4.1 Why was Australia involved in World War II? · 4.1 Why was Australia involved in World War II?...

Austral ia in the 20th Century Chapter 4 Austral ia and World War I I

Copyright © Mark Anderson and Paul Ashton 2004. Published by Macmillan Education Australia. Unauthorised copying prohibited.

Working historically

4.1 Why was Australia involved in World War II?

Comprehension

1 Who was:

a Adolf Hitler?

b Benito Mussolini?

c Robert Menzies?

d John Curtin?

3 On what date did World War II begin in Europe?

Analysis and use of sources

1 How does source 4.3 explain why Australia became involved in World War II?

2 What do you think was the purpose of Menzies’ announcement on 4 September 1939?

3 What care should historians take when using source 4.3?

4 How does source 4.6 explain why Australia became involved in war against Japan?

Perspectives and interpretations

1 What do you learn about Menzies’ perspective from reading source 4.3?

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2 Compare Menzies’ announcement with Curtin’s (source 4.6). How are they similar and different?

Empathetic understanding

1 What do we learn about the attitudes of Australians in 1939 from source 4.3?

2 How would have Australians reacted to Menzies’ announcement?

Comprehension

1 Who was:

a Thomas Blamey?

b Erwin Rommel?

2 Where is:

a Tobruk?

b El Alamein?




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4.2 What were some of the experiences of Australians as a result of their involvement in the war?

Comprehension

1 Why was control of Libya important to the war effort?

2 When did Rommel arrive in Tripoli?

3 What was the name of Rommel’s army?

4 What is a panzer?

5 What fighting tactic did the Australians use against the Germans in Tobruk?

6 Describe the conditions faced by the Australians at Tobruk.

7 For how long were the Australians under siege at Tobruk?

8 Explain how the Australians gained the name ‘Rats of Tobruk’.

10 For how many months were the ‘Rats’ at Tobruk?




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Comprehension

1 Answer true or false to these statements.

a No Australian women became prisoners of war.

b Approximately 31 000 Australians became prisoners of war.

c Changi is in Singapore.

d Only Australian prisoners of war worked on the Burma–Thailand railway.

e Approximately 2000 prisoners of war survived Sandakan.

2 Sequence these events in correct chronological order:

Prisoners taken to Sandakan

Fall of Singapore

Changi becomes a prisoner of war camp

Sandakan death marches commence

Australians taken from Changi to work on the Burma–Thailand railway


1 Is source 4.16 a primary or secondary source?

2 How do sources 4.17, 4.18 and 4.19 help you to understand the experiences of Australian prisoners of war?

3 What care should historians take when using sources 4.17 and 4.18?




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4 How do sources 4.20, 4.21 and 4.23 help you to understand the experiences of Australian prisoners of war?


1 If you had been an Australian prisoner of war in Changi, how would you have felt?

2 What was the attitude of the Japanese towards prisoners of war at this time?

3 How would the possibility of defeat have influenced the Japanese in charge of prisoners at Sandakan?

4 Why is it important for us, living 60 years after World War II, to appreciate the experiences of Australians who were ‘prisoners of Nippon’?

Comprehension

1 How many Australian women volunteered to serve as nurses during World War II?

2 What were the names of the three main nursing services?

3 When was the hospital ship Centaur sunk?

4 Name the boat on which Vivian Bullwinkel and other nurses escaped from Singapore.

5 What was the fate of the 65 nurses on the Vyner Brooke?




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1 How does source 4.28 help us to understand the experience of Vivian Bullwinkel?

2 Why is source 4.28 so important to historians investigating the experiences of nurses who fled Singapore on the Vyner Brooke?


1 From reading source 4.36, how do you think Vivian Bullwinkel would have felt?

2 List four words to describe your feelings about Vivian Bullwinkel.

Comprehension

1 When was the first air raid on Darwin?

2 How many times was Darwin bombed during World War II?


1 From where would the Courier Mail (source 4.32) have obtained its information?

2 What care should historians take when using source 4.32 as evidence about the bombing of Darwin?

3 List the facts in source 4.32 that help you to understand the impact of the bombing of Darwin.

4 When was source 4.33 created?




5 How does source 4.33 assist your understanding of the bombing of Darwin?


1 In what ways does the Courier Mail’s interpretation (source 4.32) of the bombing differ from Hasluck’s in source 4.33?

2 Why would the Courier Mail’s interpretation differ from Hasluck’s interpretation?

Empathetic understandingWhat do you think was Curtin’s motive for saying that ‘Australian forces and civilians conducted themselves with gallantry’.

Comprehension

1 On what date did Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney Harbour?

2 How many midget submarines were involved?

3 Name the Australian boat sunk during the attack on Sydney Harbour.


1 When was source 4.38 first published?

2 From where do you think the Sydney Morning Herald would have gained the information to write the story?

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3 How does this source describe the damage done during the attack? How accurate is this description?

Perspectives and interpretationsSource 4.38 describes the harbour defences as being ‘promptly aware’ of the entry of the submarines and responding ‘rapidly and efficiently’. Steven Carruthers in his 1982 book Australia Under Siege: Japanese Submarine Raiders 1942 states: ‘From the time the first Japanese midget submarine was discovered in the Harbour, an incredible two hours passed before the Admiral-in-Charge raised the alarm … Unlike the attacks on Darwin and Pearl Harbor, no official inquiry was held into the shameful handling of defences.’

1 Why would the Herald’s interpretation of the defences be different from Curruthers’ view?

2 Whose interpretation would you support? Why?

3 Why would there not have been an official inquiry into the handling of the attack on Sydney Harbour?

Empathetic understandingHow would Australians living in Sydney in 1942 have reacted to the news of the submarine attack?




