
Arbitration Court set female
wage rates at 54 per cent of this
amount on the assumption that
the male was the breadwinner.
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 war
Geneva Convention: an
international agreement on the
rules for wartime treatment of
prisoners of war and the wounded
genocide: the deliberate mass
killing of a particular people
internment: the practice of
keeping people under guard in a
certain area
isolationism: 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 interests
prisoners of war: people taken
prisoner during a war and held
against their will
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
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CHAPTER 6: WORLD WAR II AND AUSTRALIA
6.1
HITLER AND THE
RISE OF NAZISM
In late 1918, after more than four years of
horrific warfare, the German government wanted
to make peace with the Allies. The Allies
demanded that Germany form a new and democratic government. Germany’s Social Democratic
Party announced that Germany would become a
democratic republic.
There were key groups in Germany who were
bitterly opposed to this idea. These included the
left-wing Spartacists (communists), who staged
an unsuccessful attempt to take power in January
1919, and right-wing conservatives within the
Reichswehr (the German army), the civil service
and the judiciary. They did not want to implement
the reforms put forward by the government of
Germany’s new Weimar republic. By accepting
the harsh terms of the 1919 Versailles peace
treaty, the government became even more
unpopular with its left- and right-wing enemies.
Source 6.1.1
The ‘war guilt’ clause
Under Article 231, Germany
had to accept the blame for
starting the war.
its members, Adolf Hitler, worked hard to increase
its public profile. He issued a 25-point program
outlining the party’s goals, encouraged the use of
its symbol, the swastika, and organised mass
meetings and a party newspaper to promote and
spread its ideas to a wider audience. When the
Nazi Party formed in 1919, it had 50 members; by
1923, it had over 50 000 members. Adolf Hitler
had become the party’s leader and it had its own
armed force of stormtroopers (the SA) to attack
those who opposed it.
Source 6.1.2
An extract outlining Hitler’s goals, from the German
newspaper, Kreuzzeitung, 28 December 1922
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: . . . profitsharing among workers of profits from large companies,
public ownership of big shops, help for small industry and the
middle class.
Reparations
The ‘war guilt’ clause justified
the Allies’ demand that
Germany pay reparations
— an amount set in 1921 at
£6600 million.
Germany’s main losses under the Treaty of Versailles
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
In November 1923, Hitler and the Nazis
attempted to overthrow the government of the
German city of Munich. This became known as
the Beer Hall putsch (coup) because it was
launched in one of the large German beer taverns.
The coup failed and Hitler was arrested, charged
with treason, tried, convicted and imprisoned. He
served nine months of a five-year sentence.
Germany’s main losses under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles
1924–32
1918–23
The right-wing National Socialist German
Workers’ Party — the Nazi Party — hated the
Weimar republic. It was a small party and one of
After his release from prison, Hitler reorganised
the Nazi Party and worked to gain power by
legal means. In May 1924, the Nazi Party gained
24 seats in Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag.
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HISTORY 2
The onset of the Great Depression in 1929
created a situation that the Nazi Party could use
to gain major support. Hitler flew all over
Germany making speeches claiming that the
Weimar republic’s policies had caused the Depression, that Jews were also responsible for all of
Germany’s problems and the government’s
signing of the Treaty of Versailles had been a ‘stab
in the back’ for the German nation. Crowds of
uniformed, flag-waving Nazis marched through
city streets stirring up nationalist sentiment in
support of their leader. In the 1930 Reichstag
elections, the Nazi Party won 107 seats.
By late 1932, about eight million people were
unemployed and those who had jobs worked parttime and/or at greatly reduced wages. The government — at this time a coalition of up to five parties
— struggled to agree on policies that would help
the problems of unemployment and homelessness.
In the November 1932 elections, the Nazis
gained 196 seats and 33 per cent of the total
vote. While it did not have a majority, the Nazi
Party held more seats and a higher percentage of
the vote than any other party. In January 1933,
the German President, Paul von Hindenburg,
invited Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany
and head a coalition government.
Source 6.1.3
A modern artist’s impression of the groups who showed their
support of Hitler at Nazi Party rallies
2
3
1
5
1933–38
Hitler acted quickly to reduce the power of his
coalition partners. He encouraged fear of communism and imprisoned thousands of his communist and other political opponents. By August
1934, Germany was a one-party state and Hitler
was its dictator to whom the German army swore
an oath of personal loyalty.
Hitler reversed key decisions and limitations
imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, he
announced the introduction of rearmament and
conscription to the army. In 1936, he sent German
troops into the Rhineland and introduced a fouryear plan to get the German economy ready for
war. In 1938, his troops took over Austria. He was
well on the way to achieving his goals of uniting
all Germans and creating more living space
(lebensraum) for them.
Understand
1. What was the Weimar republic and what
problems did it face?
2. How would you define ‘Nazism’?
Communicate
3. Write a paragraph to explain how Hitler and the
Nazis increased their power in the period from
about 1923 to 1933.
Use sources
4. 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?
4
1 Hitler saw himself as a
symbol of Germany. He tried at
all times to appear casual yet
powerful — both a statesman
and a gentleman.
2 Propaganda posters
contained the ‘simple
imagery’ that Hitler craved.
He understood the power of
simple images and ideas.
3 Hitler blamed Jews for many of the
problems facing Germany after the war,
and incited violence against them.
151
4 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 (antiJewish views).
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.
6.2
ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II
The 1930s brought financial hardship, an increase
in the power of right-wing parties and the weakening of democratic forces. The leaders of three
nations in particular embarked on a series of
actions 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 Roman
Empire.
• Japan’s military-dominated government was
determined to create an empire in Asia.
Other nations did not take effective action to
control the aggression that these three powers
unleashed. The League of Nations, the international peace-keeping body created in 1919, was
a failure. The United States had never joined it
and pursued a policy of isolationism. France
and Great Britain were League members and followed a policy of appeasement that encouraged
Hitler to believe he could continue his aggression
without penalty.
Italy. Britain and France gave only half-hearted
support to the bans. They feared the negative
impact of the bans on their economies and secretly
planned a deal that would allow Italy to take twothirds of Abyssinia. In May 1936, Italy took control of all of Abyssinia and, in November, joined
Germany in an agreement known as the Rome–
Berlin Axis. In April 1939, in another expansionist
move, Italy invaded Albania.
GERMANY AND THE ORIGINS
OF WORLD WAR II
Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of
Nations in 1933 and set about overturning key
restrictions on Germany’s power imposed by the
1919 Treaty of Versailles (see section 6.1). Britain
believed that some of Germany’s claims were
justified, and was economically and militarily
unprepared to risk war with Germany. Britain
responded with attempts to appease Germany.
Source 6.2.2
ITALY AND THE ORIGINS OF
WORLD WAR II
In December 1934, Italy laid claim to part of
Abyssinia in east Africa. Haile Selassie, the
Abyssinian emperor, asked the League
for help. While the League was working
on a settlement of the dispute, Mussolini prepared his army for invasion. In
September 1935, the League proposed that Abyssinia settle the issue
by giving some of its land to Italy. The
following month, Italian troops
invaded Abyssinia.
Italy was clearly at
fault.
The
League
imposed a series of trade
bans on Italy. League
members were not to
sell arms, rubber or
metals to Italy, could
not lend money to Italy
and could not import
Source 6.2.1
goods from Italy. The
League did not, howFascist leader of Italy,
Benito Mussolini
ever, ban oil sales to
The German Fürher (leader), Adolf Hitler
Germany’s actions in the Rhineland in 1936
were a direct threat to French security. Yet
France did nothing to stop these actions. France
would not act without British support and was
weakened by internal tensions between left- and
right-wing forces.
