Chapter 9

War had been looming between Germany and other parts of Europe including Britain for some years and rearmament of Germany and aggressive noises by Hitler and more recently the anti-Semitic activity all pointed to the possibility of armed conflict. On the 3rd September 1939 a state of war was declared by Neville Chamberlain to exist between Britain and Germany, who had already annexed the Sudeten land of Czechoslovakia, occupied Austria and then attacked Poland. The latter move was the catalyst for Britain and the Allies taking action. In Southport, Queensland we were aware straightaway that war had been declared. The local militia marched up to the Cable Station and set up camp in the grounds and sentries patrolled the periphery. As we lived next door in the manager's house it was initially a great talking point for a 14-year-old especially in a small resort town of about 3000 souls but it was soon accepted as normal.
Shipping was attacked quite close to Australia fairly early in the war, indicating that German naval vessels or merchantmen had been on the prowl long before the declaration of war. Despite our distance from Europe, most people in this country took the situation there very seriously, and recruiting centres were busy from day one with applications from volunteers for Army, Navy or Air Force. I do not have at hand any historical account to permit me to place in chronological order the events of the war and this may have to be inserted later. Right now all I want to do is to describe what I can recall of the appearance of Wartime Australia and how the people, of which Marcia and I were part, behaved and reacted to events.
On December the 7th 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour the American Base in Hawaii, bringing USA into World War 2. From February 1942, Japanese planes made over 50 bombing raids on Darwin and Townsville. The rapid advance of the Japanese though South-East Asia, the fall of Singapore and swallowing up of the Nederland East Indies, then the move to the Solomons and New Guinea, all happened so quickly that our forces were unprepared for it. The British had expected that any landing attempts in Singapore would come from the sea and allegedly the naval guns there all pointed out to sea. In the event the Japanese flowed down the Malay Peninsula, walking or riding bicycles. Thus the powerful naval guns were of no use in stemming the Japanese advance. Singapore fell and we lost thousands of troops as prisoners-of-war.
It seems almost unforgivable from memory alone to try to summarise this period of history. The increasing fear of invasion, the slaughter of our young men and the incarceration of surviving Australian troops after the fall of Singapore in prisoner of war camps were horrendous occurrences. It should never be seen to have been treated lightly. When the losses that had occurred overseas were added to those that occurred close to us, we Australians felt vulnerable for the first time in history.
After his escape from the Japanese in Corregidor in the Phillipines, The U.S. General Douglas MacArthur came to Australia, and was appointed Commander of the forces in the Pacific. He set up his headquarters in Brisbane, probably in March 1942, just as I was beginning my last year at boarding School. After this it was not long before US troops began flooding into Australia, particularly into Queensland, and their presence was somewhat reassuring. Aircraft seen previously only in newsreels began to fill our skies, flashing past at speeds to which we were unaccustomed. From the matt green and brown colours, we realised that that they were in "war paint". Mitchells, Dakotas, Lightnings, Kittyhawks, Airacobras and Bostons became familiar sights and thrilled us schoolboys, in particular those with a yearning to fly. Occasionally our Tiger Moths, Ansons and a few Lockheed Hudsons, Catalinas and even Walrus amphibians would fly over at less than impressive speeds, providing in those days disappointment with the state of our readiness, and even light relief in the case of the lumbering Walrus that would go backwards in a strong head wind.
The American soldier (GI) became a familiar sight around Brisbane, on duty or often just strolling around town in pairs or groups. They gained a reputation for being very polite, and in public at least behaved well. Their shiny mercerised cotton khaki shirts and trousers were smarter than those issued to our soldiers. Also, they were paid more than our troops, had access to more goods in their canteens (their gifts of nylon stockings to girls were legendary) and they made a hit with adults and teenagers alike. The cynics claimed that they were "over paid, over sexed and over here", the same cry heard in Britain where they were in large numbers. As far as I can understand the American war effort in the Pacific was run from here and troops moved out from here to the war zone and returned here to recuperate. There were rivalries between US and Australian forces and this was made use of by Japanese radio broadcasts. A person called Tokyo Rose gave the news in English and this could be heard on short wave radio. The propaganda that came over was intended to lower morale, and to foster hostility between the forces. Of course, the Japanese, who suffered fewer casualties, lost fewer planes or ships than the Allies, always won battles. In addition, to stir up strife, Tokyo Rose said that the Americans were taking out the Australian girls while the Aussie soldiers were slogging through difficult infantry battles in New Guinea.
Servicemen on leave were often at a loose end; the more so because many of the activities that would have taken place normally had been stopped by the war. Existing clubs and newly formed groups of people organised meals and entertainment for servicemen of all persuasions, and volunteers such as Marcia put in many hours providing for their welfare.
