Australian Historical Studies

ISSN: 1031-461X (Print) 1940-5049 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rahs20

The Shadow Men: The Leaders Who Shaped the from the Veldt to Vietnam; Scorched Earth: Australia’s Plan for Total War under Japanese Invasion in World War II

Andrew Richardson

To cite this article: Andrew Richardson (2018) The Shadow Men: The Leaders Who Shaped the Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam; Scorched Earth: Australia’s Plan for Total War under Japanese Invasion in World War II, Australian Historical Studies, 49:2, 283-285, DOI: 10.1080/1031461X.2018.1454281

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2018.1454281

Published online: 04 Jun 2018.

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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rahs20 Reviews: Books 283

Australia’s postwar immigration scheme was Several titles over the past fifteen years have ‘visionary and, ultimately, successful’ (201). This sought to highlight the stories of lesser known inconsistency in argument reveals an unresolved key figures in the Australian army’s history. conflict of the author: Persian wants to critique Works such as James Wood’s Chiefs of the Austra- Australian government policies (possibly with lian Army and Justin Chadwick’s Sword and Baton: one eye on current debates) while at the same Senior Australian Army Officers from Federation to time laud the program for introducing ethnic 2001, Volume 1, 1900–1939, have brought forth diversity into Australia. the contributions of more obscure senior officers Methodologically, the author makes sus- from the first half of the twentieth century. These tained use of archival material held at the works have been welcomed for their balance and National Archives of Australia and personal intellectual rigour against more populist biogra- papers held at the National Library of Australia. phies of well-known Australian military Curiously, she under-utilises the twenty-two leaders, especially Sir John Monash. Fortunately, oral history interviews she conducted with DPs, The Shadow Men, edited by Craig Stockings and which is a pity as this material would have John Connor, looks beyond luminaries like added much-needed depth to the narrative of Monash and approaches each senior officer’s personal experiences. Unfortunately, Persian biographical essay with a critical eye. fails to include any direct reference to the volumi- All contributors to the volume are military nous and accessible UNRRA records held at the historians who understand the scope of United Nations archives in New York, or the IRO command responsibility, exigencies of oper- records held in Paris, and instead relies on pub- ational requirements, and the complexities of lished materials. This is a significant omission, the politico-military machine. Combined, their especially given the fact that the first third of Beau- scope is broad, covering officers from the tiful Balts details the UNRRA/IRO management of immediate post-Federation period through to the camps and selection of DPs for resettlement, the conclusion of the Vietnam War. The officers and it would have benefited considerably by the featured are - Sir Edward inclusion of more archival material. Hutton; -General Sir William Bridges; There is much to admire about Jayne Per- General Sir Cyril ; Major- sian’s Beautiful Balts; however, this book rep- General Gordon Legge; John O’Brien; resents a starting point rather than a definitive Lieutenant-General Sir ; Lieute- account. Hopefully, Persian (or other historians) nant-General Sir Rowell; can delve deeper into this fascinating topic, inte- Eustace Keogh; Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas grating international archival material with Daly; and Lieutenant-General Sir Mervyn national and personal accounts. Brogan. Each chapter allows more substantial military analysis than their respective Australian Dictionary of Biography entries. RACHEL STEVENS Hutton was a giant of his day, yet is all but University of unknown now. His involvement in the formation © 2018, Rachel Stevens of national defence policy places his influence on the post-Federation army above such luminaries as , John Monash and James McCay, making his apparent modern anonymity even more surprising. Abrasive and polarising, The Shadow Men: The Leaders Who Shaped the Hutton approached his job with exceptional com- Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam. petence, but lacked the political acumen to Edited by Craig Stockings and John Connor. patiently convince doubters of the efficacy of his Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2017. Pp. 266. plans. This places him in sharp contrast to North- A$34.99 paper. cott, for example, who worked closely with and for during World War II. Scorched Earth: Australia’s Plan for Total War Hutton’s story places the pre- era under Japanese Invasion in World War II. into better context at the politico-strategic level, By Sue Rosen. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2017. and establishes that tensions between political Pp. 284. A$32.99 paper. intent and financial reality were a feature from 284 Australian Historical Studies, 49, 2018 the very beginning. Similar trends can be dis- NSW, planning for resource denial was meticu- cerned in later chapters too, as various senior offi- lous and impassioned. His January 1942 paper cers faced the difficulty of managing government on the matter convinced the NSW premier to expectations within resource constraints. install Swain as chair of the ‘Scorched Earth Like many officers of the pre-World War I Sub-Committee’. Under this official body and period, Bridges was a protégé of Hutton and his with the participation of the military authorities, career was materially advanced by the association. a formal policy eventually received government His rise intersected with Legge’s, who disagreed endorsement in November 1942. By then, the with Bridges’ ‘imperialist’ outlook for Australian critical threat of Japanese invasion had passed, defence policy. Such revelations uncovered by though Prime Minister Curtin formally declared these probing biographical studies allow the the risk had passed in June 1943. The work of reader to better understand the frictions and com- senior army officers like Northcott informed the petitiveness between army officers and bring into strategic level discussion over civilian and military focus how they interacted with each other. The preparation for invasion that men like Swain chapter on White by Peter Stanley, for example, were planning. The works reviewed here, there- illustrates how he cruelled the ambitions of fore, are in some ways complementary for the others, ending Legge’s operational command era and themes they cover. after Poziéres and frustrating ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s Within the context of Japanese midget sub- ambitions for promotion to Major-General. marine attacks in Sydney Harbour and bombing White’s somewhat hagiographical reputation across northern Australia, the NSW Scorched (established by C.E.W. Bean) is challenged and Earth Sub-Committee drafted very specific and major new directions for research on White and detailed plans, outlining which areas were to be his career are identified, including on the for- defended (predominantly industrial centres), mation and transmission of orders within the those that should be evacuated, where, and in Australian Imperial Force staff system. Many what manner. Rosen has reproduced Swain’s chapters suggest further opportunities for initial paper and the documents of the Scorched research for budding PhD students to break new Earth Sub-Committee to illustrate just how ground. The volume also contains some of the serious the fear of invasion was. While Peter last work written by the late (Pro- Stanley has convincingly demonstrated that the fessor of History at UNSW, ) – specifi- Japanese were not planning to invade (see his cally, the chapters on O’Brien, Keogh and Daly. Invading Australia, Penguin, 2008), such fears of This book is well researched and written; it invasion were still tangible for an Australian situates these officers’ careers within the context public denied access to Allied intelligence assess- of their time, and serves as a ‘tasting plate’ for the ments and intercepts. generalist reader to learn about comparatively Most of the book is the transcription of key unknown figures in the army’s history. Further, policy documents directing the planning of the it is a welcome alternative to uncritical military scorched earth policy. These are valuable titles filling bookshelves nationally. The Shadow resources, though serious researchers may prefer Men deserves better quality print stock and final to consult the originals. Rosen provides a short production values from the publisher, as the contextual introduction to each section of docu- review copy had marginal quality paper and ment reproduced, including the ‘General Citizen some pages had less than sharp print. Code’, ‘General Industry Code’, and ‘Denial of Sue Rosen’s Scorched Earth is based on Resources to the Enemy’: Jetties and Wharves; records found in (NSW) For- Watercraft; Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants; Motor estry files she discovered while researching Transport; Motor and Repair Equipment; Coal another project. The book uncovers the NSW Mines; and Public Utility Services. Combined, the government’s detailed plans for the denial of work is expansive and detailed, covering every- resources to the enemy – a scorched earth thing from the recommended destruction of policy – in the event of Japanese invasion in machinery to the role of the Volunteer Defence 1942–43. It makes fascinating reading, especially Corps in guarding mooring sites. The documents to those familiar with NSW geography. are explicit on the public’s obligation to participate Driven by the forceful personality and vision in resource denial to the enemy, something Swain of Edward Swain, Commissioner for Forests in referred to as ‘total civilian collaboration in a Reviews: Books 285 master plan’ (5). Every civilian effort to destroy or of being arbitrarily caned at his English prep sabotage was designed to hinder the enemy and school: ‘Sexual abuse of children is rightly at buy time for the armed forces to mount a the forefront of people’s minds now, but isn’t defence and eventual counter-attack. it time people also recognised the profound The publisher’s claim of the book being trauma that sadomasochist brutality, even ‘Australia’s secret plan’ is misleading as the without an overt sexual aspect, wreaks on work doesn’t cover national planning, but small boys and girls?’ Rosen’s book is essential reading for both Undoubtedly it is time to take up that ques- World War II and NSW historians. As evidence tion. Since the end of the Cold War, a feature of for Australia’s preparedness for invasion, it is a political life in the West has been the myriad valuable source. However, due to its focus on attempts to bring authorities to account for the NSW, it will have limited appeal to those abuse of children in the ‘care’ of the state or reli- without a good knowledge of that state. The gious organisations. Australian readers will recall book would also have benefited from an index national inquiries into the Stolen Generations, for readers keen to know what plans were pre- child migrants, children in out-of-home care pared for specific areas of NSW.* and, most recently, institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Often, those inquiries have ANDREW RICHARDSON been accompanied by victim and survivor cam- Department of Defence, Historian, Australian Army paigns for official apologies from representatives History Unit, Canberra of the state. In this regard, the Australian experi- © 2018, Andrew Richardson ence has been replicated elsewhere throughout the world. In Apologies and the Legacy of Abuse of Children in ‘Care’, Swedish economic historian Johanna Sköld and Australian social historian Shurlee

