Greetings from Melbourne, Australia.

Hello everyone,

I crashed through the roof and landed here in a cloud of dust after trawling google.com looking for information on The Blitz. It looked like a nice enough place, so I decided to stay.

I'm a university student with a historical brain. Everyone says I was born 100 years too late. My room is filled with everything from rocker-blotters, inkwells, dip-pens, mechanical clocks and 80-year-old Parker fountain pens (All of the above are there to be used - they're not for decoration).

I enjoy listening to early-20th century jazz from the 1900s up until the 1940s, including quite a few WWII-era big-band jazz tunes (Any Bonds Today, people? )

I have a great interest in all aspects of history from 1900-1950 and just history in general. I thought this place would be a nice forum to find out more information and to chat to like-minded people.

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I had a read of the stickies...right...my interest in WWII...

Just about anything and everything interests me about WWII.

- The weapons.
- The home front.
- The affect on civilian life.
- The bombings.
- The battles.
- The new inventions.
- The stories.
- The creativity and ingenuity that people displayed.

The interesting little titbits are what I love reading about. I'm a collector of all kinds of old stuff. One of those things is fountain pens. I now know that the Brits and Americans used to modify fountain pens and give them to soldiers and secret agents working in enemy territory. What was once a Parker or a Waterman or a Conway-Stewart was now a grenade, a single-shot pistol or a poison-dart shooter.

Listening to my collection of OTR (that's old-time-radio) shows reveals little interesting details too - like how the war affected people on the home-front. The necessity of buying war bonds, saving, rationing, the shortage of cigarettes, the importance of saving up used kitchen fat (yes, I'm not joking) and how things slowly went back to normal as the war ended. ("Say...now that the meat shortage is over, and you can buy chicken again..." - Harry Bartelles - radio-announcer).

 

Yes I did...is that illegal?

 

Yes the shortage was a fact everywhere, especially in occupied Europe. Cigarettes, liquor, and stocking became valuables you could actually use as currency. In Britain the goverment would encourage the population to grow their own vegetables and to save paper and metal for recycling. In the US. they authorities would prevent you from wasting and more surprising : lumber was particulary needed on the front for building barracks, bridges etc...

 

Thanks, Skip. This looks like a fascinating place. I told one of my 'net-buddies about it and from what I can see, he jumped on the train right away (Mattydienhoff is his name. If I know him well enough, you'll see plenty of him around). I have a love of history in general, WWII is just a little slice of that. My uncle and grandmother (the two oldest members of my family, at 73 & 94 - born 1935 & 1914, respectively) used to tell me all kinds of stories of WWII when I was a kid, and that fueled my interest in the greatest global conflict in the world.

 

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your time here. There is a wealth of knowledge among the members...and an occasional neo-Nazi clown for amusement...

 

CLOWNS! I love clowns!...I'm joking. I can't stand the bastards, neo-Nazi or no. Thanks for the um...welcome, GrossBorn. I'll try my best to enjoy myself.

 

too bad I only met you today I saw some great wartime Melbourne pics on the internet yesterday. I will try to remember where I saw these (possibly Ebay USA)

 

Steven Spielberg is creating another WWII miniseries, to be set in Melbourne in 1943. It comes out in 2009, I think. It's about American GIs on-leave in Melbourne during the battles of the Pacific Theater. From what I've read, Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station will make an appearance in the series...



Flinders Street railway station as it appears today. Corners of Flinders (Cars heading towards the photo) and Swanston (going across).



Flinders Street Station as it might have appeared during WWII (This photo was actually taken in 1927, but you get the idea).

 

A very nice Victorian style building. Was the tower inspired by Big Ben?

 

Flinders Street Station was built, as with many of Melbourne's older-style buildings, during the second half of the 19th century, between the 1850s and the turn of the century. I'm not sure where the inspiration for the tower comes from. The tramlines which you can see in both photographs are still in-use today. Melbourne has I think, the largest tram-network in the southern hemisphere.

 

Interesting: this makes me think of a nice "now and then" thread. We could all post a modern picture of our hometown and compare it with a WWI picture.

 

That would be nice I would support (and contribute) to that

 

I would have to go down town and get pictures of the city of Orleans, the funniest is that i have the old ones but not the modern ones which are obvioulsy much more easy to get.

 

Welcome Shangas!!

Skipper, you should start that thread, I would contribute as well! That would be an interesting look at WWII on the homefront!!

welcome again Shangas!!

 

I will I have to get down town first to get a series of pics. It might take a few days, because I work in the opposite direction, so the old center is not my usual way.

 

G'day mate
Melbourne huh great a another aussie there is only about two here (well as far as I know) I;m from Brisbane QLD.
Enjoy your stay mate.

 

There are probably more aussies actually, especially if you consider the expats in Britain. I remember talking to at least one of them. That would make at least three.

 

Welcome, Shangas -- Big Band era, huh? and jazz? Right up my listening alley

You surely know this tidbit: nylon stockings were introduced during WWII so that the silk could be used for parachutes.