Australia in World War II

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Australia in the Second World War

Australia entered the Second World War shortly after the German invasion of Poland, declaring war on Germany on 3rd September 1939. Australia fought 'two wars' between 1939 and 1945; against Germany Italy and Vichy France as part of the European, Atlantic, Arctic, Middle East, North African and Mediterranean theatres of war and against Japan in the Pacific, South West Pacific and Indian theatres. From 1942, Australian forces played a major role in the South West Pacific theatre, making up the majority of Allied strength throughout much of the fighting to Australia's immediate north. Almost a million Australians had served in the armed forces by the end of the war, in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Merchant Navy, Australian Army and Second Australian Imperial Force (2AIF). Australia was a major base for United States Forces as well.

Along with a deservedly and ever-increasing number of commemorative 'Days', arguably the most-relevant and yet most-overlooked such is Battle for Australia Day, held on the first Wednesday of September annually. On this day Australians rightfully reflect on the bravery of those who served on Australia's home front, and the islands, the seas and in the skies to the north. It's an important reminder of an ominously threatening time for Australians between 1942 and 1945. ^[1] Of course, not all Second World War events involving Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen occurred during this period, especially those in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, in fighting for the greater British Empire (now the Commonwealth of Nations) and Allied nations.

Australian commandos, New Guinea July 1943

Three prisoners at Shimo Songkurai in 1943

Australians killed - 27,073

Australians wounded - 23,477

Australians Prisoner of War - 29,000 were taken prisoner by the Axis during the World War II. Of the 21,467 Australian prisoners that were taken by the Japanese, only 14,000 survived. The main reason was due to malnutrition and disease.

Sinking of HMAS Sydney 19 November 1941

HMAS Sydney

In May 1940, HMAS Sydney joined the British Mediterranean Fleet for an eight month deployment, during which she sank two Italian warships, took part in number of shore bombardments, and provided support to the Malta convoys, she received no casualties. On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney was involved in a battle with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, the Sydney was lost with all 645 aboard.

The Kormoran was also sunk, and 80 of its crew died, 317 survivors of the Kormoran's crew were picked up. The Sydney's loss with all hands compared to the survival of most of the Germans has resulted in controversy, with some alleging that the German commander used illegal tatics to lure Sydney into range, or that a Japanese submarine was involved. The wrecks of both ships were lost until 2008.

The Rats of Tobruk April-August 1941

Ship of the desert

Between April and August 1941, around 14,000 Australian soldiers held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps, during the Siege of Tobruk. They fought for eight months surrounded by German and Italian forces, withstanding tank attacks, artillery barrages, and daily bombings. They had to endured the desert’s terrible heat, the freezing cold nights, and horrible dust storms. They lived in dug-outs, caves, and crevasses. The Rats of Tobruk did not surrender, they did not give up. Their determination, bravery, and humour, combined with the aggressive tactics of their commanders, became a source of inspiration. They achieved lasting fame as the Rats of Tobruk.

unofficial Rats of Tobruk medal

Lord Haw Haw a wartime broadcaster William Joyce, who worked for the English-language propaganda radio programme Germany Calling called the Garrison poor desert rats of Tobruk. The Australians gave themselves the nickname the Rats of Tobruk after Radio Berlin described the Australians as caught like rats in a trap. The men were proud of the title and some of them now treasure an unofficial medal, bearing the stamp of a rodent rampant, which was unofficially struck to commemorate the defence of Tobruk. The medal was made from aluminum taken from the fuselage of a German bomber brought down by the anti-aircraft fire.

2/17 infantry battalion

Vivian Bullwinkel

The Battle of Singapore In January 1942, just prior to the Battle of Singapore and the Allied surrender to the Japanese, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadrons had been evacuated and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) warships were ordered to leave Singapore. The remaining 130 Australian Army nurses stationed in Singapore were also ordered to evacuate: six accompanying wounded aboard the Wah Sui, 59 aboard the Empress Star and the final 65 aboard HMS Vyner Brooke, a Royal Navy-commandeered island freighter. The Vyner Brooke took three direct hits from Japanese bombers and those who survived made their way to shore on Bangka Island. After murdering some 60 soldiers and male civilians, the Japanese ordered 22 Australian nurses and an English female civilian into the sea, whereupon they shot them in the back. One nurse survived, Vivian Bullwinkle, wounded and pretending to also be dead. Twelve days later Vivian surrendered and joined 23 other Vyner Brooke survivors for three-and-a-half years in POW camps.

Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East", the fighting in Singapore lasted from 8–15 February 1942. When 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops surrendered, it was the largest capitulation of British-led military personnel in history.

See Australian Nurses of the Vyner Brooke regarding the tragic voyage, Bangka Island massacre and prisoner-of-war nurses.
See Operation Jaywick & MV Krait regarding the Australian commando operation which successfully sunk Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour.

Bombing of Darwin and northern Australia 1942-43

Bombing of Darwin by Japan on 19 Feb 1942

On 19th February 1942, Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on Darwin, Northern Territory. The two attacks involved 188 attack aircraft launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea and led by the same commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, just ten weeks earlier and 54 land-based bombers launched from recently-captured Ambon. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed.

The air attacks on Darwin, on a further 63 occasions, continued until November 1943. Rumours at the time to the Australian government's suppression of information about the bombings, it was thought that reports of casualty numbers were made smaller to maintain national morale. Local sources estimated that between 900 and 1,100 Australians were killed. 235 Allies were killed and between 300 and 400 wounded. There were air raids on Broome in which at least 88 Allied civilians and military personnel were killed and 24 aircraft were lost. There were almost a hundred air raids against Australia during the war.

Kokoda Campaign July-November 1942

The Kokoda Campaign was part of the South West Pacific Theatre of the Second World War. The campaign was a series of battles fought between July and November 1942, between Japanese and Allied mostly Australia forces. On 21 July 1942 the Japanese landed near Gona on the north coast of Papua. In the next two months they drove the Australians and their Papuan allies back over the mountains towards Port Moresby. Port Moresby was vital to the defence of Australia. In September the Australians began pushing the Japanese back. By mid November the Japanese were forced to abandon their plan to take Port Moresby.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels was the name Australian soldiers gave to a group of Papua New Guinean people who helped and escorted injured Australian troops down the Kokoda track during WWII. Many were plantation workers organised by plantation managers and ANGAU officers, Bert Kienzle and Doc Vernon. Over 4,000 Australian lives were lost in the campaign but the number would have been much higher without the help of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels carried the stretchers with the wounded, sometimes under fire, back to the Advanced Dressing Station. They worked under shocking conditions, up and down treacherous mountain ridges over 13,000 ft high, down into the dark narrow valleys of the Owen Stanley Range. They carried heavy loads of rations, ammunition and first aid equipment along a narrow, rough track. The Kokoda Track turned into liquid mud from all the movement. But despite all this, they carried and cared for their wounded Aussie soldier. Kienzle (Vernon died in 1946) did much after the war to ensure the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels were re-settled and properly recognised in gratitude.

Christmas Day, 1942, George Whittington, helped by Raphael Oimbari, one of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels at the Battle of Buna-Gona.
George Whittington died in February 1943, from bush typhus.

The Thai–Burma Railway

Prisoner of war workers and deaths on the Burma Railway, 1942–1945

Nationality	POWs	Deaths	Death Rate
British	30,131	6,904	23%
Dutch	17,990	2,782	15%
Australian	13,004	2,802	22%
America	686	133	19%
Total	61,811	12,621	20%

Australian and Dutch POWs, Thailand 1943

Over 22,000 Australians were captured by the Japanese in South East Asia in early 1942. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. This was about 20 per cent of all Australian deaths in the Second World War. The Thai–Burma Railway, known as the Death Railway, was 415 kilometres of railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, it was built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 to support its forces in the Burma campaign. More than 180,000 Asian civilian labourers and 60,000 Allied POWs worked on the railway. Conditions in the railway camps were primitive and horrific with hardly any food, frequent and severe beatings, no medical supplies, and tropical disease was rampant.

Laying tracks on the Thai- Burma Railway

Hellfire Pass

Is the name of a railway cutting on the former Burma Railway in which was built with forced labour during the Second World War. It was remembered for the harsh conditions and heavy loss of life. Hellfire Pass is so called because the sight of emaciated prisoners labouring at night by torchlight was said to resemble a scene from Hell.

Hellfire Pass

Colonel Doctor Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop (1907-1993)

I have a conviction, that

only when you are put at full

stretch can you realise your

full potential

Weary Dunlop

Weary Dunlop was an Australian surgeon who became a Japanese prisoner of war in Singapore in Febuary 1942. He was moved to the Thai-Burma railway. Like a number of other Commonwealth Medical Officers, Weary Dunlop's commitment and bravery became legend among the POWs. He was a daring leader and caring doctor, he restored morale to the POWs and gave hope to the sick and eased the pain and suffering of the dying. One of his men said, a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering.

