Previews - War Memoirs
Memoirs of a Survivor
Author: George Sten
ISBN: 0 646 28441 X
Publisher: George Sten
Address: 202/9-13 Bronte Road, Bondi Junction, NSW, 2022
In the spring of1941 the author was 17 living with his family - mother,
stepfather and grandmother - in Lvov. Missing his first girlfriend, passing
his higher school exam, he was trying to work out how to avoid his call-up
into the Russian Army. He was, along with his family, hoping to survive
the war under the Soviets, who unlike the Germans, were not engaging in
all out persecution of the Jews. But then all hell broke loose and the author's
life changed forever.
He, like millions of others, suffered at the hands of the forces sweeping
Europe. From the ghetto, he was forced to do one of the most difficult things
in his life - flee with his mother leaving his aging and crippled grandmother
behind.
Forced to live a life of deception to avoid detection, life was difficult.
Every moment was lived in terror of being found out. The merest slip and
a job or accommodation was instantly threatened and starting again elsewhere
the only option.
Eventually he found himself with the partisans, fighting the Russians and
fighting the Germans for a free Poland. But still the deception had to continue.
It was not only the Germans who disliked Jews in Poland.
In the spring of 1945, four years later, he was finally able to take up
university studies.
Like many personal stories of the survivors of the war years, this account
is personal, understated, honest and without malice. George Sten has along
with many other survivors learnt the value of surviving and the value of
peace and freedom, the hard way.
It offers genuine hope for mankind that from a man with some justification
for being resentful and bitter, we rather see a demonstration of practical
tolerance and learn again the importance of respecting the rights of others.
As with the stories of other survivors of World War II, it is a humbling
and moving read.
Botany Remembers 1945 and the War Years
Editor: Botany & District Historical Society
ISBN: 0 646 24780 8
Publisher: Botany & District Historical Society Inc.
Address: PO Box 414, Mascot, NSW, 2020
A collection of reminiscences of VP day and the war years compiled by
members of the Botany and District Historical Society drawing on the stories
of its members and those of other residents of Botany, this publication
was supported by the Department of Veterans' Affairs under its Australia
Remembers commemoration activities.
As Laurie Brereton, Member for Kingsford-Smith and Minister for Transport
and Industrial Relations in the Federal Government says in his foreward,
this book is a compilation of memories. For some people it was the first
time they had confronted their war-time memories in fifty years and "some
may interest you more than others".
For me, the most interesting are those that recount how the term "fuzzy
wuzzy angel" came into usage. Geoffrey Reading, a former "Truth"
correspondent, recalls how he came across the now famous poem by Bert Beros,
which, whilst sentimental, touched a chord that has endured to this day.
Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
Many a mother in Australia when the busy day is done
Sends a prayer to the Almighty for the keeping of her son
Asking that an angel guide him and bring him safely back
Now we see those prayers are answered on the Owen Stanley Track.
For they haven't any halos only holes slashed in their ears
And their faces worked by tattoos with scratch pins in their hair
Bringing back the badly wounded just as steady as a horse
Using leaves to keep the rain off and as gentle as a nurse
Slow and careful in the bad places on the awful mountain track
They look upon their faces would make you think Christ was black
Not a move to hurt the wounded as they treat him like a saint
It's a picture worth recording that an artist's yet to paint
Many a lad will see his mother and husbands see their wives
Just because the fuzzy wuzzy carried them to save their lives
From mortar bombs and machine gun fire or chance surprise attacks
To the safety and the care of doctors at the bottom of the track
May the mothers of Australia when they offer up a prayer
Mention those impromptu angels with their fuzzy wuzzy hair.
- Bert Beros
Like many of the publications that have been produced within the Australia
Remembers program, it provides a view of the life of ordinary Australians
living in extraordinary times; a collage of fragments and moments drawn
together into a mosaic that enlightens the reader about the fabric of Australian
society during the war years.
However, in my view this publication is not as successful as many others
have been. It is unfortunate that the editor and editorial committee did
not recognise that many of the contributors were not, nor would they confess
to be, writers. The publication would have benefitted considerably had many
of the contributors been provided some assistance in how they might most
effectively recount their stories.
However, as Laurie Brereton says in his foreward, it is an opportunity to
share the memories of those who contributed.
