The Battle Of Brisbane
Australians and the Yanks at War
by Peter A. Thompson and Robert Macklin
ABC Books (for the Australian Broadcasting Corp.), 2000
250 pagesA calamity on Thanksgiving Day, 26 November, 1942. The encounter was something similar to one of General MacArthur's press conferences, well-attended and one-sided. One might think that an event of this magnitude would have taken longer to brew. However, this sad affair heated to a boil in eleven short months.
An American naval convoy was headed for the Philippines in support of Douglas MacArthur's effort to shore up President Quezon's defenses. Everyone knew war was forthcoming and the U.S. was trying to beef up its remote outposts as quickly as possible. Things, however, happened all too quickly. The convoy was rerouted to Australia after Japanese naval airpower made a shambles of Pearl Harbor.
Authors Thompson and Macklin, both Australian, have done a fine job in setting the scene for this somber incident. It appears well researched and is presented with no apparent bias. Their narrative ferments the circumstances in coherent sequential steps with the redirected Yank convoy steaming up the Brisbane River on 21 December, 1941. The cry went up, "The Yanks are here." The people of Brisbane and, perhaps Australia, were about to take a ride on an emotional roller-coaster. Most people welcomed Yanks with open arms. Others expressed concern while still others did not want their presence at all and believed a remote sanctuary, away from the city, was the better solution.
The story's leading characters are identified early; Gunner Edward Webster, a decorated and easily incensed Aussie combat veteran recently returned from Egypt and Syria. "Webby" was the victim in the Brisbane tragedy. He was shot by Private Norbert J. Grant, an American MP assigned to the 738th Military Police Battalion. Edward Webster did not take long to die, but his death did not complete the story. In some ways the story does not end until the war itself comes to a conclusion and the Yanks go home. But, as said earlier, the Yank-Aussie relationship had its ups and downs.
The authors argue that a gulf separated the armies from near the beginning. The British experienced much the same with the complaint that the Yanks were "overpaid, over-sexed and over here." In Brisbane the Yanks were alleged to have everything -- more money, better uniforms, better etiquette. And Yanks were said to be more attentive in their approach to women. They gave them flowers, candy and, best of all, nylon stockings. Their money brought them to the head of the queue in restaurants, taxi ranks, hotels and cafes. Yanks, by virtue of the PX, had access to cheap cigarettes and liqueur.
More than anything, wrote Thompson and Macklin, were the girls. The Aussie Diggers hated the manner in which Yanks touched the girls. And touch them they did. In public or private the Yank, should he so choose, enjoyed a smorgasbord of female companionship. What was an Aussie Digger to do? What most did was get pissed (drunk) with his mates.
An ill wind tried to spoil the Aussie-Yank relationship. Yanks, most untried in combat in 1942, boasted about what they were going to do to the "Little Yellow Bastards." Some Aussies, Edward Webster for one, were already combat veterans. The Aussie fighting man didn't think much of the Yank and the Yank fighting man reciprocated in kind. This mutual disregard was aggravated by none other than MacArthur himself who was contemptuous of the Australian military. In return, General Sir Thomas Blamey thought the American soldier lazy and afraid to meet the enemy and corresponded with the Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, in this regard. John Curtin, however, was appreciative of the American presence. It must be said that many more Yanks than not got along well with the Australian people.
Authors Thompson and Macklin use nearly eighty-five percent of the book to set the stage. This is necessary, in my opinion, and I found the information contained in this multi-chapter prologue fascinating and appropriate to the crucible in which Thanksgiving Day fused together the emotions of hate, jealousy, and passion.
Chapters one through five present several of the characters who are woven into the fabric of the story. We have met the most important two, Webster and Grant. Chapter three illustrates wartime Brisbane. The authors paint the city with a conservative brush. Using one's imagination the city might take on the quiet green of eucalyptus. Gentile, indeed, but the calm could be infrequently interrupted by virulent reds of union dissension. The color of political office just might be a detached gray, while the population could possibly be represented by the soothing blues of comfortable complacency. The Japanese could very well be knocking on the door in short order but Brisbanites attacked everyday life with the only grizzle being wartime restrictions and, of course, how to answer that nagging question, "What about them Yanks?"
The Yanks were, indeed, different. Chapter six talks about some of these. There was a language called Jive. The day that Darwin was bombed an Aussie girl was getting married to a Yank in Melbourne. They had met two weeks earlier on his first morning in country. He introduced himself with the greeting 'Hi babe, comin' truckin'?' Those four words appeared in the Australian Women's Weekly magazine and many Australians sensed a real danger. A vile corruption was creeping over the land. Young Australians were learning how to "cut a rug", listen to jazz music, chew gum, and dance the jitterbug. Yanks wore aftershave, and filled out their uniforms a bit different than their Aussie counterparts. Above all, Yanks were polite. They gave the girls corsages, brought flowers for mothers, cigars for fathers, and candy for brothers and sisters. Most noticed was a Yank's white teeth. They made for a charming and, perhaps seductive, smile.
