wwii

• WWII main periods:

  • September 1939 - November 1941
  • December 1941 - September 1945
• Phase One

  Dominion status - Australia automatically at war

  Attitude - ‘business as usual’

  Enthusiasm - less than WWI

  Enlistment - 30k in first four month
• During WWII, Australia's Dominion status meant that it was automatically at war when Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939. However, Australia's attitude was relatively nonchalant, adopting a ‘business as usual’ approach. The level of enthusiasm for the war effort was not as high as in WWI. In the first four months, only 30,000 men enlisted for the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF), half the number in WWI. Enlistments saw an increase after Germany conquered France.
• Australian defence

  Second AIF - all volunteer force

  Commonwealth Military Forces (CMF) - made up of conscripts

  Army - North Africa, Greece, Crete, Syria

  Navy - Mediterranean, Atlantic

  Airforce - Britain, Middle East
• Change of Government

  Robert Menzies - PM and head of coalition

  September 1941 - Menzies resigned and Arthur Fadden new PM

  7 October 1941 - John Curtin as new PM
• At the beginning of WWII, Robert Menzies served as the PM and led a coalition government formed by the UAP and the Country Party. However, Menzies resigned from his position in September 1941 and Arthur Fadden took over as the new Prime Minister. On October 7, the two independent Members of the House of Representatives, who held the balance of power, shifted their support to the ALP, resulting in John Curtin becoming the new PM.
• Phase Two

  December 1941 - Japan enters war

  Attacks - air and naval attacks on mainland

  Curtin - appealed to US for aid

  PM Churchill - could not agree to return troops

  1943 - ALP and union agree to a limited form of conscription

  July 1945 - death of Curtin with new PM Ben Chifley
• Japan entered the war

  December 1941
• Japan entering the war posed a direct threat to Australia for the first time
• Japan carried out air and naval attacks on the Australian mainland
• Curtin sought military aid from the US
• Curtin engaged in discussions with PM Churchill


  Bring Australian troops back from the Middle East
• Curtin successfully persuaded the ALP and labor unions to agree to a limited form of conscription


  1943
• ALP won control of both Houses of Parliament in the 1943 elections
• ALP was able to implement a wide range of social and economic reforms
• Curtin continued serving as PM until his death in July 1945
• Ben Chifley succeeded Curtin as PM
• Social developments

  Women - entered non-traditional jobs and armed forced

  Ration - food, clothes and others introduced to ration

  American ‘invasion’ - jealousy/hostility between US and AUS servicemen
• During WWII, significant changes occurred in Australia. Women entered the workforce in large numbers and in non-traditional occupations, rationing of essential goods such as food and clothing was introduced, blackouts and brownouts were implemented for safety purposes, women played a significant role in the armed forces for the first time, and there were instances of jealousy and hostility between Australian and US servicemen.
• 1930s

  Avoidance - everyone was willing to do anything to avoid WWII

  Military forces - membership stagnated and declined; defence spending slashed

  Singapore base - empty promises of sending ships without any estimation
• Defences through the Great Depression

  ALP - stopped compulsory military training

  Spending - funding of armaments, training and the military drastically dropped
• UAP

  Lyons - strong campaigner against conscription

  Anglo-Italian agreement - Lyons and Chamberlain met Mussolini

  East Asia - worked to stop war and for settlement with Japan

  Britain - had profitable business interests in China (unkeen)
• Singapore Strategy

  Britain - interested in protecting Australia’s security and defence

  Late 1930s - naval base completed but no navy provided

  Bruce - warned Lyons that chances of effective British reinforcements would be minimal

  Curtin - said Singapore was close to useless in defending Australia

  Doc Evatt - told Churchill that abandonment of the base would be an ‘inexcusable betrayal’

  The fall - thousands of British, Indian and Australian officers became prisoners of war
• Taking action

  Lyons - tried to create a ‘Pacific Pact’ with FDR but it was rebuffed

  ALP - criticised for being ‘isolationist’

  Curtin’s proposal - using planes for local defense purposes

  Lyon’s campaign - self-reliance and links with the US

  December 1938 - 63 million pounds for a defence program

  Allocation - training, new troops, destroyers and air force

  1938 - Hughes ran a campaign to encourage enlistment
• War Problems

  Outdated - Australia used old methods and theories

  Technology - no wireless sets and 6th division used horse transport

  Officers - promotion based on seniority rather than merit

  Training - new officers had newer training material

  Weapons - insufficient heavy-calibre weapons or anti-tank guns
• War in northern Africa

  January 1941 - 40k Italians surrendered in Bardia

  Early 1941 - 100k prisoners taken in Tobruk

  Tobruk - under siege by German troops → 800 Australians killed

  El Alamein - won by 6th division who had updated military equipment
• War in the Pacific (1942-1945)

  Curtin - insisted Australian troops to be sent home

  US - felt Australia was ideal for a counterattack

  MacArthur - Australian forces restricted to avoid prestige
• The fall of Singapore

  8 December 1941 - Japan air force began its assault on British Malaya

  8th Division - sent to reinforce the defence

  Assumptions - threats would only arrive via sea

  15 February 1942 - 13k soldiers became Japanese prisoners
• 8th Division disadvantages:

  • no sea or air support
  • guns set in concrete pointed out to the sea
  • no formidable fighting force
• Attacks on Australia

  19 February 1942 - 243 people killed in Darwin

  HMAS Perth - sunk with 680 killed

  3 March 1942 - 70 dead from bombings in Darwin

  19 November 1943 - 97 attacks on Northern Australia
• John Curtin

  1943 campaign pledge - ‘Victory in war, victory in peace’

  FDR and Churchill - Curtin disagreed with their military advice
• Australia and the US

  FDR - ordered MacArthur to take up a command post in SW Pacific

  Results - American forces and equipment arrived

  Headquarters - Melbourne then to Brisbane

  June 1943 - 178k American servicemen based in Australia

  American soldiers- “overpaid, oversexed and over here”

  MacArthur - believed that Australian troops lacked spirit

  US troops - paid 2x than Australian troops and had more stylish uniforms
• Coral Sea and the Kokoda Trail

  May 1942 - Japan’s defeat at the Coral Sea

  21 July 1942 - fighting moved to land (13k Japanese troops landed)

  Reinforcements - AIF divisions and volunteers fought together

  September 1942 - Japanese turned back
• Jungle victories

  ‘Bush-bashing’ - beating paths round the enemys flank

  New Guinea offensives of 1943-1944 - well supplied
• Petering in significance

  April 1944 - Australian troops no longer significant to MacArthur

  Menzies (opposition) - said 1945 campaigns had ‘no relation to any first-class strategic objective’

  Commands - ultimately pointless; not great for morale
• Issues on the home front

  Late 1930s - heavy manufacturing
• Government Controls

  National Secuirty Act 1939 - overrides constitution to make vast arrays of laws

  War Precautions Act 1914 - allowed regulation of information released
• ‘All in’ Equality of Sacrifice

  War contributions - from everyone in society

  Frontlines - AIF and home militia

  War-related industries - munitions, aircraft, textiles, food processing
• ‘It is now work or fight as we have never worked or fought before. There must not be a man or woman in this Commonwealth who goes to bed tonight without having related his period of wakefulness to the purpose of war’- Curtin
• Actual All in

  Housewives - on the ‘Kitchen front’

  Children - collected bottles, newspapers to recycle

  ‘Austerity’ - cutting consumpting, going without, no waste, simple life