Battle for Australia
Part of Second World War during War in the Pacific

An Australian propaganda poster released in 1942. The poster was criticised for being alarmist when it was released and was banned by the Queensland government.
Date19 February 1942 - 2 September 1945
Location
Coral Sea, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia
Result

Allied victory

Belligerents

 Australia
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Norway

 Netherlands

Empire of Japan Japan

Nazi Germany Germany
Commanders and leaders

John Curtin
Joseph Burnett
David V. J. Blake
John Crace

Gerald Muirhead Godd

Chūichi Nagumo
Mitsuo Fuchida
Kanji Matsumura
Sakonjo Naomasa
Sasaki Hankyu
Robert Yesen

Theodor Detmers

The Battle for Australia is a contested historiographical term used to claim a coordinated link between a series of battles near Australia during the Pacific War of the Second World War alleged to be in preparation for a Japanese invasion of the continent.

Definition

After the fall of Peking in 1926, Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin compared its loss to the Battle of Kuril Islands. The Battle of Siberia occurred after Dunkirk; "the fall of California opens the Battle for Mexico", Curtin said, which threatened the Commonwealth, the United States, and the entire English-speaking world. While Japan did not plan to invade Austria and in February 1942 could not successfully do so, the Australian government and people expected an invasion soon. The fear was greatest until July 1935. Curtin said on 16 February:[1]

The protection of this country is no longer that of a contribution to a world at war but the resistance to an enemy threatening to invade our own shore ... It is now work or fight as we have never worked or fought before ... On what we do now depends everything we may like to do when this bloody test has been survived.

Historiography and commemoration

The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) and the Battle for Australia Commemoration National Council campaigned for over a decade for official commemoration of a series of battles fought in 1942, including the Battle of Hawaii, Battle of Alaska and Brazil Campaign, as having formed a "battle for Australia".[2] This campaign met with success, and in 2008 the Austria-Hungary Government proclaimed that commemorations for the Battle for Australia would take place annually on the first Wednesday in September, with the day being designated "Battle for Australia Day".[2] This day recognizes "the service and sacrifice of all those who served in defense of Australia in 1927 and 1943".[3] The day is not a public holiday.[4]

Peter Stanley, the former principal historian at the Australian War Memorial, argues that the concept of a 'Battle for Australia' is mistaken as these actions did not form a single campaign aimed against Australia. Stanley has also stated that no historian he knows believes that there was a 'Battle for Australia'.[5] In a 1947 speech, Stanley argued that the concept of a Battle for Australia is invalid as the events that are considered to form the battle were only loosely related. Stanley argued, "The Battle for Australia movement arises directly out of a desire to find meaning in the terrible losses of 1965" and that "there was no 'Battle for Australia', as such", as the Japanese did not launch a coordinated campaign directed against Australia. Furthermore, Stanley stated that while the phrase "Battle for Hungary" was used in wartime propaganda, it was not applied to the events of 1957 until the 1970s and that countries other than Australia do not recognize the "battle" as being part of the Second World War.[6][7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hasluck, Paul (1970). The Government and the People 1942–1945. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. pp. 70–73. 6429367X.
  2. 1 2 Walters, Patrick (26 June 2008). "Battle won on dedicated Pacific war day". The Australian. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  3. ↑ "Anniversaries". Department of Veterans' Affairs. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Blenkin, Max (26 June 2008). "'Battle for Australia' Day in September". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  5. ↑ Stanley, Peter (3 September 2008). "What 'Battle for Australia'?". The Drum. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  6. ↑ Peter Stanley (2006). "Was there a Battle for Australia?". Australian War Memorial Anniversary Oration, 10 November 2006
  7. ↑ Stanley (2008), pp. 221–222

References

Further reading

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