Portal:Military of Australia
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Arts · Biography · Geography · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Science · Society · Technology The Military of Australia officially known as the Australian Defence Force (ADF) since 1976 consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army and the the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The Australian Department of Defence administers the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) which consists of the ADF and the civilian personnel supporting the ADF. Approximately 53,000 men and women serve in the ADF with another 21,600 serving in the three reserve components. The ADF is constituted under the Executive Government sections of the Australian Constitution, Section 68, that says, "The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the Queen's representative. In practice, the control of the ADF is, politically, vested in the Minister for Defence and several subordinate ministers. The Minister acts on most matters alone, however, important matters are considered by the National Security Committee of Cabinet. The Minister then advises the Governor-General who acts as advised in the normal form of executive government. The current Chief of the Australian Defence Force is Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. The Military history of Australia covers a period of around 200 years starting with the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788. Australians have fought in nearly every major war of the 20th Century including the; Second Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War as well as numerous UN peace keeping missions.  The Battle of Greece was an important World War II battle which occurred on the Greek mainland and in southern Albania. The battle was fought between the Allies (Greece and the British Commonwealth) and the Axis (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) forces. The battle of Greece began on October 28, 1940, when Fascist Italy invaded Greece, and ended with the fall of Kalamata in the Peloponnese. With the Battle of Crete and several naval actions it is considered part of the wider Aegean component of the Balkans Campaign of World War II. The British Commonwealth troops were sourced mainly from the Australian 6th Division which played a key role in the battle, while units of the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy also took part in the battle. 
Photo credit: User:Fir0002
 Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean was a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Teddy Sheean was posted on the Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale in 1942 when it was given the task of landing commandos at Betano. On December 1 during the second attempt to reach Betano, Armidale came under attack. Teddy Sheean manned an Oerlikon Anti-aircraft gun and was wounded by strafing Japanese planes, he went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and still shooting at the attacking aircraft. For his actions during the war the Collins Class submarine HMAS Sheean was named after him, with the motto "Fight On".  The first HMAS Arunta (D130/I30) was a Tribal class destroyer built by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Sydney and commissioned on 30 March 1942. Arunta first saw service escorting convoys along the Australian east coast and between Australia and New Guinea. From May 1943 she mainly operated as a unit of Task Force 74 and supported Allied landings in New Britain, New Guinea, the Philippines and Borneo. After the war she formed part of the Allied occupation forces in Japan and conducted a patrol off Korea shortly after the end of the Korean War. HMAS Arunta paid off to reserved in December 1956 and was sold for scrap in November 1968.  The 25 pounder Short Mark I, or Baby 25 pr, was an Australian pack gun version of the British Ordnance QF 25 pounder and was first produced in 1943. This gun was a shortened version of the standard 25 Pounder and was intended for jungle warfare and was used in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, during World War II. The gun could be towed by a light vehicle or broken down into 13 sections.
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