© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

World War 2

Read more about the article Imperial hubris and the fall of Singapore

Imperial hubris and the fall of Singapore

The wartime dealings of Australian Prime Minister John Curtin with his British counterpart Winston Churchill have become the stuff of Australian folklore. Some historians have portrayed Curtin as Australia’s bold saviour, while others have accused him of being a nitpicking panic-merchant. Thanks to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which some years ago made many formerly secret telegrams and cables between the two leaders and other leading figures of the period publicly available on its website, interested readers can make up their own minds. WHEN wartime Prime Minister John Curtin used to remind Australians that:…

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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…

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Read more about the article The Wellen: Soviet ship in Newcastle, NSW, 1942

The Wellen: Soviet ship in Newcastle, NSW, 1942

A slowly evolving story, with some plot holes remaining to be filled. Why was the Wellen in Australian waters? And what about the Minsk, whose officers apparently visited the damaged Wellen in Newcastle? Why is information about that ship so hard to find? In May 1942 Japan and Russia were not at war. And yet in the opening salvos of Japan's submarine war against merchant shipping in Australian waters, it carelessly managed to attack a Soviet ship. This was the freighter Wellen, an elderly vessel of 5000 tons. It was apparently built in Britain, taken over…

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