Born in 1939? What else happened? 2024 Edition

by Ron Williams

Overview

I was five years old when the War started. Almost eighty years later, my memories of the next seven years were all over the place. I still recall Dunkirk and Tobruk, Hitler and Chamberlain and Mussolini and Uncle Joe, the air raid shelters, and gas masks, and searchlights and the tank traps on the beach. I could even remember the very short shirt tails that a perceptive Government decreed were necessary to win the War,

But it was all a jumble to me. If you asked me to give a coherent record of the seven years, I could not have even started. So, I decided to sort it all out, by researching and writing this series.

This is the first in the Series. It covers the major events and ideas and some of the trivia of that year. Much of our Australia news in those days emanated from the War, so that each Chapter starts with the War scene. Then it drifts to military and politics, and ends with social matters and politics. But overall, the emphasis is on those OZ social issues, and how the War was affecting families in their everyday environment.

I find there is intense interest in the War years. This is not just confined to the oldies who lived through those years, but it extends to younger generations who wonder at the amazing pace of life, and the enormity of the unfolding events, and the depth of heroism and courage almost beyond belief.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780648324416
Publisher:	Boom Books
Publication date:	03/23/2020
Series:	Born in 19xx? What Else Happened , #1
Edition description:	Soft-Cover Version ed.
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Over the past 17 years the author, Ron Williams, has written this series of books that present a social history of Australia in the post-war period. They cover the period for 1939 to 1970, with one book for each year. Thus there are 32 books. To capture the material for each book, he worked his way through the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age/Argus day-by-day, and picked out the best stories, ideas and trivia. He then wrote them up into about 180 pages of a year-book. He writes in a simple direct style, he has avoided statistics and charts, and has produced easily-read material that is entertaining, and instructive, and charming. They are invaluable as gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries, and for the oldies who are hard to buy for.

Table of Contents

.

I give you a few Rules I follow as I write. They will help you understand where I am coming from.

Note. Throughout this book, I rely a lot on reproducing Letters from the newspapers. Whenever I do this, I put the text in a different font, and indent it a little, and make the font somewhat smaller. I do not edit the text at all. The same is true for the News Items at the start of each Chapter. That is, I do not correct spelling or if the text gets at all garbled, I do not correct it. It’s just as it was seen in the Papers.

Second Note. The material for this book, when it comes from newspapers, is reported as it was seen at the time. If the benefit of hindsight over the years changes things, then I might record that in my Comments. The info reported thus reflects matters as they were seen in 1969.

If the benefit of hindsight over the years changes things, then I might record that in my Comments. The info reported thus reflects matters as they were seen in 1969.

Third Note. Let me also apologise in advance to anyone I might offend. In a work such as this, it is certain some people will think I got some things wrong. I am sure that I did, but please remember, all of this is only my opinion. And really, my opinion does not matter one little bit in the scheme of things. I hope you will say “silly old bugger”, and shrug your shoulders, and read on.

Editorial Reviews

Tom Lynch, Speers Point. Some history writers make the mistake of trying to boost their authority by including graphs and charts all over the place. You on the other hand get a much better effect by saying things like “he made a pile”. Or “every one worked hours longer than they should have, and felt like death warmed up at the end of the shift.” I have seen other writers waste two pages of statistics painting the same picture as you did in a few words.

Barry Marr, Adelaide You know that I am being facetious when I say that I wish the war had gone on for years longer so that you would have written more books about it.

Edna College, Auburn. A few times I stopped and sobbed as you brought memories of the postman delivering letters, and the dread that ordinary people felt as he neared. How you captured those feelings yet kept your coverage from becoming maudlin or bogged down is a wonder to me.

Betty Kelly, Wagga Wagga. Every time you seem to be getting serious, you throw in a phrase or memory that lightens up the mood. In particular, in the war when you were describing the terrible carnage of Russian troops, you ended with a ten-line description of how aggrieved you felt and ended it with “apart from that, things are pretty good here”. For me, it turned the unbearable into the bearable, and I went from feeling morbid and angry back to a normal human being.

Alan Davey, Brisbane. I particularly liked the light-hearted way you described the scenes at the airports as American, and British, high-flying entertainers flew in. I had always seen the crowd behaviour as disgraceful, but your light-hearted description of it made me realise it was in fact harmless and just good fun.

From the Publisher