by Tony Hill
retaking of 304, 306–10
racism 9
radio
Australia, in 6, 13–14
governments, and 14
1920s 1
1930s 1, 13
1940s 13
talkback 330
Radio Newsreel 35, 63
radio stations
2GB 330, 333
9PA 222
radiotelephone 9, 20, 63, 206, 209, 329
Ramu Valley 194, 203, 222
Rangoon 283, 289–90
Rasmussen, Brigadier JH 193, 200, 201–2, 267, 269, 271–2
Rayer, Pendil 206
RCA Communications (San Francisco) 261
Reber, Grote 345
recordings 20, 28, 30, 35, 44, 46, 65, 71, 81, 83, 87, 94, 109, 116, 121, 122, 185, 186, 188, 199, 210, 216, 219, 231, 237, 247, 276, 278–9, 301, 302, 303, 314, 315–16, 326, 337, 343, 345
actuality 7, 22, 24, 26, 77, 107
air raid sounds 78–81, 109, 114, 227, 274
equipment 8, 9, 26, 36, 38–9, 50, 52, 55, 57, 64, 77–8, 80, 84, 107–8, 141, 142, 143, 160, 161, 168, 177, 210, 216, 227–9, 242–3, 272, 275, 277–80, 301, 315–16
interviews 7–9, 24, 26, 62, 65, 68, 70, 83, 111, 119–21, 142, 159, 160, 162, 168, 170, 199, 225, 274, 275, 288, 289, 301, 315–17, 330, 342, 344, 346
mobile 21–6, 34, 36, 85, 167, 227, 242–3, 313
sounds of battle 9, 24–5, 77, 80–2, 114, 231, 274
technical issues/problems 55, 57, 62–3, 64–5, 77, 80, 162, 210, 261, 341
technicians see technicians
Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) 22
Repatriation of Prisoners of War and Internees (RAPWI) 295
Retreat from Kokoda 336–7
Rippon Ridge 278
Robertson, Jack 71
Romulo, Carlos P 17, 90
Roosevelt, Franklin 14
Rose, Captain Bob 194
Ross Creek 112
Rowell, General 147, 148, 150
Royal Air Force (RAF) 6, 42, 84
carrying recordings 44, 46
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 105, 106, 107, 112, 135, 228, 280 313, 329, 348
Russo, Peter 16
Sagarak 194
Saidor 222, 242
Saigon 339
‘St Percy’s School for Young Gentlemen’ 178
Salamaua 173, 177–85, 190, 203
Salankaua Plantation 196
Salient (Tobruk) 75–7, 81
Salonika 55, 96
Samarinda 288
Sanana Island 318
Sanananda 140, 158, 159, 161, 169, 171, 205
Sandakan death marches 344
Santo Tomas 284
Sarawak 109
Sarawak River 302
Sattelberg Mountain 195, 196, 202, 211, 212–15, 242, 277
scabies 293
Second World War
correspondents see war correspondents
start of 19
Shaggy Ridge 219, 227
Shanghai 16
Shaw, George Bernard 14
shortwave radio 9, 20, 53, 91, 96, 118, 198, 209, 237, 247, 256, 284, 285, 301, 328
Sidi Barrani 34, 36
Sidon 66–7
Silem, Bert 284
Silk, George 58, 171
Simmonds, Florence see Duckmanton, Florence
Simpson, Claire 240
Simpson, Fred 7, 11, 201, 317, 329, 342–3
background 210–11
Balikpapan 286–8
Borneo 286–8, 302–3
character 240
death 343
death of Elliott 287
illness 213, 222, 272
Japanese surrender (Borneo) 302–3, 342
Korean War 343
military service 211
New Guinea 209–17, 227, 240–3, 247, 272–5
post-war 343
Wewak, capturing 272–5
Simpson, Thelma 210
Singapore 17, 90, 103, 283, 328
ABC bureau 322
fall of 10, 60, 94–5, 97–102, 105, 109, 133, 295, 327–8
liberation of 10, 289, 290–1, 339
Sio 222, 242
Slessor, Kenneth 58, 254, 337–8
Smith, Bill 286–8
Sollum 34, 37, 46, 65
Solomon Islands 217, 237, 239, 264
sources of information 9
South East Asia 10, 289
South East Asia Command (SEAC) 285, 289
Sparrow Force 126, 127, 131
Spender, Percy 38
SS Vyner Brooke 295, 297–8
Stalking the Jap 242
Starlight and Serenades 348
Stein, Guenther 17
Stokes, Evie 328
Stokes, Henry 7, 11, 60, 107, 327–8
background 95–6
death 328
post-war 328
Singapore, fall of 96–103, 327–8
Stokes, Jonathan 328
Stokes, Meredith 328
The Struggle for Europe 324
Sturdee, Lieutenant General 306
Suez 30
Suez Canal 30
Sulawesi 320
Sumatra 294, 295, 297
Sunda Strait 89
surgery, front line 191
Surigao Strait 251
Sydney 92
Japanese submarines in 109, 233, 342
Japanese surrender, news of 313–14
Syria 65, 71, 77, 82
Tacloban 250–1, 255
Tambu Bay 182
Tanah Merah Bay 230–2
Tarakan 276–9, 282