The high point of the appeasement policy was
the response to Hitler’s claim, in May 1938, to
German-inhabited parts of Sudetenland, in
Czechoslovakia. France and Britain had both
promised to protect Czechoslovakia against
Hitler’s aggression. The people of Europe
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HISTORY 2
expected war. In September 1938, France and
Britain proposed that Germany should be
allowed these areas of Sudetenland. Hitler then
demanded all of Sudetenland.
On 29 September 1938, the leaders of France,
Britain and Italy met with Hitler in Munich.
Without consulting Czechoslovakia, they signed
the Munich Agreement giving Hitler all of the
Sudetenland. Hitler said he would not demand
any more territory. British Prime Minister, Neville
Chamberlain, then came to a private agreement
with Hitler stating their joint commitment to the
use of consultation and negotiation to resolve any
future issues between them. Chamberlain claimed
this would bring ‘peace in our time’.
In March 1939, Hitler’s troops took over the rest
of Czechoslovakia, and Poland was his next likely
target. Britain and France told Hitler they would
go to war with Germany if he invaded Poland.
Hitler did not take this threat seriously. On
1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
On 2 September, Britain and France declared war
on Germany. Appeasement was at an end and
Europe was at war. Within the next few months,
German forces took over Belgium, Norway, the
Netherlands and 60 per cent of France.
Source 6.2.3
A map of Europe,
North Africa and
the Middle East
in the 1930s
NORTH
Source 6.2.4
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’
SWE DE N
SEA
UN I TE D
ESTONIA
0
1000 km
500
LATVIA
DE NMAR K
LITHUANIA
K I NG DO M
NETHERLANDS
B EL GI UM
N
East Prus s i a
GE R MANY
U N I O N O F S OV I E T
SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
POLAND
LUX.
AUSTRIA
SWITZERLAND
C ZEC HOS LOVA KI A
IA
SP
CA E A
S
FR AN CE
N
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
PORTUGAL
I TALY
BLACK SEA
YUGOSLAV IA
S PAI N
BULGARIA
IRAN
ALBANIA
TURKEY
GREECE
Sicily
M OR O C C O
SYRIA
ALG ER I A
I R AQ
Crete
T UN IS IA
MEDITERRANEAN
German conquests 17 March 1938
to September 1939
Damascus
SEA
Tobruk
PALESTINE
Italian conquests October 1935
to April 1939
Soviet advance into Poland
September 1939
LIB YA
TRANSJORDAN
Suez
Canal
To Abyssinia
(Ethiopia)
153
EGYPT
SAUDI ARABIA
JAPAN AND THE ORIGINS OF
WORLD WAR II
Japan suffered significantly during the Great
Depression, especially when both China and the
United States placed trade barriers on Japanese
imports. In the 1930s, the military gradually
extended its influence within Japan’s government. Its goal was to make Japan a world power
and solve its problems by forcefully taking land
elsewhere.
In 1931, Japanese forces invaded Manchuria
and, in 1932, established it as the ‘independent’
state of Manzhuguo (Manchukuo). This gave
Japan access to important timber, coal, iron, oil
and gold resources. Military commanders
refused to obey the civilian government’s orders
to withdraw and also began attacks on the
Chinese city of Shanghai. In early 1933, the
League of Nations ordered the Japanese out of
Manchuria. Japan resigned from membership of
the League. The League had no army to enforce
its decision and could not rely on its members to
provide one.
Source 6.2.5
American
president,
Franklin
Roosevelt,
responded by giving loans and military assistance to China, freezing Japan’s US assets and
placing increasingly severe restrictions on trade
with Japan.
On 7 December 1941, 300 Japanese planes
attacked the United States naval fleet at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii. The following day, the United
States announced that it was at war with Japan.
The war in the Pacific had begun.
On 11 December 1941, Hitler declared war on
the United States and, as a result, brought the
US into the European war.
In 1940, Japan, Italy and Germany had signed
the Three Power Pact, cementing their Axis
power partnership. Britain drew her former
colonies into the conflict.
In June 1941, German troops, in what was
known as ‘Operation Barbarossa’, invaded the
Soviet Union. This meant that Germany was now
fighting on two fronts in Europe. The war, which
now involved nations around the globe, was
basically fought between:
• the Axis powers (supported by pro-Nazi
governments in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania
and Slovakia)
• the Allied powers, which included Britain, the
Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States.
The British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent
Source 6.2.6
OUTER
MONGOLIA
CHINA
1932
1937
KOREA
JAPAN
Midway
Islands
BURMA
1940
1942
THAILAND
PHILIPPINES
Marshall Islands
FRENCH
INDO-CHINA
Guam
1941
MALAYA
Caroline Islands
1942
‘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.
December 1941
PACI F I C
OCEAN
New Guinea
INDONESIA
Japanese empire
1931
Japanese expansion
1932–1942
INDIAN
OCEAN
AUSTRALIA
In July 1937, Japanese forces invaded east
China. In 1940, Japan occupied French Indochina (see source 6.2.6). Japan was taking
advantage of the weaknesses of the powers that
were involved in war in Europe. Its next target
would be the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). The
Hawaii
(U.S.A.)
Area under Japanese
control by 1942
N
0
1000
2000 km
Map showing the extent of Japanese military expansion in
South-East Asia from 1931 to 1942
154
HISTORY 2
ICT
SKILLS essentials
Interpreting poster propaganda
Posters 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.
Source 6.2.7
Propaganda often highlights the strengths and
weaknesses of its subjects. Its creators can use vivid
colours to indicate power.
Imperial War Museum
IWMPST4712
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?
German propaganda poster
Understand
1. 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 sources
4. 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 create
7. 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.
155
SY
www.jaconline.com.au/ict-me
Computer graphics
DE
MA EA
6.3
WAR IN EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA
AND THE PACIFIC
‘MY MELANCHOLY DUTY’
For Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies,
Britain’s involvement in war against Germany
required Australia’s involvement as well. Many
Australians did not accept this pro-British conclusion. The Australian Labor Party declared its
opposition to Australians serving outside Australian territory and men did not rush to enlist
as they had in 1914.
In January 1940, Australian troops of the
Second AIF were sent to fight with the Allies in the
Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East.
Source 6.3.1
An extract from Prime Minister Menzies’ announcement
of Australia’s entry into World War II, broadcast on
3 September 1939
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
Prime Minister
— all these things are at
Robert Menzies
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.
AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN EUROPE
AND NORTH AFRICA
German forces gained control of Poland very
quickly and then for some months, during what
became known as the ‘phoney war’, there was
very little fighting. From 9 April 1940, German
troops began their occupation of Norway and
Denmark and then moved to take control of the
Netherlands, Belgium and 60 per cent of France
by late June 1940.
Italy’s leader, Mussolini, hoped to gain both
land and prestige through attacks on Britishoccupied Egypt and on Greece in late 1940. In
Egypt, the Australian 6th Division played an
important role in forcing back the Italians and,
for several months from September 1940, Australian troops defended the strategic Suez Canal.
When the British gained control of the airfields
of Greece and Crete, the German leader, Hitler,
intervened. His troops attacked Greece, forced
the British to withdraw and, in so doing, prevented a likely British attack against Romania’s
oilfields. Australian troops fighting in Greece
were forced to evacuate to Crete where 274 soldiers died in the Germans’ attacks on the island.
