Why did you choose WW2?

[mikky]

My father and uncle were both in ww2,didn't talk much about it.Also comics and commando books.Have always been interested in both world wars,am currently researching records od relations served in ww1.

[spidge]

What a good question Kyt – Well done!

Such a good question that I began questioning myself on how it all began. Not a lot of books, not a fantasy for a particular aircraft, class of ship or hero except maybe Sergeant Alvin York in WW1 and my fathers participation in WW2.

We first received television in Australia in September 1956 which aligned with the Melbourne Olympic Games. I have faint recollections of people talking about competitors and mentioning how the world had moved forward from ww2 (what’s that?) and Korea (where’s that?) and all the people that had died. I was only four so I did not know what many millions meant either.

I remember watching all of the British war movies whether Ground, Air or Sea and really admiring the British character actors and actresses that made these people and situations seem so real. Charles Laughton, strangely was my favourite actor during those times. John Mills, Bernard Miles, Richard Attenborough, Michael Wildng, Michael Redgrave, Basil Sidney, Richard Todd etc etc.

My father would never speak of the war unless he was with with his friends from the 9th division (The Rats of Tobruk) although he was 2/8th battalion, 19th brigade, 6th division. He was the victim of a mortar bomb in the advance to Tobruk on the
21st January 1941.

The memories of the pain of headaches for many years (he had a metal plate in his head) made him not want to revisit those times.

Later I went to the Pacific for work and with most preparation you need to know about the people and the places you visit. New Guinea, (Port Moresby/Lae/ Rabaul/Madang etc)The Solomons, The Marshall Islands, Kiribati (The Gilberts / Tarawa) Nauru visiting all the WW2 sites.

This is where my intense hatred of the war time Japanese was born. This made me understand the POW’s who sons and daughters I played with as a child and the reasons that led to the drunkenness, the breakdown of the family unit and the inability of many of these men to live a normal life. For most the war ended in August 1945, for many of those POW’s and their families, it only ended with the death of the boy that went away and returned broken and mentally unfit to live in the post war society.

My interest in the RAAF/RAF came later when I realised that the Americans I spoke to in the Pacific knew nothing of the Australian involvement in WW2.

My two favourites of these now make me laugh instead of making me angry.

To one group of Americans on Tarawa I said that my fathers division defeated the Italians at Bardia and then took Tobruk. They were the first to defeat the Germans on land at Tobruk and the 7th division defeated the Vichy French in Syria. They were also the first to defeat the Japanese on land after they had made a beachhead at Milne Bay.

The response was: “Come off it, Australia wasn’t even in WW2”. Luckily I was supported by ex-pat British veterans who lived on Tarawa.

The other is: How can Australia claim to have been part of the victory in Europe if you didn’t have troops on the ground from D-Day?

This is possibly the main reason I commenced my project on collecting photos of headstones and memorials and researching 10,800+ RAAF deaths and those of 200+ Australians who died with the RAF. I have now added those 320+ Australian flyers who died with the fledgling AFC/RFC/RNAS/RAF in WW1.