Taves, Brydon 206
technical issues/problems 55, 57, 62–3, 64–5, 77, 80, 162, 210
technicians 7, 8, 9, 12, 107, 115, 344
technology 9–10, 13, 20, 344, 345
mobile 21–6
Tel Aviv 31
telegrams 9, 237
telegraph 13, 20, 212
Templeton’s Crossing 153
Ternate 316–17, 318
Thai-Burma Railway 292–4
Thermopylae 57, 58
Thomas, Major 316
Thompson, Jack 346
Thompson, John 7, 12, 346–7
background 305–6
character 305–6
death 347
Indonesia 310, 339, 346, 347
military service 305
poetry 306, 346, 347
post-war 346–7
Rabaul 309–10
Thompson, Patricia (nee Drakeford Cole) 305, 346
Thompson, Peter 346
Timor 11, 106, 109, 124, 125–32, 133, 312
Timor Sea 105
Tobruk 34, 41–4, 50, 65, 87, 141, 323, 341
siege of 71–83, 84, 218
Tokyo 16, 91, 226, 254, 329
Japanese surrender 282, 300–2, 332
Tol Plantation massacre 309
Top End 118–24
Torricelli Mountains 266
Townsville 92, 110, 111, 112–15, 117, 139
bombing 114–15
Troops 306
Turkey 71
Turnbull, Norma see Hemery, Norma
ulcers 293
USS Missouri 300, 301
Veria Pass 55
Vichy French 66, 70
Vietnam War 323
“Voices from Overseas” 31, 63, 71, 77, 83
Wadi Auda 73
Wakde island group 231
Walker, David 95
War Correspondent 224
war correspondents 1–2, 89, 168–9, 174, 246, 261–2, 299 see also by name
ABC 2–3, 5, 7–8, 24, 26, 93, 136, 322
American 262, 338–39
BBC 24–5, 63, 75, 90–1, 185, 188, 289, 324
censorship see censorship
death in action 8, 206, 283, 284, 286–8, 337–8
illness 8, 70, 131, 138–9, 151, 156, 163, 169–71, 177, 204, 213, 222, 226, 255, 268, 271, 272, 331, 333–4, 335, 338
injury 8, 127, 131–2, 206–8, 236, 244, 249, 252, 338
military aircraft, flying on 148, 160, 181, 186, 203, 206–8, 227–9, 252, 256, 280
restrictions on movement 267, 269
role of 7–9, 86–8, 121–2, 136, 200, 217, 322
stories delayed 77, 148, 160, 177, 181, 182, 195–6, 199, 270, 278–9, 299
weapons, carrying 182, 215, 220–1, 230, 242, 267
war crimes trials
German 324
Japanese 12, 311–21, 347, 348
Ward, Edward 53, 75
Washington 91
Wau 178
Wavell, General 61
Weekend Magazine 341
Western Desert 34, 35, 36, 44, 47, 50, 64, 65, 142, 167, 220
Wewak 173, 185, 228, 230, 241, 246, 263, 266, 272–5
White, Osmar 143–4
Why I sent Such Brilliant Recordings from Tarakan 279
Williams, Gordon 118, 198, 255
Wilmot, Chester 5, 6, 10, 61, 111, 116, 132, 193, 224, 289, 323–5, 336, 344
army PR, and 51–2, 147–51, 201
background 28–30
Bardia 36–41
Benghazi 48–50
Blamey, conflict with 147–51, 323
character 50, 63, 144, 324–5
D-Day 324
death 325
Derna 45–8
Europe 289, 323–5
Greece, in 52–9, 61, 95
HMAS Perth 63–5
Middle East, in 30–50, 60, 62–86, 88, 96, 111, 135, 148, 326
New Guinea 132, 140–53, 155
Pacific war 89, 111–12, 114–15, 132, 140–53, 155
post-war 324–5
propaganda, on 51–2
Tobruk 41–4, 71–5, 77, 78–83, 323
Townsville 112–13, 114–15
war correspondents, view of 86–8, 89
wounded by shrapnel 84–5, 86
Wilmot, Edith (nee Irwin) 29, 61, 69, 79, 80, 111, 325
wire recorder 315–16
Woodlark Island 175–6
Woodward, David 324
Woolley, Sergeant Donald 315
Wootten, Major General 302
Wyer Point 169
Wykes, SA 17, 90, 94
Yamamura, Major General 302–3
Yodda Valley 156
Yokohama 301
Young, Barry 113, 180
PHOTOS SECTION
The ABC field unit – the utility truck and ‘Jumbo’ the three-ton mobile studio, before leaving for the Middle East. The utility travelled close to 20,000 kilometres across the battlefronts of North Africa, Greece and the Middle East. 1940. (ABC Archives)
Interior of the ABC mobile studio used by Chester Wilmot, Lawrence Cecil and the technicians, Bill MacFarlane and Leo Gallwey. The Chevy van was fitted out with recording turntables using sapphire needle cutting heads to cut tracks into the discs. 1940. (ABC Archives)