Another 416 Australian soldiers died in a fiveweek campaign against the French in Syria.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was also
active in the war in the Mediterranean. In one
battle in July 1940, the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo
was sunk by HMAS Sydney.
The Rats of Tobruk
In early 1941, when the Allied troops forced the
Italians to retreat into Libya, Germany sent in
General Irwin Rommel and his tank unit, the
Afrika Corps, to assist the Italians. Rommel’s
troops were well trained and skilled in creating
an impression of superior strength and numbers.
From 10 April 1941, Rommel’s Afrika Corps
laid siege to the Libyan port of Tobruk. Lord
Haw-Haw, the nickname of the announcer on
Germany’s English-language propaganda program 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 who
defended the garrison were Australians. They
156
HISTORY 2
faced a force twice as large, which had tanks and
easy land access to additional supplies of men,
food and equipment. The ‘rats’ could obtain supplies only via sea.
In the months that followed, the ‘rats’ of
Tobruk strengthened the garrison’s defences.
They began night-time raids to sabotage enemy
equipment and to move unobtrusively using
bayonets to attack enemy soldiers. It was eight
months before Allied reinforcements arrived with
the numbers and supplies necessary to defeat the
siege. Tobruk represented Germany’s first major
setback. A report on the Australian War
Memorial website states: ‘The heroic defence of
Tobruk is a notable military achievement and a
worthy addition to the long list of deeds of valour
performed by Australian soldiers.’
Source 6.3.2
An Australian soldier’s description of fighting conditions at
Tobruk
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 kneehigh protection of rocks — all these things had been the
lot of the defenders of Tobruk.
With Montgomery at El Alamein
In 1941, the British, depleted in numbers and
reliant on men with little training, lost many battles to Rommel. Then the British General Bernard
Montgomery took charge and began to put
Rommel under pressure. On 13 October 1942,
Montgomery launched a counter-offensive
against Rommel’s Afrika Corps at El Alamein. On
4 November 1942, Montgomery’s army broke
through the German lines. Montgomery praised
the role of the AIF’s ‘magnificent’ 9th Division in
this campaign.
Four days later, the British took control of
Algiers and then a combined British and US
force took Oran and Morocco. In January 1943,
the British took Tripoli and then Tunis and
Bizerte. They captured 250 000 prisoners of war,
although Rommel was not among them.
Involvement in the North African campaign
weakened Germany by involving its troops in yet
another theatre of war. The battleground was one
where, unlike mainland Europe at this time, the
Allies could win.
The Allies’ success in the North African campaign
gave them a base from which to launch future
attacks on Italy and on the Balkans and gave them
control of shipping in the Mediterranean.
WAR ON JAPAN IN THE
PACIFIC
Age, 24 November 1941.
Source 6.3.3
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.
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on
7 December 1941 (see page 154) was part of a series
of Japanese attacks in the Pacific. On 9 December,
after Japan’s declaration of war on Britain and the
Commonwealth, Australian Labor Party Prime
Minister John Curtin announced Australia’s
declaration of war on Japan (see page 172).
Australians fought with other Allied forces in
largely unsuccessful attempts to repel Japanese
attacks in Ambon, Java, Malaya, New Britain,
Singapore and Timor. War was coming closer to
Australia and the British navy was clearly
unable to protect Australia. The British navy
was weakened in December 1941 when Japanese
bombers sunk the Repulse and Prince of Wales,
two of its warships, off the coast of Malaya. The
fall of Singapore and its British naval base on
15 February 1942 was a significant blow. Allied
attempts to hold Singapore led to the capture of
85 000 troops, including 15 000 of the Australian
8th Division. Prime Minister Curtin had already,
in late 1941, announced that Australia must look
to the United States for assistance (see
page 172). He now called Australian troops home
from the Middle East.
157
By early 1942, 2000 Australians had died
fighting the Japanese and 22 000 had become
prisoners of war. The Japanese continued to gain
territory.
The Japanese continued to attack shipping along
the coastline of eastern Australia and, on 7 June
1942, torpedoed Bondi (Sydney) and Newcastle. On
14 May 1943, the Japanese sank the hospital ship
Centaur, killing 268 men and women.
War comes to Australia
On 19 February 1942, 188 Japanese aircraft
bombed Darwin and 54 bombers attacked its
RAAF aircraft base. This brought the war to
Australia’s home territory. Two hundred and
forty people died, although the government
reported only 15 deaths. On 1 June, the Japanese
sent three midget submarines into Sydney Harbour. One of the submarines fired a torpedo that
exploded near HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors;
another submarine was caught in the harbour’s
boom net and the third sunk.
Halting the Japanese advance
The Australian and American victory at the Battle
of the Coral Sea in early May 1942 marked a significant defeat in the Japanese advance towards
Port Moresby (New Guinea). In June, US naval
forces sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and
300 aircraft at the Battle of Midway.
From July 1942, Australian troops in New
Guinea fought to halt a Japanese advance along
the Kokoda Trail (or Kokoda Track), the route
linking Gona and Buna in the north and (via the
village of Kokoda) the airfield at Port Moresby.
Control of this airfield would give the Japanese an
important base from which to attack Australia.
Fighting for control of the Kokoda Trail began
with the Japanese landing at Gona on 21 July
1942, and heavy fighting continued until early
January 1943. Conditions were extraordinarily
difficult as the track was narrow, poorly defined
and passed through thick, dark jungle, fastflowing rivers and two mountain ranges. To
begin with, the 39th Militia Battalion, comprising mainly young conscripts, took on the
defence of this territory. They faced an enemy
with a reputation as successful jungle fighters
and that outnumbered them significantly; the
Australians’ khaki (light-brown) uniforms did
little to camouflage them and they lacked
adequate equipment.
Source 6.3.4
Photograph of a Sydney house damaged by Japanese shelling
in 1942
AWM 012594
Source 6.3.5
ba
am
Y
M
LE
Gona
River
re
AN
ST
Lae
PAPUA
Ri
ve
r
EN
OW
NEW GUINEA
Gona
RA
NG
Isurava
Alola
CORAL SEA
i
Lalok
Menari
Ioribaiwa
Imita Ridge
CORAL SEA
Kokoda
E
AUSTRALIA
Cairns
Kumusi
Port Moresby
X
Battle of
Coral Sea
Sanananda
Buna
Soputa
Dobodura
Wairopi
Oivi
Efogi
Ri
ve
r
OW
Owers’ Corner
EN
ST
AN
Port Moresby
er
Riv
LE
Y
Musa
Bootless
Bay
N
Map showing places
significant to the war
in New Guinea
RA
NG
0
50
100 km
158
HISTORY 2
Kokoda Trail
Height above sea level
E
2000 to 4000 metres
1000 to 2000 metres
500 to 1000 metres
200 to 500 metres
0 to 200 metres
Guinea supported the Allied Kokoda campaign
by bringing in supplies and carrying out the
wounded to where they could get medical help.
Over 600 Australians died in the Kokoda campaign; 1600 were wounded and over 4000 were
casualties of tropical disease and other illnesses.
Source 6.3.6
An extract from an Australian soldier’s description of the
Kokoda Trail
I was one of a party of considerable size, who were cut
off in the dense jungle for fourteen long weary days
without food.
All I had to eat for the 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.
Japan in retreat
In early 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal, one of their key bases in the Pacific. By
August, Australian troops had largely defeated
the Japanese advance into New Guinea.
