Thursday, July 24, 2008

THE WAR YEARS.... GRANDFATHER


During the second World War Brisbane was host to thousands of American soldiers on R & R. General MacArthur made his Headquarters in the AMP Building in Queens Street, Brisbane in March 1942. By November tension between the Australian and American forces had reached a point when the Battle of Brisbane erupted with rioting between the two allied personnel.
The Americans had a huge camp in the area which is/was Doomben Racecourse.
Grandfather "Hell Bent" was employed to guard the camp at night. His main job was to keep Australian soldiers away from American soldiers who were here to "save" us. The cause of the fracture in cordial relations for the short period was over "women". Would you not know it. The Australian girls were quite taken with the American boys!!!
Of course old "Hell Bent" was in his element as thrived on controversy especially when he could ride around on his horse waving a gun......

4 Comments:

Blogger Artoholic said...

What a character your Grandfather must have been! Love his Paint mount as well.

My Dad was won't to wave a gun around. He represented Australia in the Commonwealth Games, but was the farmer at heart.

Great Story Elizabeth!

July 27, 2008 at 10:31 PM  
Blogger diane b said...

He was an interesting character.
I have tagged you on my Bigblog, hope you don't mind

July 28, 2008 at 10:33 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Cindy,
Your Dad would have had a steady hand shooting at the Games...I bet ole Hell Bent was too volatile to shoot straight.....
Cheers Elizabeth

July 30, 2008 at 8:19 PM  
Blogger Lizzie's Insomnia said...

Diane,
Thank you for coming by..I .consider the other an honour thank you...I started listing blogs and raced off on some other harebrained scheme and have not finished. I will get back to it later.
Cheers, lizzie B.

July 30, 2008 at 8:22 PM  

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