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HISTORY
Big wheels & little wheels – the story of UK-born Australian Sir Laurence John Hartnett (1898 – 1986) Australia’s “Father of the Holden” and much more
PART 44
“GEN. MacARTHUR WANTS TO SEE YOU”
World War II: May 1942 was Australia's most desperate hour – and Sir Laurence with heightened desperation agrees to board a “harzardous” flight from Australia to Honolulu with no established air-routes between the two countries. The mission was to change America’s negative perception about Australia’s ability to make war equipment and not just grow food and supply troops. Additional American aid, particularly in the supply of machine-tools, was urgently needed to increase our output of munitions. To this end, Australia needed access to America’s “Lend Lease” program*
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The trip had to be made in circumstances which would have meant curtains for all on board if anything went wrong. But first some background: May 1942 was Australia's most desperate hour. Malaya, the East Indies and the Philippines had fallen. General MacArthur and a handful of his picked men had arrived in Australia from the Philippines to organize and join our pitifully inadequate forces. Another American had reached Australia about the same time, straight from the U.S. - a man whose name is unknown to the public, but who, from Australia's point of view, ranked almost equally in importance with Gen. MacArthur. He was William ("Stix") Wasserman, a very tall, extraordinary, adventurous, wealthy, young man - the leader of the American LendLease Mission. Wasserman was the man whose recommendations to Washington would decide what war supplies Australia would or would not get, and it was of the utmost importance to us that Wasserman got the right slant on Australia and her needs from the first moment of his arrival. John Curtin, who was then Prime Minister, briefed me on this: “You run GM-H, a big American organization. You're doing a great job in Ordnance. You understand Americans, and I know you as a good Australian. We would like you to get alongside this fellow Wasserman and give him the Australian angle on all things, as they occur. Make sure he understands just what we want from Lend-Lease." I soon became very friendly with Bill Wasserman. He was a most interesting character, and I liked him immediately. I would rush him up to Puckapunyal to show him our Australian-made two-pounders being fired and our first twenty-fivepounders out on the range putting on a mock battle. He thought it was wonderful. I took him from factory to factory, and just about wore him into the ground showing him how we were getting our industry on a war footing, trying frantically to turn out stuff for the Services. I tried to "sell" him, on the various projects we had under way. It soon became evident that Washington
An image of Gen. MacArthur being hung outside the Myer Emporium in Melbourne in preparation for American Independence Day in 1943. It suggests the adulation MacArthur enjoyed. (AWM)
could not comprehend why we wanted to make guns and ammunition and war equipment of all kinds. After all, they considered, that was their task, and they'd be content to see us getting about our business of growing food and supplying troops. I had a job indeed to change their thinking through Bill Wasserman. I think I turned him into quite a fanatical pro-Australian. I know his cables and communiques had got him into quite a lot of trouble because Washington felt he had become too Australian too quickly. This had an effect on our supplies of industrial equipment from the U.S. We desperately needed machine-tools, but we weren't getting them. Other equipment we wanted was not being sent. There was a general feeling we were not getting far with the Americans under Lend-Lease.
presentation of what's what. And to do that you and I ought to get over to Washington. I said, ''Yes, Bill, if that's going to achieve the objective, let's do it. But the sixty-fourdollar question is, how the hell do we get over there?"
Bill Wasserman felt as frustrated as we were. He came into my office one morning and said, "Look, Larry, I'm in the pooh with the guys back in Washington, and you 're not getting what I think you should get. MacArthur has the idea that the only way to put this over - and, incidentally, he's got the bug like me - is to go and make a personal
To be continued…
"Well, I think there might be a plot hatching on that one, but I can't talk about it. All I want to know now is: will you come over with me?" "Sure," I told him. Off Bill went, and a couple of days later I got a call from Gen. MacArthur's office. The General wanted to see me. His plan involved a fairly “hazardous” trip to the US to state our case. “There's no airway between here and the States yet, and we have no established routes. But if you feel inclined to take the chance, I think it would be an excellent idea." I said I'd do anything that was required.
*The Lend-Lease policy, enacted during WW2 was a program under which the US supplied many Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war.
This is an extract from ‘Big Wheels & Little Wheels’, by Sir Laurence Hartnett as told to John Veitch, 1964. © Deirdre Barnett.
AMT AUG/SEP 2021