Japanese forces could no longer control all of the
territory they had taken and were in retreat on
both land and sea.
By mid September 1942, despite the incredible
efforts of Australian forces, the Japanese were at
Ioribaiwa in reach of Port Moresby, only 50 kilometres away. Spurred on by news of a largely Australian defeat of Japanese forces at Milne Bay in
early September, the Australians, now reinforced
by experienced troops from the Middle East,
began to push the Japanese into retreat. By early
November, they had forced the Japanese back to
Kokoda and, from 16 November, a combined
Australian and US force began campaigns for the
recapture of Gona, Buna and Sanananda.
Victories at Milne Bay and on the Kokoda
Trail marked the first two land defeats of
Japanese forces and the beginning of their
retreat. The ‘fuzzy-wuzzy angels’ of New
Understand
1. 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?
Think
5. 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 sources
6. 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.
Source 6.3.7
A photograph of a steep part of the terrain on the Kokoda
Trail showing the difficulties the Australian troops
experienced
AWM 054746
Use ICT
9. 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.
Worksheets
6.1 Armed forces graph
159
6.4
ON THE
HOME FRONT
CONSCRIPTION
On 9 September 1939, by means of the National
Security Act, the Australian government gained
the additional powers it would need to control the
war 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 Military Force (CMF)
• introduced compulsory military training for
20-year-old males
• encouraged voluntary enlistment to serve overseas in the Australian Imperial Force (the AIF).
From 1941 onwards, the government ordered
all 18-year-old males to register in the expectation that they would be needed to defend
Australia from the Japanese. The following year,
Source 6.4.1
it called them up for army service in the Australian territory of Papua. In 1943, the government extended the area where conscripts could
serve to include all Japanese-occupied islands
south of the Equator, that is, beyond Australian
territory. Government amendments to the
Defence Act in 1943 resulted in women being
conscripted for work in the auxiliary services
(see page 166).
In early 1942, the government introduced laws
to ensure that both men and women would work
in industries essential to the war effort. Those
already employed in essential war industries
were expected to stay there and the government
directed other people to work in such industries.
CENSORSHIP AND
PROPAGANDA
Menzies’ government introduced censorship
within days of war breaking out and established
a Department of Information to administer it.
For the next six years, censors judged what
aspects of radio broadcasts, newspapers, telegraph, telephone and postal communications
were or were not safe for private individuals or
the general public to know about. It banned
servicemen and servicewomen from gossiping and writing
diaries about the
war. Censors checked
letters and blacked
out any information
that might be useful
to the enemy. Newspapers and radios
provided
positive
reports of the war
that highlighted victories and minimised
losses.
Source 6.4.2
A 1942 Australian recruitment poster
A 1943 poster warning
Australians of the
importance of security
AWM ARTV02497
160
HISTORY 2
ON
POWs AND ‘ENEMY ALIENS’
Australians captured about 19 000 soldiers —
Italians, Japanese and Germans — who became
prisoners of war (POWs) within Australia. They
were generally treated in accordance with the
terms of the Geneva Convention. On 5 August
1944, three groups of Japanese prisoners broke
out of their camp at Cowra, killing five people as
they made their escape. Within ten days, 334 had
been recaptured, 234 were dead (including several
who hanged themselves) and 108 were wounded.
The National Security Act 1939 (Cwlth) also
gave the Australian government power to put
those designated ‘enemy aliens’ into internment
camps. These included Germans and Italians,
‘naturalised’ Australians, Australian-born people
of ‘enemy’ descent, ‘enemy aliens’ transferred
here from overseas and some Australians labelled
‘enemies’ because of their political activities.
ration books of coupons that enabled people to
purchase butter, meat, sugar, tea and clothing in
strict accordance with the quantity allowed.
From late 1941 onwards, Australians prepared
for air raids by constructing air-raid trenches
and shelters. People practised air-raid drills and
evacuation procedures. Home defence groups
appointed local air-raid precaution wardens
(ARPs) to prepare for bomb disposal and check
that people followed security procedures.
Source 6.4.4
Source 6.4.3
Air-raid drills included kindergartens, where children were
issued with earmuffs and mouthguards to lessen the
potential impact and damage if bombs exploded nearby.
Photograph showing two families of German internees in
Australia at the Tatura Internment Camp in March 1945
AWM 030242/13
RATIONING, DRILLS AND
DEFENCE
The government introduced petrol rationing in
Australia in October 1940. In August 1942, John
Curtin announced the need for Australians to
embark on a ‘season of austerity’ and ‘deprive
themselves of every selfish comfortable habit’. In
practical terms, this meant rationing of other
goods that were in short supply or for which the
military had priority. The government distributed
Understand
1. 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 sources
5. 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.
Communicate
6. 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’.
161
OM
Australia and
World War II
E CD-R
TH
6.5
AUSTRALIAN
PRISONERS OF WAR
In the course of World War II, approximately
37 000 Australians became prisoners of war
(POWs).
• German and Italian forces captured about
15 000 Australians in campaigns in Europe
and the Middle East. They became prisoners
of war in camps in Austria, Germany and
Poland.
• The Japanese forces captured over 22 000 Australians, who then became POWs in camps
throughout east Asia.
Those in prisoner-of-war camps in Europe had a
much better survival rate than those in Japanese
camps, where 36 per cent of the prisoners died
and where forced labour, beatings, disease and
starvation were common.
On 12 February 1942, 65 Australian nurses
attempted to avoid capture by the invading
Japanese by leaving Singapore on the ship the
Vyner Brooke. Two days later, Japanese bombers
attacked the ship and it sank just off Bangka
Island. Twenty-two nurses made it to shore, only
to be shot by Japanese soldiers. The sole survivor
of this group, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, spent
10 days in the jungle before being captured. She
became a prisoner of war in Indonesia, along
with 31 other nurses who had survived the
sinking. Only 24 of these women survived the
war.
Source 6.5.1
An account of the prisoner-of-war experiences of the
Australian nurses who survived the sinking of the Vyner
Brooke
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
Changi, in Singapore, was the main Japanese
prisoner-of-war camp. It comprised a former
British army barracks set amid thousands of
acres of land at Selarang and a fairly new and
modern civilian prison in the village of Changi,
two kilometres away. While Changi had to accommodate 15 000 prisoners in facilities designed for
the use of about 1500, initially the conditions
there were comparatively better than those in
other Japanese-run POW camps. The captors
provided adequate food and medicine; the soldiers
(at Selarang) continued to observe the military
discipline of their former lives and had freedom to
organise their own entertainment.
HISTORY
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.
The Japanese organised prisoners into work
parties and then often sent them to forced-labour
camps in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
Indochina, Burma, Manchuria, Korea, Formosa
(Taiwan) and in Japan itself. Sea voyages to these
places left the prisoners vulnerable to attacks
from US submarines patrolling these areas. Three
such attacks resulted in the deaths of 1700 POWs.
DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR
The Japanese were not prepared for the large
numbers of Allied prisoners they had under their
control. The Japanese thought it was dishonourable to be taken prisoner and Japanese soldiers
were more likely to commit suicide than allow this
to happen. For them, a soldier’s duty was to fight
‘to the death’ and they had little respect for those
who surrendered. The treatment of prisoners
reflected their attitude that those who had chosen
to live, rather than die honourably, deserved little.