Road to Anywhere
Author: William Leah
ISBN: 0 646 27017 6
Publisher: Juliet Robertson
Address: PO Box 1029, Lea, PNG
With the allies advancing from the west and the Russians from the east,
the Germans took many prisoners of war out of their camps and marched them
in the snow heading for somewhere or nowhere on the road to anywhere.
William Leah was one of the soldiers who tramped the road to anywhere. After
ten months in a POW camp, like most of his companions he had already suffered.
The suffering on the road that followed was unendurable for many who, almost
starving, marching in the snow during one of the coldest winters in Europe
this century, died by the roadside.
Leah survived, but his feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated.
"Road to Anywhere" is his story.
Leah joined the British Army in 1931 in what was then known as the "boys'
service". After completing his training he was sent to Egypt where
he trained as a radio operator. 1936 saw him transferred to Singapore in
the British Royal Corps of Signals.
When the fall of Singapore was imminent in 1942 he was evacuated along with
a group of skilled tradesmen whom the authorities wished to prevent being
captured by the Japanese. They left by ship and after evading mines in the
harbour were bombed at sea. Many were killed, but several including Leah,
were picked up after several hours by a yacht. This story is covered in
Leah's first book "The Sultan's Curtain."
"Road to Anywhere" is the story of what followed that rescue.
As Leah was not able to contact many of the people who were part of his
story, in this book he has fictionalised all the names and appears as Charlie
Weir.
In September 1944, British and Polish Air-borne troops were dropped in an
infamous mission at Arnhem in the Netherlands in an attempt to capture the
Rhine bridges. Landing from a glider, Leah (the Weir of the book) took part
in the battle. Only about two thousand of the ten thousand or so who landed
at Arnhem succeeded in returning to England immediately after the battle
many with the assistance of the Resistance movements, particularly to the
Dutch Resistance.
Charlie Weir, after spending nine days in a field hospital not far from
the landing zone "became a guest of Adolf Hitler. But since the Fuehrer
was entertaining many guests at that time, the service was poor, the plumbing
bad, and cuisine somewhat below the standard usually associated with Europe.
And no toilet paper was provided."
In a writing style typified by understatement, "Road to Anywhere"
follows Weir in his tramp to anywhere, a tramp that continued for the participants
until death or liberation whichever was the earlier. For many it was until
death.
The extraordinary resilience of the human spirit is demonstrated time and
again as is the genuine compassion of most people no matter whether currently
described as enemy or not all alongside the unmitigated bestial horror of
war.
A journey through the worst and the best of people from both "sides",
Weir finds his anger at a witnessing an atrocity turning to empathy for
the local "enemy population". Marching through the bombed ruins
of a village recently devestated by the RAF, Weir wonders "if his feeling
of empathy with the unfortunate citizens constituted disloyalty. But he
could not suppress the feeling, nor could he work up any sense of enmity,
even when some of old men, poking among the ruins, stopped searching for
their belongings or for traces of their dear ones and throw pieces of debris
in the direction of the marchers."
A prisoner grins and gives the locals a "V" sign, to be quickly
chastised by his fellows: "No need for that Harry. It's horrible enough,
without rubbing it in."
Watching an innocent prisoner being shot to death Weir experiences a wave
of rage followed by a sickening sense of frustration that would have made
him vomit had his stomach not been so empty and reflects: "To recall
such events was no exercise for memory. Those hallowed words on war memorials:
'Lest we forget', the quasi-religious liturgy of ex-servicemen's' clubs,
were only for those who had not experienced anything that was unforgettable."
And yet Leah has forced himself to remember and in "Road to Anywhere"
those of us who have never experienced anything unforgettable can find much
to learn, especially humility in discovering again how deeply so many had
to give that we might not have to
experience the unforgettable.
Born to Fly
Author: AC Belford
ISBN: 0 646 27136 9
Publisher: Angus Belford
Address: 59 Sulman Road, Wembley Downs, WA, 6019
The story of one man's war, "Born to Fly" allows the reader
a box seat on missions over war-torn Europe, some smooth going in good flying
conditions but more often in dreadful weather and ultimately in a plane
with damaged engines, crippled wings and injured crew members as, against
all odds, it makes it back to allied territory with its injured crew.
"Born to Fly" explores the writer's reasons for taking part in
the war and his essential belief in his own immortality. Belford appreciates
that this belief is essential for crews to face the daunting odds confronting
Bomber Command aircrews over Europe. Without that conviction among the young
there could be no wars.
