Interview with Ray Adams (When the war came to Australia)

Ray Adams enlisted for the army but was not needed so he joined the Voluntary Defence Corps (VDC). The VDC was started by the veterans of the First World War. Each town had their own branch. Those who joined were mostly farmers, graziers and seventeen year old boys waiting to join the services the following year. Although the VDC was nicknamed Dad's army, all training was serious. Ray received word that the Japanese were fighting in the Coral Sea. Little information was given to the VDC volunteers about the bombing of Darwin. Ray later found out ninety thousand men in NSW had been waiting to be taken North to be the first line in land defence. Ray mentions that Australia lost faith in Britain when Singapore fell. Three men from Ray's village died there. Ray came from Birrawood which had a population of approximately fifty people, set in a prosperous farming area. Ray became the secretary of the Soldiers and Sailors Welfare Fund which the village started. The village concentrated on fundraising. Every six months a package was sent to the boys who had enlisted from Birrawood and the surrounding area. This continued throughout the war. Eight hundred pounds were raised to be distributed to those soldiers who returned.