German expansionism threatened the security of Europe and Japan’s ambitions for a wider empire (especially in regions rich in primary products the Japanese were finding increasingly harder to obtain as trade embargoes tightened as a result of their incursions into China) during the 1930’s resulted in successive Australian governments placing faith in their military, alliances with the ‘Mother Country’ and trust in the British diplomacy of appeasement. This despite many warnings of impending disaster.
Japanese troops enter Mukden,
The Mukden Incident, also known
as the Manchurian Incident
Most Australians believed any future forces committed to a European theatre of conflict would be recovered, in time, and they had trust in the impregnability of the security screen of Fortress Singapore. The Japanese military, through their actions in China, particularly Nanking, gave evidence of their ruthless and merciless intentions and actions.
On the 3rd September 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies, announced that as a result of Britain being at war with Germany …”as a result, Australia is also at war.” We were at war with Nazi Germany.
War is declared against Nazi Germany
Like the situation of The Great War, Australia had two types of armies. The first was the longstanding volunteer army. The second was the militia army which was considered inferior as it was raised out of need for an ‘economical army’, given initial training, weekly or second weekly sessions and an annual two week camp. The Australian army at the declaration of war was a threadbare defensive force and hardly capable of any overseas service or offensive action at home. Conscription was considered abhorrent by the majority of Australian electors and during The Great War two referendums on the conscription issue were defeated. The government of the day decided to raise a Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) as a political expedient to avoid the conscription issue and a decision which was to bedevil the Army until the end of the war with the Army divided into what was, in effect, two armies.
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2nd AIF Recruiting Poster
Many of the initial volunteers for the 2nd AIF were no doubt driven by a sense of duty to the British Empire and also by their belief that it was their duty as an Australian. There was the added attraction of travel and adventure as a large overseas force and also to emulate the deeds of their predecessors of the 1st AIF – those fathers and uncles or other contacts who were living, breathing examples of a proud history of honour and service to king and country. There is just as much evidence, however, that many joined for less romantic ideals. One Labor politician described them as ‘economic conscripts’ when describing the initial recruits. These were men, unemployed, being offered ‘Five bob a day (5 shillings), food and lodgings instead of the dole’ which was then eight shillings and sixpence a week. There were also many who joined the AIF and took a paycut to do so!
Members of the Australian 56th Battalion (militia)
standing at ease at a training camp.
Just as there were many reasons for joining there were also many reason for not doing so. Bitterness and frustration born of despair in the great Depression caused as many not to join as it did those who did join. There was also a belief that an Australian army was for the defence of Australia and not some foreign nation, no more European bloodbaths of young Australians in futile battles. Still many others were in ‘reserved occupations’, skilled and valued workers who would deplete the national workforce if released to join up. There was a division between the AIF and the militia with the former frequently referring to the militia as ‘Chocos’, or, ‘chocolate soldiers’ who would melt if ever facing real action. There was also the fact that the conscription law of service meant that the militia could only fight on Australian soil, something the men of the AIF resolutely believed would never happen. Thus the other term for the militia ‘”Koalas” – a protected species and not for exporting or shooting at. At the same time the militia saw the AIF as arrogant and the cynical referred to them as ‘five-bob-a-day murderers’, or ‘five-bob-a-day tourists’.
It would take the Papuan Campaign to draw a divided army together.
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