EVER THE OPTIMIST PART 1 CHILD OF THE GREAT CRUSADE

Baby me just returned from the shop in late 1940/early 1941.
"Where is that war they are all talking about?"

 If all the norms of gestation were fully operational, it would seem that my life began on or about 9th July 1939. Mid Winter in Australia, July  was to feature the lowest temperature of the year at 4 Degrees Celsius, yet only five months later the 12thDecember, 1939 was to be the hottest of the year -  39Degrees Celsius.

But on that day of my likely conception, things were already "hotting up" in Europe. On that day, in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk), thousands of Nazis gathered and demonstrated against Polish rights in Danzig, they heard Gau Leiter Forster predict that the Fuhrer Adolph Hitler would soon "liberate "the Free City of Danzig. They wanted Poland to give up the right to store weapons and munitions at Westerplatte at the entrance to Danzig Harbour.

Some weeks later, upon the expiry of an English Ultimatum, which the Nazis ignored, England and France declared war on Germany with the avowed purpose of freeing Poland from the Nazi invasion which Hitler had launched on 1st September,1939 immediately after springing on the Allies the shock that he had concluded a Non-Aggression Treaty with the Soviet Union! Australia announced on the same day that, "as a consequence" of England's action, we were also at war with Germany. On 17th September the Soviets also launched an invasion of Poland from their side.

These early months of the War from the Allied side, became the cause of much derisive comment. Many were expecting much more activity, and the term "Sitzkrieg" was coined (referring to the Nazi side "Blitzkrieg" - more polite folk used the term "The Phoney War".

True, the French did launch an attack on the German SAAR coal-mining and Industrial heartland, but within days they had been pushed back.


But, if one lived in Poland, the war was deadly real, and the Polish forces were hopelessly outmatched by the Nazis. By October Poland had fallen - squeezed to death by the Nazis from the West and the Soviets from the East. those naive Left inclined folk in the Allied Countries and in America, who had thought of the Soviets as among the "good guys" were bitterly disillusioned as the Soviet Army stopped on their side of the Vistula to allow the Nazis to subjugate the Poles and with particular ferocity to deal with the Jewish population.

NURSE BIGNALL's "Hospital" at Lidcombe where I was born0n 9th April.1940.

Meanwhile, at around 5.00 pm on Tuesday 9th April, I was born. I suppose it could be argued that by that very fact I was joining the great crusade which the war had become. For it was a crusade of GOOD (us of course!) against EVIL (the Nazis of course). I was to be 5 years old when the War, very much expanded and all-consuming - had finished. But there was never a time in that childhood that I was ever left in any doubt that WE would win. After all, GOOD triumphs......doesn't it? But this was already the time of "careful the child might hear you". Did my parents have anxieties about the result of the War that they never communicated to me?

CENSORSHIP

There was in place strict security censorship of the limited Media of the day: Radio, Press, and Newsreel at the "Pictures" as we called the Movies.

For example, on the day I was born THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (then boasting it was in it's ONE HUNDRED AND NINTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION' and it cost Tuppence - two pennies in to-day's currency 1.66 cents ) carried this small item on Page 10. Pages 10 and 11 were primarily given over to War News:

"CENSORSHIP BAN  Ship at Honolulu FACTS BROADCAST BY B.B.C.

Canberra Monday

The Federal Cabinet will probably discuss the banning of all references in the newspapers to the departure of a certain ship from Honolulu. The arrival and departure of the ship was broadcast by the B.B.C. shortwave station, but nevertheless, censorship authorities in Australia prohibited any reference to the vessel. When the Prime Minister Mr. Menzies was asked whether he had any comment to make, he said that the Ministers would probably discuss censorship with particular reference to this question tomorrow."

It is an intriguing instance - the vessel was not the QUEEN ELIZABETH which was being converted to a troop carrier in New York. It being too early to be her.

 But there we have it - censorship in action, even if the paper was doing its best to challenge it. My parents did not take the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD but rather an evening Tabloid - so they would have been unlikely to see this little story.

QUEEN MARY AND QUEEN ELIZABETH PASS EXITING AND ENTERING SYDNEY HEADS 9thApril1941

But the task of censorship was not a simple thing when really big things were afoot! On my First Birthday, Sydney Harbour was the scene of something quite spectacular: in order to take tens of thousands of Australian troops to the war against the Nazis, Four of the largest Liners afloat entered Sydney Harbour on the same day. In peacetime, in those days, we would never have seen them - they were Liners NOT Cruise ships and their business was the trans-Atlantic passenger trade - they were QUEEN ELIZABETH 83,673 tons, QUEEN MARY 80.774 tons, AQUITANIA 45,647 tons and ILE DE FRANCE 43,153 tons.  By his marvelling repetition of their names, my Dad effectively drummed them into my brain over the coming years. But there was a double surprise for this TOP SECRET mission: over 100,000 people lined Sydney Heads and the foreshores to see the great "secret" spectacle. Of course, with so many thousands of soldiers under orders to ship out on the same day, everyone quickly got the message. On this occasion "loose lips, did NOT sink ships" since the speed of the Liners was too great for the submarines of the day.

The fact that the Empire of Japan had launched 70 Air attacks against the Port of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, between February 1942 and November 1943, did not become public knowledge until well after the War. That news had been censored.

So it is at least possible, that my parents did not consider defeat at all likely.

CATALOGUE OF WOES

Even so, the sledgehammer blows to allied confidence, which came in rapid succession and were reported, must have been heavily depressing :

in May-June 1940 the evacuation at Dunkirk

in June 1940 the fall of France

in May of 1941 the Loss of the "mighty" H.M.S. HOOD

in May-June, 1941 the fall of Greece and Crete

in July 1941 the fall of Syria and Lebanon

in December 1941 the fall of Tobruk

on 7th December 1941 devastating Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

on 10th December1941 the loss of Battleships H.M.S PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE on their way to protect Singapore and the East

in February 1942, the fall of SINGAPORE

in August 1942, it seemed that Stalingrad would fall.

It was a catalogue of woes. Compensating actions such as the sinking of K.M.S. BISMARCK  and the success of the retreat from Dunkirk strangely metamorphosed into a type of moral victory, and the heroically defiant survival of Malta had significant psychological benefits, but there was no doubting who had the strategic upper hand.

BUT ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE

But for the little "born optimist" none of this disturbed my child-like tranquillity. In fact, major events continued even against the background of war preparations. Major events like my first visit to Santa Claus at Mark Foys - the "Catholic" Department Store in its Italianate building with its tiled external walls. The huge display windows were boarded up against possible air raid damage - I must have been told why -I was ever asking questions - but I cannot recall any anxiety at that. After all, I was to see SANTA!

20th December,1942 - Grandma Dixon firmly holding my hand. Note the Cloth Coat she is wearing and the hat and dress - older people, particularly those who saw themselves as Working Class  "dressed their age"1