Military history of Australia during World War II
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Australia entered World War II shortly after the Invasion of Poland, declaring war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939. By the end of the war almost a million Australians had served in the Australian armed forces and Australian military units had seen combat in Europe, North Africa, and the South-West Pacific. In addition, Australia came under direct attack for the first time in its history. 39,366 Australians were killed and 23,477 were wounded by enemy action during the war.
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[edit] Prelude
During the first years of World War II Australia's military strategy was closely aligned with that of the United Kingdom. In line with this, Australia's war effort was concentrated in the Middle East and Mediterranean Sea. Most Australian Army units in 1939 were Militia (reserve) units barred under Australian law at the time from serving outside Australia and Australian overseas territories. The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) was formed in 1939 as Australia’s expeditionary force and would eventually consist of four divisions raised in 1939–40: the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th.
[edit] Greece, North Africa and the Middle East
The Australian Army saw action in North Africa, Greece, Crete and Lebanon. The 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions, as the Australian I Corps faced Italian and German forces in the Middle East, Greece, and North Africa.
In 1941, the 6th Division took part in the ill-fated Allied expedition to defend Greece from a German invasion. Outnumbered by the Germans, the allies were driven off the Greek mainland. The 19th Brigade Group then took part in the Battle of Crete. The Crete campaign also went badly for the allies and were forced to evacuate. The allies experienced many casualties and lost much equipment and 3,000 members of the division could not be evacuated, and were taken prisoner in the Greek campaign, including Crete.
The 17th Brigade from the 6th Division and the 7th Division formed part of the allied force in the successful Allied invasion of Vichy French-controlled Lebanon and Syria in 1941. Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) aircraft joined the Royal Air Force in providing close air support.
On 6 April, 1941, the 9th Division was ordered to enter and defend the important port town of Tobruk which General Wavell, the commander of the British Middle East Command, had ordered be held for at least two months. Reinforced by the 18th Brigade of the 7th Division and British artillery and armoured regiments, the 9th Division successfully defended the port for over 6 months. Through the use of existing fortifications, aggressive patrolling and the firepower of the garrison's artillery the Australian force successfully contained and defeated repeated German armoured and infantry attacks on the fortress. Upon the request of the Australian War Cabinet, the bulk of the 9th Division was withdrawn from Tobruk in September and October 1941. The defence of Tobruk cost the 9th Division 3,164 casualties (650 killed, 1,597 wounded and 917 captured).
In 1941, the 6th and 7th Divisions returned to Australia to face the Japanese threat. The 9th Division remained in North Africa under Maj. Gen. Leslie Morshead until victory over Erwin Rommel was assured. During early 1942 the Axis forces advanced steadily through north west Egypt. It was decided that the British Eighth Army should make a stand just over 100km east of Alexandria, at the railway siding of El Alamein. On 26 June 1942 the 9th Division was ordered to begin moving to El Alamein. The lead elements of the Division arrived at El Alamein on 6 July and the Division was assigned the most northerly section of the Commonwealth defensive line. The First Battle of El Alamein was a stalemate, but the Axis advance on Alexandria was halted. In October the Eighth Army decisively defeated the Axis forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein. In January 1943, the 9th Division started it's return journey to Australia.
The Australian contribution to the Desert Air Force (DAF) supporting the North Africa and the Mediterranean campaign included No. 3 Squadron RAAF which arrived in North Africa on August 23, 1940. The Squadron served with the DAF until the closing stages of the war in Europe, when it was transferred to the Australian First Tactical Air Force in the Pacific. By that time 3 Sqn had the most substantial service record of any DAF squadron, including the greatest number of kills (217 claims). At first it was equipped with the Gloster Gladiator, but by 1941 received the more modern Hawker Hurricane then the Curtiss Tomahawk. During El-Alamein it had the later Kittyhawk and was part of No. 239 RAF Wing, along with No. 450 Squadron RAAF. After the invasion of Italy, the Wing was transferred there. In late 1944 the squadron was equipped with North American Mustang till the end of the war.
