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A new commemoration — ‘Battle for Australia Day’ In June 2008 the Governor-General of Australia issued a proclamation to declare the first Wednesday in September each year as ‘Battle For Australia Day’. During the year Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that with the Battle For Australia: We commemorate a time when our nation itself was under attack. We commemorate a time when a young nation found its very survival at risk. We commemorate a time when the Australian mainland and Australian cities were themselves under attack. When one million Australians served in uniform to protect their country. When a further six million Australians were mobilised. When thousands, tens of thousands lost their lives in neighbouring nations, on the seas, in the air, and on Australian soil. (www.pm.gov.au/media/speech/2008/speech_0454.cfm A full copy of this speech is included later in the unit.) Australians are familiar with Anzac Day and Remembrance Day as key commemorative events — but what was the Battle For Australia? What happened? Where? When? Who was involved? What did they do? How was it part of the overall war effort? Why should we commemorate it? How can we commemorate it? There is also disagreement among some historians over whether the events of 1942 can really be called ‘The Battle for Australia’. So you will also be able to understand and take part in this debate if you want to. These are all questions that you will be able to answer by the end of this unit. Your task Your overall task is to prepare a commemorative presentation about the Battle for Australia for a year level or school assembly. This commemoration will need to clearly explain what the Battle for Australia was, and why it was so important. To do this you will need to complete these four investigations, using the appropriate resource pages: Investigation 1 How and why was Australia involved in the Second World War from 1939 to December 1941? Investigation 2 What was the Battle for Australia between December 1941 and January 1943? Investigation 3 How did Australians on the Home Front respond to this crisis? Investigation 4 How was 1942 different from the later war years 1943-45 for Australians? Investigation 5 What does the Battle for Australia tell us about citizenship? Some of these Investigations will involve individual work, but most will involve group work by five groups. The findings of each group need to be shared with the whole class for everybody to gain the whole picture. In all cases what you are trying to do is to find out what happened, why it happened, and what it meant for Australia. The information provided in this unit is sufficient for you to complete every investigation and to prepare your presentation, but there are additional sources of information listed on each Resource Page if you want to explore some aspects further. A Commemoration Summary Page to help you create your presentation is on page 20. 19 THE BATTLE FOR AUSTRALIA Commemoration summary page 20 Your task Your task is to create a whole class commemorative activity or presentation to a year level or whole school assembly for the Battle for Australia commemorative day, on the first Wednesday in September. What you need to explain This commemoration presentation needs to explain to the audience: Stages to develop this knowledge and understanding To develop this knowledge and understanding you will work in groups on the first four Investigations in this unit. Elements of a commemorative presentation In developing your presentation you should consider which, if any, of these common commemorative elements you want to include in your own presentation: the context of Battle for Australia Day as part of Australia’s involvement in the Second World War what happened, how and why during the Battle for Australia period — December 1941 – January 1943 how the Battle for Australia was different from Australia’s participation in the Second World War before and after 1942 the significance of the Battle for Australia, and why it should be specially commemorated. Then, as a whole class, you need to develop a commemorative ceremony that incorporates this knowledge and understanding. Prayers Hymns Other music Maps Guests Illustrations Re-enactments Words Readings of documents or extracts Characters Stories Images Significance Meanings Visual Aural Oral Acknowledgements Songs Symbols Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? INVESTIGATION 1 How were Australians involved in the Second World War before 1942? To understand the significance of what happened in 1942 with the Battle for Australia you need to be able to explain why and how Australia was involved in the Second World War up to December 1941. Your task in this Investigation is to complete the Summary Report on page 22, which will help you decide how to create your Battle for Australia Presentation (see page 20). This task has been divided between five groups. Each group should report back to the whole class, and contribute to the creation of the Summary Report for this period of the war. Group work AWM 042822 Here are your group roles that will enable you to achieve the overall task for this Investigation: GROUP 1 1 Prepare a short statement and map that explains why Australia became involved in the Second World War. AWM PO2817.001 2 List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 2 1 Prepare a short statement and map explaining how and where the Royal Australian Navy was involved in the war in this period. Include some information about the main events in which the Navy was involved. AWM 000172 2 List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 3 1 Prepare a short statement and map explaining how and where the Australian Army was involved in the war in this period. Include some information about the main events in which the Army was involved. AWM 010753/12 2 List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 4 1 Prepare a short statement and map explaining how and where the Royal Australian Air Force was involved in the war in this period. Include some information about the main events in which the Air Force was involved. AWM 000010 2 List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 5 1 Prepare a short statement and map explaining how the Australian Home Front was affected by the war in this period. 2 List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 21 Summary page 1 WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY Combine your individual group reports to complete this Summary Page: Aspect Your explanation 5 questions to ask of someone who was part of this period are: The world went to war in 1939 because: Australia became involved because: The Navy’s main involvement in the war from September 1939 to December 1941 was: The Army’s main involvement in the war from September 1939 to December 1941 was: The Air Force’s main involvement in the war from September 1939 to December 1941 was: The Home Front’s main involvement in the war from September 1939 to December 1941 was: So, by December 1941, Australia was: CREATE A MAP of the main war events affecting Australia in this period. 22 Think about how you would include this part of the story of the war in an overall annotated map and a narrative that explains the Battle for Australia to a year level or school assembly. Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Resource page 1 1939 During the 1930s Germany’s Nazi government was expanding its territory and re-arming. In 1939 it threatened to invade Poland. Finally confronting German expansionism, Britain and France warned Germany that if it invaded Poland, they would declare war. Germany did invade on 1 September, and on 3 September Britain and France declared war on Germany. Australia was a British nation and most people felt very closely tied to Britain. They were also opposed to German expansion by force. When the British Government declared war, Prime Minister Menzies announced that ‘Australia was also at war’. With the coming of war, Australia had to make a decision: whether to look after home defence (there was a fear that Japan, which had invaded Manchuria in 1931, and China in 1937, might try and expand its power even further in Asia), or to commit troops to help Britain against Nazism in Europe. England had assured Australia that it would protect it from Japan — it expected that sending a British Pacific fleet to the British naval base at Singapore would stop any Japanese advance in the Pacific towards Australia. This had been the basis of Australia’s pre-war defence planning. So Australia committed itself to the European War. While Australia had started a re-armament program before 1939, it was not well-prepared to fight a war, and in this early part of the conflict Menzies stressed that it was ‘business as usual’ while an effective fighting force and supply system were developed. Those elements of the Royal Australian Navy that were overseas were put under British command; the Army began recruiting and training men; and under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) RAAF recruits were sent to Canada and South Africa for training, and then posted to serve in Royal Air Force units (though where possible to maintain their separate RAAF identity). GROUPS 1– 5 The Germans then tried to gain control of the air over Britain, to enable them to launch a sea-borne invasion of that nation. In the Battle of Britain Germany tried to destroy both the British fighter planes and their bases. They failed. About 30 Australian airmen were involved in this ferocious air battle as part of Fighter Command of the RAF. Once defeated in this way, Germany switched its tactics to bombing British industrial centres and large cities. Mediterranean and North Africa When Italy entered the war on the side of Germany new theatres of war opened up — the Mediterranean and North Africa. Planes of the Royal Australian Air Force and ships of the Royal Australian Navy were now sent into action in this area. In July HMAS Sydney sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni, a significant Australian naval success of the war. Home Front The Commonwealth Government worked to increase industrial production as fast as possible — this was to be a war which would be won as much by the factories as by the men and women in uniform. Increasingly, civilian production was changed to production of war-related goods. AWM ARTV02156 Investigation 1 1940 Europe After the invasion of Poland in 1939, there had been little fighting. Then in the summer of 1940 Germany attacked. Its blitzkrieg (‘lightning war’), used aircraft and tanks to move quickly and break through the defences of most western European nations. After June, Britain remained the only European country still at war against Germany — but with German forces in France now less than 50 kilometres from the British coast. Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 23 Investigation 1 Resource page 2 GROUPS 1– 5 1941 Europe In July 1941 Germany broke its peace pact with Soviet Russia, and invaded. This now meant that Germany had to supply troops against Russia as well as in western Europe. Mediterranean and North Africa Australian troops had been sent to the Middle East early in 1941. They were very successful in defeating Italian troops at Bardia, Benghazi and Tobruk, and Vichy French troops in Syria. The biggest test came against the crack German troops who were trying to take the port of Tobruk, which would allow them to advance to Egypt. Allied troops, including many thousands of Australians, set up their defences, and were able to hold off repeated and determined attacks. The Germans had contemptuously referred to the defenders as ‘rats’ in their holes — the Australian and British troops took on this title with pride, and called themselves the ‘Rats of Tobruk’. The Australians fought well and successfully in North Africa, but disaster struck in Greece and Crete. The 6th Division had been sent to Greece to help oppose enemy invasion. This was a disastrous decision. The German forces inflicted heavy casualties among the Australians and the British, and over 2000 were taken prisoner. The survivors retreated to Crete, where the same thing happened — defeat, more dead, and over 3000 Australian prisoners taken. The Royal Navy, including Australian ships, suffered heavy losses in ships sunk and damaged while successfully carrying out the evacuation of Greece and Crete. Australian ships were active in the Mediterranean against the Italian Navy, and supported Australian and other Commonwealth troops at Tobruk, where the ships would run supplies in to the besieged troops by night, while frequently under heavy attack from the German Air Force. The Navy ships Waterhen and Parramatta were sunk while providing supplies to the troops at Tobruk, the latter with only 23 survivors from a crew of 160. Asia and the Pacific The 8th Division (about 15,000 men) was formed and most were sent to Malaya and Singapore, as garrison troops to protect that area from any possible Japanese invasion. RAAF Squadrons had been there since late 1940, and made up about one quarter of the British air garrison at the time of the Japanese attack. Home Front Industry continued to be the main focus of the war effort, with almost all civilian production being changed over to war materials. The increasingly serious war situation meant that as many men as possible were needed in combat and direct support roles — so the services decided to start replacing men in non-combat roles with women. For the first time, women were now allowed to join the armed services: the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) was formed in February, the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) in April, and the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) in July. There was also an increased compulsory call up of men aged between 18 and 60 for the Australian Military Forces — the conscripted body that was reserved for home defence of Australia. Jeffrey Grey, A Military History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 2008 page 157 There were several German raider attacks in the Indian Ocean, and enemy mines were laid in busy shipping lanes. In November the greatest Australian naval disaster occurred — the sinking of the HMAS Sydney by a German raider off the coast of Western Australia. All 645 crew died while destroying the Kormoran, which was threatening sea supply lines. The location of the wreck of the Sydney was only discovered in 2008. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 1 Mediterranean Area 24 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? INVESTIGATION 2 Your task in this Investigation is to complete the Summary Report on page 26, which will help you decide how to create your Battle for Australia Presentation (see page 20). This task has been divided between five groups. Each group should report back to the whole class, and contribute to the creation of the Summary Report for this period of the war. Group work Here are your group roles that will enable you to achieve the overall task for this Investigation: AWM ARTV09225 AWM 128127 But in December the war suddenly and dramatically changed. Japan entered the war. What had been a European war now became one in Asia and the Pacific as well. And in 1942 the war came right to Australia. AWM ART23615 For Australians, this war focused on air war over Britain, some great land and sea victories in the Mediterranean, and at Tobruk, Libya, Syria; and some catastrophic defeats in Greece and Crete, and with the loss of HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. AWM ART27547 You have now explored the nature of Australia’s early involvement in the Second World War up to December 1941. AWM 129750 What was the ‘Battle for Australia’ (December 1941 – January 1943) GROUP 1 The Japanese thrust A B C D E F G Why did Japan enter the war? Why did Australia declare war on Japan? Where did the Japanese attack? Why were they so successful? What happened to Australians as a result of these attacks? What was now the likely position of Australia in the war? List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 2 Attacks on and around Australia A B C D G In what ways did Japan attack Australia? What was the aim or purpose of these attacks? How serious were they? Would you say that these attacks were part of an invasion plan? List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 3 Coral Sea, Midway and Milne Bay A B C D E F G Where were these battles? Who were we fighting with, and who were we fighting against? How was Australia involved? What was the purpose of these battles? What were their outcomes? What was their signficance for the war? List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 4 Kokoda Track A B C D E F G What was the Kokoda Track? What were the Japanese trying to achieve? Who opposed them? What was the nature of that fighting? Why did the Australians eventually win this battle? What was the significance of the Kokoda Track for the war? List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. GROUP 5 Buna, Gona and Sanananda A B C D E G Why was there fighting at these three places? Who were we fighting with, and who were we fighting against? What was the nature of the fighting? What was the outcome of the fighting? What was the significance of these victories? List five questions that you would ask of a person who lived through this period in Australia. Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 25 Summary page 2 WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY Combine your individual group reports to complete this Summary Page: Aspect Your explanation 5 questions to ask of someone who was part of this period are: In December 1941 Japan entered the war because: Early in the war the Japanese had gained control of: The Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, and the Battle of Milne Bay were important because: The Kokoda Track was significant to Australia because: The Air Force’s main involvement in the war from September 1939 to December 1941 was: The Battles of the Beachheads (Gona, Buna and Sanananda) were important because: So, by January 1943, Australia was: CREATE A MAP of the main war events affecting Australia in this period. 26 Think about how you would include this part of the story of the war in an overall annotated map and a narrative that explains the Battle For Australia to a year level or school assembly. Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Investigation 2 Resource page 1 GROUP 1 December 1941 – February 1942 Japanese entry and victories During the 1920s and 1930s the Japanese government was increasingly dominated by nationalistic and militaristic individuals and groups. These leaders wanted to secure access to vital natural resources that were essential for Japan to increase its growth and power. In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, to secure raw materials. In 1937 it invaded China. Australia stopped all iron ore exports to Japan in 1938, and the United States and Netherlands East Indies stopped oil exports there in 1941. The Japanese now implemented their idea of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere — they would invade and ‘liberate’ southern and south-eastern Asia from western colonial powers. Japan would then dominate the area, and have access to the vital oil and rubber of the area. Ships were essential for this plan to succeed, to carry the troops, supplies and planes needed. The United States was the only power that could possibly stop Japan’s expansion, as it had the only fleet capable of matching Japan’s fleet in the Pacific. It could also threaten the sea lanes that Japan needed to send its new resources to Japan. On 7 December 1941 the Japanese attacked the United States base at Pear Harbor, Hawaii, hoping to destroy a major part of the American fleet. But the American aircraft carriers that could provide the means of attacking Japanese invasion forces, were not in port. The attack also failed to destroy the oil supplies held there. Had the aircraft carriers and oil reserves been destroyed, the outcome of the Second World War may have been very different. Japan also attacked Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya, Guam and Wake Island at the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese now seemed invincible, and swept through Asia and much of the Pacific area. The entry of Japan into a Pacific war threw Australia’s war strategy into chaos. Our greatest fear — an expansionary Asian power with a strong navy capable of bringing the war right into Australian territory — was realised. Australian, British and other Commonwealth troops resisted the Japanese invasion with mixed success. The Japanese were outnumbered by the Allied forces, but they were battle veterans and used the terrain much better. There was some heavy fighting — the greatest number of Australian combat deaths of any campaign came in the two months of the Malaya campaign — but there was also much retreating, confusion and in some cases panic. The Allied troops retreated to Singapore, and, faced with threats to the civilian population and the certainty that their water supply would be cut