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Salute to the Aussie Digger (2005)

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Second World War

Clip description

In this track, 'World War 2’, narrator Jack Thompson gives an overview of the involvement of Australian armed forces in the Second World War. The music is 'Mars Reprise’ from Holst’s orchestral suite 'The Planets’. Also featured is an extract from Prime Minister Menzies’s declaration of war speech of 3 September 1939, and sound effects supplied by the Australian War Memorial.

Curator’s notes

by Maryanne Doyle

Soon after the opening words the music begins and the undertone behind the narration sets a dramatic and ominous atmosphere. The brass gradually builds and suggests a marching army that is growing in numbers and strength and a conflict that is inevitable.

The mix of the music with sound effects from the collection of the Australian War Memorial effectively intensifies the oppressive mood as the sound of jackboots marching in time with the music segues into an extract of a speech by Adolf Hitler. We soon hear the voice of Australian Prime Minister Menzies from his national radio broadcast in September 1939, when he informs the nation that Great Britain has declared war on Germany and so Australia is also at war.

The words ‘for the first time in white history, Australia came under direct attack’ reflect the changed perspective on Australian history that entered the mainstream following the Mabo High Court case which overturned the concept of terra nullius. It serves as a pertinent example of how our perception and interpretation of historical events changes over time (see Mabo: An Address to the Nation, 1993).

British composer Gustav Holst wrote the orchestral suite 'The Planets’ between 1914 and 1916. It was first performed in 1920, by the London Symphony Orchestra. 'Mars, the Bringer of War’ is the first movement. This music may remind film fans of composer John Williams’s 'Imperial March’, which he wrote for Star Wars (1977). Williams references the work of a number of famous composers in his soundtracks.

It was believed that World War One was the war to end all wars. Australians grew up with stories from the last war, and had their character shaped by the Great Depression. They could do a lot with very little.

Defence was allowed to run down. Australia’s population was seven million in the vast land. Japan’s and Germany’s armies were significantly enlarged.

On the 3rd of September, 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced:

Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that as a result, Australia is also at war.

Almost a million Australians served in World War Two. Australians fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean, and North Africa. And against Japan in South-East Asia and in other parts of the Pacific.

For the first time in white history, the Australian mainland came under direct attack, when Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-western Australia, and attacked Sydney Harbour with midget submarines. While the Royal Australian Navy had entered the war against Italy in June 1940 and Australians flew in the Battle of Britain that same year, the Australian Army did not enter the conflict until 1941 when the Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Divisions joined Allied operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa. They had early successes against Italian forces but then suffered defeat at the hands of the Germans in Greece and setbacks in North Africa.