Chapter seven revolves around General Douglas MacArthur. The authors picture him in flamboyant fashion. Douglas enjoyed manipulating the press but never realized his image, both in words and photo, sometimes included his arrogant aura and shadow of pomposity. Many people saw these imperfections. Others viewed the general in a different light. Douglas was centered in the footlights. But, every play needs supporting characters. Some significant people noted are LTG George Brett who would not survive long as the Southwest Pacific Area's air force chief. LTG Richard Sutherland, SWPA Chief of Staff who represented his boss at high-level meetings in Washington and Hawaii, who was viewed with disdain by his detractors, who took up with the wife of a high-profile Aussie officer held prisoner by the Japanese in Changi prison. Colonel LeGrande Diller made sure the press printed and pictured nothing other than what MacArthur wanted the world to know.
There was only one Australian on MacArthur's most senior staff and that was General Thomas Blamey. He and MacArthur differed greatly on which fighting man was the better. Blamey was dispatched at the first opportunity, which presented itself upon the death of Prime Minister John Curtin.
The next several chapters continue along the road to Thanksgiving Day. The American presence in Australia cannot be told with touching on Eddie Leonski. Eddie, within a very short period of time, terrorized the city of Melbourne by murdering three women. His actions caused angst in relations between Australia and the United States. There was a resolution to Eddie Loenski; his story will be presented at another time.
The Japanese were advancing at an alarming rate. The political ideology they preached to their fellow Asians was one of a Greater Asian Sphere of Co-Prosperity, with Japan as the benefactor and protector of Sphere members from European imperialism. The protection, in all reality, was similar to that which took place at Gona where, soon after landing, the Japanese collected eight European men and women and a six-year old boy. A Japanese officer beheaded them all, the boy being the last.
As time quick-marched toward Thanksgiving Day things were beginning to happen. The Australians were meeting the enemy in the hills of the Owen Stanley Mountains along the Kokoda Track. There was activity at Milne Bay on the eastern end of New Guinea and the Americans were tasting, and shedding, their first blood in the jungle that led to Gona and Buna and Sanananda. But a new uneasiness arose in 1942. The arrival of Afro-American troops. A white-Australia policy was a matter of public record in the war years and the young black Americans who stepped onto Australian shores caused concern for many. Confrontations between Black American troops and the local population experienced some frequency. In a few cases the local constabulary resorted to tactics employed on Aboriginals. A baton or pistol brought down upon the head of the offender was to have sufficed but the young Black Americans responded to such treatment in a defiant manner. On more than one occasion an Australian policeman had to run for his life after making use of such techniques. It cannot be said that all black military personnel acted in an inappropriate manner. The trouble-makers were the exception, not the rule.
By the time the reader reaches chapter fourteen the stage is set. On Thanksgiving Day many Yanks were breaking bread with hospitable Australian families all over the city of Brisbane. Australians were genuinely interested in learning about this unique American holiday. But some Yanks were celebrating at the local pubs and that is where the action picks up.
Gunner Ed Webster met a few of his mates for drinks in the center of the city.
Private Norbert Grant was sitting on a park bench reading a book.
Elsewhere, Private James Stein, member of a U.S. Army Signal unit, was asked by an Australian soldier to have a Thanksgiving drink in an Australian canteen on Adelaide Street. Stein accepted without reservation because he had a valid pass. Having socialized with the Australian, Stein was walking out the door when he collided with Webster and his mates. Words were exchanged between the two.
American MPs stumbled across the Stein-Webster encounter at its beginning and the usual MP heavy-handedness soon brought trouble. The MPs came down hard on Stein and the Aussies suddenly saw him as the victim of uncompromising authority. The MPs were verbally challenged with all the familiar expletives and cries of "Provo bastards." The situation escalated when the commotion attracted more Aussie Diggers from inside the canteen to see where the noise had originated. The MPs were surrounded and sensed real trouble. An American MP Lieutenant arrived on the scene and immediately called for help on the phone in the canteen.
Thompson and Macklin do a commendable job on describing what happened next. Within minutes, Fate placed Webster and Grant facing each other. Words were exchanged and Webster grabbed the barrel of the Grant's shotgun while another Aussie grabbed Grant by the neck. The shotgun fired and Webster was struck in the chest and went down. Webster died and, over the next several nights, Aussie soldiers roamed the streets of Brisbane in search of Yanks. Beatings and maulings sent quite a few Americans to hospital. The situation burned itself out after several days and Brisbane returned to some sense of normalcy. The emotional roller-coaster had dipped hard and now faced an uphill struggle.
Mark Twain toured Australia in 1895 and had this to say at one of his lectures. It touches on the solidarity of American, Australian, British and Canadian people. Twain said, "When all is said and done, the Americans and the English and the great overflow in Canada and Australia are all one. ...Yes! Blood is thicker than water, and we are all related. We do belong together and we are parts of a greater whole -- the greatest whole this world has ever seen -- a whole that some day will spread over this world."
The book was a pleasure to read and I gleaned some new information that I had not previously known. In a few cases it reinforced some facts that I was aware of from previous research. One of many interesting facts brought out in the book was that MacArthur never did set foot in Buna even though press reports had him leading his troops in battle on Buna's shore.
I highly recommend the book. However, I am not sure of its availability in the U.S. so it may have to be ordered from Australia. I bought mine while visiting the Australian War Museum in Canberra in November of 2002. The book is published by ABC Books, and is available on their website "www.abcshop.com.au" and can be sent overseas for an additional charge. Dymocks Books in Australia also carries the Battle of Brisbane. They can be reached at "www.dymocks.com.au" and will also send books overseas.
Bob Bach
Jungleer Editor
December, 2002