WORLD WAR 1 and 2

WORLD WAR I

WORLD WAR II

World War Two 1939-1945

By the time World War Two broke out Australians saw themselves in a different light. Home was no longer England, it was Australia and the people saw themselves very much as an independent nation. Even so when Britain declared war on Germany, Australia was again standing by her side (something Britain should have remembered when she entered the Common Market and abandoned Australia!)

Western Australia had the highest enlistment rate of any state in the country with 280 men per 1000 joining up.

The Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) was formed in 1940 and by July of that year there were 132 units with a total of 4167 men scattered across the state. Also in 1940 an R.A.A.F. regional Headquarters was set up at Fremantle.

Australia was at no great risk of attack until the Japanese entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941.

In April of 1942 the 3rd Corps was formed with the specific job of defending W.A. in case of an attack by the Japanese. The Corps consisted of an armoured division based at Mingenew and two supporting infantry divisions (2nd and 4th) with a total of between 50-60,000 men. During the same year an American submarine base was developed at Fremantle with others later starting up at Albany and Exmouth. By July of 1942 a total of 19 American submarines were operating out of Fremantle alone.

A Catalina air reconnaissance squadron was based at Matilda Bay and although Perth was a long way beyond the range of any enemy bomber, blackouts were instituted with typical official stupidity. (The Perth Heritage Aviation Museum houses a wonderful specimen of a Catalina and many other warplanes.)

The fear of attacks by Japanese planes was realised when Darwin was attacked but towns in northern W.A. were also at risk. Most women and children were evacuated to the south and in the end most main tows suffered air raids. Places bombed included Wyndham, Derby, Port Hedland, Carnot Bay, Broome, Kalumburu, Onslow and Exmouth.

A training camp was established at Northam and after 7 months instruction troops were sent off to their assigned destinations overseas.

Eastern States politicians decided that in the event of a Japanese invasion only an area from Brisbane to Adelaide would be defended (this was known as the Brisbane line.) Prime Minister John Curtin lobbied hard for Perth to be included in the defense strategy and eventually his proposal was accepted.

When American troops arrived in Australia there was a great deal of resentment created over the different level of pay and the favoured treatment offered to the Americans - especially by local businesses! The infamous 'Battle of Brisbane' had its own sequel in Fremantle when a wild brawl erupted between American and Australian soldiers.

During World War Two, 993,000 Australians served in the armed forces with 27,073 being killed and 22,747 wounded. 22,376 were taken prisoner by the Japanese and of these 8,031 died in captivity. This compares to 8,184 taken prosier by Germany with only 265 deaths while in captivity. (83,000 West Australian men and 5,000 women enlisted for service during the war.)

Australian troops served in the following places during World War Two: United Kingdom, North Africa, Greece, Crete, Syria, Palestine, Eritrea, Trans-Jordan, Malaya, Ceylon, Burma, China, Java, Timor, Ambon, Papua New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Nauru-Ocean Island, USSR.

After World War Two there was a wave of immigration from all over Europe with people seeking a better life under the sunny Australian skies.

One almost forgotten naval action took place in November 1942 when the Dutch Shell tanker Ondina left for the middle east (via India) with her escort the minesweeper Bengal.

On route, the lightly armed ships were confronted by two heavily armed Japanese merchant cruisers (Aikoku Maru and Hiakoka Maru). For some reason the Japanese ships got far too close and the Hiakoka was sunk and the Aikoku damaged. The tanker was badly hit and the crew took to the lifeboats but after being machine gunned by the remaining Japanese ship the survivors got back on board the tanker, got the fires under control and eventually brought the ship back to Fremantle.

This rather unusual victory has been largely ignored by most history books.

