... Australia's attention is currently focused on the centenary of the First World War, and one might be forgiven for assuming that Yarra was talking about the Great War. Certainly many of the young Australians who served and died in that terrible conflict expressed similar thoughts when they went off to war. But it was Yarra's father who was a decorated Gallipoli and Western Front veteran. As for Jack Yarra, he was just one of the millions who perished in what became the most destructive war in human history – the Second World War.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. Sunday, 3 September 1939, was Fathers' Day, but for most Australians the day was filled with anxiety and apprehension rather than celebration. Church congregations at morning services seemed larger than normal, and families gathered around radios waiting for what seemed like the inevitable. The Great War, fought between 1914 and 1918, was supposed to have been the war to end all wars, yet once again the world was on the brink of conflict.

At 9.15 pm Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies delivered an address to the nation: "It is my melancholy duty to inform you", he began, that as a result of Germany's invasion of Poland, "Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that as a result, Australia is at war." It was never doubted that Australia would play an active role in the war to come...