by Rosen, Sue;
Batteries - smash with an axe.
Compensation:
(i) No compensation can be claimed for loss due to destruction under the Scorched Earth plan unless the owner has availed himself of the War Damage Insurance scheme. You should take precautions now and see that you have a proper cover.
(ii) Vehicles and spare parts will be paid for if taken over by the Army prior to application of a Scorched Earth plan.
25.3.’42
Coal-powered gas producer plants were attached to motor vehicles to save fuel for industry and military.
If Australian vehicles were kept out of Japanese hands and the invaders were forced to import their own, they would need equipment and tools to maintain and repair them. Similarly, motors used in industry also required regular maintenance and repair. Tools and equipment for all kinds of motor repairs were to be dispersed, destroyed or hidden by the citizenry before they evacuated a given location. The items in question ranged from precision instruments to lathes, welding equipment, furnaces and power units. Small items such as tools, gauges and machine parts that would be difficult or costly to replace were to be buried in well-camouflaged trenches or sunk in deep water. Other items would have their essential components smashed. Each repair facility was to prepare its own plan and nominate skilled and trusted staff to carry out the tasks involved.
Hyde Park Air Raid Shelter, Sydney.
STATE WAR EFFORT CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE. Scorched Earth Code (Industrial & Services).
PRIORITY F: MOTOR &c. REPAIR EQUIPMENT, TOOLS, SPARE PARTS &c.
This priority covers machines, equipment, tools and spare parts &c. in garages and workshops, whether Governmental, trade, taxi-company, private &c.; it includes spare and utilisable parts in car ‘graveyards’.
Military reason:
It is vitally important that local facilities for the repair of enemy vehicles, machinery and equipment be denied to the enemy by prior disposal or demolition.
The employer or management on the one hand, the employee or user-in-possession on the other will be responsible for denying such facilities to the enemy.
Service must continue to the last possible hour but each employer or management should prepare a plan of denial immediately, and issue to his employees instructions on arrangements and methods for last moment denial by disposal or destruction of all things likely to be of use to the enemy. These should state the name of the employee responsible for the execution of each job, and the method of denial.
A copy of the prior plan of denial containing the instructions should be lodged with the Department of Road Transport, which is the supervising agency of the State War Effort Co-Ordination Committee in this field. This plan will be supporting evidence in War Damage Insurance claims.
DENIAL METHODS:
By Disposal:
Trenches should be prepared beforehand in hidden localities known only to trusted persons, and well removed from the workshop - the top turf to be retained intact and the surplus soil indiscernably scattered. These trenches are to be used in emergency for the reception of such light equipment, tools, parts etc. as cannot be previously disposed of or are difficult to destroy. Particular attention to the disposal of precision instruments and gauges is required.
Alternatively, deep water should be located in which to sink them.
If buried in trenches, tools, parts &c. should be greased and wrapped to protect them from moisture; the top turfs should be restored and the surface camouflaged against enemy detection, e.g. as a rubbish or firewood heap, or as may occur.
By Destruction:
Because of the scope of the field, it is not possible to give detailed advice as to the methods applicable to each special machine, and in any case, it is not the intention of this code to teach the expert his own job. It is essential, however, that in formulating plans, special attention should be paid to certain equipment, and the following are notes in that connection, given in the order of their importance.
In all cases, it is essential that a complete denial be made, organised simply, but in such a way that an effective plant cannot be assembled from parts collected from a number of partly denied plants. As an example, if the distributors of every internal combustion engine are destroyed, then no engine can be run; but if every second engine only is denied in this way, then half the engines could possibly be put to work again.
Equipment:
(a) Machine Tools:- i.e. ALL metal working and repairing machines.
Lathes - Smash pieces out of bed, with a sledge hammer, also smash driving gears, speed cones or other pulley drives.
Drills - Destroy saddle and drive on large machines. For small electric drills, thrust a screwdriver into the windings while the machine is in motion, or cut them with an oxy-torch, or smash machine with a sledge hammer.
Presses - Smash flywheel, arms and clutch with a sledge hammer or oxy-torch. Smash compressor on hydraulic presses by hitting cylinder head.
Shaping Machines - Smash slides and crank with a sledge hammer.
Planing Machines - Smash gearing, drive and bed.
Milling Machines - Smash drive.
Grinding Machines - Smash head and bed, also grinding wheels. With portable grinders, smash or cut with an oxy-torch as stated above for drills.
(b) Power Units:- i.e. ALL sources of power.
Internal combustion engines - drain or smash sump and radiator and run engine at full speed. After seizing (which may take about 15-20 minutes) smash the distributor or injector. If circumstances do not permit this, smash cylinder head and distributor or injector. Also smash batteries and starting motors.
Electric Motors - smash end cases with a sledge hammer and burn out insulation and windings by lighting a bundle of oily waste inserted in the end frames.
Steam Engines - Screw down safety valve, cut off feed water and build up a large fire.
