8/14/2019 Defending Fremantle (and Rottnest) in WW2 - A New Book

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4/09/09 6:47 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Friday, September 4th, 2009

Time Event

6:41a Defending Fremantle in WW2 - a new book

Theres a new book on the block,Defending Fremantle Albany andBunbury - 1939 to 1945 by Graham McKenzie-Smith. The WestAustralian newspaper published a two page feature about it onWednesday, with his phone number at the end. (0409 364 527).Grahams phone has been running hot ever since. I rang him andcollected my signed $20 copy from his Mount Pleasant homeyesterday. Hell post them locally for twenty five bucks.

Its a slim volume with glossy paper and high quality printing - 44pages (A4) including the cover. Inside there are some 30 photos andmaps of local wartime activity - many have probably never beenpreviously published. I read the entire volume last night fairly quickly,but theres a huge amount of concise detail which will reward anyonewho makes a more studied examination.

A new book about wartime Fremantle

Grahams effort is the result of his many years squirreling about invarious archives in WA and the eastern states. Commonwealthgovernment archives dont necessarily maintain material in the relevant

state. This has always been an expensive handicap for amateur westernAustralian historians.

The book is a very welcome addition to my personal library.Knowledge of Fremantles astonishing wartime history has never beeneasy to acquire. Somehow the states 19th century colonial history wasalways deemed more important in conservative historical circles.Wartime Fremantle of course also includes Rottnest and GardenIslands.

It contains information about unit distribution and networks ofequipment such as searchlights and anti-aircraft artillery batteries. Withthe postwar expansion of suburbia there will be many cases wherepeople are blissfully unaware that they live upon these historic sites. Healso touches on the crucial activities of US and other allied military in

our southwest.

Undoubtedly the books great strength is that it will become animportant research tool for future historians, because as well asindexing many almost forgotten military units, it provides the archivallocations of a substantial amount of additional research material. Itslikely theres potential inspiration for a larger project of some sort from

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8/14/2019 Defending Fremantle (and Rottnest) in WW2 - A New Book

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4/09/09 6:47 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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every paragraph. Unfortunately, time is rapidly running out forcontemporary experiences of these wartime facilities to be obtained.This was something I became very aware of when I was writing myessays for Fremantlebiz on the wartime facilities at Rottnest. Click this

gizmo to quickly find them.

I checked the unit index for the RAAF 227 Radar Unit at Yanchep,which I wrote about on 22 July 2009. I couldnt see it mentioned, butthis is possibly because, as the author disclosed on page 2, he wasspecifically concentrating on the role of the Armys involvement in the

integrated-services defense of Fremantle. Cant do everything.

I have one of Grahams previous self-published works, AustraliasForgotten Army, Vol. 1, The Ebb and Flow of the Australian Army in

Western Australia - 1941-1945 (1994). That was an eye opener for meas well. I noticed yesterday he still has a few copies for sale.

He told me that with the help of a research grant hes currently workingup a four volume series about more than five and a half thousandAustralian Army units which operated between 1939 and 1945. Thefirst volume of his Unit Guide Projectis expected to be published laterthis year.

MMIX Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my"common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most daysas part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words.Zzzzzzzz!

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