Curiosity—Stories of those who report during wartime

In the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra there are 15 stained-glass windows. Each shows a figure dressed in military uniform, and under each figure is a word which describes a quality displayed by Australians during wartime. One window features an infantryman wearing a trench mortar uniform. He represents all service men and women who have gained knowledge from enquiry, symbolised by an eye in the Egyptian style from which stream rays of light.

This window bears the word Curiosity.

Note to reader: These stories relate to war and conflict. You may feel sad after reading some of them. Teachers may wish to be sensitive to students who have family members serving overseas in war zones.

  • Curiosity—Stories of those who report during wartime
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A way with words: Kenneth Slessor

A black and white image of a middle-aged man in uniform sitting in a lounge chair and reading papers from an open folder.

This portrait of Slessor was taken in 1940 before he sailed to England. He believed that his work was important ‘to keep up the morale of the people at home … also to stimulate the enlistment of volunteers for future reinforcements’.3 [AWM 001830]

Why do you think the government appointed official correspondents during the war?

  • 3. Clement Semmler (ed.), War diaries of Kenneth Slessor, University of Queensland Press, 1985, p. 578

Kenneth Slessor was a well-known Australian journalist and poet when the government appointed him as an official correspondent for the Second World War in 1940. He soon discovered that the job had many challenges.

Even when describing the horrors of war, Slessor often used poetic language in his reports. After the costly defeat of the German army by Allied troops at El Alamein in 1942, he wrote:

The road to ruin runs from Alamein to Gambut and points west. It is ruin, literal and absolute, a corridor of dusty death … this continuous mortuary of burnt metal and buried men.1

Slessor was deeply touched by the number of deaths on both sides of the war. His report at the end of the Syria campaign, read:

The earth has received the scattered bones of war and forgotten them. Syria, too, in a few weeks of peace will forget, let us hope, the cloud which passed over its green fields.2

He became increasingly critical of military decisions that he felt caused the unnecessary death of Australian soldiers.

Slessor’s concerns about Australian military leaders gained strength when he began to cover the war in New Guinea. In October 1943, the army criticised Slessor when an article describing an event he had witnessed was published. Although Slessor defended the accuracy of the article, he had not gained the necessary clearance from the Army Public Relations branch prior to its publication. The resulting dispute led to his resignation in 1944.

On his return to Australia, Slessor resumed writing poetry and books, and editing journals and newspapers. He died in Sydney in 1971, and was survived by a son.

Did you know?

Slessor was one of Australia’s leading poets. ‘Beach Burial’, written during the Second World War, was a reflection on the death of so many soldiers. It includes the lines:

Whether as enemies they fought, Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together

A black and white image of three men sitting in a jungle setting. One man is holding a small radio and the other two a reading from pieces of paper. There are canvas tarps strung up behind them, and men’s clothes hanging on ropes above them.

Slessor (second from the right) at work close to the front line after landing in New Guinea in September 1943. [AWM 057093]

What challenges did war correspondents face in doing their job?

Fast facts: Official war histories

Part of Slessor’s role as an official war correspondent was to keep diaries to be used in writing the official history of the Second World War. Official war histories are commissioned by the Australian government to provide a detailed record of the Australian experience of war.

A small portable Remington typewriter contained in a black leatherette carrying case. It is rather battered.
A black and white image of eight men in uniform standing around a table in a small room. The table is covered with many items in small boxes and a lamp with a wick.
A black and white image of approximately fifty men in uniform standing in a jungle setting. There are some New Guinean men carrying boxes and some packs lying on the ground. In the foreground is mud with deep vehicle tracks through it.
  • 1. Clement Semmler (ed.), War despatches of Slessor, University of Queensland Press, 1987, p. 108
  • 2. Clement Semmler (ed.), War despatches of Slessor, University of Queensland Press, 1987, p. xxxiv