The Australian Soldier: a portrait, by John Hetherington

THE MANY THAT ARE THE ONE
They marched down the street in uniforms of jungle green and Slouch hats. There were tall men and short men, slender men that reminded you of good horses and robust men that reminded you of oxen. They had the quiet, assured air that only soldiers have who have learned to he soldiers by meeting the enemy in battle. The 16th Brigade, 6th Division, A.I.F. March, through Sydney, 4 Jan '44. Sydney Morning Herald photo.
WESTERN DESERT INTERLUDE
Australians and a British officer survey the scene of a decisive tank battle for a block house near Tel el Eisa. Eighteen German tanks were put out of action and a large number of prisoners were taken. Egypt. July, 1942.
BATTERED SYMBOLS OF 'INVINCIBLE' FASCISM
The Australians rolled on across the flat, stony Libyan Desert. They passed the ruins of Fort Capuzzo and its battered monument of an eagle with spread wings which symbolised Fascist Italy's military might. Cyrenaica. December, 1940.
ONE OF THE 'RATS OF TOBRUK
Wind and sun burnt their bodies to a mahogany brown. Fleas and flies disturbed their sleep. They lived and fought in a world of dust-storm and burning aridity. Tobruk has become a tradition, in -history it will surely stand as starkly and poignantly as a cenotaph of stone. Libya, 1941.
PROUD AS ANY BANNER THAT EVER RODE THE WIND
Two days earlier the flag of Italy had flaunted in the breeze. Now another emblem floated there---an Australian slouch hat, battered and dusty, but proud as any banner that ever rode the wind. The Capture of Tobruk. January, 1941.
THE GREEKS : "PEOPLE THEY COULD UNDERSTAND"
People who talked the same language, even if they talked it in a different tongue. It was a language of courage and decency and good faith. The Australians drank deep of beer and ouzo and the resinated wine of Greece and they invaded the cabarets and flirted with the Greek "hostesses."
LEADING SHAGGY LITTLE MOUNTAIN DONKEYS
Their battalion was in retreat, but the Australians would not abandon the donkeys that had served them faithfully when they were fighting in a rugged sector of the mountains inaccessible to motor transport, where only donkeys could clamber through with supplies. They waited their turn at a river crossing after the withdrawal from the Verria Pass. Greece. April, 1941.
THE MIRACLE OF DUNKIRK WAS REPEATED
The ships of the Mediterranean Fleet lifted tens of thousands of men from the beaches of the Peloponnesus and carried them to safety. Then they could no longer be risked under the bombs of the questing, prowling Nazi bombers, and the organised evacuation, had to be brought to an end. Some of the men who were left bowed their heads in surrender. Others still refused to accept defeat. The Evacuation of Greece. April, 1941.
BACK IN EGYPT, THE WEARY TROOPS REFRESH THEMSELVES.
Forced back by the weight of German armaments and overwhelming air superiority, Australian and other Empire troops evacuated Greece with their fighting spirit unbroken. Tea and rations were ready for these weary Australians when they disembarked at Alexandria. For many, this was the first real meal for days. The Evacuation of Greece. April, 1941.
WOUNDED GERMAN MEETS THE AUSTRALIANS AT EL ALAMEIN
The British official report on the Battle of Alamein states: "The Ninth Australian Division put up a magnificent effort. They fought themselves and the enemy to a standstill, till flesh and blood could stand no more. Then they went on fighting." Egypt, November, 1942.
SYRIA: SHELLS BURST CLOSE TO ADVANCING AUSTRALIANS
During the advance on Beirut, men of an anti-tank unit dashed forward under heavy Vichy artillery fire to capture the Beirut radio station. Australian Bren gun carriers ahead covered the attack. Syria. July, 1941.
BEIRUT WELCOMES THE VICTORIOUS AUSSIES
The triumphant entry of the Australians into Beirut, successfully established the Allied occupation of Syria. Beirut later became an important Allied base for Mediterranean naval operations. Syria. July, 1941.
ALL PENCIL DRAWINGS are by RUSSELL DRYSDALE.

