Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This silent colour film clip from 1941 is one of prime minister Robert Menzies’s home movies. It shows scenes from his wartime tour of the Middle East while en route to England. The British ambassador and then Menzies are seen descending the steps from King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, each accompanied by an Egyptian official. An intertitle lists the places Menzies visited next. He inspects lines of troops in a desert setting and films Hurricane aeroplanes from the air. He is then shown talking to uniformed army officers and to pilots standing beside the planes. There are camouflaged huts in the background.

Educational value points

• This clip is a valuable colour record of the visit of the then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies (1894–1978) to the Middle East soon after Australian troops had achieved victories against the Italians early in the Second World War. Menzies is shown with troops at Bardia and Tobruk in February 1941, and joining the 6th Division units and their commanding officers after they had taken Benghazi in the first successful land campaign since the outbreak of the War.

• The main purpose of Menzies’s trip was to visit Britain to persuade the British Government to take a stronger role in defending South-East Asia against the advance of the Japanese. Menzies believed that Britain had neglected the defence of Singapore during the 1930s, leaving Australia vulnerable now that Japanese troops were moving rapidly southward through Indochina.

• The senior officers seen in the clip had played significant command roles in the 6th Division’s successful Western Desert campaign in Libya in January and February 1941. They include lieutenant-generals Sir Iven Mackay (1882–1966), Sir Edmund Herring (1892–1982) and Sir Stanley Savige (1890–1954), and major-general George Vasey (1895–1945).

• The planes shown escorting Menzies’s plane to Benghazi were Hawker Hurricanes, monoplane fighters that had proved their capabilities during the Battle of Britain in August 1940 when they had downed more enemy aircraft than all other defences combined, including all other aircraft and ground defences. First produced for the Royal Air Force in 1937, the Hawker proved to be a very strong, versatile and successful fighter, remaining in service until January 1947.

• The clip is part of a unique colour film record left by a serving Australian prime minister, providing a detailed visual record of his experiences. It suggests a man who was aware of his role in history and keen that it be recorded on film. While he filmed most of his own footage, his staff filmed the scenes in which he is shown, using Menzies’s own 16-mm movie camera loaded with Kodachrome colour film.