(c) Welding plants:
Electric Plants - If power is available - short circuit leads of transformer, otherwise smash with a sledge hammer. Also smash torches.
Oxygen and Acetylene Plants - smash gauges and torches and release supplies of gas. (Be sure to release gas in open air).
(d) Furnaces and Forges:
Smash blower with a sledge hammer. Also smash tuyere, burner, heating elements, as applicable and if possible, damage lining of furnaces. It may be possible to leave a charge of molten metal in the furnace, in addition to the above.
(e) Compressors:
Smash cylinder head.
(f) Charging Equipment:
Burst globe and smash stage switches.
(g) Retreading Plants:
Smash steam cavities on moulds. Smash compressors and steam plant as stated above.
(h) Hoists:
Smash cylinder head and remove plugs.
(i) Jacks:
Smash gearing or cylinder.
(j) Blocks and Tackles:
Smash pulleys and gear wheels with a sledge hammer or cut with an oxy-torch.
(k) Precision Tools, Gauges and Hand Tools:
Every endeavour should be made to remove to a place of safety, all precision tools and gauges. Otherwise, grease well, wrap in cloth, place in tins and bury in some place remote from the factory. As a last resort - smash them or throw them into deep water, e.g. a well, river or lake. Hand tools to be smashed, buried, or thrown into water.
Spare Parts Stock:
(a) Unassembled motor vehicles:
The engine and its component parts are separately cased. Open case and destroy the power unit, including carburettor and distributor with a sledge hammer.
(b) Spare parts stock:
Smash with sledge hammer power units, and all fitments such as carburettors and distributors, batteries, car radios.
(c) Tyres:
Saw through in several places - but salvage and transfer or give away if at all possible.
(d) Producer Gas Plants:
Smash mixing valve and hopper.
(e) Aluminium, brass and cop
per parts:
Bury at some remote spot or dump into sea or river.
If time does not permit the smashing and/or burying of spare parts stock, use fire, but only as a last resort.
Action Moment:
The denial command will be issued by the local Army authorities, and will obviously be issued only if danger is imminent and enemy pressure critical. Little time will remain for the implementation of the prepared Action detail and the selected staff must hold themselves in readiness to receive the Army order from known Military, Police or Scorched Earth Support Squad messengers.
If enemy approach is obvious, and Army message fails to arrive, action should be taken nevertheless.
30.3.’42.
Although most Allied and Japanese naval shipping ran on oil, most Australian merchant ships were coal-fired. If the abundant supplies of black coal in New South Wales and Queensland were left intact, invaders might use them to fuel captured vessels and transport troops and supplies along coasts or rivers. (Japan’s remoteness and the shortage of Japanese cargo ships made it unlikely that coal would be exported to the home islands.) The NSW Scorched Earth subcommittee was determined to prevent this. Selected personnel at all coal mines were given responsibility for a range of measures to render mines unusable, including the removal or destruction of equipment and infrastructure and the use of explosives to collapse tunnel entrances. The aim was to keep coal out of the hands of invaders while ensuring that mines could be brought back into production relatively quickly after the war.
DENIAL OF RESOURCES TO THE ENEMY N.S.W. L. of C. AREA.
COAL MINES.
Military reasons: Coal is essential to shipping; and to occupation and should be denied to the enemy.
Census of Mines: The majority of the coal mines in N.S.W. are in four main districts viz:
(i) Maitland-Cessnock.
(ii) Newcastle.
(iii) South Coast.
(iv) Western-Lithgow-Wallerawang-Mudgee.
There are coal mines also at Liddell, Muswellbrook, Gunnedah, Werris Creek and other centres in the North West; at East Maitland and Beresford; and at Berrima and in the Burragorang Valley. Schedule attached, lists names and addresses of the coal mines, owner, Secretary, head office, Manager, Under Manager, certificated electrician, and the District Inspector of Collieries; the mine telephone number, whether the mine is a “shaft” or “tunnel” mine, large, or small, and in the case of large mines, the number of persons employed.
State War Effort Co-ordination Committee (Scorched Earth) Operational Plan Agency:
Department of Mines; using its District Inspectors of Collieries, each of whom become the Coal Mining “Scorched Earth” representative, functioning under Army Scorched Earth National Security Regulations.
Operational Plan Principles:
The object of the plan is to deny to the enemy the use of the mine for the entire period of any possible occupation of the district; and to organise beforehand for a last-moment implementation of the plan of denials at emergency military signal and command, authentically conveyed by the local military command through the District Inspector of Collieries to the manager of each mine.
Denial Methods: The suggested methods of denial are as follows:- Salvage and removal - to a previously selected place, if possible - of:
(i) Horses.
(ii) Safety lamps.
(iii) Mine plans and colliery records.
(iv) Telephones, cables, motors, tools, ambulance and rescue appliances and other apparatus that may be of military value.
(v) Railway locomotives and rolling stock.
(vi) Essential parts of machinery, such as the armature of exciters for turbines, boiler feed pump valves, etc.
