In the Fight: Australians and the War in Burma 1942-1945 – Conference

Brent D Taylor
December 8th, 2024

Australians were involved in the longest campaign of WWII, in Burma, in what was called ‘a forgotten war’.

This conference illuminated the lost and compelling stories of their service, based on the book In the Fight.

The conference tells of the involvement of Australians in what became one of the great sagas of the war against the Japanese in Southeast Asia, encompassing India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Thailand, Indochina, Malaya, Singapore and Sumatra.

While Australian airmen attached to the Royal Air Force were heavily engaged, many other Australians both uniformed and civilian were part of the monumental struggle to turn ‘defeat into victory’ in Burma. Australian war correspondents, Red Cross nurses, Royal Australian Navy sailors, war artists, commandos and saboteurs, soldiers serving with the British Indian Army, the Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma), well known sportsmen, government officials dealing with the terrible Bengal famine, Qantas crews and POWs in the Rangoon Jail will be covered in this remarkable conference.

Hosts and Presenters include Major-General Jim Barry AM MBE RFD ED (Rtd), Lieutenant Colonel Michael Buckridge RFD (Rtd), Professor Peter Stanley, Peter Holmes, Dr Karl James, Meghan Adams, Dr Andrew Kilsby, Dr Daryl Moran, David Mitchelhill-Green, Dr Anthea Gunn, Alexandra Torrens, Dr Tom Lewis OAM, Dr Ian Wilkinson, Jacqueline Dinan.

The following is a brief summary of each presentation. Obviously, such a summary cannot do justice to the more detailed presentations in Papers & Video below.

Conference Chair: Professor Peter Stanley, UNSW Canberra and Fellow of the India-Australia Institute.

Convenor: Lieutenant Colonel Michael Buckridge RFD (Rtd) President, MHHV

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Opening Remarks

Major-General Jim Barry AM, MBE, RFD, ED (Rtd), MHHV Patron

Gen Jim Barry opened the conference by noting that when Professor Geoffery Blainey had presided over the inception of the MHHV he had exhorted the committee to be relevant. In reviewing the MHHV’s history, Gen Barry noted that this was the 20^th MHHV conference of which the current conference was the 15^th one day conference. On that evidence alone the MHHV had proven relevance. He also thanked the sponsors, Echo Books and the RSL

Keynote address.

Professor Peter Stanley, UNSW Canberra and Fellow of the India-Australia Institute.

Prof Stanley began by noting that Burma is a difficult country to conquer. The British attacked Burma three times. The first was in 1824 as British East India Company tried to expand into Burma. They began with an overland attack from the north and a river attack on Rangoon. Pestilence was a severe problem, particularly in the monsoon. A total of 15,000 out of 60,000 attackers died and of those 72% died of disease. It was one of the most expensive wars in British Indian history and caused a severe economic crisis in British India.

This war was followed up by two wars which achieved their objectives more easily, but they were still not easy.

In modern times, the difficulties the attackers are faced with are much the same as in 1824. There is rampant pestilence, monsoonal downpours and flooding, dense almost impenetrable jungle and warlike locals.

War Correspondents – Peter Holmes: Peter informed us that Australian war correspondents had a strong sense of adventure as a result were amongst the best and most daring of any nation. Many arrived overland to Rangoon from the Malay Peninsula before the Fall of Singapore. Others came overland from China. Not for them was the habit of some journalists to hang around army HQ’s regurgitating army press released. They were to be found the front-line troops uncovering and living the real news. But there was no communication out in the field, so the correspondents had to travel up to 1200 miles to file reports.

Commandoes and the SOE – Dr Karl James Head of the Military History Section at the AWM: Commencing February 1942 an unknown number of operatives were sent through Burma to China to train locals in the art of blowing bridges and other installations. Named Tulip force, it promised operations against the Japanese but were a case of too little too late. Other commando infiltrations were initially by submarine but by 1944 this role was take over by long range aircraft. Dealing with disease was always a problem. Overall the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) had patchy record during the war and were probably best at intelligence gathering.

VADs, the ARC and ACF – Meghan Adams historian at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs: Sri Lanka was conveniently positioned just outside the easy reach of the Japanese and became an important allied military base and stop over place. Meghan revealed the various critical roles female aides played and the privations they endured. Top of the list was snakes and heat and the occasional Japanese air raid.

On Active Service – Dr Andrew Kilsby an independent professional historian: India was the jumping off point for any action in Burma. Australia as deep connections to India. Before partition of India many Australian staff officers attended Quetta Staff College (now in Pakistan). That was one of the channels to getting in the Indian Army. Going back even further Australia has been selling horses to the military in India since 1834.

