“World War Profiles: World War II - Australia”

  Amelia Howland

(I) TIME & PLACE: 

I live in Melbourne, Australia. Today is October, 1939.

(II) BIRTHDATE: 

My birthday is on August 14, I was born in 1919, so next year I will have 21 years old 

(III) PROFESSION: 

I am a student, I'm studying medicine at the University.

(IV) FAVORITE FOODS AND ACTIVITIES: 

I would say that I am a person who loves desserts. My favorite desserts are the Pavlova and the Lamington. I spend most of my time studying, but in the moments that I have free I like to write down the thoughts I have about life, drink some tea and go out to the garden to observe the view.

(V) FAMILY: 

In my family is small. We are four people, my sister that is five years younger than me, my mother and my father.

(VI) MY REGULAR DAILY LIKE (before the World War was declared): 

Before war was declared, we were in a very difficult situation because of the Great Depression and the decrease in the size of the armed forces, for me it was a difficult to see everyone so worry. Most of my days were basically the same, during the week I spent the mornings taking classes, in the afternoons I came home, ate and went back to study. My days off were spent with my family and friends talking about the economic and insecurity situation, at moments I liked to simply be quiet and observe everything around me.

(VII) PERSONAL REASON FOR ENLISTING IN THE WORLD WAR CONFLICT ONCE IT STARTS:

I decided to enlist for this war in order to help my country, I must say that I don't like all this and clearly I didn't want to join it, but I was wondering a lot if there were enough medical personnel who would attend the war. I still have some things to learn but I know the basics and I can be of great help to all those people who are fighting for everyone's safety.

(IX) NATIONAL REASON FOR ENLISTING IN THE World WORLD WAR CONFLICT ONCE IT STARTS: 

I don't know what to think about this situation, Germany is getting very strong and has quite a few allies. Although they declared war mainly on Great Britain, we are getting very involved. I want to think positively and say that everything will be fine but our army is a bit weak at the moment, that is why I want to support this war, the more people we are, the stronger we will be. 

(VIII) YOUR WORLD WAR ROLE: 

In this war I will help by being part of the medical equipment, even if I'm still studying medicine, I know the basic things and I could help all the Australian soldiers. 

(X) PROFILE PICTURE: 

Siege of Tobruk

THE CONFLICT CONTEXT:  

Today is July 10, 1941, just over two months have passed since we have been assigned to the Battle of Tobruk in Libya. Everything has lasted longer than expected, we have lost around 49 men and a little more than 300 are injured, both colleagues and acquaintances have fought with everything they had but it has not been enough, regarding my state, physically I have only had a few injuries but losing so many colleagues has left me feeling worse than horrible, it is something that cannot be explained. Despite the casualties we have been able to capture around 27,000 Italian soldiers, weapons and tanks. We are being supported by the British forces and the Indian military, the Italians are being cornered, I cannot say that everything is going wonderfully but things seem to be going relatively well for us.

TECHNOLOGY:  

Things have been very difficult, the increase in weapons by the enemies and much worse the constant bombardments have been devastating. I heard that other garrisons are guarding the city's port, forcing the transportation of Italian supplies to be by land. In addition to this they have informed us of the arrival of new destroyers, they have not told us exactly what they are dealing with but in my opinion they will be very helpful since even if there are quite a few Australian soldiers it is not enough and the deaths have increased rapidly. I am a little concerned about the use they will be put to after the battle but right now I am more concerned about surviving and I think that if they are used conscientiously they will be of great help in similar situations that arise.

CHANGE vs CONTINUITY: 

Right now I am very tired, everything has been happening so quickly that I have not even had time to think, I just know that I will not give up and the main reason is because of my family. Now that I'm here, I realize everything Italians are capable of doing with that absurd ideology they have and I don't want my sister, my mom, or my dad to be controlled by them or receive any treatment from them. Despite the pain that I have gone through, I won't leave here until I fight with everything I have, until I protect the last Australian soldier, this war has made my mentality change since at first I was only worried that there wouldn't be enough medical personnel to help, besides that, now I want to protect my family, my nation and it doesn't matter if for that I need to fight with a gun in one hand and a morphine syringe in the other.

VIDEO MESSAGE:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IYydRRt3qaa2Do9W-iFrqSlJJUctmuiz/view?usp=sharing