Destruction of:
(i) Items under “salvage and removal” which cannot in emergency be so disposed of;
(ii) Winding headgear - to be cut near the base and pulled over.
(iii) Guide and winding ropes - to be cut and allowed to fall down the shaft.
(iv) The wooden portion of gantries, stores that cannot be removed, surface buildings, skips and other inflammable material on the surface - to be fired.
(v) Steel or concrete gantry supports - to be subject to effective explosive charges.
(vi) Electrical apparatus, underground motors and other appliances - to be destroyed with a sledge hammer, fire or explosives.
(vii) Ventilating fans - to be destroyed by removal and/or destruction of bearings.
(viii) Supports for overhead transmission lines - to be fired or destroyed by explosives.
(ix) Surplus explosives which cannot be removed - to be destroyed.
(x) Portions of roofs at the vicinity of tunnel mouths - to be brought down, by removal of roof supports or by explosives set in the roof.
Action details for each Mine:
District Inspector of Collieries should confer with the Manager of each mine seeking his collaboration with the Army, and with the State War Effort Co-Ordination Committee, in the instant preparation of a Scorched Earth Action Detail for each mine, on the lines suggested under “Denial Methods”, and in the prior organisation of personnel trained ready for last-moment action in military emergency.
The personnel should be volunteers, carefully selected by the Manager for such anti-enemy last-moment action as cool, quick and reliable.
They should be given whatever prior instruction and preparation may be possible.
Their names, addresses and occupations, and the denial duties they are to perform, should be made available to the District Inspector of Collieries acting as Mining District Scorched Earth authority.
Action moment:
The action moment will be decided by the local Army Command. Obviously it will not issue until emergency is imminent, and enemy pressure critical. Little time will remain for implementation of the prepared Action Detail, and the Scorched Earth personnel of the mine should hold itself in readiness to receive the Army order through the District Inspector of Collieries.
(Acknowledgement: The data for the plan has been prepared by P.W. Hay, Esq., Chief Inspector of Mines, in collaboration with A.N. Graham, Esq., Under Secretary for Mines.)
E.H.F. Swain.
Chairman.
State War Effort Co-Ordination Committee, Scorched Earth Sub-Committee.
23.11.’42
Throughout the war, the public were encouraged to purchase government bonds to help finance the war effort.
Water and power are vital—and closely intertwined, with pumping facilities to service communities reliant on electricity. But denying water and power to invaders would also deny them to Australian civilians and troops, hurting the defenders as much as it hurt the enemy. As a result, scorched earth planning for utilities was more complicated than it was for resources like factories and mines. So long as civilians remained in an area—which in large population centres meant indefinitely—water and electricity had to remain available. In rural towns slated for evacuation, scorched earth plans were to be carried out only as the last civilians left. These plans focused less on destroying water supplies and power plants than on rendering their output unavailable by cutting or smashing pumps and main pipes, and wrecking turbines, substations and power lines. Decisions about which equipment to target and how best to destroy it were left largely to local authorities who owned or ran the utilities and were thoroughly familiar with their workings.
DENIAL OF RESOURCES TO THE ENEMY. DENIAL CODE, N.S.W. L. OF C. AREA.
PUBLIC UTILITY SERVICES.
(i) Water
(ii) Electricity.
(iii) Gas.
This grouping is made because of the interconnection of water supply systems with power sources, and because certain power sources are themselves dependent on water supplies.
Military reasons:
The denial of gas comes under the basic principle that nothing should be left to the enemy that will help his military efforts. The by-products of gas-making, as well as gas-coal stocks, woul
d be particularly valuable to him.
The denial of water and electricity, however, is in a class by itself. Water can only be denied in instances where the military authorities order an area to be evacuated by civilians and troops; the denial of electricity must not interfere with water supplies in areas where the civilians are required to “stay put”.
Installations:
In the Appendix to this Plan are listed:-
A. Gravitation Water Supplies.
B. Water Supplies (Pumping Schemes).
C. The Areas supplied with Water by the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage & Drainage Board; and
D. Electric Power Stations, within 100 miles of the Coast of N.S.W., and to which this Operational Plan applies.
The controlling authorities (Water Boards, Shire, Municipal and County Councils) are shown in the case of each system or station, and these Agencies are required to formulate Scorched Earth Plans, and make arrangements so that if required these Plans can be implemented at last moment military signal or command.
In the case of gas, the Gas Companies or Municipalities themselves will be the responsible agencies.
Operational Plan Principles:
(i) Water: So long as the principle is accepted and enforced that the citizen who finds himself in town and city areas must “stay-put” - this being a necessary military precaution - he cannot be denied a supply of water. Failure of water supplies was one of the reasons for the capitulation of both Hongkong and Singapore, and the Government could not contemplate a similar voluntary denial in Australia, a denial that would react as harshly on the citizen as on the enemy, and one which would be of little practical value if the denial or productive capacity in industry had been fully implemented.