I cannot recall when rationing was introduced into Australia, but by 1942 food, petrol, clothing and tobacco were rationed. No longer could one buy unlimited amounts of dairy products, eggs, meat, sugar, tea and so on, but an allowance was given to each civilian. Coupons for the amount being bought were handed over with the money to the shopkeeper to permit the transaction. How the silly little pieces of paper thus collected could ever be consistently tallied with the amount of goods sold beats me, and no doubt some allowance for inaccuracies had to be made. Ration books had to be carried of course, and if one stayed with a friend for any length of time one had to contribute coupons to "pay one's way". People today could hardly be expected to grasp the impact of the constraints placed upon the average person in those days. Clothes could not be replaced unless one had the correct number of coupons, and even then the choice was very limited and the quality often inferior. One had to be satisfied with barely enough of some foods and had to go without others. Travel by car was severely restricted by petrol rationing and the use of trains was curtailed because of priorities of military use. Car parts and repairmen were scarce. Many people smoked cigarettes in those days and because much of the tobacco was grown overseas, this commodity was in short supply. Most of the available supplies were directed to the forces. As with all items in short supply there grew up a black-market in many of these goods, and quite a few people waxed rich at the expense of the consumers.
Another feature of life was the "blackout". At night, house lights were not permitted to shine outside the house. Black paper or curtains covering the windows in every room made this possible. Car lights were provided with shades that kept the light down although some forward light was necessary for night vision. The absence of light was of course to avoid being a target from enemy fire, which might be expected from an air raid or naval vessels. Most of these precautions must have been emphasised in large towns and coastal areas because later when I was training in night flying over inland towns there was often enough light to identify a town and to find our way back to the drome. At school there were a series of zig-zag "slit trenches", about 5' deep cut into the earth to which we were to run during any air attack. Heavy concrete air raid shelters were constructed around the streets of cities. Emergency river water supplies for fire fighting were made available in Brisbane. Large iron pipes of 1 foot in diameter wound around the pavements of the city. Air raid sirens were installed in towns and many practices were held to train people to proceed to shelter. The coastal areas were deemed to be possible first points of contact so that many people moved inland away from seaside towns. Children were removed from coastal schools like TSS. Some of this movement may have resulted from lack of farm income due to farmers being in the services or the consequent need for labour.
Civilian volunteers became Air Raid Wardens and they were responsible for the efficiency of the blackout, and of course being in charge in the event of an air raid. Marcia's father became involved as did many other older men, playing an important role in civilian defence.
Naturally boarding school was highly regulated from time of rising, type of clothing to be worn and participation in all the daily doings right down to time of going to bed. There were no options to be considered. The dormitories were uncluttered, and sparsely furnished as only the required clothing was kept and there was no time for any personal deviation from the activities of all. We were not allowed to be in the dormitories during the day or indeed at any time other than when changing clothes or sleeping. Looking back this was ideal training for the Air Force when similar regulations applied. The events of the year have not been recorded so there is no list of stories or funny happenings. I took part in schoolwork, chapel and sport as it came along, and rather enjoyed the team spirit that arose from the idea of belonging to one of three houses. Lessons finished daily at 3 p.m. and sport began.
Everyone was expected to take part in the main sports of cricket and football in the appropriate season. Tennis, rowing, gymnastics and athletics were also available, and sailing for some (there was only one boat) together with music and hobbies for some others. I played or tried to play all the sports with varying success, the best being tennis and cricket.
The outbreak of war had severely affected the numbers attending this particular school. There were a number of reasons for this. Many of the boys from sheep and cattle properties were required to help on the property to replace older brothers who had enlisted in the armed forces, incomes diminished in those households in which the breadwinner had enlisted, and there was a feeling that a school situated on the coast could be in the firing line should an attack be launched on Australia. This became something of a reality in the north of Australia later in the year when USA came in to the war after the assault on Pearl Harbour.
Mealtime was one of the best times for social activity, hardly for philosophical discussion but certainly for all sorts of practical jokes.
I was in the school cadets for a while but was not keen, but when the Air Training Corps was formed I was a keen participant. We learned signalling, some drill and had the advantage of priority in "call up" at age 18.