Swain (my PhD supervisor) have marshalled an Apologies and the Legacy of Abuse of Children in impressive collection of authors to form the ‘Care’: International Perspectives. latest book in Palgrave’s series on the history of Edited by Johanna Sköld and Shurlee Swain. childhood. Together, they reflect on some of the Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. particularities and general trends that can be Pp. 217. A$127.25 cloth. drawn from looking at the ways that states, histor- ians and other professionals approach questions of justice for care-leavers and those who have What drives someone to abuse the body, mind been abused. The book’s contributors focus their or spirit of a child in their care? Alongside com- attention on late capitalist nations that include parable sentient creatures, humans seem to dis- Canada, The Netherlands, Denmark, Scotland, tinguish themselves by their capacity for cruelty Ireland, Sweden and Australia. They provide a towards their own offspring and the children of useful account of the ways that commissions of others. Explaining why is a difficult task. As inquiry around the world observe and borrow historians, we can search in vain for the motiv- from one another and are modified to suit con- ations that might drive an individual abuser, or ditions in those individual states. Apologies com- look for other clues in the institutional or bines its national case studies with broader private settings in which that abuse takes discussions on historical method and the politics place. It is a murky task, especially where of apologies. Some of its best chapters are on the records are missing or incomplete. Much lessons that can be learned from collaborating clearer to see are the long-term effects that mis- with care-leavers and working with evidence treatment, cruelty and assault can have on chil- that relates to trauma. These contributions dren whose lives are marked by it. In a memoir would provoke excellent discussions in seminars published shortly before he died in 2017, the with Honours or Masters students. veteran ABC journalist Mark Colvin asked a There are two major points that recur throughout the book. These relate to the sites pointed question that arose from his experience

* The views expressed in this review are the author’s own.