Telegram received at the ABC in Australia from Arthur Mason in the London office, 1 September 1939, carrying the text of Hitler’s radio address to the German people, signalling his intention to invade Poland. London was the first and most important source of independent news for the ABC. Urgent messages or news from the London office were sent by telegram; other communication was mostly by letter. (NAA)
Chester Wilmot, photo taken in Tobruk, 1941. Wilmot was the first ABC war correspondent. (ABC Archives)
Chester Wilmot writing at his table in the villa at Ikingi Maryut. The house was not far from Alexandria on the edge of the Western Desert and was the advance base for the field unit during their coverage of the Libyan campaign. (Photo courtesy of Wilmot family)
Lawrence Cecil in the Middle East with ABC colleague and bandleader Jim Davidson, who was in charge of concert parties for the AIF. As a radio producer, Cecil was well known to many broadcasting figures serving overseas. May 1941. (NAA/ABC Archives)
Chester Wilmot with his gear, and typewriter in hand, on the wharf at Piraeus. Believed to be upon his arrival with Lawrence Cecil and Bill MacFarlane to cover the Greek campaign with the AIF. After a brief stay in Athens they headed into the mountains where Australian troops were awaiting the expected German invasion. They were evacuated a few weeks later through the port of Piraeus with the retreating Allied forces. March 1941. (Photo courtesy of Wilmot family)
The ABC field unit utility truck being landed safely at Alexandria after the evacuation from Greece. Very few vehicles were saved during the evacuation of 50,000 Allied troops. Lawrence Cecil and Bill MacFarlane sailed with the truck and the field unit recording equipment; their ship was attacked five times on the journey across the Mediterranean. April 1941. (NAA/ABC Archives)
‘In a moment or two we found ourselves joined by a party of Diggers who came bowling down the road on some very fractious mules.’ Queensland Diggers in Syria who fought in the battle for Merdjayoun, with Lawrence Cecil, listening to the BBC news on the field unit radio by the side of the road. June 1941. (NAA)
Chester Wilmot recording one of his reports from Acre, Syria. Set up on the back of a truck, the microphone is protected against the wind by a white cloth. A ceasefire had come into effect in Syria and Lebanon the day before the photo was taken. Following the Syrian campaign, Wilmot headed to Tobruk to record the story of the long siege of the Allied garrison. 13 July 1941. Photograph by George Silk. (AWM/ABC Archives)
By the harbour at Tobruk, Chester Wilmot scans the skies for enemy planes with microphone in hand. September 1941. (ABC Archives)
Bill MacFarlane plays back a recording of Scottish gunners at Tobruk. September 1941. (NAA/ABC Archives)
One of Wilmot’s original scripts from Tobruk, Front-line Post. The script shows Wilmot’s corrections and workings and the stamp of the military censor, passing the script for broadcast. Written in Tobruk by Chester Wilmot, 29 September 1941. (NAA)
Henry Stokes, a former Reuters and newspaper correspondent, was one of the most experienced ABC war correspondents. He covered the Spanish Civil War and the Balkans during the Second World War before returning to Australia. He was the ABC and BBC correspondent in Singapore and escaped just before the British surrender. (Photo courtesy Meredith Stokes)
The ABC truck bogged in the forward area in Papua. Believed to be the day before Bill MacFarlane drove Wilmot, Damien Parer and Osmar White to the foothills leading to the Kokoda Trail. It’s possible that Wilmot is one of those in the photo. 18 August 1942. (AWM)
