How Australia Survived WW2
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2022
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jim Burrows OAM, 98, served as a Coastwatcher in the South Pacific during World War Two. The Coastwatchers were an intelligence arm of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, and were set up to alert Australia of any military threat from the north. Jim was a radio operator, and spent 10 months behind enemy lines in occupied Japanese territory.
Jim’s wife Beryl, 97, served in the Royal Australian Air Force as a records keeper, and also features in this episode to tell James what it was like living in Australia while the country was under serious threat of invasion from Japan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Here is the Prime Minister of Australia, the right honourable, R.G. Menzas. |
| 0:05.0 | Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you, officially, that in consequence |
| 0:11.0 | of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, |
| 0:14.4 | Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that as a result Australia is also at war. |
| 0:21.1 | Hello everyone, welcome back to the history hit warfare |
| 0:24.7 | podcast I'm really happy to say that I've been joined once again by Jim Burrows and |
| 0:29.5 | his wife Beryl in fact Beryl is a new addition to this episode and you'll remember Jim |
| 0:34.3 | from last Anzac Day. Jim is a 98 year old veteran of the Second World War |
| 0:40.8 | who fought in the Pacific campaign as a coast watcher. |
| 0:44.6 | And for this episode they've kindly come back on to warfare to talk about what it was like |
| 0:49.1 | in Australia during the Second World War, what it was like for Beryl, who served in the Royal Australian Air Force, |
| 0:58.0 | as a records keeper to live under the constant threat of Japanese invasion of Japanese midget submarine attacks of air attacks |
| 1:06.9 | and for Jim posted all the way off the coast of Australia on the Pacific Islands watching out for enemy invasion, and also just generally helping to spot the tactical movements of the Japanese fleet. |
| 1:20.7 | In fact, Jim and the Coast Watchers are credited with really helping to secure victory at Guadalcanal. |
| 1:27.0 | So this is a fascinating episode, really great to have them both on the podcast. |
| 1:32.0 | It's so rare you get to speak to people who actually served |
| 1:35.4 | during the Second World War and hear the war in their own words. How you doing today, Jim? How's the lockdown in Melbourne? Are you guys okay? You able to go out and about? |
| 1:59.2 | Nothing for 28 days clear, so we're all alive again. |
| 2:04.0 | Oh that's brilliant. |
| 2:05.0 | You offer us a glimpse of our post-Covid world. |
| 2:08.0 | Well thanks for coming on the warfare podcast. I'm really keen to learn more about Australia's role and experience during the Second World War. |
| 2:16.0 | So perhaps we can start with that moment on the 3rd of September 1939 |
... |
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