War in the Air – Dr Daryl Moran an independent military historian: There was no RAAF squadrons in Burma yet 1500 Australians served there as part of the RAF and the air forces of other nationalities. Australians were involved in all types of aircraft and all roles. 150 Australians got awards. A lot of flights were over the extremely dangerous ‘hump’ 18,000 feet over the Himalayas to China carrying supplies – including mules. On one such flight a mule got loose and had to be shot. The route over the hump was marked by the aluminium trail made by 600 crashed planes. More planes crashed and more air crew died as a result of the monsoon usually spanning from May to October than died from battle.

Double-Sunrise Flights – David Mitchelhill-Green an independent military historian: Once the Japanese took Singapore, the Horseshoe route operated by Short Empire flying boats between Australia and UK was severed. Problematically the four-engined Short aircraft had insufficient range for any alternative route. An alternative was developed using more fuel efficient two engine Catalina flying boats from Perth to Lake Koggala, Sri Lanka. It was called the double-sunrise route because the planes were in the air for over 24 hours. The planes could only carry three passengers along with mail and light freight. The longest recorded flight time was 29 hours and 14 mins – by the time that plane landed its engines were running on fumes. The Double Sunrise flights remain the longest (in terms of airtime) commercial flights in history.

War Artists – Dr Anthea Gunn Senior Curator of Art at the Australian War Memorial & Alexandra Torrens Senior Curator of Art at the Australian War Memorial: Of the 45 artists employed by the military in WWII, three went to Burma. These were Frank Norton who did naval paintings, Roy Hodgkinson who did air and naval paintings and William Dargie tended to paint portraits. He won the 1945 Archibald Prize with his Portrait of Lt-General the Hon. Edmund Herring. Numerous images of the artists work were presented and discussed.

The War at Sea with the RAN – Dr Andrew Kilsby for Tom Lewis: The RAN was used in far flung service in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Many examples were given during the presentation. For example, the HMAS Vampire was originally a WWI British V-class destroyer transferred to Australia in 1933. In WWII, it gave sterling service around Calabria, Libya, Greece, Crete and the Indian Ocean. It was attacked and bombed by Japanese bombers and sunk 9 April 1942. Despite the ferocity of the attack, Vampire’s commanding officer and eight sailors were the only fatalities. 600 of the crew were picked up by a hospital ship. The fate of the merchant ships were also discussed. 37 of 55 merchant ships were sunk on their route from Australia to UK around Cape of Good hope as the Japanese picked them off east of Africa and the Germans on the west side.

Sportsmen – Dr Ian Wilkinson: Dr Wilkinson explained that prior to WWII, school sport was seen as developing character in preparation for military service or ‘the great game’ as war was euphemistically called. He gave numerous examples of great sportsmen at war and their fates. Just one example was Ross Gregory. He debuted in test cricket in 1936 and at one-point in his sport career, shared bats with Don Bradman. He joined the RAAF attaining the rank of Pilot Officer. He was killed in action over Bangladesh in 1942 (aged 26) when his bomber crashed in bad weather while on operations to bomb Japanese in Burma.

The Wasbies – Jacqueline Dinan is a writer with an interest in women in war: It was a fascinating story of the wives and daughters of soldiers based in Mandalay who bravely joined the war effort by running mobile canteens while dodging gunfire. They were evacuated to India and there expanded their enterprise to eight canteens with 51 workers.

POW in the Rangoon Jail – Dr Daryl Moran an independent military historian: The Rangoon Jail was a tough institution. Originally there were three Australian inmates who were later joined by 12 RAAF personnel who lost their planes. In order of frequency the main types of aircraft loss were aircraft misadventure (5), enemy action (4), mid-air collisions (2) and friendly fire (1). The prisoners were not allowed to write letters so no-one knew they were there. Prisoners had long periods of solitary confinement. There were continual beatings for minor infractions. Not bowing to a guard would result in beatings. At the end of the war, the guards simply walked out and left a key on a nail by the main entrance. The Australians just walked out.

Conference closed by Major-General Jim Barry AM, MBE, RFD, ED (Rtd), MHHV Patron

Summary by Brent D. Taylor & Jason Mcgregor

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Click on the links for the Papers and Video Presentations

Saturday 16 November 2024 (Caulfield RSL, Elsternwick)

SESSION ONE | AUSTRALIANS and the WAR in BURMA

Welcome
Opening of the Conference
Major-General Jim Barry AM MBE RFD ED (Rtd) MHHV Patron

Session Chair Introduction of Keynote Speaker
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Buckridge RFD (Rtd) President, MHHV

Keynote Speaker: In the Fight: Australians and the War in Burma 1942-1945
Peter Stanley
Research Professor, UNSW Canberra and Fellow of the India-Australia Institute