Belford and the other flyers all knew that the average number of sorties
before the dreaded "failed to return" sign appeared next to a
name was less than twenty, and that some failed to return on their first
trip. The law of averages decreed that some would complete the thirty or
so trips needed to complete their first tour. All fliers believed they were
in the latter category.
Growing up on the land in Western Australia, Belford early on determined
he would be a pilot. The outbreak of war provided the opportunity to train
and fly. Along with many other Australian fighter pilots he was posted to
Britain to bolster the ranks of the RAF. Retrained as a bomber pilot he
flew with the 463 RAAF Lancaster Squadron in 5 Group, Bomber Command.
In March 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for "courage
and determination above and beyond the call of duty" during a night
attack on an oil refinery near Leipzig, and reached his end-of-tour nineteen
days before VE Day.
No amount of training or simulated crises could reproduce the fear, suspense
and continuing stress of flying in flak and fighter defended territories,
in danger of collision with other aircraft at turning points in the dark,
plagued by storms and icing rain. But one sortie as passenger in a fighting
aircraft gave a new pilot the necessary benchmarks against which he could
rate the difficulties and dangers when he led his inexperienced crew into
battle after a little more practical flight training.
For Alan Beer his maiden trip was to be with Belford on the sortie that
earned Belford his DSO. If benchmarks and experience was the intention,
this sortie provided the full range. It was a sortie from which it was nothing
short of astonishing that anyone survived. Along with Alan the reader becomes
a passenger on this terrifying sortie - but for Beer and all of Belford's
crew the reward was living, for the reader the reward is insight.
Whilst the crew depends on the skill of the pilot for survival, equally
the pilot depends on the skill of each and every crew member. Without the
brilliance and self control of crew members like navigator Doug Wheeler
the sortie would have ended in disaster. Without the ability of all the
crew to fight fear and panic Belford as the pilot would not have been able
to bring the plane through.
Above all, the crew put their own lives at risk to avoid parachuting into
enemy territory with one wounded crew member unconsious. Their determination
to make it back to safe territory so the wounded had some chance of survival
very nearly killed them all but in the end this support for each other made
it possible for Belford to remove the sign against their names, "Failed
to return".
Belford brings to the reader an understanding of something that one fervently
hopes no-one will again have to experience.
This book is the story of one man's war. Doubtless his story is common to
many many fliers who failed to return and to many who did. Their stories
must be told. Lest we forget.
The Life and Times of the 2/7th Australian Armoured Regiment
Editor: M T Lewis
ISBN: 0 646 25213 5
Publisher: 2/7th Australian Armoured Regiment Association
Address: 29 Crown Road, Pymble, NSW, 2073
In the preface, Major General CMI Pearson writes: "In any Army
a soldier needs a home, a home which nurtures . . . by providing food, clothing,
equipment and above all comradeship to sustain him in adversity."
This is the story of one such home, the 2/7th Armoured Regiment, formed
in World War II, trained to fight in open warfare in the Middle East but
with destiny overtaking this objective when Japan entered the War and made
such rapid thrusts towards Australia.
One of the projects supported under the program "Australia Remembers
1945-1995", like many others so supported it is a valuable addition
to the writing of Australian history.
These micro views of history effectively allow the reader to participate
in the events under consideration. As they are not the so-called (but impossible
to achieve) objective recountings of campaigns of war, supported by dry
statistics, dates and recordings of events, the reader is able to gain some
appreciation of what it was like to be part of these events.
This story does, however, include sufficient background to enable an unfamiliar
reader to gain a pespective on the progress of the war as a whole and not
only from the point of view of the 2/7th Armoured Regiment.
The biographies of many of the more colourful members of the Regiment, largely
comprising reminiscences contributed by fellow members of the Regiment,
make this story a particularly personal one.
As with other projects in the "Australia Remembers" program, it
gives the reader cause for pause to discover again the strength of these
largely ordinary men caught up in extraordinary times.
The editor of this volume has summed it up effectively when he writes: "Although
this book may not be all things to all people, let's hope that future generations
may occasionally enjoy reading it, even as they wonder what a weird mob
we were."
We fail to read our history at our own peril. Lest we forget.
