The war that shaped Australia

The war that shaped Australia

“My Dear Mother … I entered this war with the knowledge that I had a rather small chance of coming out of it alive. I was under no false impression – I knew I had to kill – and perhaps be killed. Since I commenced flying I have spent probably the happiest time of my life … Above all, Mother dear, I have proved to my satisfaction that I was, at least, a man.”

Twenty-year-old John “Jack” Yarra wrote this letter to be sent to his mother in the event of his death. He was killed six months later.

Australia’s attention is currently focused on the Centenary of the First World War, and one might be forgiven for assuming that Yarra was talking about the Great War. Certainly many of the young Australians who served and died in that terrible conflict expressed similar thoughts when they went off to war. But it was Yarra’s father who was a decorated Gallipoli and Western Front veteran. As for Jack Yarra, he was just one of the millions who perished in what became the most destructive war in human history – the Second World War.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. Sunday, 3 September 1939, was Fathers’ Day, but for most Australians the day was filled with anxiety and apprehension rather than celebration. Church congregations at morning services seemed larger than normal, and families gathered around radios waiting for what seemed like the inevitable. The Great War, fought between 1914 and 1918, was supposed to have been the war to end all wars, yet once again the world was on the brink of conflict.

At 9.15 pm Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies delivered an address to the nation: “It is my melancholy duty to inform you”, he began, that as a result of Germany’s invasion of Poland, “Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that as a result, Australia is at war.” It was never doubted that Australia would play an active role in the war to come.

While the causes for the outbreak of war in 1914 are still hotly debated, as recent discussions in Britain and Australia have shown, there is no ambiguity about the outbreak of the Second World War. Both Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the 1930s and were unwilling and unable to intervene militarily against their subsequent aggression. However, following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Britain and France, who had made Anglo–French guarantees to defend Poland, delivered an ultimatum to Hitler demanding the withdrawal of German forces. Germany had three days to comply; it did not. On 3 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany. About an hour later, Menzies delivered his announcement.

The war lasted six long years. It was a clash of ideologies. It was a conflict that the western Allies – principally the British Commonwealth and the United States – had to win to preserve democratic rights and personal freedoms. On the Eastern Front the war between Nazism and Communism became a struggle of near extermination. The Allies’ hard-fought defeat of Germany, Italy, and Japan came at a heavy cost. Parts of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific were devastated, tens of millions of people were displaced, and at least 60 million people died, including an estimated six million who perished as a result of the Holocaust.

Australia played its part in the Allied victory. From a population of just seven million, almost one million Australians – men and women – enlisted and more than half a million served overseas. They were posted across the world: from the deserts of North Africa to the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union; from the skies over occupied Europe to the jungles of Malaya and New Guinea.

Closer to home, the Japanese occupied Australian New Guinea, and the Australian mainland was bombed nearly 100 times during the course of the war. Northern Australia bore the brunt of this assault but the Japanese also attacked Sydney Harbour and Newcastle. Some Australians understandably feared a Japanese invasion.

The burden of Australia’s participation fell heavily on many families. All three sons of Alfred and Harriet Yarra’s six children enlisted. Their two eldest would be killed. Jack Yarra enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in late 1940. He trained in Canada and became a decorated Spitfire pilot. He flew in the defence of Malta before being posted to Britain. He was killed flying off the coast of Holland on 10 December 1942. Robert “Bob” Yarra also joined the RAAF. He was posted to Britain, joining his brother’s squadron, and on 14 April 1944 he was killed when his plane was shot down over France. The youngest Yarra son, James, volunteered for the army and fought on Borneo in 1945. The boys’ father, Alfred Yarra, enlisted in his second war, and served in the army.

Jack and Bob Yarra were two of the approximately 40,000 Australians killed during the Second World War. More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war.

On the home front the Australian government mobilised its population, economy, and industry for total war. Prime Minister John Curtin’s mantra became “All-in!” Rationing was introduced and the federal government enacted a series of unprecedented restrictions and controls over the daily lives of Australians.

It was also a time of great social change – most obviously for women. More than 66,000 enlisted and thousands more began working in factories and other traditionally male occupations. Many women gave up their positions when peace came in 1945 but fostered in their daughters the spirit of independence and equality that helped drive the women’s movements of the 1960s.

Indigenous Australians serving in uniform likewise began to experience a greater level of equality with white Australia. At least 3,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples served directly in the military and thousands of men were employed as labourers in northern Australia. This interaction, of course, was reciprocal; for the first time many white Australians were exposed to and developed an appreciation for Aboriginal customs and traditions.

Australia also saw a period of engineering and technical achievement. For a country that was yet to build a mass-produced motor car, Australia’s industry rapidly modernised and expanded during the war. The country manufactured aircraft, landing craft, and armoured vehicles, and this industrialisation helped form the basis for Australia’s economic prosperity in the years following 1945.

Australia came out of the Second World War confident and with an independent outlook. It enjoyed a more sophisticated relationship with Britain and found in the United States a new and powerful ally. The influx of postwar migration from Britain and war-torn Europe forever diversified Australia’s population and society.

Australia may have emerged from the Great War with a sense of national identity, but it was also a divided society and one in mourning. Australia experienced great losses in the First World War, too, but it was the Second World War that shaped modern Australia.

Karl James

Dr Karl James is a senior historian at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

This article was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 September 2014