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Post by Sir John on May 4, 2013 1:56:37 GMT -5
Another little anecdote.
The first shots fired in both WW1 and WW2, were both fired by a coastal battery at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay near Melbourne.
On both occasions , a German ship was making a run for it out of the bay when the battery was advised of the outbreak of war a few minutes prior. A few shots across the bow and the ships stopped.
SJ
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Post by Sir John on May 4, 2013 14:47:37 GMT -5
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Post by Sir John on May 4, 2013 14:52:12 GMT -5
PS,
Catholic Archbishop Mannix was a VERY powerful and influential man in Australia in 1939. His patronage was enough to get things done ASABP.
I always thought they billeted out the kids to German families only, but not so.
SJ
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Post by mcnoch on May 4, 2013 16:17:57 GMT -5
SJ, the sailor suit was in fact the uniform for all boys during the Wilhelminian period. It was part of the subliminal militarization of the society and made the naval arms race with the UK possible. Back in 1902 a special tax was introduced to pay for this new German Navy, the sparkling wine tax. During the economic crisis in the late 20s this tax was suspended, but re-introduced in 1939 to pay for the U-Boats. This tax still exists today as part of the federal budget. With that money we could buy every two years a new Bismarck battleship. Then more boys would have to wear the sailor suit again.
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Post by Sir John on May 4, 2013 18:04:41 GMT -5
Matthias, We had some internment camps for German, Italian and Japanese civilians, but nothing on the scale of the USA. I presume that our security people had a dossier on many or most, and the ones under suspicion ended up in camps, usually in the same area of Victoria, though some, including the Jewish refugees on the 'Dunera' were interned at the town of Hay in NSW. "The Dunera Boys" became famous after WW2 in many fields of endeavour. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMT_DuneraA fascinating story. SJ
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Post by griffin on May 5, 2013 22:12:04 GMT -5
There was one book I have about a Green Beret who had been captured. His first name was Nick. He finally broke away and was rescued years after being captured.
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Post by mcnoch on May 5, 2013 23:55:24 GMT -5
SJ, yes, I believe Australia had less a problem with immigrants from Germany, Italy and Japan. The UK also interned only aliens, while the USA also interned naturalized aliens from Japan and had much bigger numbers to handle.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2013 4:56:32 GMT -5
Mcnoch in my life experience: background of family multi: Scots, Welsh, French, Goth (Gotland) and from England to Australia and New Zealand or directly from the countries of ancestors directly Australia is a melting pot where we are all Aussies now.
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Post by Sir John on May 11, 2013 15:56:37 GMT -5
"I believe Australia had less a problem with immigrants from Germany, Italy and Japan. The UK also interned only aliens, while the USA also interned naturalized aliens from Japan and had much bigger numbers to handle."
I will have to do some research on this, but AFAIK we did not intern 'aliens' as a general rule. I know some ended up in camps, but only a tiny % of all that lived here. Why I do not know.
Japanese citizens were almost unknown, and Germans were the backbone of our wine industry, mainly in South Australia. Italians less so until after WW2 when the POWs came back. as migrants and refugees.
SJ
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