‘Boredom is the Enemy’ The Intellectual and Imaginative Lives of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond Amanda Laugesen ‘Boredom is the enemy’ Tis page has been lef blank intentionally ‘Boredom is the enemy’ Te intellectual and imaginative Lives of Australian soldiers in the Great War and Beyond AmAndA LAuGesen Australian National University, Australia © Amanda Laugesen 2012 All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Amanda Laugesen has asserted her right under the Copyright, designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifed as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court east suite 420 union road 101 Cherry street Farnham Burlington surrey, Gu9 7Pt Vt 05401-4405 england usA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Laugesen, Amanda. ‘Boredom is the enemy’ : the intellectual and imaginative lives of Australian soldiers in the Great War and beyond. 1. Australia. Australian Army--military life--history--20th century. 2. Australia. Australian Army--history--World War, 1914-1918. 3. Australia. Australian Army--history--World War, 1939-1945. 4. Australia. Australian Army--history--Vietnam War, 1961-1975. 5. soldiers-- Australia--recreation--history--20th century. 6. soldiers--Australia--intellectual life--20th century. 7. Psychology, military. i. title 355.1'13'08924-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Laugesen, Amanda. ‘Boredom is the enemy’ : the intellectual and imaginative lives of Australian soldiers in the Great War and beyond / Amanda Laugesen. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. isBn 978-1-4094-2732-2 (hardcover) -- isBn 978-1-4094-2733-9 (ebook) 1. Australia--Armed Forces--military life--history. 2. Australia--Armed Forces- -recreation--history. 3. soldiers--Books and reading--Australia. 4. Books and reading- -Australia--history--20th century. 5. Australian Army education service.--education. 6. Boredom--history. 7. sociology, military--Australia. i. title. ii. title: intellectual and imaginative lives of Australian soldiers in the Great War and beyond. u773.L38 2011 355.1'20994--dc23 2011024621 isBn 9781409427322 (hbk) isBn 9781409427339 (ebk) IV Printed and bound in Great Britain by the mPG Books Group, uK Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Part I World War I 1 Books and reading at War 13 2 Soldiers as readers 43 3 Soldiers as Entertainers and audiences 79 4 Prisoners of War and demobilization 105 Part II World War II 5 Mobilizing Education and Entertainment 137 6 Cultural Worlds 175 7 Te Imaginative and Intellectual lives of PoWs 211 Part III thE VIEtnaM War 8 Education and Entertainment 245 Conclusion 271 Bibliography 273 Index 299 Tis page has been lef blank intentionally List of Figures 1.1 Five members of the 7th Battery, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade at Gallipoli 35 3.1 Te 12th Australian Army Training Battalion Concert Orchestra outside a YMCA hut 94 5.1 Some members of an audience for a concert party in 1940 167 7.1 An illustration of the Changi library by Murray Grifn, 1943 225 8.1 A group of men fom D Company 6RAR/NZ in Phuoc Tuy province, Vietnam, 1970 249 Tis page has been lef blank intentionally Acknowledgements Tis project has relied on the valuable support and assistance of a number of libraries and archives. Much of the research was undertaken at the National Library of Australia and the Australian War Memorial Research Centre. I thank the staf of the Manuscripts and Petherick reading rooms at the National Library of Australia and the staf of the Australian War Memorial Research Centre for their invaluable assistance. Te Art Department and Sales area at the Australian War Memorial, especially Natalie Nelson, provided assistance with obtaining illustrations. I would also like to thank the staf of the National Archives of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales and the Australian Red Cross archives. Tis project has been assisted through three institutions in which I have worked over the life of this project: the Australian National University (and Australian National Dictionary Centre), Flinders University and the University of Southern Queensland. All three provided some fnancial and institutional support; research grants from the University of Southern Queensland were particularly valuable in supporting some of the early research on this project. Colleagues and friends in Australia and abroad have provided me with much help and support. Bart Ziino, Kirsty Harris and Marina Larsson all passed on valuable material from their own research projects for which I am indebted. I would also like to thank for their interest, encouragement and/or challenging questions at conferences and seminars: at the University of Southern Queensland: Gabriela Pohl, Chris Lee, Maurice French, Richard Gehrmann and Peter Wicks; at Flinders University, Don DeBats, Carol Fort and Daniel Fazio; at the ANU: F.B. Smith, Barry Higman, Jill Matthews, Doug Craig, Bruce Moore, Julia Robinson, Dorothy Jauncey and Judith Robertson; members of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing and other colleagues across the globe: John Hench, Shafquat Towheed, Mary Hammond, Christine Pawley, Neil Roos and Pat Buckridge. I would particularly like to thank John Knott at the ANU for reading and commenting on the entire manuscript. My greatest debt for both reading the manuscript and providing me with the encouragement to complete this book is owed to Damien Browne. Permission to access and quote from material in the Australian Library and Information Association Records has kindly been granted by ALIA. Permission