Word: australian
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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That was the Japanese plan. Its execution would not be so simple. The Dutch had a mobile Army of perhaps 50,000 well-armed white and brown troops, 50,-ooo not so well armed. "Some thousands" of Australian, British and U.S. soldiers were on the island, and probably were held for last-ditch shock attack. Short of artillery, short even of ammunition for the various calibers of Dutch, U.S., British, Swedish, German and Italian rifles, pistols and machine guns, the Dutch ordnance men had made much out of little. They juggled rifle parts to fit their ammunition supply. For armored...
...Tokyo broadcasts indicated that some British and Australian warships were also in the Indies fleet, although Allied communiques never mentioned them...
...Malaya was lost by default, as some correspondents reported last week, Burma was not. British and Indian troops fought for every bridgehead, constantly counterattacking. British, Indian, Australian, Canadian and U.S. pilots bombed and strafed the Japs. They met noticeably fewer Japanese planes; the Japanese apparently had sickened of their huge air losses in the first weeks of invasion...
...sense of crisis was staggering. The Australians had seen it coming-Singapore's fall and the inevitable sequel, the Japanese air attack on the Australian mainland (see p. 16). But it had happened dizzily fast. Seeing it coming and feeling the crunch of its presence were two different things. Sweat poured from the national pores; and beneath the sweat there was a sudden profound shift in the nation's war thinking, a lurching adjustment to the fact that the waking nightmare was no dream...
...boss of Australia's biggest newspaper chain, Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch, spoke of an Australian counteroffensive "that will surprise the Japanese." The War Cabinet conferred with Army & Navy chiefs; Parliament met in secret sessions, and the Prime Minister threatened to punish any member who blabbed. "I am a man or a mouse," said Mr. Curtin, "and if I'm a mouse they can throw me out of office...