Bussleton's war : 1939-45 / Tim Blue

"By the winter of 1939, defence chiefs in Canberra were grappling with how to galvanise an under-prepared Australia. First concerns were with Nazi Germany, with whom we were soon at war, and the potential for German naval raiders to attack Indian Ocean convoys. Busselton stood out as a site from where reconnaissance aircraft could patrol sea lanes. Airstrips were carved from bush and farm paddocks southwest of the town, hangars and administration buildings erected and a radar station sited on Cape Naturaliste. Hundreds of local men joined up to fight alongside Britain in the skies above Europe and int he deserts of North Africa. Two years later, a new war erupted in the Pacific that would see Australians join Americans to combat Japan in the battle filed of South East Asia." --Back cover.