off, the Allied forces surrendered. Singapore was supposed to protect Australia. It fell, and with it the belief that Britain could protect Australia. The Malaya /Singapore campaign was Australia’s greatest disaster of the war. We lost 25% of all battle deaths against the Japanese in these 8 weeks. And Australia lost over 15,000 men and a number of women nurses as prisoners — more than one third of whom would die as Prisoners of War over the next three years, some of them brutally murdered. The Navy also suffered losses. HMAS Perth was sunk on 1 March, with 457 dead in the action or afterwards as POWs. HMAS Yarra was also sunk in March, with only 13 of the 151 crew surviving. Navy ships Vampire and Voyager were also sunk in this period. The Japanese took Java, capturing an Allied force that included the Australian ‘Black force’ of about 3000 men after 10 days of fighting, and continued to sweep towards New Guinea. Three Australian Battalion Groups were sent to defend Ambon (Gull Force), Timor (Sparrow Force) and Rabaul (Lark Force). Each comprised about 1000 men, and they were poorly equipped, and outnumbered by the Japanese forces. Some of these men were killed in battle, some were executed on surrender, and many died as a result of their brutal treatment as Prisoners of War of the Japanese. About 400 managed to make it back to Australia. Port Moresby was now the key to Papua-New Guinea, and to the control of Australia — if the Japanese could control that port and the surrounding sea lanes, they could launch attacks against the Australian mainland, disrupt supplies coming to Australia from America to be used against the Japanese, and could protect any gathering forces to invade Australia — if they wanted to make that their aim. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 2 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 27 Investigation 2 Resource page 2 Attacks on Australia One of the important areas seized by the Japanese was Rabaul, in New Britain. This gave the Japanese an air base from which they could launch bombing raids in the area. The Japanese knew that the United States would try to gather forces and equipment in Australia as a base for launching counter-attacks against the Japanese in the south-west Pacific area. The Japanese aim was to stop this build-up of men and materials, and to keep Australia isolated from effective engagement in the area. This would also be helped if they could also seize the port of Port Moresby, which they would attempt to do by landing troops there. During 1942 and 1943 the Japanese launched nearly 100 air raids on Darwin, Broome, Wyndham, and other northern towns. The first raids on Darwin and Broome killed hundreds of American and Australian servicemen, civilians and refugees. Most of the later raids caused little damage and few or no casualties. At the same time submarines prowled shipping lanes off the east coast of Australia. Jeffrey Grey, A Military History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 2008 page 173 In June 1942 three midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour to sink the American warship USS Chicago. One fired but missed and hit HMAS Kuttabul, a former ferry that was being used as floating Naval accommodation, killing 21 Australian and British sailors. Other submarines shelled Sydney and Newcastle, causing little damage. GROUP 2 The government of the day pushed industrial production more towards a war effort. There was an “All In” effort to win the war on the production front, as well as on the battle front. Most Australians did not ‘fight’ in the war. These are often the forgotten people: the men and, in lesser though growing numbers, the women who worked in the factories; those who stayed on the farms, giving up the ‘glory’ and the ‘glamour’, but also the danger in most cases; the ‘Dad’s army’ of the Volunteer Defence Corps, ready to resist an invasion; the coastwatchers of the north, tracking the movement of planes and ships; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander guides, watchers and trackers; those manning searchlights night after night in city areas, or standing guard over vital ports and places in case of attack; the Civil Construction Corps – over 100,000 of them – sent to work building roads and aerodromes in the harshest of conditions. For every man fighting the enemy, there were dozens of men and women working to support him. Sport was cut back. Petrol, clothing and some food items were rationed. As more men were sent overseas to fight, women were allowed to join the Air Force, Army and Navy in roles other than the traditional nursing one, releasing men for combat roles. Engineers and labourers were conscripted into the Civil Construction Corps, as roads were built in outback areas to try and create a supply line to the northern front at Darwin. Women were taken into previously male jobs – such as on the trams, and in new areas in factories – though most did not receive equal pay for the equal work they were doing. About 100,000 men left the farms, and some women joined the Women’s Land Army to take over vital food production – though it seems that in most cases it was the farmers’ wives and mothers who took up that burden. The main role for most women continued to be that of home maker, a job made much harder and more demanding by the blackouts, rationing, shortages and difficulties of wartime life. The Japanese Advance 28 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Now use this information to complete Summary Page 2 Investigation 2 Resource page 3 GROUP 3 Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway and Milne Bay These three battles had an influence on Japanese attempts to reduce Australian and American resistance to Japan’s domination of the area. Coral Sea Between 5 and 8 May 1942 Australian ships and planes contributed to the American fleet’s engagement with the Japanese in the Coral Sea. The Japanese plan was to spread from Rabaul, in New Britain, and establish strong bases at Port Moresby, and on Fiji, the New Hebrides, Samoa and the Solomons. This would enable them to cut Australia’s supply line from America, and to attack northern Australian mainland bases that could be used to launch air attacks against Japanese positions.The Japanese would also launch an attack on Midway, between Pearl Harbor and Japan, with the aim of attracting the American fleet and destroying it, thereby severely limiting America’s Pacific War capacity. The first stage of this plan was to land troops at Port Moresby. However, American intelligence knew that the Coral Sea action was about to happen—they had broken the Japanese secret naval codes, and were able to move ships into the area to oppose the enemy. Allied Task Force 44 consisted of a group of Allied warships, including two Australian ships, the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and the light cruiser HMAS Hobart. They were sent to find and attack this Invasion Group. This force was commanded by the Australian Rear-Admiral Crace. There was also a second Allied force of two aircraft carriers, the USS Lexington (commanded by RearAdmiral Fitch) and the USS Yorktown (commanded by Rear-Admiral Fletcher), together with protective cruisers and destroyers. Their task was to stop the invasion, and to do this they would have to tackle the main Japanese Carrier Striking Force. A Japanese battle group planned to intercept this American naval force from two sides as it entered the Coral Sea. John Coates, An Atlas of Australia’s Wars, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001 page 229 The battle ended the proposed Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby. It also helped lessen the size of the fleet that Japan assembled to destroy the American Pacific fleet a few weeks later at Midway. An invasion force of transports carrying soldiers would leave Rabaul, and head around the tip of New Guinea to Port Moresby. They would be protected by several warships. The Battle of the Coral Sea 4 – 8 May 1942 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 29 Midway The Japanese, despite the setback in the Coral Sea, were poised to destroy the Americans. The Japanese set a trap for the US fleet — they attacked Midway on 4–6 June, knowing that the Americans would respond, and believing that they could catch the American fleet unprepared. However, the Japanese fleet was smaller than anticipated, the American fleet was larger than the Japanese had Milne Bay John Coates, An Atlas of Australia’s Wars, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001 page 231 The Japanese still wanted to take Port Moresby as a base for launching air attacks against the Allies, or to deny its use to them. expected, and the Americans knew of the trap — having broken the secret Japanese communication codes. Both sides suffered heavily, but the Japanese Pacific fleet air power was severely reduced, so Japanese resistance to all further Allied attacks was now significantly lessened. It also meant that there was no longer any practical possibility that Australia could be invaded by Japanese forces. Australia had established an air base at Milne Bay in June. Australian troops, together with some American engineers, manned the base. On the night of 25/26 August the Japanese landed an amphibious force to seize the area. For the first time in the war the Allies had control of the air, and No. 75 and No. 76 Squadron of the RAAF, with Kittyhawks fighters, were able to disrupt the landing and isolate and strand one of the landing parties, weakening the forces of the attackers. However, about 2,000 Japanese combat troops were successfully landed, together with two tanks. Japanese ships were also able to use their guns to support their troops, particularly at night when the Kittyhawks were unable to be flown. Kokoda and Milne Bay area The Australians and Americans had prepared their defences well. After fierce fighting, the Japanese were forced to withdraw on the night of 4/5 September. Milne Bay was the first defeat of Japanese land forces in the war, and provided great morale value, as well as protecting Port Moresby from attack from the east. This meant that forces could be concentrated in resisting the attempted taking of Port Moresby from the north — along the famous Kokoda Track. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 2 Battle of Milne Bay 30 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Investigation 2 Resource page 4 GROUP 4 www.kokodawalkway.com.au/stations/images/map.jpg Kokoda Track Between July 1942 and January 1943, fighting focused on Papua, especially at Milne Bay and along the Kokoda Track. The Japanese wanted to seize Port Moresby. Their attempts to land invasion forces had failed at the Coral Sea and Milne Bay, but there was still the possibility of marching troops over the Owen Stanley range. This is what now happened. Japanese troops landed at Buna, and pushed overland towards Kokoda. Meanwhile, a small body of Australian Militia troops slogged over the razorback Owen Stanleys to meet them. The two forces met, and for weeks there was sharp and bloody fighting as the Japanese pushed forward. The Australians carried out a fighting withdrawal, and delayed the enemy for several weeks. The Japanese reached Isurava, only 60 kilometres from Port Moresby, but their supply lines were over-extended, and many were starving and ill. With the build-up of American troops ready to invade Guadalcanal, the Japanese high command decided to withdraw their troops from the Kokoda Track, and to concentrate their forces at Guadalcanal. They therefore ordered the Kokoda Track force to withdraw. All their efforts had been for nothing! Sick, exhausted, starving and dispirited, they started their withdrawal back to the Buna area. The Australians, now reinforced by well-trained, experienced and well-equipped fresh troops, pushed the enemy hard. Jungle warfare was an horrific experience. Men had to cope with the heat, tropical rain, stinging and biting insects, and the terror of not knowing where the enemy was — even perhaps only metres away in the thick jungle. The ground was steep and often muddy, and men’s legs felt as though they were being torn from their bodies as they climbed and crawled up almost sheer mountain sides — always mentally alert for the hidden enemy. The sounds of the enemy were everywhere, but they were often not seen until the woodpecker noise of the Japanese machine gun suddenly ripped into the foliage. Fighting was often hand to hand and savage — there would only be one man who would survive from such a conflict; there was no way to look after prisoners. Diseases racked bodies. Hunger and thirst had to be endured, with the difficulty of getting supplies to men. The wounded had to be carried out by stretchers carried by local bearers — the ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’ as they were later nicknamed. Others, less well-known, performed the equally important task of carrying supplies forward. As the Australians and the American allies gained control of the skies, re-supply became easier, and the chances of success increased. On 2 November the Australians re-took Kokoda. The Japanese were pushed back towards Buna, where much savage and bloody fighting would be needed before the Japanese were finally defeated in Papua. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 2 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 31 Investigation 2 Resource page 5 GROUP 5 Battles of Guadalcanal and the Beachheads — Buna, Gona and Sanananda In August 1942 the Allies went on to the offensive for the first time in the south-west Pacific, at Guadalcanal. The Japanese had been building an airfield that could have created serious problems for the Allies. A massive American attack included Royal Australian Navy heavy cruisers Australia and Canberra (so damaged that it had to be sunk), and the light cruiser Hobart. The Japanese tried to win back the airfield, but were unable to do so. They were forced to withdraw their remaining forces, and were now on the defensive in the Pacific. Japanese forces were also very well established in the Papuan coastal strip encompassing Buna, Gona and Sanananda. In late November American troops attacked Buna, Australians attacked Gona, and a combined force attacked Sanananda. The Japanese occupied well-sited and heavily fortified bunkers that created killing fields for their machine guns should the Australians advance from the surrounding swamps. The Allies attacked, but were unable to break the Japanese defences. The Allies built airstrips so that supplies could be brought in from Port Moresby. The Japanese refused to surrender or be beaten. The weather and the terrain took a toll on the attackers, and disease hit both attackers and defenders. The Japanese were in fact starving, as they were unable to bring in any supplies. Gona finally fell on 9 December 1942, Buna on 3 January 1943, and Sanananda on 22 January. By the time all the battles were concluded 2165 Australians, 1300 Americans and more than 6000 Japanese had died or been killed in the campaign. John Coates, An Atlas of Australia’s Wars, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001 page 239 Now use this information to complete Summary Page 2 Battle of the Beachheads 32 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? INVESTIGATION 3 Was there a ‘Battle for Australia’? This unit is about the ‘Battle for Australia’. But was there such a thing? Historians agree that 1942 was a year of crisis for Australia, and that many Australians believed they were fighting to defend Australia from an imminent Japanese invasion. But not all historians agree that the period can be described as a ‘Battle for Australia’. One view believes that invasion was close to being planned and implemented, and that the battles fought in and around Australia at this time were in fact battles to protect Australia. The other view believes that there were no specific plans or attempts to invade (but that this could have changed if the results of the Pacific War had changed during early 1942), and that the battles in and around Australia in this period were part of a larger strategy, and not to protect Australia itself. You will see what their main ideas are in more detail in Activity 1. In this Investigation you are being asked to look at these two broad arguments, and decide which you accept. This is important because it will influence what you say about this period in your own commemoration of the events to your year level or school assembly. Your task in this Investigation is to look at points of view and evidence, and come to your own conclusion. This will mean that you need to: look at the characterisations of the two sides, explore some evidence (drawing on work you have already done in groups about 1942) decide which of the two sides you think is better supported by the evidence decide how this dispute will influence what you have to say about the event in your commemorative presentation. AWM ARTV09225 AWM ARTV06766 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 33 Summary page 3 WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY Combine your individual group reports to complete this Summary Page: Group task 1 Was there a Japanese plan to invade Australia? 2 Was there an attempt to invade Australia? 3 Was there a fear of invasion? 4 Why might Australians have believed that there might be an invasion? 5 How did Australians respond to the crisis of 1942? 34 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Your comments/Conclusions Activity 1 UNDERSTANDING THE COMPETING VIEWS A main supporter of the idea that Australia was in imminent danger of invasion is Bob Wurth. A main critic of the idea that Australia was in imminent danger of invasion is Dr Peter Stanley. His basic viewpoint is: His viewpoint is: 1942 was the year of Australia’s greatest peril as the nation awaited invasion from Japan. Darwin was devastated by bombing, Australian ships were torpedoed within sight of our coast, midget Japanese submarines attacked shipping in Sydney Harbour, and the Japanese forces on their inexorable march south invaded New Guinea and islands to Australia’s near north. In Australia [in 1942], a nation justifiably feeling threatened with invasion mobilised its military, industrial and civilian resources, accepted American aid and MacArthur’s command and confronted the Japanese in the south-west Pacific. Alarmed by the crisis, Australia largely withdrew from the broader struggle, concentrating on the liberation of its territories and on operations on adjacent islands. This is the true story of the genuine and imminent threat to Australia in early 1942 as passionate Imperial Navy staff officers and their illogical admirals debated with the Imperial Army over the invasion of an almost defenceless nation. Australia’s fate hung in the balance. So while Australians played a substantial part in the battles of 1942, there was no ‘Battle for Australia’, as such … Thank goodness. www.awm.gov.au/events/talks/oration2006.asp www.1942.com.au/ Here are two sets of statements that add some details to the two conflicting points of view about the ‘Battle for Australia’. The statements are in an order that does not create a clear and logical statement. Re-arrange each set in an order that makes sense. VIEWPOINT 1 VIEWPOINT 2 By mid-1943 the danger of invasion and attack had passed. Attacks on Australia were in support of other strategies, not an invasion of Australia. In 1942 the Japanese advance came closer to Australia. By mid-1942 the danger of invasion and attack had passed. The Government organised the nation to resist this threat. In 1942 the Japanese advance came closer to Australia as part of its Pacific war strategy. The Japanese planned to attack and invade parts of Australia. The Government organised the nation to resist this threat. The victories in Papua and New Guinea removed this possibility. The Japanese victories were part of a plan to isolate, but not attack or invade Australia. Their activities in the Pacific and Papua brought the possibility of attack/invasion closer. The victories in Papua and New Guinea removed this possibility. Victories in Papua would have led to attacks/invasion. Victories in Papua might have led to the development of plans to attack/ invade Australia. Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 35 Investigation 3 Resource page 1 GROUPS 1– 5 It is difficult for non-expert students to make a decision on matters where expert historians disagree! Here is some main evidence to analyse. For each, analyse the evidence using the questions to help you, and then decide which of the two arguments the evidence supports (and some evidence may support both!). SOURCE A Four propaganda posters from 1942 AWM ARTV09053 AWM ARTV09061 AWM ARTV09225 1 Who are the main character/s in these posters? 2 What is shown as the threat? 3 What is the message that is being put to the Australian people? 4 How would you expect people to respond to these at the time? 5 How does this evidence help your group answer the question you are investigating? AWM RC02371 1 Describe what is shown on the SOURCE B Invasion money AWM RELC01152 36 This is an example of Japanese ‘invasion money’ that many Australian soldiers brought back from the Pacific and Asian areas. Many people believe that it is evidence of a Japanese plan to invade Australia. Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? notes. 2 How might it support the idea that there was a plan to invade Australia? 3 How might it not be good evidence of an invasion plan? 4 How does this evidence help your group answer the question you are investigating? Investigation 3 Resource page 2 GROUPS 1– 5 SOURCE C John Curtin and the ‘Battle for Australia’ SOURCE D Douglas MacArthur and the ‘Battle for Australia’ At the fall of Singapore in February, 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin said: In March 1944, when John Curtin was ill, the US commander in chief, Southwest Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur, sent the Australian leader a photograph of himself … across which he scrawled in pen: “To the Prime Minister who saved Australia in her hour of deadly peril.” “The fall of Singapore can only be described as Australia’s Dunkirk … The fall of Dunkirk initiated the Battle for Britain. The fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia.” www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/battaust/ AustInvasion/Confronting_revisionists.htm Peter Stanley says of this: Let me remind you of the setting of John Curtin’s 1942 speech in which the phrase “battle for Australia” first appeared. He gave this speech the day after the fall of Singapore and three days before the bombing of Darwin. It was not a judgment upon what had occurred: it anticipated what he thought would occur. It was almost a prediction. Curtin, a man passionately devoted to his people, for justifiable and understandable reasons feared that the fall of Singapore – believed to have been the keystone of imperial defence in Asia and Australasia – would open a struggle for the possession of his homeland. Or so it very reasonably seemed at the time. When Curtin died months before Japan’s surrender in 1945, MacArthur in a communiqué said of the Australian leader: “He was one of the greatest wartime statesmen, and the preservation of Australia from invasion will be his immemorial monument.” Bob Wurth, www.1942.com.au/invading-australia-myth.html Was invasion planned? Wurth quotes Douglas MacArthur as if he is a reliable witness. But MacArthur was flattering then prime minister John Curtin by telling him he “saved Australia in her hour of deadly peril”. MacArthur was a better politician than Curtin. He was known to exaggerate, notoriously painting Australian successes as Allied: why would Wurth — or anyone — take MacArthur at his word? Peter Stanley, Weekend Australian Review, 30-31 August 2008 www.awm.gov.au/events/talks/oration2006.asp 1 What does Curtin say is the ‘Battle for Australia’? 1 How does the MacArthur quote support Wurth? 2 How might this quotation support Wurth? 2 How does Stanley try to undermine its value as 3 How does Stanley challenge it? 4 What does this evidence help your group understand about the question you are investigating? evidence? 3 How does this evidence help your group answer the question you are investigating? 1 How does this evidence SOURCE E Douglas MacArthur and the danger of invasion support Stanley? Curtin’s apprehensions [about invasion] ought to have been greatly calmed by General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the South-West Pacific Area. MacArthur briefed the Advisory War Cabinet five days after arriving in Melbourne, in March [1942]. Its members may have been relieved to hear his opinion that “it is doubtful whether the Japanese would undertake an invasion of Australia …”, though they may have entertained misgivings over his reason “as the spoils here are not sufficient to warrant the risk”. MacArthur consoled the Council by suggesting that the Japanese might “try to overrun Australia in order to demonstrate their superiority over the white races”, but as a strategist he thought that an invasion would be “a blunder”. 2 How does it support Wurth? 3 How does this evidence help your group answer the question you are investigating? Peter Stanley, www.awm.gov.au/events/conference/2002/stanley_paper.pdf Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 37 Investigation 3 Resource page 3 GROUPS 1– 5 SOURCE F Japanese map in a Tokyo museum Japan’s second phase operations between February and April 1942, according to this chart on display in the extreme nationalist Yasukuni Shrine Museum in Tokyo. The blue dotted line around northern Australia refers [to] ‘invasion manoeuvres, or operations’. The heading in English is the Museum’s. The line encircling the whole of Australia is a shipping route. Bob Wurth, www.1942.com.au/invading-australia-myth.html 1 What does this map show? 2 How does it support Wurth? 3 How might Stanley challenge this as reliable evidence? 4 How does this evidence help your group answer the question you are investigating ? The Campaign Plan: The 2nd Phase (February–April 1942) SOURCE G Japanese invasion map in the Australian Archives Staff file entitled “Japanese Plan for Invasion of Australia”. The file does give a full outline, complete with a map annotated in Japanese, for a Japanese invasion of Australia via Western Australia with a diversionary attack around Darwin. The map was forwarded via the Australian legation in Chungking from Nationalist China’s Director of Military Intelligence, Admiral H. C. Yang. But if John Curtin accepted it as genuine … none of Curtin’s military advisers agreed. Even the Chinese did not consider it genuine. In any case, the invasion was supposed to have been launched in May 1942, but the map was “discovered” only five months later. Peter Stanley, www.awm.gov.au/events/ conference/2002/stanley_paper.pdf 1 What does this map show? 2 Does it support either Wurth or Stanley? 3 How does Stanley challenge this as reliable evidence? 4 From your knowledge of Australia, how likely does this invasion plan seem? Explain your reasons. 38 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Investigation 3 Resource page 4 GROUPS 1– 5 SOURCE H Bob Wurth and Peter Stanley on plans to invade Australia (i) [T]here were so many high ranking officers, including those in the Navy General Staff, who were arguing about attacking Australia. Also in the Combined Fleet. Arguing about attacking and invading Australia. It wasn’t just the initiative of junior officers involved in this talk. It was official conversation because the Navy officially submitted it to the Army. The Navy military orders [planning] section officers visited the Army strategic section. They were always visiting the Army pushing this point of view between February and March 1942 about invading Australia. 2007 interview with Professor Hiromi Tanaka, senior historian at Japan’s National Defense Academy, Yososuka, in Bob Wurth, 1942. Australia’s Greatest Peril, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2008 page 362 (ii) It has become abundantly apparent in the course of my research that influential elements of this great [Japanese] navy wanted to invade Australia in 1942, although they never got as far as issuing orders to invade. The evidence is overwhelming from the Japanese side, though, that such an invasion was a serious possibility. Bob Wurth, 1942. Australia’s Greatest Peril, Macmillan, Sydney, 2008 page 3 (iii) Curtin’s fears about an invasion of Australia in the first months of 1942 were thoroughly justified. The question of … whether to capture Australia … was keenly debated in a series of formal meetings in Tokyo. The debate was carried on at the highest levels within Imperial General Headquarters, and was supported by senior naval officers and influential middle echelon rankers. Bob Wurth, 1942. Australia’s Greatest Peril, Macmillan, Sydney, 2008, page 3 Page 128 (iv) It is argued by revisionists today that Australian troops in New Guinea and on the Kokoda Track did not help save Australia as the war was decided elsewhere. Yet General Douglas MacArthur had no doubts that the loss of Port Moresby would have meant the loss of Australia. He wrote in his memoirs: … I decided to … move the thousand miles forward into eastern Papua, and to stop the Japanese on the rough mountains of the Owen Stanley Range of New Guinea — to make the fight for Australia beyond its own borders. If successful, this would save Australia from invasion and give me an opportunity to pass from defence to offence, to seize the initiative, move forward, and attack. … Curtin felt the same about the battle for the Kokoda trail, telling newsmen in a long private briefing on 21 September: ‘We are not defending New Guinea, we are defending Australia.’ Bob Wurth, 1942. Australia’s Greatest Peril, Macmillan, Sydney, 2008, page 3 Pages 287-8 (v) Those who assume that Japan actually planned to invade Australia in 1942 make a great deal of the fact that the Japanese high command considered the idea early in 1942 (before Singapore fell). For weeks, senior army and navy officers wrangled over options (considering not just whether to invade Australia, but facing the question, ‘where next?’). They decided not to invade Australia, but to hold on in China, take on the US in the Pacific and advance towards India. If things went well, they thought they could tackle Australia later. In the meantime, they decided to try to isolate Australia, using submarines to disrupt the sea routes to the US. (Even that failed: Australia was never isolated.) Peter Stanley, www.1942.com.au/reviews-news.html 1 What does this evidence help your group understand about the question you are investigating? Now use this information to complete Summary Page 3 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 39 INVESTIGATION 4 How was 1942 different from the later war years 1943-45 for Australians? A key feature of the Battle for Australia period is that this part of the war was very different for Australians compared to before and after 1942. Your task in this Investigation is to summarise the nature of Australian involvement in each area of the war after January 1943. Each group can help complete the Summary Page on the next page. AWM ART22744 You have already seen what the war was like before 1942. Now you need to explore what the war was like after January 1943, and decide how this influences your ideas about what the Battle for Australia was, and how you will explain it to others during your commemorative assembly. RAAF Debriefing after the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (1943) 40 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Summary page 4 WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY Combine your individual group reports to complete this Summary Page: Aspect Your explanation 5 questions to ask of someone who was part of this period are: GROUP 1 The nature of Australian involvement during 1942 in areas other than the Pacific was: GROUP 2 The nature of Australian involvement during 1943 in Europe, the Pacific and on the home front was: GROUP 3 The nature of Australian involvement during 1944 in Europe, the Pacific and on the home front was: GROUP 4 The nature of Australian involvement during 1945 in Europe was: GROUP 5 The nature of Australian involvement during 1945 in the Pacific and on the home front was: CREATE A MAP of the main war events affecting Australia in this period. Think about how you would include this part of the story of the war in an overall annotated map and a narrative that explains the Battle For Australia to a year level or school assembly. Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 41 Investigation 4 Resource page 1 1942 in other theatres of the war In 1942 the war was being waged in Europe, in Russia, in Asia and in the Pacific. The emphasis on Australian involvement in the Pacific War means that their contributions in other areas are often not recognised. Increasing numbers of in the RAAF were coming out of the EATS training scheme, and were active in helping the Royal Air Force in the air war over Europe. Australian naval ships continued to successfully carry out their primary role of protecting sea supply lines for men, equipment, food and supplies in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. RAN personnel were also deployed in the United Kingdom performing bomb disposal and making mines safe. A small number were also involved in the RAN’s midget submarine program. RAAF airmen took part in the defence of Malta, and several thousand RAAF and Army personnel served in Burma, India, Cyprus, Ceylon and even in China where Tulip Force helped train Chinese guerrillas to fight the Japanese. Coastwatchers — men who remained hidden in enemy territory — watched silently and then secretly reported on enemy shipping movements. Their activities were significant at the Battle of Guadalcanal — though the fact that the Allies had broken enemy secret codes was probably more significant. HMAS Canberra was sunk during the Battle of Savo. Australians played an important part in defeating the German forces in North Africa at the battle of El Alamein. RAAF airmen were part of the RAF sorties that supported the troops of the British Eighth Army, including Australians of the 9th Division. Over 2600 Australians died in this campaign. Once the threat from the Japanese arose, the Australian Government wanted to bring these troops back from fighting the Germans and Italians in North Africa and the Middle East to protect Australia by fighting the Japanese in New Guinea. British Prime Minister Churchill wanted to send the Australians to Burma to protect India — but Australian Prime Minister Curtin fought him and insisted that they be returned to Australia. The victorious troops were returned to Australia to fight the Japanese. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 4 AWM ART27559 HMAS Nestor was lost in the Mediterranean in June 1942. GROUP 1 Battle of Alam el Halfa (1942) 42 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Resource page 2 1943 The path that Australian forces would now take in the Pacific War for the remainder of the conflict was now largely set. The big battles had been won, the enemy was in retreat, there was a long and difficult period of ‘mopping up’ and consolidation, though this would still involve severe fighting against the Japanese for whom surrender was unthinkable and shameful. In Western Europe, the emphasis was on building up strength for the invasion of Europe, while battering the Germans in the industrial centres of Germany itself and the occupied countries. On the Eastern Front Soviet forces were locked in battle with the Germans. In Australia, the emphasis was moved from an “All In” approach to a “Balanced War Effort”, which involved transferring some men from the fighting forces back to industry and production. Europe Between 1940 and 1943 RAAF airmen had participated in operations in North Africa, the Middle East, the defence of Malta. This was the period of the greatest part of the air war, particularly the strategic bomber offensive raids against the great German cities. Australian RAAF volunteers were now in Britain in large numbers, mostly serving in Bomber Command. Some were ground crews, working on keeping the huge machines flying, but most were crewmen in the huge and powerful bombers, which flew from bases in Britain over enemy occupied territory in France, and over Germany. This was a terrible and dangerous experience. The planes were cold, the trip was long, conditions were cramped, many of the men were very inexperienced pilots — accident rates were high. The planes were frequently attacked by fighters, and shot at from the ground by anti-aircraft guns. The bombers were at their most vulnerable as they came in to drop their deadly load on target areas — they had to fly a straight course to ensure accuracy, and could not evade fighters or anti-aircraft fire at this point. Once the bombs had been released, the bomber would head home — still evading fighters and flak. GROUP 2 A number of RAN personnel were serving on British ships in the European theatre of war. Pacific and Asia By early 1943 the Japanese had been defeated in Papua by the victories at Buna, Gona, and Sanananda. But they still held most of New Guinea. Australian forces now fought a series of battles to retake occupied areas from the enemy. In May Australian troops took Wau; in September they captured Salamua. A joint Australian-American air, land and sea operation was carried out to capture Lae. The 7th Division then entered the Markham-Ramu Valley to pursue Japanese forces across the Finisterre Range, where the fighting for Shaggy Ridge continued into 1944. At the same time the 9th Division was fighting the Japanese on the Huon Peninsula, and took the strongholds at Finschafen and Sattelberg. There was significant RAAF involvement in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, with the destruction of a Japanese convoy heading for Lae. AWM ARTV06392 Investigation 4 Home Front Japanese submarines remained active off the east coast. The RAAF and the RAN patrolled the coastal waters, protecting the vital merchant shipping bringing the huge supplies of weapons being churned out in the great industrial centres of the USA. However, a Japanese submarine sank the unarmed, clearly-marked and welllit hospital ship Centaur in May, with the death of 268 civilian crew and Army medical personnel. Fifty-seven percent of all RAAF casualties came from this period. Air crews were required to fly 30 missions before being taken out of the fighting — though the average life span for a crew was only 14 missions. People continued to support the war effort in their work and their voluntary activities, but as the fear of invasion began to recede, it became harder for people to maintain their 100% commitment to the war. It was during this time that tensions over such things as black market abuses began to increase. RAAF squadrons also participated in anti-submarine patrols, and attacks on shipping. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 4 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 43 Investigation 4 Resource page 3 1944 The main operations for Australians in 1944 and 1945 were in New Guinea and Borneo, and in the skies of Europe. Europe The United States and British forces continued to bomb Germany and occupied countries, while building up for the great invasion of Europe from the west on 6 June 1944, D Day. The Soviets pushed towards Germany from the east. The Allies were now fighting their way towards Berlin from the two directions. RAAF airmen took part in the Allied drive through Italy and Sicily. Pacific and Asia Several Australian naval vessels were part of the massive Allied ‘island hopping’ strategy in the Pacific to drive the Japanese out of the areas they had occupied since early 1942. Australian ships and airmen were part of the invasion fleets that landed American troops on islands in New Britain, Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, and the Netherlands East Indies. Australian ships and airmen were also part of the massive invasion at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. HMAS Australia became the first Allied ship to be hit by a kamikaze aircraft during this battle. Home Front The intensity of the war effort continued to ease slightly, as the Allies seemed more certain of success, and as the emphasis continued to swing towards production rather than military engagement. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 4 John Coates, An Atlas of Australia’s Wars, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001 page 293 The large Japanese force at Rabaul was cut off from supplies and 100,000 Japanese soldiers neutralised by the American naval blockade and Australian ground forces. GROUP 3 Defeating Japan — RAN ships at surrender points 1945 44 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? Investigation 4 Resource page 4 1945 With Germany surrendering on 8 May, 1945, the focus switched to defeating the Japanese. The Americans used a strategy of ‘island hopping’ — attacking a Japanese stronghold, securing the beach area for the landing of supplies, driving the Japanese into an isolated area, then leaving troops and fire power to ‘mop up’ the enemy. Those islands that were necessary for the supply lines were re-taken in this way; others were just cut off, and the Japanese defenders on them left to ‘wither on the vine’ without supplies. Finally, the Americans were able to set up air fields in islands near the Japanese home islands, and to start a campaign of bombing Japan’s major cities. The final act was to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August, and Nagasaki on 9 August. On 15 August the Japanese surrendered. There is controversy about the dropping of these bombs — was it justified? Supporters argue that the Japanese were ready to fight to the last man, woman and child, and that casualties would have been greater by normal battle or a blockade than from the atomic bombs. American troop casualties were also saved. It is also likely that virtually every Allied prisoner of war in Japan would have been murdered before Japan surrendered. Opponents of the bombing argue that Japan would have surrendered if they had known that the position of the Emperor would have been maintained, and that the bombs