162
HISTORY 2
By late 1942, conditions at Changi, like those
at most camps, were more in line with these attitudes. Changi POWs worked on heavy labour
tasks around Singapore, loading ships, clearing
sewers, building roads and repairing the docks.
The Japanese made dramatic cuts to food and
medical supplies. They had not signed the
Geneva Convention and did not abide by it.
Source 6.5.3
An extract from Stan Arneil’s description of his period on the
Thai–Burma railway in May to December 1943
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 . . .
Source 6.5.2
A newspaper account of conditions for Australians in a
Japanese prison camp, 1945
During the past six months the Japanese High Command
in the Philippines has insisted that it does not recognise
any form of international law, although the Japanese
Premier told America in 1942 that Japan would honour
the Geneva Convention [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.
Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, Sun Books (Pan Macmillan),
Melbourne, 1982, p. 91.
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1945.
Some of the worst experiences were those suffered by prisoners in Indonesia and Thailand. In
1942 and 1943, the Japanese forced 60 000 prisoners to work on the construction of the Thai–
Burma railway (see page 164). There were 2815
Australians among the 16 000 who died there. In
1945, the Japanese ordered two forced ‘death
marches’ of Australian and British POWs from
Sandakan on the coast of Borneo (Indonesia) to
Ranau, 2000 metres higher. Six of the original
2345 POWs survived.
SKILLS essentials
Understand
1. 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 sources
4. 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 6.5.4
Analysing a photograph
Analysing 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-ofwar camp, September 1945, showing members of the
8th Division, recently released after the Japanese surrender.
All were suffering from malnutrition.
AWM 019199
163
6.6
A SIGNIFICANT INDIVIDUAL:
SIR EDWARD ‘WEARY’ DUNLOP
Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was a hero of the
prisoner-of-war camp where he spent over three
years from 1942 to 1945. He was a skilled
surgeon who, as a prisoner of war, was renowned
for his courage, resourcefulness and fine leadership qualities.
Tobruk and, from February 1942, was in charge of
the No. 1 Allied General Hospital at Bandoeng
(Bandung) in Java, Indonesia. The Japanese captured the hospital in March 1942. Dunlop, along
with other prisoners of war, went first to Changi
in Singapore and then to a camp in Thailand.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
‘THE RAILWAY OF DEATH’
Edward Dunlop was born in country Victoria on
12 July 1907. He attended Stewarton Public
School and Benalla High School before beginning work as an apprentice pharmacist in 1924.
On completion of his pharmacy studies, he won
a scholarship to study medicine at Melbourne
University, where he gained the nickname
‘Weary’ (a pun linking Dunlop tyres and the
word ‘tired’).
Dunlop graduated with first-class honours in
1934 and became a surgical resident at the Royal
Melbourne Hospital and later at the Children’s
Hospital. He gained his Master of Surgery degree
from Melbourne University in 1937 and the
following year left Australia to
further his medical experience
Source 6.6.1
in London, where he became a
Fellow of the Royal College of
Surgeons.
Dunlop was a talented
sportsman. He was a champion boxer at university and,
in 1932, represented Australia
at Rugby Union. He was also
committed to part-time army
service. In 1935, he gained the
rank of Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps.
WARTIME SERVICE
Edward Dunlop enlisted in the
Australian Army Medical
Corps in November 1939, serving first in Jerusalem, then in
Gaza and Alexandria in 1940,
then in Greece. He worked as
senior surgeon and second-incharge of the medical unit at
Life in a prisoner-of-war camp was a daily
struggle for survival. As an officer, Dunlop was
responsible for the care and protection of over
1000 prisoners, who became known as ‘Dunlop
Force’. As a surgeon, he worked with limited
medical supplies and without proper medical
instruments to help men survive life as POWs.
The Japanese expected officers like Dunlop to
maintain discipline and to provide prisoners who
would work as slave labour constructing the
infamous Thai–Burma Railway. The railway, over
400 kilometres in length, would link Thailand
and Burma and enable the Japanese army to
transport supplies to its forces. The goal was to
complete the railway in time
for a proposed campaign
against the British in the dry
season. Over 25 per cent of
the 9500 Australian POWs
who worked on the railway
died there.
Dunlop suffered the hardships and diseases of prison
life with, at different times,
swelling from beri-beri, ulcers
on his legs, dysentery and
malaria. He continually battled with his Japanese captors in the attempt to
improve living and medical
conditions. He risked and suffered beatings when he made
excuses for, and protected,
those who were least able to
work. On one occasion, the
Japanese punished him by
making him kneel for hours
A 1956 painting of Colonel Edward ‘Weary’
in the hot sun holding a pile
Dunlop (1907–93), by Murray Griffin
of heavy stones.
AWM ART26999
164
HISTORY 2
HISTORY
Source 6.6.2
0
80
160 km
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.
Moulmein
Thanbyuzayat
T H A I L A N D
M
B U R
A
LEGACY OF AN INSPIRING
AUSTRALIAN
Bampong
N
Bangkok
Mergui
Thai–Burma Railway
A map showing
the route of the
Thai–Burma
Railway
Source 6.6.3
An extract from former POW Laurens Van Der Post’s
introduction to EE Dunlop, The War Diaries of Weary
Dunlop, Penguin, Melbourne, 1990
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
A comment from former POW Tom Uren in Sue Ebury’s
biography, Weary: The Life of Sir Edward Dunlop, Viking,
Melbourne, 1994, p. 352
‘[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 medical
career in Australia. He travelled overseas to
extend Australian links with other cultures and
teach medicine in South-East Asia. He used the
profits from the publication of war diaries to help
Thai surgeons gain further knowledge and skills
through study in Australia.
In 1993, 10 000 people came out onto the
streets of Melbourne to show their respect for
‘Weary’ Dunlop at his state funeral. The people of
Australia have honoured him with statues of
commemoration in King’s Domain, Melbourne, at
the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and in
his 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?
Think
3. 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.
165
6.7
WOMEN AND
WORLD WAR II
Australian women played a more active and important role in the World War II war effort than they
had during World War I. They volunteered in tens
of thousands for work in and beyond areas associated with their traditional roles. Women moved
into the paid workforce, taking on men’s roles in
businesses and on the land. They departed from
their traditional roles to join all three branches of
the military service, though not in combat.
Source 6.7.1
VOLUNTARY WORK
Women knitted balaclavas, gloves, jumpers and
socks to provide items for the Australian Comforts
Fund to send to men serving overseas. They organised entertainment for men on leave and they
formed organisations to coordinate less traditional
voluntary work.
The Women’s Australian National Service
(WANS) organised women to drive and service
army vehicles, ambulances and aircraft. It also
trained women in air-raid drills, first aid and basic
military drills. More specialised training targeted
the development of skills in shooting, signalling and
mechanics. Three hundred women trained with the
Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps so that male
postal workers could enlist in the armed services.
Women responded diligently to the increased
need for their efforts following Japan’s 1941 entry
into the war. The Auxiliary of the National Defence
League of Australia made most of the camouflage
netting needed to disguise military equipment and
potential targets from enemy aerial surveillance.
The Red Cross worked tirelessly to raise money to
fund its free blood transfusion service and to
provide books and toiletries for wounded men being
treated in hospitals. Some women in Red Cross Aid
Units and Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs)
provided medical support services in hospitals.
WOMEN DOING ‘MEN’S WORK’
In the paid workforce, women filled the increased
need for workers in traditionally ‘female’ jobs
and also took on ‘men’s jobs’, replacing those who
joined the armed services. Women worked in factories in tasks ranging from food production to
steel production. They became bus drivers and
drove delivery carts and vans.
