Their arrival in Australia following Guadalcanal
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anghmho — 12 years ago(January 17, 2014 11:53 PM)
Have you ever tried bathing in seawater? Not a good idea. It leaves your hair unmanageable and your skin sticky. In 1963 I was stationed in Okinawa when a freshwater emergency occurred. The Navy sent a desalinization ship that operated dockside and provided fresh water. But while we had freshwater to drink and cook with, saltwater was pumped to our showers. Okinawan civilians got only freshwater. They walked around clean and comfortable while we were sticky, uncomfortable, and looked it. This lasted for several miserable weeks.
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crockett_john — 12 years ago(July 29, 2013 07:02 AM)
You are correct that water is at a premium, but actually, the priority is the ship first. It takes fresh water to run boilers. After that, it's water for cooking and drinking. If there's water left over, it's for bathing and shaving and possibly for laundry.
The few times I was ordered not to shave were aboard an amphibious assault ship during the Gulf War and we were transiting the Suez Canal with water that was so filthy, they didn't want to run it through the purification system, so we were told not to bathe or shave. Only brushing your teeth was allowed. Of course, that's 50 years after the events in the show, but I think it's the same concept. -
jd-276 — 12 years ago(September 28, 2013 02:42 AM)
Reply from an Australian - from Melbourne, in fact.
I wasn't there but my father was. I asked him about this and he told me that when they got off the ship, if anything, they looked even worse. Shaving and washing was difficult at the best of times aboard ship but these ships were chronically overloaded and there was a limit to how much fresh water could be carried or produced.
The marines were billeted at a number of locations around the city of Melbourne. The main one was Camp Murphy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (substituted for Victoria Park football ground in the show because the MCG has changed beyond recognition since) and Camp Pell in Royal Park, just near the Melbourne Zoo. I'd suggest that it was at this point that they were finally able to wash and shave and receive fresh dungarees and underwear.
It's also important to realise that it is not really possible to wash effectively in sea water because soap doesn't work. It is possible to get soap which will lather in salt water but I don't know if it was available back then. It would certainly not be possible to shave. If you've ever wondered why so many sailors have beards, perhaps this is the reason.
I think that, rather than insisting on military precision and spit 'n' polish, most people were prepared to, as they say, "cut them some slack". They'd just been through a pretty terrible ordeal on Guadalcanal so arriving in Australia looking a bit worse for wear instead of in their dress blues was probably not a bad thing.
They were certainly well received here and brawls were not very common. My father remembers them fondly and they made good impression. Most Australians from that generation remember the positive effect their arrival had on civilian morale and were/are grateful for their profound level of commitment to the defence of Australia.
How they looked when they got here was irrelevant. How did you expect them to look after 6 months in theatre, getting shot at and bombed? -
nickm2 — 12 years ago(December 24, 2013 08:04 PM)
How they looked when they got here was irrelevant. How did you expect them to look after 6 months in theatre, getting shot at and bombed?
I imagine the Marines were, to a man, totally grateful to be out of 'the hellhole of the Solomons' & back in civilization with hot food, comfortable beds, real booze & pretty women-I know I'd be. When I went to college in Greece back in the early 80s, I met a LOT of Greek Australians (many from Melbourne) and the girls didn't take second place to anyone. -
jelperman — 10 years ago(September 06, 2015 04:23 PM)
My maternal grandfather was in the 1st Marines and his description of the condition of his men matches your father's. There's a reason the men on Guadalcanal called themselves "raggedy ass Marines". Not only were fighting under hellish conditions, but when American and Australian ships were sunk and forced to retreat from the coast, the transports carrying everything (weapons, ammo, food, clean water, soap, clean clothes etc, etc) had to withdraw, too.
He said the locals in Australia went out of their way to be nice to the Marines. One Australian army sergeant, seeing my grandfather (another sergeant) in rags gave him an Australian army jacket, which my grandfather kept for the rest of his life. Another local let Marines stricken with malaria stay in his hotel free of charge until they recovered. Needless to say, the old man was fond of Australians until the day he died.
The haircuts and facial hair were as depicted in the series, as well as newsreel footage from the time. Marines didn't adopt that ridiculous "high & tight" look until long after the war. -
chasbrown999 — 12 years ago(December 24, 2013 06:23 PM)
You're actually right. Every Marine division had a tailor company, beauty battalion and a spit shine platoon. Those boys rocked up in Melbourne with hand made dinner suits and shoes so shiny some people on the pier actually went blind from the reflection of the sun on those hand made Italian leather shoes. The journey from Guadalcanal took a lot longer than usual what with all the pedicures and shampooing going on. And they weren't billeted at the MCG, it was actually the Grande Palatial Super Luxury Hotel, an 8 star hotel next door to the King of Australia's concrete bunker complex on Main St, Melbourne City. They then had dinner in the ballroom with the King, Queen, Prince of New South Wales, the Governor-General, the Governor of Van Diemen's Land and the General-Governor. The producers were indeed taking a bit of poetic license there.