Another mostly untold story involves a Japanese recon party first landing on Browse Island (14 06 38.69 S 123 32 42.60 E) and then landing on the mainland of Western Australia. The story is told on Peter Dunn's website 'Australia at war' as follows :

"On the evening of the 14 January 1944 a special Japanese Army Reconnaissance party left Koepang, in Timor on board a 25 ton fishing vessel called "Hiyoshi Maru". The party included:-

Lieutenant Susuhiko Mizuno
Sergeant Morita
Sergeant Furuhashi
Lance Corporal Kazuo Ito (radio operator)
6 sailors
15 Timorese (used as decoys)

Their orders from the 19th Army Headquarters on Ambon Island were to land on the north west shores of Western Australia. They were from the special "Matsu Kikan" (Pine-tree) secret agency which was commanded by Captain Masayoshi Yamamoto. They were all graduates of the Nakano Intelligence School. Their mission was undertaken at the request of the Japanese Navy to verify intelligence received from Navy sources that the United States Navy was building a Naval base at Admiralty Gulf. 

Lieutenant Susuhiko Mizuno's role was to:-

- look at the possibility of landing in Australia
- Investigate the location for a landing place
- look for the existence of an military establishments

They encountered a large storm and heavy seas and had to turn back to Koepang on the morning of the 15 January 1944. They departed again on the evening of 16 January 1944. 

The "Hiyoshi Maru" was given air cover for part of the voyage by a single Type 99 light bomber from the 7th Air Division based at Kendari. It was piloted by Staff Sergeant H. Aonuma with Hachiro Akai as Co-pilot. On 16 January 1944, the aircraft was heading directly for Cartier Islet when it saw an Allied submarine heading in the direction of the "Hiyoshi Maru". The submarine saw the Japanese aircraft approaching and immediately began to dive. The Japanese aircraft only managed to fire two bursts of its machine guns at the submarine as it submerged. The tracer bullets could be seen hitting the submarine. The Japs then dropped their six 50 kg bombs on the submarine. They then circled around the area three or four times to determine if they had hit it with one of their bombs. They suspected the submarine may have sustained some damage. 

The aircraft continued south flying low to avoid the Allied radar sites situated along this remote coastline. They sighted the "Hiyoshi Maru" and continued south to try to locate Cartier Islet. When they could not find it they headed to the west. They then eventually located Cartier Islet.

At 9 am on 17 January 1944 the "Hiyoshi Maru" reached East Island which is actually a coral reef which is only visible at low tide. They reached Browse Island at about 10 am on 18 January 1944. They landed on the island where they found the ruins of a watch house. 

They stayed on Browse Island for about 3 hours. This was to time their arrival on the nearby Australian mainland. The left the island at 1 pm on 18 January and the next morning through a morning mist they entered an inlet on the West Australian coast. They spotted some white smoke rising from a mountain on the mainland east of their location. They anchored by the shore at about 10 am on 19 January 1944. The landscape in that area consisted of many red coloured rocks. They camouflaged the ship with tree branches and ate dried biscuits for lunch.

Three landing parties led by Lieutenant Susuhiko Mizuno, Sergeant Morita and Sergeant Furuhashi, went ashore and explored different areas of the Australian coast in that area for about two hours. They even took some 8 mm movie footage of what they saw. As it turned out they had landed only 25 kms from where the RAAF were several weeks later to start building their secret airfield at Truscott.

It was a very hot humid day. They all returned to the ship and reported to Lieutenant Susuhiko Mizuno on what they had seen. Besides some old campfires all they saw was lots of red rocks and lots of small trees. They slept on the ship that night and on 20 January 1944 they went ashore again and patrolled the area until about 2 pm. After finding nothing they decided to return to Timor."

Did America win WWII?

The simple answer is, 'no'. America's late entry into the war undoubtedly helped to shorten it, and the arms and ammunition it provided kept allied nations going, but the end result would have still been the same if America had remained out of the actual fighting.

The one nation that contributed most to the defeat of Nazi Germany was Russia. Once Hitler made the mistake of involve Russia in the conflict, the result was a foregone conclusion.