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 of
Singapore in 1942 created huge growth in demand
for munitions. The Commonwealth Government
campaigned to increase women’s involvement in
this area. Women took on jobs making all kinds of
weaponry from bullets to anti-tank shells. Universities and government laboratories employed them
in optical munitions work, where they took measurements, did the complex mathematical calculations
needed for lens manufacture, designed and ground
lenses and tested optical instruments. They made a
significant contribution to Australia’s wartime
production of binoculars, bomb and gun sights,
cameras, periscopes, range finders and telescopes.
THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S
LAND ARMY
The Country Women’s Association (CWA) began
organising women to do men’s farm work as early
as 1939. The Commonwealth Government formally
took over this task when it established the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA) in July 1942.
Members had to be British subjects aged between
18 and 50. The farmer, not the government, paid
them for their work, because they volunteered
rather than officially ‘enlisted’ for service.
166
HISTORY 2
Women could join the AWLA for twelve months
as full members, travelling to different areas
according to demand, or they could join as
auxiliary members doing seasonal work in their
own areas. AWLA members did a four-week
training course and then learned though practical experience. While they made useful contributions to the war effort, they took on roles
that many women in rural areas considered the
norm on properties where family members of
both sexes always shared the farming workload.
Source 6.7.2
WOMEN IN THE ARMED
SERVICES
Just under 80 000 women enlisted in Australia’s
armed services during World War II, and about five
per cent of these served overseas. Many Australians, including military personnel, were prejudiced
against women’s participation in the military
services and accepted it only because of need.
The Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force
Australia’s air force took the lead in enlisting
women when, in October 1940, it announced the
establishment of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). By 1944, it employed
18 000 women. They worked on the ground in communications as wireless and teleprinter operators
and also undertook mechanical repair work.
Recruitment poster for the Australian Women’s Land Army
AWM ARTV06446
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 the
WAAAF, it too confined women
to service on land. They worked
as interpreters, wireless telegraphists, coders, typists, clerks,
drivers and in many other roles.
The Australian Women’s Army
Service
The Australian Women’s Army
Service (AWAS) began enlisting
women in November 1941 and
by the end of the war had taken
in 31 000 recruits. These women
took over ‘male’ jobs in communications, maintenance and
transport. As full members of
the army, they also trained in
Source 6.7.3
A poster encouraging Australian
women’s participation in the war effort
AWM ARTV00332
167
combat with the expectation that they would
participate in Australia’s defence if Japan
invaded. While this did not occur, 100 AWAS
members served at Cowra, which was officially
designated a theatre of war when Japanese
prisoners of war broke out of the camp there in
August 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-time
service incorporating 10 000 workers previously
associated with Voluntary Aid Detachments.
These women worked in nursing and radiography
units and in laboratories, as well as assisting with
dental, clerical and kitchen tasks.
The Australian Army Nursing Service
The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was
already in existence when war broke out. Its
nurses were the only Australian women to serve
overseas during World War II, beginning with
service in Palestine in 1940. They worked on land
and in hospital and transport ships wherever the
Australian Army fought.
AANS nurses suffered the dangers associated
with fighting and capture. In February 1942,
65 members of the AANS were escaping Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke (see page 162),
when the Japanese bombed the ship. In May
1943, 11 nurses were among the 332 people who
died when a Japanese submarine sank the hospital ship Centaur just off the Queensland coast
(see source 6.7.4).
ATTITUDES TO WOMEN IN
PAID WORK
Australians were generally slow to support the
efforts of women who moved out of the private
sphere of family and home and into the public
sphere of the paid workforce. They often ridiculed women for attempting ‘male’ work.
Archbishop Daniel Mannix was one of a number
of church leaders who criticised the government
and employers for encouraging married women
into the paid workforce. They viewed this as a
precedent that could threaten the family life that
was seen as women’s primary role.
Neither the government nor employers made any
allowances for the double burden of women’s
responsibilities in the home and workplace. They
juggled housework, child care and shopping alongside work in factories and essential services. Some
people criticised working women for not caring
adequately for their children; others criticised
them for taking time off to look after their children.
Source 6.7.5
Source 6.7.4
“I don’t think I could ever go back to housework after this!”
This 1944 cartoon makes a comment about the roles that
women were given during the war.
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
The Women’s Employment Board
Employers soon benefited from women’s work
skills and from initially being expected to pay
them only 54 per cent of the male rate for the
same or similar work. Trade unions feared that
women’s cheap labour would undermine men’s
positions and wage levels in the workforce. The
ACTU campaigned for women in heavy
168
HISTORY 2
industries to receive the same wages as men for
the duration of the war. The Commonwealth
Government feared that this would cause women
to expect improved pay in all areas of work and
that it would lose the support of employers if it
allowed such a measure.
As a compromise, the government established
the Women’s Employment Board (WEB) to decide
women’s rates of pay within a range of 60–100 per
cent of male rates. About nine per cent of female
workers benefited significantly from this system,
with women in the aircraft, metal and munitions
industries earning 90 per cent of the male rate. A
small number of women — federal public service
clerks, medical officers, telegraphists and tram
conductors — earned 100 per cent.
The WEB also had to replace women with men
when they returned from military service. Many
employers and United Australia Party (UAP)
Source 6.7.6
politicians fought the WEB largely because it was
based on the principle of assessing women’s pay
scales on the basis of their efficiency and productivity rather than on the cheaper option
established under the Commonwealth Arbitration
Court’s family (or basic) wage.
AFTER THE WAR IS OVER . . .
For a few years, war allowed women (and perhaps even forced them) to move beyond their
traditional roles. At the same time, women’s war
efforts outside the home did little to change
people’s traditional view of their role within
society. Society as a whole showed little real
appreciation of women’s participation in the
paid workforce, especially in ‘male’ jobs. It
treated women as a reserve labour force.
Many women saw the end of the war as a
chance to return to a life centred on the world of
family and domestic duties. Society reinforced
this view.
Understand
1. 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?
La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria, courtesy Australian Women’s Weekly
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?
A page from The Australian Women’s Weekly in June 1944
Worksheets
6.2 My war experiences: a news story
6.3 Women’s efforts: complete a table
169
6.8
THE ALLIED LEADERS: CHURCHILL,
ROOSEVELT AND STALIN
WINSTON CHURCHILL
(1874–1965)
Winston Churchill was Britain’s wartime Prime
Minister. He had been an outspoken opponent of
appeasement and had warned of the dangers of
Hitler’s leadership and Germany’s rearmament.
On Neville Chamberlain’s resignation in 1940,
Churchill became Prime Minister of an all-party
government. He remained firm when other politicians, fearful that Germany might defeat England, were tempted to try and negotiate with
Hitler. This later became significant as it meant
that Britain ultimately played a key role in the
defeat of Germany, in the liberation of Europe
from the west and in key post-war decisions.
Churchill took on the additional position of
Minister of Defence and succeeded in facilitating
dramatic improvements in the organisation of
Britain’s aircraft production. He was a skilled
orator whose speeches were renowned for their
patriotic enthusiasm and inspiration at a time
when Britons were suffering from nightly German
bombing campaigns during the Battle of Britain.
