Screening: ABC, 8:30 Wednesday 16^th May, 2001

“There’s not very much difference between cowardice and bravery… I think I wavered between the two”. These are the words of Australian air ace Bobby Gibbes, one of the remarkable Australian veterans who speak with great candour in Episode Four of Australians at War.

Gibbes was one of almost a million Australians who served in the Second World War. From the safety of today’s Australia it is hard to imagine why so many of them willingly crossed the world to defend the Empire and all it stood for.

But this was a different world, a world of loyalty to Britain and Empire. Of men and women hardened by the experience of economic depression and memories of the First World War. For most of the young men who enlisted the war also promised adventure. Many had never left their hometowns or cities. But all believed in the just cause of a war against fascism.

Ray Brown broke the news to his distraught father: “Dad, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go and help the Empire.” His father, a veteran of the First War, knew what lay ahead.

Episode Four, “Here we go again”, vividly recreates their experience of war - from the heroism of Tobruk to the calamity of the fall of Singapore.  Their gripping first hand accounts are blended with powerful archival footage of campaigns from North Africa to Malaya. The episode climaxes with the sinking of HMAS Perth, as the Japanese push relentlessly towards Australia at the start of 1942.

After the war the survivors rarely spoke of their experiences. In their interviews for Australians at War, some talk openly for the first time. Not only of the horror and terrible loss, but also of the sense of duty, loyalty and, above all, the mateship. Their moving humility reminds us of the debt all Australians owe their generation.

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