Military History of Australia During World War II - Outbreak of War

Outbreak of War

Between World War I and World War II, Australia suffered greatly from the Great Depression. This limited Australian defence expenditure and led to a decline in the size and effectiveness of the armed forces during the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the years leading up to the war, Australia followed Britain's policy towards Nazi Germany, supporting first its appeasement of Hitler and then its guarantee of Polish independence.

Australia entered the war against Germany on 3 September 1939, shortly after Britain declared war when its ultimatum for Germany to withdraw from Poland expired. Unlike Canada and South Africa there was no legislative debate. The government of Australia believed that, as Prime Minister Robert Menzies said, "Britain is at war therefore Australia is at war", and asked London to notify Germany that Australia was an associate of the United Kingdom. Australia's support of war was primarily made on the grounds that its interests were inextricably linked to those of Britain, and that a British defeat would destroy the system of imperial defence which Australia relied upon for security against Japan. This position received almost universal public support, though there was little enthusiasm for war.

At the time war was declared, the Australian armed forces were less prepared than at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was the best prepared of the three services, but was small and equipped with only two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, two sloops, five obsolete destroyers and a number of small and auxiliary warships. The Australian Army comprised a small permanent cadre of 3,000 men and 80,000 part-time militiamen who had volunteered for training with the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was the weakest of the services, and few of its 246 aircraft were modern. While the Government began a large military expansion and transferred some RAAF aircrew and units to British control upon the outbreak of war, it was unwilling to immediately dispatch an expeditionary force overseas due to the threat posed by Japanese intervention.

The first Australian shot of the war took place several hours after the declaration of war when a gun at Fort Queenscliff fired across the bows of an Australian ship as it attempted to leave Melbourne without required clearances. On 10 October 1939, a Short Sunderland of No. 10 Squadron, based in England for re-equipment, became the first Australian and the first Commonwealth air force unit to go into action when it undertook a mission to Tunisia.

On 15 September 1939, Menzies announced the formation of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF). This was an expeditionary force, which initially consisted of 20,000 men organised into an infantry division (the 6th Division) and auxiliary units. The AIF was institutionally separate from the CMF, which was legally restricted to service in Australia and its external territories, and was formed by raising new units rather than transferring CMF units. On 15 November Menzies announced the reintroduction of conscription for home defence service effective 1 January 1940. Recruitment for the AIF was initially slow, but one in six men of military age had enlisted by March 1940 and there was a huge surge of volunteers after the fall of France in June 1940. Men volunteered for the AIF for a range of reasons, with the most common being a sense of duty to defend Australia and the British Empire.

The AIF's major units were raised between 1939 and 1941. The 6th Division was formed during October and November 1939 and embarked for the Middle East in early 1940 to complete its training and receive modern equipment after the British Government assured the Australian Government that Japan did not pose an immediate threat. It was planned that the division would join the British Expeditionary Force in France when its preparations were complete, but this did not eventuate as France was conquered before the division was ready. A further three AIF infantry divisions (the 7th Division, 8th Division and 9th Division) were raised in the first half of 1940 as well as a corps headquarters (I Corps) and numerous support and service units. All of these divisions and the majority of the support units were deployed overseas during 1940 and 1941. An AIF armoured division (the 1st Armoured Division) was also raised in early 1941 but never left Australia.

While the government initially proposed deploying the entire RAAF overseas, it was instead decided to focus the force's resources on training aircrew to facilitate a massive expansion of Commonwealth air power. In late 1939 Australia and the other Dominions established the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) to train large numbers of men for service in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and other Commonwealth air units. Almost 28,000 Australians were eventually trained through EATS in schools in Australia, Canada and Rhodesia. While many of these men were posted to Australian Article XV squadrons, the majority served with British and other Dominion squadrons. Moreover, these nominally 'Australian' squadrons were not under RAAF control and Australians often made up a minority of their airmen. As the Australian Government had no effective control over how airmen trained through EATS were used, most Australian historians regard the scheme as having hindered the development of Australia's defence capability. Nevertheless, RAAF airmen trained through EATS represented about nine percent of all aircrew who fought for the RAF in the European and Mediterranean theatres and made an important contribution to Allied operations.