[edit] Battle of the Mediterranean
At the onset of war, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) numbered two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, five destroyers, three sloops and a variety of support and ancillary craft. From mid-1940, the RAN took part in the Battle of the Mediterranean as part of the British Mediterranean Fleet against Italy.
At the Battle of Calabria on July 9th, 1940, the British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy engaged ships of the Italian Regia Marina. The Australian force included the Leander class light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the destroyers HMAS Stuart, HMAS Vampire and HMAS Voyager. The outcome was inconclusive, but Sydney was credited with the sinking of the Italian destroyer Espero and shared honours in the sinking of the destroyer Zeffiro.
Ten days later (19 July, 1940), Sydney, with a British destroyer squadron in company, engaged the high-speed Italian light cruisers Bartolomeo Colleoni and Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (the Battle of Cape Spada). In the running battle which followed, Bartolomeo Colleoni was sunk. In September 1940, the County class heavy cruiser HMAS Australia sank a Vichy French destroyer while taking part in Operation Menace, off West Africa.
[edit] Royal Australian Air Force in Britain
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) units served throughout the European Theatre of World War II, especially notable in RAF Bomber Command: they represented two percent of all RAAF personnel during the war, but accounted for 23% of the total number killed in action. This statistic is further illustrated by the fact that No. 460 Squadron RAAF, firstly flying the Vickers Wellington then the Avro Lancaster, had an official establishment of about 200 aircrew and yet had 1,018 combat deaths. The squadron was therefore effectively wiped out five times over. RAAF squadrons, including 460 Squadron, flew many missions in support of the D-Day landings in 1944 and Operation Manna, dropping food to relieve civilians facing starvation in the Netherlands in 1945. Other Australian squadrons served as part of RAF Fighter Command and RAF Coastal Command and many Australian airmen served as members of British squadrons.
[edit] Darwin air raids and the defence of Australia
See also: Battle of Malaya and Battle of Singapore
Due to the emphasis placed on cooperation with Britain relatively few Australian military units were retained in Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. As war with Japan loomed in 1941, the 8th Division of the 2nd AIF was divided into four separate forces, which were eventually deployed in different parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The 8th Division was mostly destroyed by 1942. The Australian 1st Armoured Division was raised in 1941 and scheduled to deploy to North Africa but was retained in Australia to face a possible Japanese invasion.
Following the Japanese attacks on South East Asia in late 1941, Australia was attacked itself during the Air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942, resulting in at least 243 civilian and military deaths. Australian troops were sent home from the Middle East to defend the country from a feared Japanese invasion of Australia. This invasion did not occur, however, and the Japanese did not ever intend to invade the Australian mainland.[1]
The air raids on Darwin demonstrated how unprepared the RAAF was for the defence of Australia. Some RAAF squadrons were transferred back to Australia and to address the shortages of fighter and ground attack planes, US-built P-40 Kittyhawks were acquired and CAC Boomerang, an Australian designed fighter/close support aircraft, was manufactured.
[edit] New Guinea and Borneo
Australian forces in New Guinea, including brigades of the 6th and 7th Division, fought the Japanese along the Kokoda Track from July 1942 to January 1943. The Kokoda Track runs from outside Port Moresby on the Coral Sea and (depending on definition) runs 60-100 kilometres through the Owen Stanley Ranges to Kokoda and the coastal lowlands beyond by the Solomon Sea. The track crosses some of the most rugged and isolated terrain in the world and combines hot humid days with intensely cold nights, torrential rainfall and endemic tropical diseases. The track is passable only on foot; this had extreme repercussions for logistics, the size of forces and the type of warfare conducted on the Track. The Japanese objective was the capture of Port Moresby. After falling back from the Japanese attack, Australian commanders ordered in reinforcements and launched a counter-attack. After a vicious, see-sawing battle, Australian forces began to gain ground. Japanese marines launched an attack on Australian forces at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea (Battle of Milne Bay) on August 25, 1942 and fighting continued until the Japanese were forced to retreat in September, a much needed morale boost for the allies at the time. Units from the 6th and 7th Divisions, with US forces, re-took the north coast of New Guinea in the Battle of Buna-Gona towards the end of 1942-early 1943.
