How do we explain ANZAC Day to little kids?

[onetrack]

OME - Those "non-combatant" badges are interesting, I never knew that they existed. My father was working in a temporary fill-in job in a galvanising works in early 1942, when the order came for all able-bodied men to join up.

He applied to join the RAAF as a diesel fitter, and was accepted. But the bosses of the galvanising works complained to his CO that he was needed for Manpower, as they had contracts for galvanising for U.S. Navy submarines (that were based in Fremantle port).

As a result, his CO called him in and berated him for not telling him he was required for Manpower work. Dad advised him he was unaware his job had been classified as Manpower.

Of course, the galvanising works bosses were using the "Prevent employees from leaving their employment" clause in the Manpower Regulations simply to ensure they had employees, because they struggled to source employees at the best of times, because it was such a sXXX job.

Constant working with dangerous acids, molten zinc, and regular molten metal explosions caused by moisture being admitted to molten zinc baths, meant it wasn't a job any one stuck with for long.

So he was stuck in the galvanising works for the duration of the War. The instant the War ended, and the Manpower Regulations were repealed, he was out of that place like a shot!

The galvanising works was so short of workers, the courts made juvenile delinquents carry out work in the galvanisers, and this led to Dad working with some real little scumbags!  

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/homefront/reserved_occupations

Edited April 6, 2021 by onetrack

[old man emu]

Isn't it odd? In the early stages of the war, they couldn't conscript men to fight outside Australia, but they could conscript people to work in reserved occupations.

 

In 1939, at the start of World War II, all unmarried men aged 21 were to be called up for three months' military training. These men could serve only in Australia or its territories. Conscription was effectively introduced in mid-1942, when all men aged 18–35, and single men aged 35–45, were required to join the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). Volunteers with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) scorned CMF conscripts as "chocolate soldiers", or "chockos", because they were believed to melt under the conditions of battle. Or it might be an allusion to George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, where Bluntschli filled his backpack with chocolate bars rather than ammunition. However, several CMF Militia units fought under difficult conditions and suffered extremely high casualties during 1942, in slowing the Japanese advance on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea (at the time an Australian territory).

 

The Papuan campaign of 1942 led to a significant reform in the composition of the Australian Army. During the campaign, the restriction banning CMF personnel from serving outside of Australian territory hampered military planning and caused tensions between the AIF and CMF. In late 1942 and early 1943 Prime Minister John Curtin overcame opposition within the Australian Labor Party to extending the geographic boundaries in which conscripts could serve to include most of the South West Pacific and the necessary legislation was passed in January 1943. The 11th Brigade was the only CMF formation to serve outside of Australian territory, however, when it formed part of Merauke Force in the Dutch East Indies during 1943 and 1944.

 

As a new Nation in the 1910s, the Government couldn't really afford to spend big on Defence, but all countries need to be able to defend themselves. Prior to Federation each Colony had its own Militia and "rowboat" navy. In 1909, the federal government of Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, introduced legislation for a form of conscription for boys from 12 to 14 years of age and for youths from 18 to 20 years of age for the purposes of home defence. The legislation, which passed with the combined support of the Protectionist Party and the Australian Labor Party, did not allow soldiers to be conscripted for overseas service. Following recommendations arising from a visit to Australia by Field Marshal Kitchener to report on the country's defence readiness, the Australian Labor Party government instituted a system of compulsory military training for all males aged between 12 and 26 from 1 January 1911. 

 

Much disliked, and much avoided, the provision of this training obviously gave a step up to fulltime soldiering when the first AIF volunteers stopped to train in Egypt, before being sent to Europe. The need to counter the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East and to protect the Suez Canal divert the ANZACs from Europe to participate in the Dardanelles campaign.

 

It seems to have always been Labor Party dogma that it is OK to conscript people to defend the Nation on its own soil, but to fight in foreign wars, a person must volunteer. That is, no doubt, the seed that grew into the Australian soldier's contempt for the trappings of military discipline. Early Australian NCOs were appointed from the ranks in many cases, simply through a person's exhibited leadership attributes. This is well expressed in this  poem by C J Dennis,  Ginger's Cobber written in 1916

Then comes Gallipoli an' wot Mick calls

"An orl-in push* fight multiplied by ten:'

An' one be one the orfficers they falls,

Until there's no one left to lead the men.

Fer 'arf a mo' they 'esitates stock still;

Fer 'oo's to lead 'em up the flamin' 'ill?

 

"Oo's to lead 'em if it ain't the bloke

"oo's 'eaded pushes* down in Spadger's Lane*,

Since 'e first learnt to walk an' swear an' smoke,

An' mix it willin'both fer fun and gain-

That narsty, ugly, vi'lent man, 'oo's got

Grip on the minds uv men when blood runs 'ot?

 

Mick led 'em; and be'ind 'im up the rise,

"Owlin' an' cursin', comes that mumma's boy,

'Is cobber, Keith, with that liik in 'is eyes

To give the 'eart uv any leader joy.

An' langwidge! If ''is mar at 'ome 'ad 'eard

She would 'a' threw a fit at ev'ry word

 

* 'push'  - 'pushes' Late 19th - early 20th Century street gang in Melbourne and Sydney

* Spadger's Lane - An imaginary street in the vicinity of Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. 

"Little Lon: was a notorious slum area. 

https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/such-was-life/on-the-shick-in-little-lon/

 

 

 

 

[willedoo]

There was a lot of peer pressure put on those still on home soil. My dad was tall for his age and looked 3 or 4 years older than his actual age. When he was 16 and 17, he would go to town and get picked on by old ladies in the street. They would admonish him for not being in the army, until he could explain that he wasn't old enough. With those attitudes in mind, and a long family history of military service, he couldn't wait to join up. The first two attempts were unsuccessful. On the first try, he was underage and on the second, he put his occupation down as farmer and was knocked back. On the third attempt, he listed his occupation as drover and was accepted. No doubt, the same peer pressure would have existed in WW1.

[facthunter]

My father was working making ferroalloy steels at Newcastle.  ALL output used for the war effort.The first place to be bombed would have been where he worked.  Newcastle was bombed but only by armour piercing shells mainly to put the frights up civilians and demoralise the population. It was at the same time as the midget submarines went into Sydney Harbour. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

30 minutes ago, facthunter said:

...The first place to be bombed would have been where he worked.  Newcastle was bombed but only by armour piercing shells mainly to put the frights up civilians and demoralise the population. It was at the same time as the midget submarines went into Sydney Harbour. Nev

That’s the major reason for a steel-making industry being set up in Lithgow- it was out of range of naval guns.

[facthunter]

The Major places were Newcastle and Port Kembla. for steel production. Ferro alloys were done in electric furnaces with giant carbon rods dipping in the metal. l know Lithgow made rifles. Nev