As American troops disembarked they proudly sang the song, “Australia, Australia, We’ve come to help you fight, fight, fight!” Singing was a good time to bothe the Americans and Australians.
As American troops disembarked
they proudly sang the song, “Australia, Australia, We’ve come to help you
fight, fight, fight!” Singing was a good time to bothe the Americans and
Australians.
Singing 'The Aussies and the Yanks Are Here',
September 1942 (photo by Athol
Shmith, La Trobe Collection; courtesy of the
State Library of Victoria)
The American soldiers were not used
to living on such harsh land with such hot weather. In a piece of doggerel,
a member of the 179th Ordnance Company wrote:
We’re somewhere in Australia where the sun is like a curse,
And each long day is followed by another slightly worse;
Where the brick red dust blows thicker than the shifting desert sand,
And all men dream and wish for a fair and greener land.
US Barracks, Victoria Park, Brisbane, September
1943 (Australian Archives- Brighton
Collection; courtesy of the Department of Housing
and Consruction)
For entertainment, Camp Shows existed only to entertain servicemen, much to the disappointment of the general public, who even more rarely saw big-name visitors. Ray Bolger, singer of ‘We’re OFF to See the Wizard’ in The Wizard of Oz (1939)-the song that the men of the 9th Division adopted as their own- joined other entertainers visiting during 1943. Others included Gary Cooper, Joe E. Brown, John Wayne, Una Merkel, Phyllis Brooks, and Bob Hope.
Soldiers would often dine out for meals in Australia for fun. Originally, seven course meals were served. But those meals disappeared under the weight of demand, staff shortages and, consequently, National Security Regulations limiting courses to three. Despite many special arrangements for the armed services, commercial eating-places of all types continued to be extremely busy. After waiting more than an hour for a table, it might still be necessary to share it with strangers. GI’s had to adapt to the Australian ways of cooking. Their coffee was different, the beer was different, and they even made their burgers different than the traditional American way.
Sports were very popular to the GIs. On their time off, many played baseball (America’s favorite past time), football, even though the Australians played their own form of the game, hunted, went fishing, and rode horses. Once the war began, uniformed Americans participated in an inter-service contest for buckjumping and bareback riding at Wirth’s Circus, Melbourne, in early 1943.
Bullock-riding at rodeo, Brisbane, November 1943
(La Trobe
The 'Brown Bombers' softball team, March 1943 (La Trobe Collection; courtesy
of
Collection; courtesy of the State Library of
Victoria)
the State Library of Victoria)
Davis Cup tennis matches lapsed during the war-when they resumed in 1945 the US defeated Australia five to zero-but exhibition matches took place. Americans competed with each other or with Australians in virtually every sport, from ice-skating or roller-skating to volleyball, track and field, and pool.
The American’s invasion of Australia was said to be a “friendly” one, but Australia say many changes. The shops in the towns were packed full to the brim, every day life being compared to Christmas Eve. With more money in their pockets than ever, many Americans and Australians turned into compulsive spenders. GIs wanted gifts and souvenirs to send home, often buying jewelry because it was easy to post. Churches in Australia were also very overcrowded. Some determined church-goers occasionally went AWOL to attend. The churches conducted special services for Americans and observed special US holidays. Servicemen’s voracious reading appetites made worse a shortage of suitable material locally. Libraries were, accordingly, assembled on an ad hoc basis in church halls, recreational clubs and elsewhere. Municipal and state libraries drew many GIs.
The hospitality that the Australians
offered the Americans was great. Australians responded magnificently to
calls to make Americans feel as though they were in their second home.
By mid-April of 1942 the ACF Hospitality Bureau for Allied Forces had a
thousand homes on its list in Melbourne. Servicemen went to homes in groups
of two or three. To obtain hospitality a GI or Digger simply checked the
register. By late 1943 more than a thousand Americans and an unknown number
of out-of-town Australians enjoyed the comforts of private homes. W.J.
McKnell, premier of the NSW once said, "They are our cousins by blood and
should be treated as such."
A group of three servicemen and the couple that
housed them
(courtesy of Chet Clark)
A GI asking for directions in Melbourne as likely as not would be escorted to their destination.Overall, the Americans were very impressed with Australia and its people. Americans and Australians became interdependent on each other in various aspects. Whether for sewing on buttons, packing Christmas parcels, visiting the wounded and sick in hospitals, or distributing razors, toothbrushes and towels on hospital trains, the Australian volunteer was indispensable tot he functioning of the American Red Cross. One GI, named George Lloyd, wrote home to a friend and said, “I think you would enjoy the Aussie people, Helen. Their accent, customs, and living methods are fun to us Yanksbut they are very much like Americans, and their hospitality unequalled anywhere.” Henry C. Wolfe was quoted saying, “Australians look, act, and think like us. The American feels very much at home in their cities. They favor our movies, pastimes, and books.”
All in all, Americans got along very well down under due to the similarities of Australia to America and the hospitable people there. Relations with the Australians were favorable.