The Battle of Brisbane: Australians and the Yanks at war

by Peter Thompson

2001 ABC BOOKS SOFTCOVER

Genres: History, World War II

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Thompson is Sydney Mayer Lecturer in Early American History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St. Cross College.

Reviews

[Gus Breymann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the remarkable explanation of the collapse of the relationship between Americans and Australians in Queensland only ten months after the arrival of the Pensacola convoy in Brisbane at the beginning of 1942. It culminated in the so-called Battle of Brisbane for two days at the end of November that year. Along the way, the reader learns new facts about Milne Bay, the Kokoda Track, Buna and Gona, and race relations between African-American soldiers and caucasian Americans and Australians in North Queensland. The author paints vivid and critical portraits of generals Douglas MacArthur and Sir Thomas Blamey. If you want to know what the social life of MacArthur's "Bataan Gang" was like in Melbourne and Brisbane, the author introduces you to George Brett and Beryl Stevenson, Pick Diller and Joy Foord, and the torrid, long romance between Richard Sutherland and Elaine Bessemer-Clark. The book concludes with the official Australian report--held secret for many years--that fixes blame squarely for the two-day riots that occurred in downtown Brisbane over Thanksgiving weekend, 1942. I recommend the book highly, especially for anyone interested in little-known stories of the early days of the war in Australia and New Guinea. It is an easy and educational read.

[Pauleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this book is valuable into an event remembered only in outline by many BRisbane people. Those who were alive at the time would now mostly be dead, so the authors have done a good job of interviewing some and capturing a sense of Brisbane at war, while some were still alive.

The book was published in 2002 so some of these voices have shared their experiences. It also shows the difference our amazing digitised newspaper resource, Trove, has made to being able to research events.

Downsides to the book:
1. To my mind the chapters were a bit higgledy piggledy though I suspect the plan was to put Brisbane events in the broader military context. Once again I was shocked by how much the ordinary soldier was let down by the egos and lack of knowledge of their most senior officers.

2. It was disappointing to have no detailed bibliography enabling someone to follow behind their research...a key part of writing history. I felt this was a big lapse.

3. Some sort of index would have been helpful to enable reference to the different elements and people.

These three issues takes away from the book as a proper history. However since the authors have shone the light on a shameful event in Brisbane’s history, I’ve given the book 4*.


I used the book and Trove to write a blog post about Thanksgiving Day 1942 aka The Battle of Brisbane here:

https://cassmobfamilyhistory.com/2020...

[Nocheevo · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the world outside Hollywood will be aware, the USA sat out the first two years of WWII largely due to an isolationist policy. Australia on the other hand, with said Jingo-ism launched in with Britain. As a result, when Japan launched its expansion/ grab for oil, Australia was missing a sizable portion of its frontline forces and with the fall of Singapore was even more exposed.

Against this backdrop of fear and war weariness, the US military began pouring into Australia with Dug-out Doug MacArthur. Due to the apparent wealth and tardiness of the US forces (overpaid, oversexed and over here.......as the saying goes) and culture shock for the hosts, friction developed.

The Battle of Brisbane is an account of what effectively was a brawl-riot between Allies. Its a bog standard history book but earns an extra half star for covering a largely forgotten event.

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow! Lots of bloviating just to make a full length book out of a two column newspaper article. Some interesting little known information on a part of WWII seldom discussed. Lots of General Douglas MacArthur bashing.