The 9th Division returned to Australia in 1943. Later that year it was pitched into battle against Japanese forces in New Guinea. By 1944, the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions had been reunited at the operational level. During the Borneo campaign the Australian I Corps, under General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island.
RAAF Kittyhawks and Boomerangs came to play a crucial role in the New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Borneo campaigns, especially in operations like the Battle of Milne Bay. The RAAF's heavy bomber force was established in 1944 and comprised of 287 B-24 Liberators, which could bomb Japanese targets as far away as Borneo and the Philippines from airfields in Australia and the Netherlands East Indies.
The RAAF's main operational formation, the First Tactical Air Force, comprised more than 18,000 personnel and 20 squadrons; it had taken part in the Philippines and Borneo campaigns and was scheduled to participate in the invasion of the Japanese mainland, Operation Downfall. However, the war was brought to a sudden end by the US nuclear attacks on Japan.
[edit] Naval war in the Pacific and Indian Ocean
There was Axis naval activity in Australian waters throughout the war. In November 1941, the HMAS Sydney was sunk with the loss of all hands (645 officers and men) after a battle with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, off the coast of Western Australia.
Following the Japanese attacks in December 1941 the RAN redeployed its larger ships to home waters to protect the Australian mainland from Japanese attack. At the Battle of Sunda Strait, in March 1942, the RAN suffered the loss of another Leander class vessel, HMAS Perth.
The RAN took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, where HMAS Australia survived a brief but intense attack from Japanese torpedo bombers. The battle averted a Japanese attack on Port Moresby. HMAS Hobart also participated in the battle and would latter participate in the amphibious assaults on the Philippines and Borneo. She was in Tokyo for the Japanese surrender in 1945.
The most significant Japanese naval attacks in Australian waters occurred in May and June 1942, when Japanese submarines attacked Sydney and Newcastle. Three Japanese midget submarines were launched but only one actually attacked allied shipping in Sydney harbour, sinking the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul and damaging a Dutch submarine. On June 8, a Japanese submarine surfaced about 10 km (6 miles) off Sydney. For a four minute period, the submarine's deck gun was fired at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Every shot landed well short of its target, all but one of the shells failed to explode and there were no fatalities or serious injuries. The RAN's biggest single ship loss of the war was the sinking of the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra at the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942.
In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in 1943, Bristol Beaufighters of No. 30 Squadron RAAF proved to be highly effective ground attack and maritime strike aircraft, inflicting heavy loses on Japanese troop convoys, along with other RAAF squadrons. The battle was a combined operation with the United States Army Air Force and resulted in the sinking of 12 Japanese transporters and destroyers and hampered the Japanese forces in New Guinea.
At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, HMAS Australia became the first Allied ship to be hit by a kamikaze. The ship survived that and several other suicide attacks, although many crew members were killed. Overall, more than 30 ships were lost in the war, the costliest in RAN history.
[edit] Campaigns
- Greek campaign
- Battle of Crete
- Syria-Lebanon campaign
- Battle of the Mediterranean
- North Africa
- Air combat in Europe
- Malaya and Singapore
- New Guinea
- Attacks on Australia
- Pacific naval combat
- Borneo campaign (1945)
- British Commonwealth Occupation Force 1946–1951
[edit] See also
- Military of Australia
- Conscription in Australia
- Planned invasion of Australia during World War II
- RAAF units under RAF operational control
- South West Pacific Area
- Official History of Australia in the War of 1939–1945
[edit] External links
- Australian Military History: An Overview from the Australian War Memorial
- RAAF in World War II - RAAF website
[edit] References
- ^ Dr. Peter Stanley (2002). He's (Not) Coming South: The Invasion That Wasn't
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