Fire - USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6 - 12 Jul 20

[SLXOwft]

I crave the Mods indulgence for a clarification and apology.

Chugalug2, please accept my apologies, I was aiming a nudge at Georg1na. I felt your loss gives you a right to be aggrieved. However, honestly I thought you did play the ball.

I was offended by the post but accept all countries have their myths based on different perceptions of the facts, what I was trying to say was Britain was in no position to provide additional help to any of the Dominions or Colonies threatened by the Japanese but had an ally in the US that was. The intention was to hold the line much further North - MacArthur only ended up in Australia because the Japs kicked him out of the Philippines. The war was a global one and required each ally to uses it resources where it could to best effect. Frankly, the UK was losing at that point and the defeat of Germany was as you imply essential. To Australians, obviously, the defence of Australia was paramount; to Churchill it was one issue among many and I suspect he felt the threat of invasion was limited and quite probably intelligence was available that confirmed it. One of my wife's grandfathers served in the SANF defending Durban from the threat of Japanese attack. It may seem ridiculous to us now but at the time the threat was felt to be real.

British casualties in the Gallipoli campaign were: Killed 3 times ANZAC losses and Wounded 10 times ANZACs, more Frenchmen were killed than Aussies. I suspect most in all three Commonwealth countries don't even know that British and French troops were involved.