WWI (1914-1918)

By 1914 the Commonwealth of Australia was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire with its own elected government and strong connections to Great Britain. When war was declared in 1914 the largely British descendent population of Australia took up the battle cry with near the same fervor as their cousins in England. Labour Party leader Andrew Fisher (1862-1928) dispatched Australian Forces to the front lines to assist in the war effort.¹ Before the war Australia’s Army was a tiny force. The vast majority of troops served in national militias and every adult male was required by law to have some military training. When the war broke out the Australian government initially formed 20,000 troops into the Australian Imperial Force. The AIF only increased its numbers as patriotic spirit gripped the nation, and by the end of the war over 322,000 from a nation of five million served in the AIF.²

Australian troops from AIF combined with troops from New Zealand to form the Australian New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). British Officers disdained their lack of discipline and defiance of military etiquette. Australian officers believed in a concept referred to as “mateship” and openly socialized and drank with enlisted men. This open relationship exasperated British officers who saw it as a deplorable practice that corrupted authority and enlisted men who were envious of the Australian’s freedom and pay, which exceeded theirs five times over. This excess pay created its own problems for Australian troops who usually spent it on alcohol and prostitutes. Venereal disease among ANZAC forces in Egypt and France appalled the Australian press, which complained of the wanton depravity Britain pressed on their boys.³ Although his colleagues continued to be vexed by the lack of discipline and licentious behavior, ANZAC Commander General William Birdwood (1865-1951) embraced this spirit as an asset. Under his command ANZAC troops trained and fought as the most formidable fighting force of all the Allied nations. ⁴

From April to December 1915 ANZAC forces in Gallipoli faced frequent attacks from Ottoman forces with their backs against the Mediterranean Sea in a battle now known as ANZAC Cove. For eight months Ottoman forces attacked in an effort to remove the amphibious forces. The fighting was fierce and the slews of dead bodies were difficult to remove without risking death from enemy fire and mines. Disease spread rampantly in the trenches and the sweltering climate created even more havoc.⁵ The war remained popular until news returned from the Gallipoli Front of the massive casualties being suffered by ANZAC troops.⁶ The seemingly endless and futile fighting exasperated the Australian public and cost Fisher the next election and created staunch animosity to the British Commander and Chief General Sir Ian Hamilton.⁷   

William Hughes (1864-1952) replaced Fisher in late 1915. Hughes ignored all criticism on the war effort and twice failed to introduce conscription, even against his own party’s objections in 1916 and 1917. Wide scale disapproval forced Hughes to establish a new liberal coalition that held for the remainder of the war but never established a draft.⁸ Australian forces under Hughes were transferred to the Western Front where they served from 1916-1918 as part of the decisive campaigns of those two years, including the Spring Offensive and Allied Counter Offensives. Australian cavalry brigades were also prominent in British planned victories during the campaign in Palestine from 1917-1918.⁹ Australian forces also served in the Royal Australian Navy and the newly formed Australian Flying Corps, where pilots flew missions at home, over Mesopotamia and the Western Front.¹⁰

Although criticized for attempts to impose handling of conscription Hughes continued to command the Australian state and successfully negotiated the seizure of New Guinea to Australia at the Paris Peace Conference after the war.¹¹ The war also produced a flourishing Australian economy, particularly in raw material exports, and encouraged rapid industrial growth. From 1913-1923 Australia’s share of world exports increased by over twenty-five percent.¹² Victory came at a severe cost for Australian troops. Of the 322,000 who served, 280,000 were casualties with 60,000 of them dead. This astronomical death toll makes Australia the nation with the highest rate of attrition to participate in WWI.¹³

Daniel Roberts

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World War II (1939-1945)

As a commonwealth nation Australia joined the war effort against Germany with near unanimous support on September 3, 1939, under the Conservative government of Sir Robert Menzies (1884-1978). An Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was formed immediately to assist in the European fighting. The first volunteers were trained for over a year until 1941 when the 6th Australian Division was dispatched to North Africa where they joined British forces. By the end of 1941 the 6th, 7th, and 9th Australian Divisions were fighting in North Africa, Egypt, Greece, Crete and Syria. Over 100 members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) were killed in Europe and the Australian Navy saw action in the Mediterranean and Far East where it assaulted Axis merchant shipping.¹⁴             

By 1941 many Australians believed Britain could no longer guarantee the safety of their country and the mandated territory of New Guinea. Furthermore, while most Australians volunteered for overseas service as part of the AIF, resistance was so great to overseas conscription that a separate home army militia system was created for draftees.¹⁵ Popular outcry was so staunch that in October of 1941 Menzie resigned and was replaced by Labour Party leader John Curtin (1885-1945).¹⁶ The concern of the Australian public for their own safety was justified, when on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American Naval and Airbase at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Shortly after, Japan declared war on Great Britain and launched major offensives throughout the South Pacific, including in New Guinea.¹⁷The war against Japan began badly for Australian forces. In January of 194, 222,000 Australian troops were lost in Malaya. The city of Darwin, the only one in range of Japanese bombers, was air raided on fourteen separate occasions. Other towns in northern Australia faced smaller raids and in May of 1942 a Japanese submarine unsuccessfully attempted an attack on Sydney Harbor.¹⁸

The rapid advance of the Japanese forced the Australian government to recall two division of the AIF in the Middle East along with all Royal Australian Navy vessels. The entire 8th Australian Division was lost in Singapore and the RAAF faced constant defeat in the air from superior Japanese planes.¹⁹ With Britain unable to assist, Australia turned to American aid and leadership. American General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) took over much of Australia’s war planning and strategy in late 1942. Australian military forces were utilized throughout Southeast Asia, primarily Borneo and New Guinea, and in defense of the home islands in support of American strategic objectives.²⁰ Australian forces fought at the Battle of the Coral Sea and in the Battle of Papau, Kokoda and Port Morseby in New Guinea. The remaining 9th Division in the Middle East played a significant role at the battle of El Alamein in October of 1942 before returning to Australia.²¹

For the next three years much of Australia’s fighting was focused in Borneo and New Guinea. There, Australian Imperial Forces attempted to unseat the now defensive minded Japanese. After 1944 most Australian combat forces were used in “mandate” campaigns, designed to erode Japanese strength while minimizing allied casualties. After the defeat of Nazi Germany deployment in the Far East only increased. The “mandate” plan continued to be criticized for being strategically unnecessary to the completion of the war and was so arduous that by V-J Day in August of 1945 only one of the objective islands, New Britain, had been cleared of Japanese resistance.²²       

The war had a considerable effect on the Australian society, their government and economy. Nine hundred thousand Australians served in their nations armed forces during the war. At its peak strength in August of 1943 Australia fielded 642,466 service persons with 560,000 of them overseas, the majority in the army. By the end of the war the RAAF had increased fortyfold to 150,000 active personnel. ²³ Being cut off from Great Britain severed many of the economic and military ties shared between the two counties for over 100 years. Australia was forced to develop its own industrial capacity to deal with the broken supply lines with Britain. This increased the economic potential of a country that for so long relied on trading in raw goods. Furthermore the increase presence of American military support and trade cemented a burgeoning economic and military relationship between the two countries making them the dominant Pacific powers. The home front was also shaped by the creation of the welfare state, a long time goal of the Australian Labour Party that controlled wartime Australia. ²⁴

Daniel Roberts