Interview with John Drennan (When the war came to Australia)

Mr John Drennan was seven years old when the war broke out and describes his experiences while living near munitions plants and army camps in Adelaide. Mr Drennan remembers his school work which was related to the war as well as fundraising efforts and air raid drills at school. Being so young Mr Drennan notes that the Germans and the Japanese did not occupy his thoughts. He describes his family's air raid shelter. Mr Drennan discusses the war games he played with his friends. He mentions propaganda in newspapers and at school. Mr Drennan discusses food rationing. During the war he contracted yellow jaundice and his doctor prescribed a ration of rice. Mr Drennan talks about his community in which most of the people worked at Holden in reserved occupations as they made tools and bombs etc throughout the war years. Mr Drennan recalls that one weekend two American servicemen were billeted with his family. He discusses rationing - clothing and petrol. Mr Drennan notes that the community he was in never feared a Japanese invasion. He vaguely describes his recollections of the raids in Darwin and mentions that his uncle received the George Cross. As he was a child, Mr Drennan remembers the war years as being an exciting, rather than threatening, time. He remembers the sobering experience of seeing the Japanese Midget submarine when it was brought to Adelaide.