were dropped both to test their effects, and to limit the Soviets from occupying Japanese territory and holding it after the war. Europe When the allied armies invaded Europe on D Day, 6 June 1944, and started to push into Germany and occupied European countries, they liberated thousands of prisoners of the Germans — and many of these were Australians. Australian soldiers who had been captured in fighting in Greece, Crete and North Africa, and hundreds of airmen who had been shot down, had been kept in POW camps in Italy, Germany, France, Poland, and other European countries. For the most part the captors of these men treated them according to the accepted rules of warfare, and fed, housed and clothed them adequately, and did not physically or mentally abuse them. There were exceptions where prisoners were tortured, beaten or virtually starved, and cases where men who tried to GROUP 4 escape were murdered by their captors — but these were relatively rare. At the end of the war prisoners were sometimes forced to go on marches to new camps, and conditions were severe — but for the most part prisoners were adequately fed and cared for. Most Australian captives received mail and Red Cross parcels, and this helped the men to survive. Many spent much of their time planning escapes, and trying to keep themselves occupied in often harsh conditions. They played sport, went to lecture programs, put on plays and concerts. Most Australian prisoners of war of the Germans did survive, and returned to try and re-establish their lives in Australia after the war. However, as the allied armies liberated Europe from German control, and as they pushed into Germany and Poland, they made a horrific discovery — not German prisoner of war camps, but German concentration and extermination camps — camps set up specifically to murder people, or to work them to death. Part of the Nazi philosophy against which Australians fought was ‘racial purity’ — which for them included eliminating Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, radicals, Slavs, and the physically or mentally handicapped. As the allies liberated such places as Belsen and Dachau in Germany, and especially Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, they saw the results of this Nazi attempt to destroy these people. The largest group targeted was the Jews. Germans, and many other Europeans, had a strong cultural bias against Jews — they were depicted as scheming, subversive, exploitative and dangerous. Special discriminatory laws had been passed against them as soon as the Nazis had seized power in Germany in 1933, but by the start of the war they were being taken from their ghettos — concentrated places in cities — and either executed by roving execution squads, sent to be worked to death, starved to death, or gassed in camps. There was some resistance by some of the victims, but most were simply unable to resist the well-organised and ruthlessly efficient process. It is impossible to know how many people — men, women, children — died in this way. Whole families were wiped out. There are survivors living in Australian cities today who can name dozens of close family members and friends who simply disappeared in these camps. The most commonly accepted estimates say about 6 million Jews died in this holocaust. Now use this information to complete Summary Page 4 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 45 Investigation 4 Resource page 5 GROUP 5 Pacific and Asia The campaigns begun in 1944 continued until the surrender of Japan. Australians were in action from October on Bougainville, New Britain and the Aitape-Wewak region of New Guinea, and in Borneo at Tarakan, Labuan, and Balikpapan. These last campaigns in Borneo cost more than 500 Australian dead, and are controversial — many argue that there was no need for the campaigns, as the Japanese could have been left to surrender. Australian prisoners of Japanese now started to return. All had suffered the minimum of inadequate food and medical treatment. Many had suffered bashings and physical mistreatment Home Front People who lived during wartime stress how sacrifices and shortages brought them together. But there were tensions as well. There were ‘black market’ operators, who managed to find rationed goods or goods in short supply, and sell them at high prices. American troops came to Australia in large numbers, and were frequently seen as Australia’s saviours. They brought new ways and new manners and customs to Australia, and impressed the locals. But again this sometimes caused tension, as jealousies grew towards the well-paid and free-spending ‘Yanks’. Many people were upset at strikes called by wharfies and coal miners during the war. Strong government controls sometimes upset people — who resented wartime restrictions. At times of greatest crisis — such as the bombing of Darwin, the shelling of Sydney and Newcastle by Japanese submarines — some Australians acted with only their own safety in mind, and hoarded goods, or ignored what was best for the community as a whole. But for most people, it was a time of voluntary work, and ‘making do’ in determination to support the troops and secure victory. The End of the War The war had cost over 39,000 Australian lives. Many more had been damaged physically or mentally — particularly the thousands of troops who had been prisoners of the Japanese. Many of these men and women, and their dependants, would need support from the Australian government for a long time to come. The war had cost Australians the equivalent of about $74 billion. Many industries had, however, prospered and developed far more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. There were great shortages of civilian materials — especially building materials to meet the demand of returning soldiers eager to set up their new lives. Jobs were needed for the returning soldiers and servicewomen. Educational opportunities had been cut off for many, and they would now look to complete courses and training. Australia itself had changed — people had been exposed to new ideas, experiences and influences. Millions of people throughout the war-torn countries were destitute or refugees, and looked to make a new life in a better place — could Australia help them? Could Australians revert to their pre-war lives and standards, or would they have to create a new society in Australia which reflected post-war values and needs? Now use this information to complete Summary Page 4 Peace celebrations 46 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? AWM 112664 INVESTIGATION 5 What does the Battle for Australia tell us about citizenship? You are now ready to prepare your group commemorative presentation of Battle for Australia Day. Wartime citizens You should use the Battle for Australia Commemoration Summary Page (page 20) as a guide in preparing your presentation. The key focus of your commemoration should be placing the events of the Battle for Australia in the context of citizenship — what do the events of the war tell us about people’s attitudes, values and sacrifices at the time? This speech by Prime Minister Rudd on the first Battle for Australia Day (2008) will also be helpful in deciding what information and ideas you might include, and what meanings you might emphasise. For example, you might identify such values as service, sacrifice, volunteering, duty, leadership, teamwork, and many others as significant and desirable attributes that we should be aware of, and value in our society. AWM 006818 AWM 006608 AWM 066322 AWM 021160 AWM 013551 AWM 002161 Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 47 Address at Battle For Australia Commemorative Ceremony Australian War Memorial, Canberra 3 September 2008 Today we gather to commemorate the Battle for Australia … On this day, the 3rd of September, in 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies declared war on behalf of Australia on Germany. On this day, the 3rd of September, in 1942, with John Curtin as Prime Minister, Australian and American forces were heavily engaged in the Battle of Milne Bay – a Battle that was soon to become the first defeat of Japanese forces on land and a turning point in the war in the Pacific. The third of September therefore has particular significance in our nation’s story. For nearly a century now we have commemorated ANZAC Day as the great commemorative event to honour those who gave their all in war. For nearly a century we have also celebrated Remembrance Day as the end of that bloodiest of wars. But in the more than half a century since the end of the war that came to our own shores, we have yet to determine a day to commemorate those who came to the defence of Australia itself. And today as a nation we settle that question. For today, as a nation, for the first time we officially commemorate the first Wednesday in September as the day to remember the Battle for Australia following the official proclamation of this day by His Excellency the Governor-General in June this year. The day when we together with our American ally began to turn the tide of the war in the Pacific. The day when we honour specially those who gave their all in the defence of Australia itself. We commemorate a time when our nation itself was under attack. We commemorate a time when a young nation found its very survival at risk. We commemorate a time when the Australian mainland and Australian cities were themselves under attack. When one million Australians served in uniform to protect their country. When a further six million Australians were mobilised. When thousands, tens of thousands lost their lives in neighbouring nations, on the seas, in the air, and on Australian soil. The bombing of Darwin. The attack on Broome. The Battle of the Coral Sea. On the Kokoda Trail. At the Battle of Milne Bay. The Battle of Guadalcanal. 