In an obscure cove, on an unknown beach, in a foreign land far-far away, on the morning of the 25thApril 1915 our national identity was forged in blood.
The legend of the ANZAC was born on this day, and together with Remembrance Day it is arguably that they are our most important and sacred days of remembrance in our calendar.
This spirit was reaffirmed in the continued eight months’ fighting on the Gallipoli peninsula. Although arguably a military disaster, the Australians displayed great courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship. These qualities came to shape the Anzac spirit as we know it today.
The story of the Gallipoli landing not just inspired the legend of Anzac, but it remains central to many Australians’ self-image.
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
-Rudyard Kipling
‘Lest’ comes from the Old English ‘thӯ lǣs the’, which translates to ‘whereby less that’. Kipling drew inspiration from a biblical phrase in Deuteronomy 6:12, where ‘lest’ took the meaning ‘for fear that’.
Engagements involving Australians.
Since World War I, Australians have been called on many times to serve in wars, conflicts, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.
Almost 2 million men and women have worn with pride the uniforms of the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force.
Tragically, over 103,000 names are listed on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. Those listed were members of the Australian armed forces who died during or shortly afterwards (as a result of war service):
- World War I
- World War II
- post-1945 conflicts, warlike service, non-warlike service, and certain peacetime operations
ANZAC Day is a time for Australians to unite in solemn respect and remembrance for all those who served and died.
History of ANZAC Day
Prime Minister Billy Hughes said at the time:
“Of their deeds it is not necessary for me to speak. Of their valour, endurance and resource at Gallipoli, Pozieres, Baupaume, and other famous fields, men still speak with awe”.
Hughes put our soldiers’ sacrifice into perspective when he added:
“Our heritage, our free institutions of government – all that we hold dear – are handed back into our keeping, stained with the blood of sacrifice. Surely not only we, their fellow citizens, but Australians throughout the ages, will treasure forever the memories of those glorious men to whom the Commonwealth owes so much, and will guard with resolute determination the privileges for which they fought and suffered”.
After World War II, the Australian Government designated. Today, we remember the loss of Australian lives from all wars and conflicts.
In 1918, Australia made a promise never to forget the service and sacrifice of 416,000 Australians who enlisted and over 60,000 who died. For over 100 years, we have kept this promise. We still remember them.
Background
Before the war a largely urbanised and newly federated nation had looked to its rural environment for its national character. The “bushmen”, and their women, were seen to possess hardiness, democratic spirit, mateship, and resourcefulness.
In 1914, most Australians had high hopes that their soldiers’ would prove the nation’s worth. These hopes were realised in the colourful descriptions of their men in action following the landing at Gallipoli. The bushmen’s perceived characteristics were now applied, along with dash and courage in battle, to the Anzac stereotype. These were soon extended to those who served on the Western front, where the term “digger” was also born and used to describe our Australian soldiers’.
The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.
— A.B. “Banjo” Paterson
The ‘War To End All Wars’
World War I became known as the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’. The most important battleground was the Western Front, in Belgium and France.
After the Gallipoli Campaign, Australian soldiers and airmen fought in each of the major British campaigns on the Western Front. Many battles became household names in Australia: Fromelles, the Somme, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele, Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, Amiens and Mont St Quentin.
Over 295,000 Australians served on the Western Front between March 1916 and November 1918. Of those service men and women, 46,000 lost their lives and over 130,000 were wounded. Battle conditions were so dire that more than 18,000 of the fallen had no known grave.
Australians At War Again
On 3 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced the beginning of Australia’s involvement in the Second World War on every national and commercial radio station in Australia.
“My fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of the persistence of Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war. No harder task can fall to the lot of a democratic leader than to make such an announcement. Great Britain and France, with the cooperation of the British Dominions, have struggled to avoid this tragedy. They have, as I firmly believe, been patient; they have kept the door of negotiation open; they have given no cause for aggression. But in the result their efforts have failed, and we are, therefore, as a great family of nations, involved in a struggle which we must at all costs win, and which we believe in our hearts we will win …
It is plain – indeed it is brutally plain – that the Hitler ambition has been, not as he once said, to unite the German peoples under one rule, but to bring under that rule as many European countries, even of alien race, as can be subdued by force.
If such a policy were allowed to go unchecked there could be no security in Europe, and there could be no just peace for the world.
A halt has been called. Force has had to be resorted to check the march of force. Honest dealing, the peaceful adjustment of differences, the rights of independent peoples to live their own lives, the honouring of international obligations and promises – all these things are at stake.
There was never any doubt as to where Great Britain stood in relation to them. There can be no doubt that where Great Britain stands there stand the people of the entire British world.
Bitter as we all feel at this wanton crime, this is not a moment for rhetoric; prompt as the action of many thousands must be, it is for the rest a moment for quiet thinking; for that calm fortitude which rests not upon the beating of drums, but upon the unconquerable spirit of man, created by God in His own image. What may be before us we do not know, nor how long the journey. But this we do know, that Truth is our companion on that journey; that Truth is with us in the battle, and that Truth must win.