MAP of the MIDDLE EAST

PUBLISHER'S NOTES

AUSTRALIA'S declaration of war on Germany came within hours of that of the United Kingdom, on September 3rd, 1939. Within five months the first troopship sailed for the Middle East. On January 3rd, 1941, the Sixth Division of the Australian Imperial Force, with the support of British tanks, artillery and machine guns, went into action against the Italians in Libya. Bardia was captured within three days; Tobruk fell after two days' fighting; the advance rolled westward; by February 6th the Sixth Division had entered Benghazi.

But now an Axis thrust through the Balkans was imminent and the Sixth Division was withdrawn for transfer to Greece, while the Ninth Division remained, with British and Indian troops. to hold Tobruk against the German Afrika Corps.

The British, Australian and New Zealand troops sent hastily to Greece fought valiantly but failed to hold Hitler's panzers and the Luftwaffe. We learned the bitter lesson that courage alone is not enough against superior arms and an almost unchallenged air force. Defeated but unbroken, part of 'the force evacuated from Greece fell back on Crete. The island was held against the onslaught of the German air-borne divisions until late in May; m the last night of that month the Navy lifted men from the beaches near Spakhia.

Mid-1941 found a British Indian and Free French force which included the Seventh Australian Division, wresting Syria from Vichy control. The frontier was crossed on June 8th; "cease fire" sounded on July 12th.

Ahead lay the great Western Desert battles of 1942, and the cracking of Rommel's line at El Alamein, the A.I.F.'s. last battle in the Middle East.

As 1941 drew to an ominous close, Japan attacked in the Pacific. Swiftly the tide of southward invasion flowed down the Malayan Peninsula. Exhausted troops of the Eighth Division, A.I.F., fought to the bitter end, till the surrender of Singapore on February l5th. IqI2.

Australian eyes turned anxiously to the north as Japan captured the 'East Indies, and, from Rabaul, advanced to Lae and Salamaua on the north-east coast of New Guinea and over the mountains towards Port Moresby. Now the tide began to turn. Milne Bay was held; the Japanese were thrust back over the Owen Stanley range; Australian and American forces took Salamaua, Lac, Finschafen, Sattelberg, Saidor, Madang. The road to Tokyo still stretched far 'ahead, but by the middle of 1944 many mileposts were behind.

In THE AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER, John Hetherington describes the A.I.F.'s. part in the war to the fall of Crete.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

THIS book is not intended as a history of any of the campaigns of the A.I.F. in World War II. Incidents within the framework of four campaigns are described here because this method offered what I believe to be the simplest means of portraying the character of that many-sided, contradictory, elusive figure - the Australian Soldier.

It is mere chance that the four campaigns mentioned should be those in which the Australian formation that played the biggest part was the 6th Division. This fortuitous circumstance does not imply that I rate the officers and men of the 6th Division above the officers and men of any other A.I.F. division. I selected these campaigns only because I was familiar with them. If the picture of the Australian Soldier that emerges from this tale is true at all, then it is as true of the officers and men of any division of the A.I.F. as of the officers and men of any other division.

I take this opportunity of answering, in advance, the inevitable accusation that this narrative emphasizes the exploits of Australian troops and Scotsmen, New Zealanders, makes only passing mention of Englishmen, Indians and other Empire and Allied soldiers who fought in the Middle East. This is so not because I have anything but wondering admiration for the guts and fighting ability of the A.I.F.'s extra-Australian comrades-in-arms, but because the aim of this book is to present a portrait of one brave man, the Australian Soldier, not a gallery of portraits of a number of brave men. There is no more sinister reason than that for my casual mention of non Australian troops.

I obtained the material for this book while I was serving in the Middle East from 1940 to 1943 as war correspondent of The Herald, Melbourne, other Australian evening newspapers, The Times, London, and the North American Newspaper Alliance.

Some of the episodes described here have already been described by me, usually in different form, in newspaper articles; but I have previously used none of them, as I use them here, as pigments in a sincere attempt to paint a portrait, however faulty and inadequate of the Australian Soldier.

JOHN HETHERINGTON. Melbourne, 1944.