Peter Hemery (without shirt) recording in the Northern Territory. At one stage Hemery operated the recording equipment himself when the technician Ed Jinks fell ill. The car immediately behind him is probably the ‘old green grass-hopper’, the bullet-holed sedan commandeered by the field unit. 1943. (NAA/ABC Archives)
Peter Hemery, ABC war correspondent 1942–1943 (Photo courtesy Peter Hemery)
Peter Hemery talking to a Kittyhawk pilot about his tactics against Japanese fighters. Hemery stayed with Kittyhawk squadrons in the Northern Territory and recorded the daily activities of Australian and American flyers. 1943. (NAA/ABC Archives)
Bill Marien, ABC war correspondent 1942–1944 (NAA/ABC Archives)
Bill Marien writing a despatch while seated on a wrecked Japanese plane near Lae. Marien entered Lae immediately behind the troops of the Australian 7th Division who were the first into the town. ‘Smashed planes garlanded the runway and revetments like a bedraggled necklace of faded owers,’ wrote Marien. September 1943. (ABC Archives)
Dudley Leggett (second from right) after a press conference in the model room at Headquarters, New Guinea Force in Port Moresby. Left to right are: Colonel JH Rasmussen, Acting Director General Public Relations; General Sir Thomas Blamey; Leggett; and Major D Dwyer, personal assistant to Blamey. 13 September 1943. (AWM)
Dudley Leggett, ABC war correspondent 1942–1943 (ABC Archives)
Telegram from Ray Paull, Aitape, New Guinea. Press telegram was one means of sending news copy from forward areas. Phrasing like ‘the fresh Australian campaign . . . will not be spectacular’ indicates the limitations on reporting that cont
ributed to the friction between correspondents and army PR. 9 January 1945. (NAA)
Telegram from Fred Simpson, Wewak, New Guinea, advising the ABC that the recording gear had been damaged by Japanese shellfire. Simpson and Len Edwards scrambled to safety but their tent was destroyed. Simpson covered the final stages of the campaign that began with Ray Paull at Aitape. 25 May 1945. (NAA)
Ray Paull recording a report on board a USAF B-24 Liberator bomber. Together with the technician Len Edwards, Paull recorded a report of a raid by Australian bomber air crew on a Japanese base at Kairiru Island, off the New Guinea north coast. March 1944. (AWM)
Ray Paull and other war correspondents fording a river at Aitape, New Guinea. Paull and the other correspondents were restricted in some of their reporting of the Aitape campaign, leading to clashes with army PR. Left to right: Ray Paull, Gordon Holland (Argus), Kim Keane (Melbourne Herald), Jim Fitzpatrick (photographer), Don Angel (Department of Information). 16 March 1945. (AWM)
Ray Paull, ABC war correspondent 1944–1945 (Photo courtesy of Vivienne Benton)
Len Edwards with recording equipment in the fuselage of a B-24 Liberator bomber. Edwards is using a lightweight portable recorder that he made himself to handle the cramped space and vibration aboard the bomber. The recording was made with war correspondent Ray Paull during a raid against the Japanese on Kairiru Island, New Guinea. March 1944. (AWM)
Len Edwards, ABC war correspondent (radio technician) 1942–1945 (Courtesy Chris Edwards)
Len Edwards’ war correspondent identity card. (Courtesy Chris Edwards)
Haydon Lennard, ABC war correspondent, 1942–1945 (ABC Archives)
Telegram despatch from Haydon Lennard in Singapore, reporting the landing of Allied troops following the Japanese surrender. 5 September 1945. (NAA)
Fred Simpson, ABC war correspondent 1943–1945 (ABC Archives)
Fred Simpson recording a report in kunai grass, New Guinea. Bill MacFarlane is operating the recorder and a young local, Marea, is assisting Fred with the microphone. The photo was taken very soon after Fred arrived in Port Moresby. December 1943. (AWM)