Before I end, may I say this to you? In the bitter months that are to come, calmness, resoluteness, confidence, and hard work will be required as never before. This war will involve not only soldiers and sailors and airmen, but supplies, foodstuffs, money. Our staying power, and particularly the staying power of the mother country, will be best assisted by keeping our production going; by continuing our avocations and our business as fully as we can; by maintaining employment and with it our strength.
I know that, in spite of the emotions we are all feeling, you will show that Australia is ready to see it through. May God in His mercy and compassion grant that the world may soon be delivered from this agony.
Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia and other parts of the Pacific. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time, as Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-west Australia and Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney harbour.
On 7 May 1945 the German High Command authorised the signing of an unconditional surrender on all fronts: the war in Europe was over. The surrender was to take effect at midnight on 8–9 May 1945. On 14 August 1945 Japan accepted of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender. For Australia it meant that the Second World War was finally over.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) participated in operations against Italy after its entry into the war in June 1940. A few Australians flew in the Battle of Britain in August and September, but the Australian army was not engaged in combat until 1941, when the 6th, 7th, and 9th Divisions joined Allied operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Following early successes against Italian forces, the Australians suffered defeat with the Allies at the hands of the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa. In June and July 1941 Australians participated in the successful Allied invasion of Syria, a mandate of France and the Vichy government. Up to 14,000 Australians held out against repeated German attacks in the Libyan port of Tobruk, where they were besieged between April and August 1941. After being relieved at Tobruk, the 6th and 7th Divisions departed from the Mediterranean theatre for the war against Japan. The 9th Division remained to play an important role in the Allied victory at El Alamein in October 1942 before it also left for the Pacific. By the end of 1942 the only Australians remaining in the Mediterranean theatre were airmen serving either with 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) or in the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Japan entered the war in December 1941 and swiftly achieved a series of victories, resulting in the occupation of most of south-east Asia and large areas of the Pacific by the end of March 1942. Singapore fell in February, with the loss of an entire Australian division. After the bombing of Darwin that same month, all RAN ships in the Mediterranean theatre, as well as the 6th and 7th Divisions, returned to defend Australia. In response to the heightened threat, the Australian government also expanded the army and air force and called for an overhaul of economic, domestic, and industrial policies to give the government special authority to mount a total war effort at home.
In March 1942, after the defeat of the Netherlands East Indies, Japan’s southward advance began to lose strength, easing fears of an imminent invasion of Australia. Further relief came when the first AIF veterans of the Mediterranean campaigns began to come home, and when the United States assumed responsibility for the country’s defence, providing reinforcements and equipment. The threat of invasion receded further as the Allies won a series of decisive battles: in the Coral Sea, at Midway, on Imita Ridge and the Kokoda Trail, and at Milne Bay and Buna.
Further Allied victories against the Japanese followed in 1943. Australian troops were mainly engaged in land battles in New Guinea, the defeat of the Japanese at Wau, and clearing Japanese soldiers from the Huon peninsula. This was Australia’s largest and most complex offensive of the war and was not completed until April 1944. The Australian army also began a new series of campaigns in 1944 against isolated Japanese garrisons stretching from Borneo to Bougainville, involving more Australian troops than at any other time in the war. The first of these campaigns was fought on Bougainville and New Britain, and at Aitape, New Guinea. The final series of campaigns were fought in Borneo in 1945. How necessary these final campaigns were for Allied victory remains the subject of continuing debate. Australian troops were still fighting in Borneo when the war ended in August 1945.
While Australia’s major effort from 1942 onwards was directed at defeating Japan, thousands of Australians continued to serve with the RAAF in Europe and the Middle East. Although more Australian airmen fought against the Japanese, losses among those flying against Germany were far higher. Australians were particularly prominent in Bomber Command’s offensive against occupied Europe. Some 3,500 Australians were killed in this campaign, making it the costliest of the war.
Over 30,000 Australian servicemen were taken prisoner in the Second World War and 39,000 gave their lives. Two-thirds of those taken prisoner were captured by the Japanese during their advance through south-east Asia in the first weeks of 1942. While those who became prisoners of the Germans had a strong chance of returning home at the end of the war, 36 per cent of prisoners of the Japanese died in captivity.
To all those who have put their lives on the line to defend and protect the freedom we live with, and enjoy, our heart filled thanks go out to you. Your debt is one we will never be able to repay. All we can say is “Lest We Forget”.
Nurses had gone overseas with the AIF in 1940. However, during the early years of the war women were generally unable to make a significant contribution to the war effort in any official capacity. Labour shortages forced the government to allow women to take a more active role in war work and, in February 1941, the RAAF received cabinet approval to establish the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). At the same time, the navy also began employing female telegraphists, a breakthrough that eventually led to the establishment of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) in 1942.
The Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) was established in October 1941, with the aim of releasing men from certain military duties in base units in Australia for assignment with fighting units overseas. Outside the armed services, the Women’s Land Army (WLA) was established to encourage women to work in rural industries. Other women in urban areas took up employment in industries, such as munitions production.