Comprehension

1 What was an ‘alien’ in Australia at the outbreak of war?

2 Who were enemy aliens?


1 When was source 4.39 created and what was happening at this time?

2 What do we learn about those arrested as enemy aliens from this source?

3 Why would the sentence ‘In several cases, wanted persons were in possession of revolvers’ have been included in the report? What was the intended purpose of this?

4 Look at source 4.40. What is shown in this source?


1 Explain the attitude of Australians towards enemy aliens during World War II.

2 If you had been a member of the family shown in source 4.40, how would you have felt about internment? What impact would it have had on your life?

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Comprehension

1 Who was the prime minister at the outbreak of World War II?

2 Name the Act passed in 1939 that gave the federal government extra powers during wartime.

3 What was the role of the Production Executive of Cabinet?

4 When was petrol rationing introduced?

5 When did the federal government take full control of income tax?

6 What does PAYE stand for?

7 How did the government make sure that the Commonwealth Bank would follow government policy?

8 What was the purpose of the proposed 1942 referendum?

9 What was the result of the 1944 referendum?

10 Other than petrol, what else was rationed during wartime?


1 Read source 4.43.

a Explain why state governments became dependent on the federal government for funds.

b What evidence is there to support the view that the federal government had increased powers during World War II?

2 Read source 4.45. List two groups of workers who were on strike.



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3 How did Curtin describe the workers who refused to accept the government’s directions?

4 Read source 4.46. How did Fadden try to persuade people to vote ‘No’?

Comprehension1 Does the Australian Constitution list specific rights for citizens?

2 What powers did the Defence Acts of 1903 and 1904 give the federal government?

3 What is a militia?

4 What does CMF stand for and what was its purpose?

5 What is a ‘conscientious objector’?

6 What attacks were made on Australia by Japan in 1942?

7 When was the Defence (CMF) Bill passed and what powers did it give the federal government?


1 Look at source 4.48.

a What did Cabinet feel was inequitable about the voluntary system?

b What was ‘a sound democratic principle’ mentioned by Menzies?

c What was the ‘question for Cabinet?’



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d What did Cabinet decide?

2 Look at source 4.49. How does it help your understanding of the zone for conscripted service?

Empathetic understandingIf you were in Menzies’ Cabinet, what advice would you have given the prime minister on ways to increase recruitment?

Comprehension

1 What was the name of the government department responsible for censorship?

2 Who was Arthur Calwell and what was his attitude towards the press?

3 Who was Horace Mansell and what was his role?

4 Who was Rupert Henderson and how did he view the government’s censorship?

5 Why did the Daily Telegraph print blank space in the 15 April 1944 edition?

6 How did the newspaper owners react to the censorship of the Daily Telegraph?

7 Who would have ordered the Commonwealth Police to take action?



8 Why did the newspaper owners go to the High Court?

9 What was the ruling of the High Court?

10 Did the ruling of the High Court end censorship?


1 Look at source 4.51. What does this show about censorship?

2 Read source 4.52.

a Was the editor of the Daily Telegraph totally against censorship? Quote evidence from the source to support your answer.

b What do you think is meant by ‘Because there is public enlightenment in the democracies there is public confidence’?

3 Read source 4.54.

a List three things that censorship had prevented the newspaper reporting.

b What evidence is there to support the view that the government was using censorship to prevent criticism of itself?

4 Use source 4.55.

a What do you think is meant by ‘Mr Calwell turned a page in Australian history by using this power to suppress a newspaper which had dared to criticise his tinpot dictatorship’?




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b How did the editorial try to persuade its audience that censorship could affect them?

c What issue was the editorial referring to in the final sentence?

d What adjective is used to describe Calwell? Why would this have been used by the editor?

Comprehension

1 What led to more Australian women joining the workforce?

2 Why did the number of women working in factories making civilian goods fall?

4 What women’s services do these initials represent: AAMWS, AWAS, VAD?

5 List three non-traditional jobs women undertook during the war.


1 What is shown in source 4.58?

2 What was the purpose of source 4.58?

3 Read source 4.59. How does this source help our understanding of the Women’s Land Army?



4 Look at sources 4.60, 4.61 and 4.62. How do these sources assist an investigation of the roles of women during World War II?


6 How does source 4.64 try to achieve its purpose?



1 What attitude towards women is presented in source 4.65?

2 Andee Wright, writing about the Australian Women’s Weekly during World War II, said this:

During the early war years, up to 1942, homemaking and motherhood remained the most important job. As the need for increased supplies of female labour became paramount, the magazine began to change the image of its heroine. As long as women were needed in the workforce, magazine propaganda painted an attractive image of the working woman. But as soon as the war was over, the working woman ceased to exist for the Women’s Weekly, being replaced by the bride.

How does this interpretation help you to understand the changing roles of women?




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4.4 How did Australia’s relationship with Britain and the USA change during World War II?

Comprehension

1 Place these events in correct chronological order: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; Curtain makes his ‘Australia looks to America’ announcement; signing of Canberra Pact; fall of Singapore.

2 What led to a dispute between Curtin and Churchill?

3 What led to resentment of American soldiers?


1 When was source 4.66 created and what was happening at this time?

2 Why is source 4.66 useful to historians investigating Australia’s relationship with Britain and the USA during World War II?



5 What does source 4.69 suggest about Australia in comparison with the USA?



6 Describe the symbols used in source 4.70.

Perspectives and interpretationsMenzies was the Leader of the Opposition when Curtin made the ‘Australia looks to America’ announcement. He described Curtin’s announcement as ‘a great blunder’ that would damage Australia’s ties with Britain. Why would Menzies have had this perspective?


1 What was Curtin’s motive when he said, ‘But we know, too, that Australia can go, and Britain can still hang on’?

2 How would the fall of Singapore have influenced Australians’ view of Curtin’s decision to ‘look to America’?

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