A Life So Nobly Given
Authors: Chris & Louise Harkness
ISBN: 0 86412 029 0
Address: PO Box 131, Cremorne, NSW, 2090
The Syrian Campaign was an important but little known part of World
War II. This book tells of the men of the 2/5th Field Company, 7th Division,
AIF, who fought against the Vichy French and, in particular, a young Sydney
architect, Lieutenant (later Captain) James Moore Henderson who lost his
life during this campaign.
Jimmie (James) Henderson came from a well established architectural family
in Sydney and the book is authored by his neice, born just before his death.
His story is one of many of the stories of the Middle East campaigns of
World War II. It is the story of a man with a professional life before him
who used to the limit his architectural and engineering skills to further
the war effort of his country.
Had his unit been more adequately equipped Jimmie Henderson might well be
alive today instead of meeting his death in a burst of enemy fire while
reconnoitring a forward position before Merdjayoun on June 9, 1941.
Like all professional soldiers he was doing what he had chosen to do. His
years in the militia had trained him for the war and he accepted and faced
his responsibilities.
Special to his family, friends and those who served with him, he was typical
of hundreds of young men who grew up through the Great Depression and went
to war. This biography not only illuminates the life of the author's uncle
but gives an insight into the lives of so many talented young Australians
lived between the twenties and the forties, often so tragically ending in
the forties.
As an architect and working as an engineer, Jimmie Henderson's story shows
an aspect of warfare not so often recorded. Essentially not involved in
front line fighting, the engineer divisions were often in areas well ahead
of the fighting in anticipation of the front moving, ensuring that the necessary
infrastructure for the defence - roads, landing strips, accommodation and
so on - was constructed and in readiness for action. Dangerous but not seemingly
so on a day to day basis. As Jimmie said in one letter home, somewhat understating
the reality: "I have not seen any real fighting yet but there is the
spice of danger all the time."
The enormous engineering feats undertaken in astonishingly difficult circumstances
make peacetime civil engineering undertakings pale into insignificance.
Not only embarked upon in war zones, many of the construction sites were
under the authority of men so young and inexperienced that in peacetime
they would have waited years for similar professional opportunities. Architects
and engineers, like James Henderson, only recently graduated and with little
peacetime professional experience were in charge of major works commanding
workforces of hundreds of men in terrain and climatic conditions that were
unfamiliar and working with people often with no common language, at times
under fire. Added to all that was the unreliability or total lack of support
supplies.
An Appendix tells an hilarious story of the acquisition of a steam roller.
Practically farcical, this ludicrous minor chapter (or small saga) in the
story of road building in the Middle East is illustrative of the trials
and tribulations of engineers in war. So desperate were the engineers for
supplies that the mere mention of a steam roller was enough to send out
a reconnaissance team to locate it. That it was, after a couple of weeks,
located in a virtually inaccessible valley, inoperable, occupied by a family
and all its livestock was but a mere irritation. The operation to secure
this steam roller took weeks, was extremely eventful, finally had to be
abandoned and resulted in a damages suit for loss of a valuable family residence
documented in a file that grew inches thick and travelled from the snows
of Lebanon to the jungles of New Guinea.
Another Appendix provides an accont of the achievements of the architectural
family firm, Hennessy and Hennessy, of which Henderson was a part.
As Brigadier Charles Flint OBE says in the preface: "What a great pity
it was that the Nation was robbed of so much talent." A story not unique
to Australia, around the world millions of talented lives were ended all
too soon.
In the letter from Buckingham Palace to Henderson's parents, King George
prays "that your country's gratitude for a life so nobly given in its
service may bring you some measure of consolation."
As I Remember
Editors: Woollahra History and Heritage Society
ISBN: 0 9587948 9 8
Address: PO Box 61, Double Bay, NSW, 2028
"As I Remember" is an official book of the Australia Remembers
1945-1995 program, to commemorate World War II.
The Woollahra area of Sydney was the only area of the city to have any direct
experience of war with the midget submarine suicide raid into Sydney Harbour
on the nights of May 31/June 1, 1942, followed by the shelling on the nights
of June 7/8.
"As I Remember" is prefaced by a brief history of the area during
the war and concludes with a thought provoking and sobering piece on what
could have happened during the war but for a couple of critical strategical
miscalculations by the Axis nations.
The stories range across those who were involved in active duty to those
who were young children at the time. Vince Marinato experienced the war
as both a schoolboy and then as a soldier. The night of the shelling of
the eastern suburbs, he sat a lonely vigil by his grandmother's bed as she
was lain out in a room facing the harbour, destined not to know of the action
taking place outside. His memories of his service years range from the touching,
to the humourous to the profoundly disturbing - from God give thanks to
Mr Bushell for his tea, to despair at the lives lost in a needless gun battle
between Australian and American soldiers travelling together from Townsville.