The school, TSS, was taken over as a hospital for wounded US forces from the Guadalcanal fighting. We pupils who were left at this stage moved down to the Junior School buildings. Many activities such as inter-school sports were cancelled or at least greatly reduced in frequency. Later baseball players from among the staff of the hospital and recovering soldiers invaded our oval. Greater numbers formed a crowd of typically noisy baseball fans. The US Nursing sisters were a sight to behold for the boys at an all-male school.

Memory of how and where we ate and slept is now dim- possibly this arrangement did not last for many months before final exams. How we did any Physics or Chemistry practical classes away from the laboratories I cannot remember.

Towards the end of term and Speech Day my mother and Father returned from Suva. I recall we asked all our final class to a meal at the Southport Hotel.

In our final year the number of students in the Senior year was seven. These were Ian Campbell, Graham Gill, Stan Glover, Brian Clouston, George Mitchell, Alan Krebs and myself.
This final year of school was rather special in many ways. One expected to have been allotted some rank e.g. Prefect, House Captain, Dormitory Captain. Being in the senior grade we were allowed more freedom along with the responsibility. To my chagrin I was not made a prefect, but the Headmaster called me in to discuss it. Apparently I had been selected for this honour, but a particular occurrence caused the selection to be cancelled. Krebs and I had one night been in the library studying, when we started to indulge in some mild horseplay, just for fun. However it turned out that the Head had been some 50 feet away, in the dark chatting to some VIP on the school board. Our harmless playing up was seen as a bad example, and neither of us was appointed as a prefect. We were both made Dormitory captains, which gave us a tower room to study in at night, in return for which we watched over the dormitories within that house. By this year the staff had diminished somewhat as a result of their recruitment into the armed services. Replacements were difficult to obtain. Chemistry was for a while managed by a local dentist, Hulbert, who was easily diverted from his task towards discussions on Rugby by some of those smart alecs who thought such a move was fun. By the time we were close to sitting for the Senior exam it was obvious that we were not ready for it. Despite the lack of teaching I managed to pass several subjects and required only one science to matriculate. Thankfully I was able to qualify for a supplementary exam in January, and a coaching school provided the much-needed material for me to pass easily, and thus matriculate. This saved me a year in 1946.
In this last year of school people leaving to join the services had depleted the teaching staff. In some cases, retired masters were brought back from retirement or very young graduates were hired to teach. The local dentist was co-opted to teach us final year chemistry, but he was too easily sidetracked into general discussion. These deficiences showed up in the results of the Senior Examination at the end of the year when few passed Physics and Chemistry. I was given the chance of a supplementary exam in February. Only one science was required and I chose Physics. A coaching college in Brisbane more or less guaranteed to get each student a pass by coaching in the answers to past exam questions and suggesting probable questions for that year based on the average frequency of the occurrence of the questions in the annual exam. By the time the exam came I was well equipped for it and passed with no problems. To assist me at this time Mum and I lived in a flat at New Farm where Mrs. Stevens and delectable daughter Pam also lived. This helped with some social activities. As soon as the exam was over we went to Adelaide to join Dad. In this final year of school, vacations were inconvenient for me as my folks were in Fiji, and brother Dick was in the RAAF. For the midwinter holidays we hit upon the idea of a full board holiday at Binna Burra in the Lamington National Park. It was well known to us as Dick and some of his friends had holidayed there, and had spoken highly of the fun and good food, as well as the great natural trails for walking. Although there was no one known to me going at the same time it turned out that quite a lot of young people were there. Even though I did not know it at the time, Marcia knew some of these. The weather was great, although cooler than that at Southport. Each morning at breakfast a roneoed sheet was given out showing alternative bush walks for the day. A guide who usually was a ranger, and who knew the park well led most of these. Some walks included a night or two camping out.
The host and manager was Arthur Groom, a past pupil of TSS and an accomplished bushman. He created a friendly if rough atmosphere and most people enjoyed being with him. He specially liked the company of girls, to the detriment of his relationship with his wife. The walks were on graded bush tracks and went to al the features of the National Park such as groves of ancient trees, waterfalls, caves and special places for extensive views. Recognition of plants, animals and snakes formed part of the expertise shared with the folk. The temperate rain forest was delightful to walk in and the young company increased the enjoyment. I have maps of the various trails on which we walked during my stay, but it would be tedious to include this. It was a wonderful holiday.



From an older Chapter 9:
(Dick had spent a) long time waiting to enter the Air Force since 18, even though he was in the Reserve, and was 19 when eventually called up. He had done quite a lot of study for it which probably helped him in his ground subjects. He was called up around February and trained as an Observer, later to be called Navigator/Bombardier, or maybe it was Bomb Aimer. He trained at Kingaroy, Cootamundra and Evans Head and left for overseas probably April 1943. He was crew on Wellingtons and then Lancasters. He was killed 9/6/44 in Yorkshire, when his aircraft was diverted from his home airfield in fog to another and in the landing they hit a tree and crashed. Some survived, but Dick and Syd Merrin from Toowoomba were killed. I had thought that the pilot survived, but at the War cemetery at Harrogate I apparently saw a grave marked Parkinson which was the name of the pilot as far as I know. The date was/was not the same.