Remembering

Evidence of the attacks on Australia can still be seen across the nation: from derelict gun emplacements and overgrown airfields to the foundations of dismantled barracks and fortifications, from the wrecks in Broome to the base of the boom defence at the entrance to Sydney Harbour.

Those who lived through these years still remember the harrowing days of air attacks and the threat of invasion. Their speech occasionally echoes the slogans of home-front Australia. Those who lived through these years remember shopping with a ration card and spending their precious spare time on civil defence activities. They remember their men who embarked for “overseas” and did not return, and the sights and sounds of foreign soldiers in their pubs and on their streets.

They remember living with the knowledge that the enemy was only just over the horizon.