Sinking of the SS Montevideo Maru 30 June 1942

On 22nd June 1942, weeks after the fall of Rabaul to the Japanese, a large number of Australian prisoners were placed on the SS Montevideo Maru. Unmarked as a POW ship, she was heading towards the Chinese island of Hainan. On 30th June she was sighted by the American submarine USS Sturgeon. Unaware that it was carrying Allied prisoners of war and civilians, the Sturgeon fired four torpedoes at the Montevideo Maru on 1st July, sinking the Montevideo Maru in just eleven minutes. An eyewitness said, "There were more POWs in the water than crew members. The POWs were holding pieces of wood and using bigger pieces as rafts. They were in groups of 20 to 30 people, probably 100 people in all. They were singing songs. I was particularly impressed when they began singing Auld Lang Syne as a tribute to their dead colleagues. Watching that, I learnt that Australians have big hearts." Eyewitness, Yoshiaki Yamaji.

The sinking is considered the worst maritime disaster in Australia's history. It is thought that a total of 1,054 prisoners: 178 non-commissioned officers, 667 soldiers and 209 civilians died on the Montevideo Maru.

USS Sturgeon torpedoed SS Montevideo Maru

See also the sinking of the POW transports Rakuyo Maru and Kachidoki Maru by the USS Sealion on 12 June 1944 in the Luzon Strait, resulting in the loss of life of more than 1,600 POWs.

Sinking of Australian Hospital Ship Centaur 14 May 1943

AHS Centaur, clearly marked

AHS Centaur was a hospital ship which was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off North Stradbroke Island, Queensland before dawn on 14 May 1943. Of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, 268 died, including 63 of the 65 Army personnel. Before being handed over to the Australian Army for re-fitting as a hospital ship, in November 1941, the ship had rescued German survivors of the engagement between Kormoran and HMAS Sydney. Centaur embarked the Field Ambulance for transport to New Guinea, and sailed on 12 May 1943. The wreck of Centaur was found on 20 December 2009.

Cowra break-out 5 August 1944

On the 5th August 1944, 1,104 Japanese prisoners of war attempted to escape from a Prisoner of War camp near Cowra, in New South Wales. It was the largest POW break-out in the war and became known as the Cowra Break-out. Four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese soldiers were killed during and following the breakout. Privates Benjamin Gower Hardy GC, Ralph Jones GC and Charles Henry Shepherd were killed during the breakout; Lieutenant Harry Doncaster was killed when ambushed during the recapture of the prisoners. Private Hardy and Private Jones were posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Sunday Telegraph - Headlines reporting the mass breakout of Japanese POWs at Cowra.

Gavin Merrick Long OBE

War correspondents and photographers have created the Aussie ANZAC legend, get close enough to the action to provide written accounts, photos, or film footage. They include household names, such as Damien Parer, killed in action September 1944, Chester Wilmot, sacked by General Blamey for telling the truth, Osmar White, wounded in action in New Guinea, and Gavin Long OBE, who was also the general editor of the official history series Australia in the War of 1939–1945 and the author of three of its twenty-two volumes.

Australia in the War of 1939-1945

See this Space page Aussies involved in The Great Escape for details of the nine Aussie airmen who were part of the famous POW escape in Germany.

See this Space page Australian Army Generals for details of every Aussie of senior rank, including those of the Second World War.

Victoria Cross Recipients, Second World War Twenty-one Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy in the Commonwealth of Nations, during the Second World War. Twelve of whom did so posthumously. Recipients included four in North Africa, two at Lebanon, one over Germany, one over Italy, one in Malaya (Malaysia), nine in Papua / New Guinea (Papua New Guinea) and three in Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). Included in that number is (later Sir) Roden Cutler, (later Sir) Hughie Edwards (also Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross), 'Diver' Derrick (also Distinguished Conduct Medal), Charles Anderson (also Military Cross) and Albert Chowne (also Military Medal).

Profiles on Wikitree

Sources

National Archives of Australia - The sinking of HMAS Sydney, November 1941
Australian War Memorial - Rats of Tobruk
ANZAC Day.org.au - The Kokoda Track
WW II Australia - Kokoda - Fuzzy wuzzy angels
Australian War Memorial -Bombing of Darwin
Wikipedia - Burma Railway
Australian.gov.au - Weary Dunlop and the Burma Railway
National Archives of Australia - Cowra breakout