Peter Grose (2) (1941–)

A good history of a significant event in Australia's WW2 - the bombing of Darwin 10 weeks after Pearl Harbour.
The content is well researched, and the author provides the right level of detail - enough to give confidence in the commentary, but not so much as to drown the reader. And the writing style is clean and clear - a pleasure to read.
One of the surprises, for me, was that the force sent by Japan was the same group as attacked Pearl Harbour, and was actually slightly larger for the Darwin attack.… (mais)

When I went to Canberra recently, and knew I would have a few hours of waiting, I absent-mindedly left my current book sitting on the table at home. It was after 5pm in Canberra, so of course my options for purchasing a book were limited. I found that Target at Belconnen was still open, and I thought that, worse case, this book might provide me with some historical knowledge. It did. But I must say that as I was reading, I found Grose's tone to be rather grating (probably like mine when I get on my high-horse about Australia and Australians). Grose doesn't pretend that he likes Administrator Abbott (the Northern Territory's head-honcho in the '30s and '40s). Indeed, he states that he finds it hard to like him. Grose, too, makes an inadvertent claim that "Canberra" did this and that in the early 1900s when appointing a man to run the Territory. Of course, "Canberra" was not the centre of the federal government until 1927 - it was run from Melbourne. I am sure that Grose knows this, but the anachronism grated. And having previously lived in Canberra for near-on twenty years, the use of the city's name to represent all that is bad in our political system still annoys me no end. As the book develops, Grose indicates that he was writing as a counter to Paul Hasluck's history. Hasluck saw the reaction of the people of Darwin to be a case of national shame. Grose brought me back to the fold when he mentions the popular Australian dislike of "reffos" (refugees) and the way "these people" behave. Grose tells us that when Australians, following the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese in '42 became "reffos", they behaved like every other group of refugees. The book was not everything I expected, and upon completion, I was pleased that it was not a "white" armbanding of the omnipotence of ordinary Australians who, unlike the rest of the people of the world, are somehow superior because they just are, and Grose was at pains to make this clear that he was not of that brigade. For this I was truly grateful. There are numerous historical facts and corrections to the record, and I have a much better historical understanding of what happened in the first attack on Australian soil since 1788. But I didn't like Grose's tone, especially where he puts his personality into his work. This is remarkable in that I do the same thing, yet here I am reacting as others do to my own work. Surely there is a lesson for me in the reading of this book. It is unfair to lump all of this on Grose, and given my lack of knowledge on the historical subject, I am hardly one to judge. Yet the lesson I have learnt from this book is very powerful, even though I lament readers' aversion to any form of personality in one's writing that does not display enthusiasm for a cause one way or another. As La Rochefoucauld wrote in 1665: "Enthusiasm is the only convincing orator; it is like the infallible rule of some function of Nature. An enthusiastic simpleton is more convincing than a silver-tongued orator". I suppose had I liked this book more, I would have respected Grose less.… (mais)

A Good place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives During World War II by Peter Grose is quite an interesting account. This French Community, mainly of Le Chambon but also other communities around the same area, was made up of various unique people, many (perhaps most) of whom helped saved Jews in one way or another. One of the most intriguing things about this rescue operation is that it was apparently not organized into one big operation, and no one was ultimately in charge.

Generally, I have focused on reading biographies, and have found that focusing on the life of one person was more interesting to me than general history. But more recently I have become very intrigued with histories that deal with historical events from the perspective of many of the people who experienced and participated in those events. Take a group of people and stick them in a particular tragic event or perilous time and what do they do? How do they act? Will they be brave or cowardly? Will they be selfish or selfless?

This book focuses on people living ,working in or through "the upper reaches of the Loire Valley", a plateau in France. The time period is that of world war ii, with Nazi Germany ultimately taking over France, at first, only ruling half of France (though in reality they ruled the other half by means of the French Vichy government which gave into Nazi ideals) and eventually ruling the whole. The people on the Plateau end up being known as those who would take in Jews and other people fleeing the ramifications of Nazi rule. Many of these people were not natives of that part of France (and some were not Frenchmen at all), but they all end up in that particular spot.

There are multiple characters in this history: Andre Trocme is a protestant pastor and ardent pacifist who ends up very involved in the saving of Jewish refugees, all while trying to keep the community from using violent means to attack the enemy. Simone Mairesse loses her husband in the war, and instead of giving in to grief and despair desires to be active in opposing the enemy. Andre Trocme and his wife provide her with an occupation (non-violent by the way): helping to save (particularly Jewish) refugees, which she agrees to do and becomes a key source in finding safe houses that would take in Jews. Oscar Rosowsky, a young Jewish man who wants to be a doctor but who is denied that occupation because of his Jewishness, and ends up becoming a document forger instead (doing his work while also having a false identity himself of course) . These are just a few of the individuals who make up a part of this history.

There are joyful moments, such as when raids on houses are foiled in their attempts to round up Jews. There are funny moments, such as when a lady who is about to be arrested pretends to be insane, or when you find out that one of the methods used to disguise Jews and get them to safety was to dress them up as boy scouts…even older men! And there are also sad moments, and ironic moments, one of those being when you learn that a Jewish mother and her son are hidden separately in the same village without those who are hiding them knowing that they are related to each other. The neat thing about all of this is that this is that all of these things really happened, these were real people, not actors, these were truly scary times dealt with in real time, in real situations.

Reading history as a Christian makes it even more intriguing for me, especially as I am a premillennialist (believe that the Bible teaches that there is a future mass salvation of Jews and that all of those Jews will end up back in the promised land), and so I think that it is exciting to see how God sovereignty used various people, places and events to thwart Hitler's plan to exterminate all Jews. The people working on and through this French Plateau were some of those means, and their 'story' is quite enthralling.

Many Thanks to the folks at Pegasus Books for sending me a free review copy of this book! - My review did not have to be positive, I truly did like this book.

*Just a quick note: Being a book of history, there is a little bit of foul language (as of course, people swore and blasphemed back then too). But it is easily scribbled out and/or passed over while reading out loud (as I did when I read it with my younger sister).… (mais)

On 19 February 1942 Darwin was attacked by a Japanese air raid and Australian myth has it that the city was defended by poorly armed doughty locals. As with most myths there might be some truth in the story but in real life things are never quite so simple. As to the bigger picture one might read Graham Freudenberg’s magnum opus “Churchill and Australia” but for an understanding of the immediate threat one cannot go past this book.

It is a detailed and eminently readable account of one of the critical events in Australian history. It is worth reminding ourselves that more bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk than at Pearl Harbor ten weeks earlier. It is hard to imagine in today’s era of instantaneous communications across the world that Darwin was effectively cut off from the rest of Australia. It took 18 hours for the information of the attack to reach Cabinet which as meeting in Sydney. The locals had to cope. Grose has drawn on survivors recollections; contemporary newspaper and similar accounts (which may have been heavily censored); private correspondence; official archival material, and evidence given before the Lowe Royal Commission.

While some stayed to defend the city others headed south on the only road available: others took the opportunity to loot abandoned homes and businesses. Darwin was a small community and all of the cultural, social, class and racial tensions came to the fore.
The book itself is set with a clear typeface that makes it easy (for older eyes) to physically read. It is recommended to anyone with an interest in Australian history; or the entry of Japan and the United States into the war in the South Pacific.… (mais)