Australia At Battle Stations (1942)

Titles read: “AUSTRALIA AT BATTLE STATIONS“. Australia. M/S of an anti-aircraft gun silhouetted against the sky at dusk. Several shots of Australian soldiers manning a coastal defence; observers look through binoculars, soldiers in gas masks move the large guns about and load shells. Soldiers build sandbag pillboxes and set up barbed wire on a beach. In Victoria, we see crowds of troops going off to man specified defences. The advance party is comprised entirely of diggers of the last war, calling themselves ’retreads’. The men are waved off by their wives; troopship is covered with streamers. In Melbourne, people work to put sandbags around buildings. Air raid shelters are built in gardens; spires of St Paul’s Cathedral seen in background. In Brisbane, large surface shelters are constructed down the middle of main streets. City buildings in Sydney have sandbags piled against them and brick shelters at their sides. Australia’s Volunteer Defence Corps - the Home Guard - are seen marchin