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Read more about the article An uncensored letter from wartime New Guinea

An uncensored letter from wartime New Guinea

To beat the official censors who read mail sent by Australians serving in New Guinea in World War 2, those servicemen sometimes got their mates going home on leave to carry letters and post them in Australia. It was a simple and effective way to evade the prying eyes of officialdom, whose job it was to make sure that important military details didn't accidentally fall into enemy hands and that the people at home didn't hear too much about the grim reality of the war. Accounts I have read by servicemen suggest that mail from home…

Continue ReadingAn uncensored letter from wartime New Guinea
Read more about the article Before email there was V-Mail

Before email there was V-Mail

In World War 2, Allied troops sent and received a lot of mail. So much mail it became a headache for military authorities to handle the huge quantities. But nobody wanted to impose overly strict limits on mail, since being able to communicate with loved ones at home was a massive prop to the morale of troops. In 1941 the British came up with a solution. The idea was to photograph letters, send the negatives to an area close to the intended recipients and then print them out again. The reduced-size negatives took up a lot…

Continue ReadingBefore email there was V-Mail
Read more about the article Planespotters on the job in World War 2

Planespotters on the job in World War 2

ONE of Australia's military problems in World War 2 was trying to keep track of the movements of large numbers of aircraft over the giant land-mass. Planes, both friendly and hostile, crossed the skies at all hours, and it was important to try to keep tabs on as many of them as possible. A big part of the solution was the Volunteer Air Observers Corps, an organisation of thousands of civilian men, women and children who spent untold hours in observation posts they built on top of houses, on handyman-created towers in backyards, in the middle…

Continue ReadingPlanespotters on the job in World War 2
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