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Sunday Oct 06, 2024
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‘Peace – WWII over’ was the headline Sydney Morning Herald used on 16 August 1945 to announce the end of World War II. To take our minds back to WWII, Czechoslovakia was taken over by German forces in 1938 and when Hitler invaded Poland on 1939, Britain and France declared war over Germany. In the same year, Australia and New Zealand joined the Allied Forces against Germany.
In 1940 while Germany invaded several European countries, British air force prevented a German invasion in the Battle of Britain. Winston Churchill was then Prime Minister of Britain.
In 1941 USA joined the Allied Forces after the Japanese attack on US Navy at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. In the same year French colonies in Southeast Asia were taken over by the Japanese who also captured the Philippines, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma and Indonesia. In 1942 the Japanese bombed Darwin in Australia and invaded New Guinea and part of Papua.
The tide began to turn the other way by 1943 with the Allied Forces pushing back the Germans. In 1944 the Allies invaded France and drove the Germans back.
The Allied Forces advanced into Germany in February 1945 and linked with the Russians in April. The German forces surrendered unconditionally on 7 May 1045.
After USA dropped two atom bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito authorized the Japanese to surrender which they did on 14 August. The war was over.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Victory Edition featured the ‘Sydney Dancing Man’ celebrating the news of the ending of the war.
The headline in the second stamp reads ‘A small step – A giant leap’ – the famous words uttered by Neil Armstrong after stepping on the moon. He and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to reach the moon.
The live television broadcast of Armstrong taking humankind’s first steps on the lunar surface was seen by around 600 million people. The historic event took place on 20 July 1969.
‘Tracy Destroys Darwin,’ the headline in the third stamp, refers to the devastation caused on the Australian city of Darwin in Northern Territory by the tropical cyclone Tracy on Christmas morning in 1974. It is the most compact cyclone or equivalent-strength hurricane on record in the Australian basin, with gale-force winds extending only 48 kilometres (30 mi) from the centre and was the most compact system worldwide until 2008 when Tropical Storm Marco broke the record, with gale-force winds extending only 19 kilometres (12 mi) from the centre.
Cyclone Tracy killed 71 people, caused A$837 million in damage and destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin’s buildings, including 80% of houses. Tracy left more than 41,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people.
Most of Darwin’s population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney, and many never returned to the city. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more modern materials and updated building techniques.
The final headline ‘Sailing into history’ commemorates the 1983 victory of the American Cup of the yachting race when a foreign crew won the Cup in 132 years.
The victory by the team representing the Royal Perth Yacht Club ended the longest winning streak in sporting history and signalling the end of US domination of the racing series.
In Sri Lanka, stamps have been released to mark important events but Australia gives a new twist to the presentation which the Philatelic Bureau can take note of.
