D-Day at the Antipodes

kw: family, war stories, correspondence

Sydney, Australia is very nearly the opposite side of the earth from Britain, the English Channel and Normandy. Sydney's time zone is GMT+10, so when 0000 hours, June 6, 1944 rolled around, it was 10 AM for my father, posted near Sydney.

On D-Day, 65 years ago today, not all the U.S. forces and allies were occupied with establishing a French beach head from which to attack the Germans. The War of the Pacific was in the midst of a brief lull, but was soon to heat up again, though the major bombing campaign against Tokyo was still nine months in the future.

My father had little to do that day. He and other recent OCS graduates were awaiting assignments. He went shopping, shipped his purchases home, then wrote this letter. It is a V-Mail that has suffered water damage and is stuck to its envelope. I photographed it with back light to decipher it. Here is the transcription:

Ruthy darling,

Goodmorning! yes for once

I got up before dinner — in fact I

was up at 6:30. — I expect to leave

in a day or so and am practising for

work, ha!

Yesterday I did some more shopping,

I bought you a little souvenir, couple

of ties I promised you pop, my pop

ties also —. I sent all this to mom. I hope

it arrives soon. I've been trying in Sydney

and here to get a suitable, nice gift for mom,

but it's very puzzling. I'll look again today.

My darling, how have you been?

I've been so anxious to hear from you, but

I probably won't for now until I get

"Up Top." You are now in summer there

aren't you? Bye bye — My deepest devotion

Jim

The major events that were happening on the other side of the globe covered sixteen hours:

• 00:00 Hours — Airborne Landing Begins
• 03:00 Hours — Heavy Bombing Raids
• 04:00 Hours — Allied Invasion Fleet Arrives
• 06:30 Hours — U.S. Landings Begin
• 07:25 Hours — British and Canadian Landings Begin
• 12:00 Hours — British and Canadian forces push inland
• 16:00 Hours — Hitler Authorizes German Counter-Attack

Details of these events can be found at the WW2 D-Day Timeline site.

Dad liked writing letters right after supper when he could, so he was probably writing at 7 PM; subtract 10 hours and you get 0900, right in the middle of the most intense ground fighting and near-debacle on Omaha and Utah beaches. The forces involved in the Pacific war, having no "need to know", were totally unaware, and did not hear until they got letters from home, based on letters from Europe. It was at least a few weeks before Dad heard about it.

His letters during June and July 1944 are full of the mundane things he and his fellow graduates were doing while they awaited work. They didn't know that the attention of the entire General Staff was on France. On June 11, for example, a Sunday, Dad wrote about attending church, which he enjoyed, except for the sermon, which was by a "real radical" of a preacher, one who believed in "total annihilation," an exaggerated doctrine based on Methodist Arminianism. Two days later, he attended two rugby games and one American football game. He wrote three pages of humorous commentary on the brawl that is Australian Rules rugby: "If a man gets a free kick, and you can get within a few yards and block the ball, after the beating that follows, you get a free kick…if you are able."

Dad soon became a Captain in the Corps of Engineers. He spent the rest of the war either building airstrips on nameless islands, or demolishing them just ahead of fleeing a Japanese invasion of said island. He loved blowing things up. But after the war, expecting to go right home, he found he was assigned further work in the Pacific. His "Ruthie" waited an extra few months for him and they were married in March 1946. I suppose that explains why I was born in 1947 instead of 1946.