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World War II
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Australia Declares on Germany
The Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent this cable to the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain confirming Australian support for the war with Germany. On 3 September 1939, the Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced that Australia was at war with Germany. -
Australian Fighter Pilots Participated in the Battle of Britain
Twenty-five Australians were considered eligible for the Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939–45 Star. Others flew during the battle with RAF Bomber Command and Coastal Command but the total number involved in the battle did not exceed 35. Eight Australians became air aces by shooting down five or more enemy aircraft. Pat Hughes from Cooma had 14 successes, which puts him among the ten leading aces of the battle. -
Australian Troops Capture Bardia, Libya, from the Italians
Bardia was the site of the first battle fought by Australian troops in the Second World War.Troops of the 17th Australian Brigade joined the fighting later in the morning to clear the southern portion of the Italian defences, while the 16th Brigade advanced toward Bardia itself. Bardia was captured late in the afternoon of 4 January, but Italian resistance in the southern portion of the perimeter, which had been particularly determined, did not cease until the morning of 5 January -
El Alamein battles, Australia's Involvement
Three major battles occurred around El Alamein between July and November 1942, and were the turning point of the war in North Africa. The Australian 9th Division, led by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, played a key role in two of these battles, enhancing its reputation earned defending Tobruk during 1941. -
HMAS Sydney sunk in Indian Ocean
On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney, a light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy with an impressive record of war service, was lost following a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran in the Indian Ocean off the Western Australian coast. The loss of the Sydney with its full war complement of 645 remains Australia’s worst naval disaster. The Kormoran was also sunk, but 317 of its crew of 397 were rescued. The fate of the Sydney remains one of Australia’s greatest wartime mysteries. -
Australia Declares war on Japan
When Japan entered the war in Malaya on 7/8 December 1941, the 8th Division AIF, together with a few Australian ships and aircraft, were there with other British Empire forces. In early 1942, the 6th and 7th Divisions from the Middle East together with RAN ships were ordered back to Australia to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The 9th Division stayed in North Africa until early 1943 while many Australian airmen serving in both the RAAF and the Royal Air Force (RAF) remained to fight in Europe -
9th Division Returns to Australia
9th Division was a division of the Australian Army that served during World War II. During 1940, the 9th division were sent to the UK to defend it against a possible German invasion. After serving during 1941-42 in the North African campaign, at the Siege of Tobruk and both the First and Second Battles of El Alamein, the 9th Division returns to Australia.. -
Japanese Aircraft Bomb Darwin
On 19 February 1942, 188 Japanese planes were launched against Darwin, whose harbour was full of Allied ships. It was the largest Japanese attack since Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941, and followed a reconnaissance flight on 10 February 1942. -
Japanese Midget Submarines Attack Sydney Harbour
On 29 May 1942 five large Japanese I class submarines rendezvoused some 35 nautical miles northeast of the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Before daylight the next morning an E14Y Glen float-plane launched from one of the submarines, I-21, and crewed by Warrant Flying officer Susumo Ito and Ordinary Seaman Iwasaki, flew a daring reconnaissance mission over the harbour, twice circling the cruiser USS Chicago before flying off to the east. -
Conscription introduced into Australia
Conscription was effectively introduced in mid-1942, when all men 18–35, and single men aged 35–45, were required to join the Citizens Military Forces (CMF). Volunteers with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) scorned CMF conscripts as "chocolate soldiers", or "chockos", because they were believed to melt under the conditions of battle. -
HMAS Canberra sunk in Battle of Savo Sea
In August 1942 Canberra operated with the naval force supporting the American landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi, operations which ended with her loss in the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942. Canberra was struck by two torpedoes on her starboard side and over 20 salvoes of 8-inch shellfire. With power lost and the ship listing, the wounded and survivors were transferred to USS Patterson and USS Blue. -
Australians Defeat Japanese Landings at Milne Bay
The failure of the Japanese attack across number three strip was the turning point at Milne Bay though this was not yet clear to the commander of Milne Force, Lt General Cyril Clowes. In the morning Clowes, a Gallipoli veteran, counterattacked. The 2/12th Battalion drove forward to find the Japanese withdrawing. -
Australians Recaptured Kokoda
On the afternoon of 3 November, Major General George Vasey, commander of the Australian forces on the Kokoda Trail, led a flag-raising ceremony on the Kokoda plateau. A brand new nylon-weave Australian flag had been air-dropped by an American fighter pilot earlier that morning specifically for the purpose. -
Australians Capture Madang
Madang was subsequently taken on 24–25 April by troops from the 8th and 15th Brigades, with the 30th Infantry Battalion leading the way towards the airfield, advancing along the northern part of Astrolabe Bay to secure Madang. -
Australian Captures Brunei
The Battle of North Borneo took place during the Second World War between Allied and Japanese forces. It was fought between 10 June and 15 August 1945 in North Borneo.Ultimately, however, the Australians were successful in seizing control of the region, although to a large extent the strategic gains that possession of North Borneo provided the Allies with were ultimately negated by the sudden conclusion of the war in August 1945.
