Cirrus@Austlit

Dedication: For Pat, My Mother

Epigraph: Each man lives for himself and has such play of free will as enables him to attain the end he may have in view. He has, and feels that he has, the power of doing or of not doing this thing or that; but as soon as it is done it is no longer in his hands: it has become a part of history, in which it finds its due place out of reach of chance and change. L. Tolstoy, War and Peace (Heron Books, London) Vol. II, p.207.

Author's Historical Note:...From March 3, 1942 to October 3, 1945 the US Asiatic submarine fleet which was first known as Task Force 71, then later 51, operated from the Perth port of Fremantle. At any one time during these years there were up to 10,000 Americans in Perth where with the majority of men away on active service, the largest percentage of the small town population consisted of women and children. The newcomers were received with devotion by the women. These women hoped that it was not only from the Japanese but also from the restrictions of their small town society that the Americans had arrived to save them.