Churchill had a good relationship with the
American president, Franklin Roosevelt. This
helped Britain gain US assistance for the British
war effort despite the United States’ policy of isolationism. The 1941 Lend Lease Act, whereby the
US Congress approved the loan or lease of war
materials to Britain and its allies, formalised this
scheme. Roosevelt convinced Congress that this
would indirectly defend the United States and
came at a time when Britain was very vulnerable
to defeat by Germany. Following US entry into the
war in 1941, Churchill convinced Roosevelt to
focus on defeating Germany and its allies elsewhere before attacking them in western Europe.
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
(1882–1945)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the thirty-fourth
president of the United States and the only one
to have served four terms in office (the tradition,
nowadays formalised, was always two terms).
By the time Roosevelt became President in
1933, he was an experienced Democratic Party
politician known for his charm, charisma, ability
and hard work. Stricken with poliomyelitis in
1921, he managed with great difficulty to give
the impression that he had largely recovered
from it. In his first two terms of office, his ‘New
Source 6.8.1
Photograph showing, from left
to right, Churchill, Roosevelt
and Stalin at the Yalta
Conference in February 1945
170
HISTORY 2
Deal’ policies helped people cope with the
Depression and maintain faith in democracy.
When World War II broke out in 1939,
Roosevelt was beginning to move away from the
isolationist policy of his predecessors. He sought
ways to provide military assistance to the Allies
and limit the threat that Japan posed to US
interests. By 1941, at the beginning of
Roosevelt’s third term in office, the US was supporting the Allies as much as possible without
actually going to war. While his government
knew that Japan was mobilising for war, it
refused to accept warnings of an imminent
attack on the United States. The destruction of a
large part of the American Pacific fleet at Pearl
Harbor in December 1941 (see page 154) was a
shock that brought an end to isolationism.
In Roosevelt’s view, defeating Hitler was the
main goal. By late December 1941, he and
Churchill had come to an agreement to focus first
on stopping German forces in North Africa and the
Soviet Union, then to engineer Germany’s defeat
through a two-front attack comprising the invasion
of western Europe and the advance of Soviet troops
from the east. Once Germany was defeated,
Japan’s defeat would become the main goal.
JOSEPH STALIN (1878–1953)
Joseph Stalin became Communist leader of the
Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Through a series of
five-year plans, he ruthlessly oversaw the modernisation of the Soviet Union. By 1937, its economy
was second only to that of the United States.
In 1941, Stalin refused to believe intelligence
reports of German troop movements along the
Soviet border. He maintained his belief that the
Nazi–Soviet Pact, a 10-year non-aggression pact
signed with Germany in August 1939, would allow
more time to strengthen his nation’s military
preparedness.
Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June
1941. By December, German troops were only
25 kilometres from the Russian capital, Moscow.
The city of Leningrad was under a siege that
eventually lasted 28 months. The Soviet Union
Great Patriotic War (1941–45) had begun.
Stalin oversaw the mobilisation of the Soviet
war effort. He ordered the transportation and
re-establishment of all industry from the west to
the east (out of reach of German troops and aerial
bomb attacks). He inspired the troops and people
alike through appeals to Russian patriotism and
national feeling. He instigated a ‘scorched earth’
policy, ordering the destruction of food and any
facilities that could assist the German troops in
their advance — a terrible hardship on the Soviet
citizens who lived in these areas. From 1941,
Soviet troops were pursuing a successful counteroffensive and, after the Soviet victory at the Battle
of Stalingrad in 1943, began pushing the German
armies into retreat.
THE ‘BIG THREE’
The ‘Big Three’ met at two wartime conferences.
The first took place in Tehran (Iran) from
28 November to 1 December 1943 and its main
business was discussion of the long-planned
creation of a second front in western Europe and
strategies to defeat Germany.
The Yalta Conference took place in the Crimea
(then part of the Soviet Union) — Stalin having
refused to travel any further — from 4 to
11 February 1945. Here the three leaders put
forward their views on the final months of the
war and the likely post-war settlement.
Roosevelt, by this time in very poor health,
succeeded in his goals of having Stalin agree to
enter the final stages of the Pacific war and to
join the proposed United Nations. At the same
time, he gave in to Stalin’s demands to take part
of eastern Poland in return for Poland gaining
territory from Germany in the west.
The ‘Big Three’ agreed on plans for the post-war
division of Germany and its capital, Berlin (see
page 188); for the restoration of democracy in the
European nations; and the repatriation of refugees.
Historians have since criticised Churchill and
Roosevelt for giving too much to Stalin without
assurances 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.
171
6.9
AUSTRALIA AND THE US —
A NEW ALLEGIANCE
In December 1941, Australian Prime Minister
John Curtin announced that Australia would
‘look to America’ for assistance in battles against
Japan.
Source 6.9.1
An extract from Australian Prime Minister John Curtin’s
announcement on 27 December 1941
[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.
Source 6.9.2
A photograph of
Australian Prime
Minister Curtin and
US General Douglas
MacArthur
Herald, 27 December 1941.
In March 1942, US General Douglas
MacArthur arrived in Australia to arrange for
the establishment of US bases on Australian soil.
Under the National Security Act 1939, the
Commonwealth Government requisitioned the
Trustees Executive & Agency Co. Ltd building in
Collins Street, Melbourne, and it was here that
MacArthur established his headquarters for the
US Army Forces in the Far East. Later that year,
he moved to Brisbane and established new
headquarters at the AMP Building (now an
apartment building) in Queen Street.
Australia was to serve as the base from which
an Allied force would recapture the Philippines
and ultimately defeat Japan.
While as many as one million Americans may
have passed through Australia from late 1942 to
1945, most US troops spent short periods of time
here. To begin with they were based largely in
Melbourne, with smaller numbers in Sydney.
From August 1942 onwards, two-thirds were
based in and around Brisbane and a significant
part of the remainder in other areas of Queensland. By September 1943, 120 000 American
troops were stationed here.
Australians and Americans generally got on
well together and this period marked a new
phase in Australia’s relationship with the United
States. American customs and attitudes opened
Australians’ eyes to ideas other than those
emanating from British traditions. By late 1944,
most Americans had left, some by this time
having married Australian ‘war brides’.
‘OVER-PAID, OVER-SEXED AND
OVER HERE’
There was considerable rivalry between American
and Australian troops, some seeing this American
‘invasion’ as worse than the threat of any
Japanese invasion. They complained that the
Americans were ‘over-paid, over-sexed and over
here’, competing with them for Australian girls. To
many, it seemed that the American troops had an
unfair 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 had
access to ‘luxury’ items such as silk stockings
and chocolate
172
HISTORY 2
• 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 more
money than Australian soldiers led to price
increases.
Battle of Brisbane. An American MP (military
police), called in to a huge brawl between a group
of Australian and American soldiers, shot dead an
Australian soldier who had been trying to disarm
him. Six others were wounded. Fighting between
American and Australian soldiers continued for
the remainder of the night and into the next day
before order was restored.
Source 6.9.3
A NEW ALLEGIANCE
An extract from a description of the American soldiers in
Australia, by a resident of Charters Towers, Queensland
Despite such events and attitudes, Australia was
re-evaluating its ties with Great Britain. When
Japanese expansion began to threaten Australia in
late 1941, Curtin ordered Australian troops home
from the Middle East — in defiance of Churchill —
and refused him again when Churchill wanted
them sent to Burma in early 1942. In 1942, the
Federal Parliament finally adopted the Statute of
Westminster, a 1931 act of British Parliament
giving legal recognition to the independence of
dominions within the British Commonwealth.