From classrooms draped with camouflage nets filled with young girls knitting
khaki wool into balaclavas for the Australian Comforts Fund, to stories
of burning wooden benches to keep warm in concrete floored train carriages
in the middle east, to the bombings and life in air raid shelters in England,
this small volume of recollections brings another insight into what life
during war is for ordinary people.
Spitfires Over Darwin
Author: Jim Grant
ISBN: 0 646 23632 6
Address: 124/461 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Vic, 3004
"Spitfires Over Darwin" is a personal account of someone who
experienced life in an Air Force camp during the defence of Darwin against
Japanese air attacks during World War II.
Whilst part of the author's determination to see this book completed was
to redress some of the misinformation provided to the Australian public
about the defense of Darwin, for many readers myself included, it will be
the first time they learn in detail of this significant but little known
campaign.
For most Australians born after World War II, their knowledge of the war
fought on Australian shores is limited to the midgit sub attack in Sydney
Harbour and the fact that Darwin was bombed. Over and out. For the most
part, Australian high school students leave school with a scant understanding
of the war in New Guinea, the battles in the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, the
fall of Singapore, the Burma Railway and Changi but any knowledge of action
in the Northern Territory is likely to be summarised in one sentence.
This book will more than rectify that gap. But equally importantly, it draws
a detailed picture of what involvement in such a campaign meant for those
involved - many only just out of school themselves. For many of the young
Australian involved their tour of duty in the UK was less confronting than
their tour of duty on home shores. England was better known to them than
was the Northern Territory. To leave Australia for the foreign shores of
England was one thing, to return to their own shores and find what amounted
to a foreign land was another. The conditions in the Northern Territory
were as alien to boys from the southern Australian states as they were to
the British troops.
Reading histories of the war, and especially watching war films, it is so
easy to forget that for many troops their usual occupation was that of waiting
in readiness. Not action - but waiting for it. War films have, in the quest
to deliver excitement, drawn the portraits of those front line heroes, not
the backroom boys on whom the successes of the front line heroes depended.
The romanticised euphoria which surrounds the now popularised understanding
of fighter operations belongs only in Hollywood films. "Spitfires Over
Darwin" tells the story from the ground. It takes up the heroism of
the backroom boys, those who maintained and serviced planes as well as the
ones that took them into action.
"Spitfires Over Darwin" is written by a man who was present at
the defence of Darwin campaign, but Jim Grant has not relied solely on his
own experiences. This book is a well researched narrative of the Spitfires
in action against the best planes of the Japanese forces. It draws upon
personal experience, interviews with those involved and extensive work in
the archives reading Squadrom, Wing and other intelligence reports to draw
a detailed picture of the combats between the Spitfires of No. 1 Fighter
Wing and the Japanese.
Although considered the glamour plane of the war, the Spitfires deployed
to defend the north-west of Australia had been modified for desert conditions
and were unsuited for the tropics in which they were now expected to perform.
The pilots were young, with very few experienced fighter pilots, and many
had no combat experience at all.
Despite the handicaps and the conditions, the performance of No. 1 Fighter
Wing on the basis of the number of enemy planes downed compared favourably
to the Battle of Britain.
Written with a laconic sense of humour that was obviously a major advantage
in surviving a war, "Spitfires Over Darwin" provides a fascinating
insight into war. From technical details about plane failures, to the problems
of servicing them in such an isolated area, to methods for filling in time
(from washing clothes a lot, necessitated by the heat and the wet, to snake
building competitions which tested the domino theory with mah jong tiles),
Jim Grant opens a door into the private lives of those involved. Securing
appropriate screws critical for a plane to function was just as important
as working out latrine duty - blowing either could jeopardise your life,
the former with accidents, the latter with disease, or as the contents were
fireballed, with accidents.
Finally "Spitefires Over Darwin" is a testament to the valour,
ingenuity, resilience, tenacity and goodwill of the men of No. 1 Fighter
Wing in defending their country. A well researched and balanced account,
it should be of interest to many Australians.
- If you'd like to purchase a copy of one of the books listed above please
contact the publisher directly. Their address is just under the title's
listing.
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