48 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen? The Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The Battle of the Beachheads – at Buna, and Gona and Sanananda. The death march at Sandakan. And this bloody list goes on. We know that some question whether there was indeed a Battle for Australia. And yes, there’s fertile ground for historical debate on the views of Curtin and Churchill, the plans of the Japanese Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy, and what might have happened had the Japanese advance not been stopped at Milne Bay and Imita Ridge. But on this there can be no doubt: Never in our history was our nation so threatened. Never in our history was our future less certain. Never in our history was our determination to defend ourselves so fully tested. From the factories to the Volunteer Defence Corps, the air raid shelters and the barbed wire across the beaches. We’ll never know what success by the enemy might have meant for Australia – invasion, occupation or isolation. But we know that Australian soldiers at Milne Bay brought those forces their first defeat on land in the entire Pacific war. And we know it was from then that the course of the war began to change. We struggle today to understand just how serious Australia’s situation was in 1942. The impregnable fortress of Singapore had fallen. Over 15,000 Australians had become prisoners of war. Prime Minister Curtin understood the threat. On the day that Singapore fell, he warned: “The fall of Singapore can only be described as Australia’s Dunkirk ... [The] fall of Dunkirk initiated the battle for Britain. The fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia.” So said Curtin. And Curtin added: “What the battle for Britain required, so the battle for Australia requires. That meant service and struggle and complete devotion for Britons in the defence of Britain. It means the same thing for Australians for the defence of Australia.” This was a battle that would involve all Australians. A fight for survival itself. The imminent threat was brought home just days later when Darwin was bombed. Curtin described it as the first “physical contact of war within Australia”. He called on Australians to: continued > > >> “vow that this blow at Darwin and the loss it has involved and the suffering it has occasioned shall gird our loins and steel our nerve”. But the Japanese imperialist forces kept advancing. Islands continued to fall. The Americans withdrew from the Philippines. The advance reached Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor. As the southward march continued, the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese Imperial Forces grew. In May 1942 at the Battle of the Coral Sea, American and Australian ships and our air forces fought side-byside against a Japanese flotilla that was part of the strategy to take Port Moresby and isolate Australia from our allies. There were losses on both sides, but Port Moresby never fell. It was a sign of things to come. When speaking in Parliament of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Prime Minister Curtin called on all Australians to join in the war effort. He said: “Men are fighting for Australia today; those who are not fighting have no excuse for not working.” This was for Australia, total war. As Curtin had said to the Americans in March: “out of every ten men in Australia, four are wholly engaged in war as members of the fighting forces or making the munition and equipment to fight with … The proportion is now growing every day.” As our men fought along the Kokoda Track, the men and women at home were hard at work in support. As our airmen fought in the skies of the Pacific the population at home was devoted to production and the civil defence effort. As our sailors sought to claw back control of the oceans the population at home continued to sign up for the war. And then there came a day when the news from the frontline changed. When the myth of the invincibility was stripped away from the advancing enemy forces – at the Battle of Milne Bay. Both sides in the Pacific War recognised the importance of Milne Bay. It offered a sheltered harbour on the south-eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. Whoever controlled Milne Bay would have a strong position to defend Port Moresby and the waters around. From 1942, the Allies developed airfields there. But the advancing Japanese forces set their sights on Milne Bay too, as a crucial stepping stone to Port Moresby. In August of 1942, they attacked at Milne Bay. Their initial progress was rapid. But when they reached the edge of the airfield, they were stopped. Then they were then pushed back, pursued - and eventually they fled. At Milne Bay, Australian and American soldiers – working side by side – proved they could stop the Japanese imperial forces. The impact on morale was enormous. After seeing Malaya, then Singapore and then a string of islands fall, the Allies had now seen their troops turn back the advancing army on land. It was in every respect, a turning point. And that is why we mark Battle for Australia Day on the first Wednesday of September, commemorating this great victory at Milne Bay. There are many stories of bravery that can be told about Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen during the Battle for Australia. I want to mention just one today. In commemorating the Battle for Australia in the years ahead, the nation will have the chance to hear many, many more stories, and so they should. The Royal Australian Air Force played a critical role in supporting the troops at Milne Bay. At Milne Bay the RAAF’s 76 Squadron was led by Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott. Truscott was one of Australia’s best-known flying aces during the Second World War. Before the war he had been a well known Aussie Rules player. He had played in Melbourne’s 1939 Premiership team. We all make mistakes. In fact he was nominated as one of the best on the ground and finished the match with two goals. But like so many young Australians, then and since, he answered the call to arms. He enlisted in the RAAF in 1940 and, after training, he joined the war in Britain. In 1941 and 1942 he flew and fought over the skies of Europe. And, by the time he returned to Australia in early 1942, he was a decorated hero who had destroyed at least 11 German aircraft over Europe. Truscott deployed to Milne Bay with Number 76 Squadron in August 1942 – just before the Japanese landing. And the Squadron flew out of Milne Bay throughout the conflict. In terrible weather, on metal landing strips that were slippery and dangerous, the aircrews of 75 and 76 Squadrons flew “beyond the point of exhaustion” in support of the ground forces. They flew so much and fired so many rounds in support of the ground forces that the barrels of the guns on their aircraft were worn smooth from the number of rounds that were fired. The aircraft would land, refuel, re-arm and immediately take to the skies again – day after day after day. Bluey Truscott, the other pilots and the ground crews showed the sort of dedication that was required to turn the tide in this great Battle for Australia. Their commitment to the task was the equal of any unit throughout the war. And to people like them and thousands more, we as a nation, owe a profound debt of gratitude. There are many such heroes in the Battle for Australia. Heroes of battle. And heroes on the home front as well. continued > > Understanding 1942 and the Battle for Australia 49 >> One of those was John Curtin. Like Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he was an outstanding leader of a democracy who rose to the occasion when he needed to serve the nation. He poured himself out in the defence of our nation. He drove himself to exhaustion and ultimately, of course, to an early death, just months before the war ended. General Douglas MacArthur gave Curtin this remarkable tribute in 1945: “He (Curtin) was one of the greatest wartime statesmen, and the preservation of Australia from invasion will be his immemorial monument.” Today, we commemorate the spirit of Curtin and all of those who served in this nation’s defence in the Pacific during our nation’s darkest time. Today, we carve a date in the nation’s calendar – the first Wednesday of every September – to remember this Battle for Australia. To remember a time when our nation was in peril. And to remember those who answered the call of their nation and risked their lives to defend the nation. British children learn their nation’s finest hour was when their troops stood alone against Hitler in 1940. And Americans learn that their Greatest Generation was the men who took Normandy in 1944 and Iwo Jima in 1945. It’s time all Australians knew more about 1942. Every year we remember the events at Anzac Cove that are etched so deep in our national memory. It’s often said, at Gallipoli our nation was born. But at the Battle for Australia, our nation stood up and confirmed that we as a nation, would endure. And that’s why we have come here today to remember Battle for Australia Day. We remember that freedom is always purchased by sacrifice. And that liberty can only be guaranteed by courage. On Bluey Truscott’s grave in the Perth War Cemetery are the following words: “In loving memory of our darling Keith, his duty nobly done.” Today we honour all those who served and sacrificed their lives in the Battle for Australia, their duty was nobly done. www.pm.gov.au/media/speech/2008/speech_0454.cfm Further reading: www.ww2australia.gov.au for all aspects www.awm.gov.au and go to Encyclopedia and type in entries www.australiansatwar.gov.au for stories from various theatres www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au for full interviews with people from many theatres Robert Lewis and Tim Gurry, Battle For Australia (CD-ROM and Teacher Resource Book), Ryebuck Media, 2002 www.ryebuck.com.au ‘The Battle of the Coral Sea — Did it save Australia?’, STUDIES magazine 1/2002, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au Robert Lewis and Tim Gurry, War and Identity, Ryebuck media for ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee of Queensland, 2000 ‘Defending Australia — Australia and the Pacific War’, STUDIES magazine 3/2001, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘How does a society respond to war? Investigating Australia during the ‘Battle for Australia’ in 1942’, STUDIES magazine 3/2002, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘Tragedy and triumph in wartime — Investigating three case studies from World War 2: the sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, the Jaywick Raid, and Operation Rimau’, STUDIES magazine 2/2003, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘“Overpaid, oversexed and over here!” — Investigating the American “invasion” of Australia 1942-1945’, STUDIES magazine 2/2002, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘Should we remember “Weary” Dunlop?’, STUDIES magazine 2/2001, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘Australia’s holocaust? — The Sandakan Death March, Borneo, 1945’, STUDIES magazine 1/1999, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au ‘Their service, our heritage — The experience of prisoners of war on the Burma-Siam Railway’, STUDIES magazine 1/1998, Ryebuck Media, www.ryebuck.com.au 50 Defence 2020 Is the Australian Defence Force a responsible citizen?