Australia benefited from the US government’s
Lend Lease Scheme (see page 170) and responded
to MacArthur’s complaints regarding Australia’s
conscription policy. MacArthur questioned why
American conscripts should protect Australia
when Australian conscripts could not serve
beyond New Guinea. Curtin agreed to have Australian conscripts serve ‘overseas’ (see page 160)
and thus put Australia in a better position to call
on American protection and resources.
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
Understand
1. 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.
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 became
more serious when the American army tried, convicted and executed an American private who had
murdered three Melbourne women. In November
1942, an event occurred that became known as the
Use sources
3. 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.
173
6.10
VICTORY IN EUROPE
AND IN THE PACIFIC
D-DAY: DEFEATING GERMANY
German forces were in retreat on the eastern
front from the time of the Russian victory at
the Battle of Stalingrad in early 1943. Stalin
demanded that his Allies establish a western
front so that Russia did not have the full
burden of defeating Germany in Europe. This
was slow to eventuate and planning for an
invasion force to defeat Germany from the west
continued throughout most of 1942 and 1943.
The British and American commanders finally
scheduled Operation Overlord to begin on 6 June
1944. The Allies sent false radio messages and
launched air attacks in other areas to divert
German attention away from the beaches of
Normandy, where 130 000 troops and 23 000 paratroopers were landing. Floating harbours, known
as ‘Mulberries’, and floating piers brought across
from Great Britain made the landings and the
supply of troops and equipment much easier.
Fighting was difficult and the casualty rate
high. The Allies liberated Paris on 25 August
1944. Resistance fighters within France joined in
and resistance groups in other areas of western
Europe also began concerted attacks on German
forces. Allied forces were advancing against
fascist forces in Italy at the same time and the
Soviet army continued its advance from the east.
In March 1945, the Allies crossed into German
territory from the west. On 25 April, they met
with Soviet forces advancing from the east.
Realising that defeat was at hand, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April.
On 1 May, the Russians took Berlin, the
German capital. On 2 May, German generals
surrendered in Italy. On 8 May 1945, following
General Jodl’s signing of unconditional surrender
the day before, all forces under German control
in Europe ceased fighting. On 9 May, German
leaders signed a formal document of surrender to
the Soviet Union. The war in Europe was over.
Source 6.10.2
A photograph of a Russian soldier raising the Soviet flag in
Berlin after a nine-day battle for the German city
VICTORY IN JAPAN
Source 6.10.1
UN IT ED KI NGD OM
0
50 km
25
Landing areas, Normandy, 6 June 1944
Utah
Combat division codenames
N
E n g l i s h
Cherbourg
Seine Bay
Utah
Omaha
Carentan
C h a n n e l
Gold
Juno
Le Havre
Sword
Bayeux
FRANCE
Caen
Map of the D-Day (Deliverance Day) assault of 6 June 1944,
showing the landing locations on the northern coast of
France
The US General Douglas MacArthur employed a
strategy of ‘island hopping’ to work towards victory in the Pacific. The goal was to capture the
important Japanese-held islands and then establish bases on those closest to Japan. This brought
Japan within bombing range of US planes.
These battles were hard-won. The Japanese
were willing to die rather than surrender. From
1943 onwards, they launched kamikaze missions
(suicide bombings) against Allied shipping.
The capture of the islands of Iwo Jima in
February 1945 and Okinawa in June 1945
brought British and US troops closer to Japan
but at high cost. They killed or captured all of
the 100 000 Japanese soldiers defending
Okinawa — no-one would surrender. The Allies
began fire-bombing Tokyo and other Japanese
174
HISTORY 2
ICT
cities and, as part of Operation Starvation,
placed mines in Japanese ports and waterways.
The new US president, Harry Truman, later
argued that island hopping was — in terms of
time and casualties — too costly a means of
ending the war. His advisers warned that the
planned invasion of Japan was likely to kill more
Americans than had died in the war so far.
Truman decided to try and force the Japanese to
surrender by unleashing the most powerful and
deadly weapon the world had ever known.
On 6 August 1945, the American bomber Enola
Gay dropped a nuclear bomb, nicknamed ‘Little
Boy’, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It
destroyed the city and 60 000 of its residents, with
another 40 000 dead in the following months due to
injuries and radiation poisoning. On 9 August, when
the Japanese had still not surrendered, a US
bomber dropped a second atomic bomb, ‘Fat Man’,
on the city of Nagasaki, causing similar devastation.
Source 6.10.3
AFTERMATH
Millions of people died in the war, including, in the
Soviet Union, nearly nine million soldiers and
20 million civilians. Allied soldiers moving
through Europe began to uncover the Nazi concentration camps (see the map on page 177). The
Nazis had imprisoned about 12 million people and
had killed six million Jews as part of their
campaign of genocide that became known as the
Holocaust. The Japanese had killed 15 million
Asians and Allied POWs. Much of eastern Europe
was under Soviet control. Thousands of Europeans
were refugees.
Understand
1. Draw mind maps to summarise the events and
strategies that brought an end to the war:
(a) in Europe
(b) in Japan.
Think
2. 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’.
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 Hirohito
announced Japan’s surrender. Allied forces began
their occupation of Japan and, on 2 September,
the Japanese government signed the document of
surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo
Bay. This brought an official end to the war.
Source 6.10.4
Use sources
4. 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?
Communicate
6. 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 ICT
7. 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.
A photograph of celebrations in Australia when the end of
the war with Japan was announced
Worksheets
6.4 Find out more on the war
6.5 Crossword of World War II
175
SY
PowerPoint
DE
MA EA
Check & Challenge
YO U B E 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.
REA D /WATC H/L ISTEN
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.
RES EA RC H AND WR ITE
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.
E ssay p l an n i ng gu ide lin es
Using 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.
I N D I GE N O U S S O L D I E RS
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.
AN AL YS E A LE AD E R
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.
176
HISTORY 2
ICT
SKILLS essentials
5. Write a brief evaluation of this source in terms
of its context, information, reliability,
completeness, objectivity and/or bias.
Analysing political cartoons
On 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).
Source 6.11.1
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?
David Low’s 1936 cartoon for the London newspaper the
Evening Standard
A NA L YSE A M AP
Use 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
Source 6.11.2
(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.
NORWAY
Auschwitz
868
Vaivara
Klooga
ESTONIA
1000
Treblinka
SEA
120
LATVIA
a
DENMARK
Se
NORTH
1000
106 000
Bergen-Belsen
BELGIUM
24 000
GERMANY
125 000
POLAND
Ravensbruck
Sachsenhausen
Buchenwald
Gross
Rosen
Chelmno
Sobibor
Auschwitz
Flossenberg
Maidanek
Belzec
Plaszow
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Natzweiler
4 565 000
Treblinka
Mittelbau Dora
LUXEMBOURG
700
USSR
N
200
400 km
277 000
Dachau
Mauthausen
FRANCE
Approximate Jewish death
toll in each country
Stutthof
Neuengamme
NETHERLANDS
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.
LITHUANIA
Baltic
A concentration camp where
more than four millon people
were killed between 1941 and
1944, including Jews, gypsies
and Soviet prisoners-of-war
0
AUSTRIA
83 000
70 000
HUNGARY
300 000
ITALY
7500
RUMANIA
Jasenovac
Gospic YUGOSLAVIA
60 000
264 000
Sajmiste
A map showing the location of Nazi concentration camps in Europe in World War II
177
Black
Sea
DE
MA EA
SY
Internet search

Chapter 6 World War II and Australia

Transcription

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