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Aussies fought some of the toughest battles in two world wars.

The list of battles fought by Australian soldiers reads like an honor roll of the toughest fighting of World Wars I and II: Gallipoli (1915), the Somme (1916), Ypres (1917), Beersheba (1917), Hamel (1918), Tobruk (1941), Malaya-Singapore (1942), El Alamein (1942), New Guinea (1942-44), and Borneo (1945). During both global conflicts, “Aussies” earned a reputation for ferocious courage, hardy ruggedness and indomitable perseverance. They endured and ultimately triumphed in brutal combat in appalling weather and terrain conditions, to include the parched cliffs of Gallipoli, the waterlogged trenches of the Western Front, the blistering deserts of Palestine and North Africa, and the steep mountains and miserable jungles of New Guinea.

Australian soldiers during the world wars were instantly recognizable by their distinctive, wide-brimmed khaki slouch hats, which they often wore with one side of the brim turned up. They were principally armed with British weapons, such as the No. 1 Mk III Enfield bolt-action rifle; Rifle No. 5 Mk I (“jungle carbine”); Mk IV Webley, Mk VI Webley and No. 2 Enfield pistols; and Lewis, Bren and Vickers machine guns. In World War II, these weapons were augmented by Australian-produced Owen and Austen submachine guns.

During World War I, Australian army soldiers comprised most of the 332,000 military personnel (of 422,000 mobilized) Australia sent overseas to fight, mainly in the Middle East and on the Western Front. The nearly 200,000 casualties Australian troops suffered equaled 65 percent of the country’s forces actually committed to combat – one of the highest casualty rates of any nation in the 1914-18 conflict. Notable actions include the costly April-December 1915 Gallipoli campaign in which Australians, as part of the Australian-New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), fought against fierce, and ultimately successful, Turkish resistance led by Mustapha Kemal Atatürk.

The peak strength of the World War II Australian military (army, navy and air force) was 600,000 personnel, the majority of whom were Australian army soldiers. Before the war with Japan, Australians fought in the North African campaign, where the soldiers of Australian 9th Division earned their celebrated nickname “Rats of Tobruk” for leading the April-November 1941 defense of the fortress city against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Axis besiegers. The December 1941 Japanese onslaught, however, refocused the Australian army on the Pacific.

Despite being caught up in the British-led disaster at Singapore in February 1942 (21,000 Australian soldiers were captured, and 35 percent of those eventually died from starvation, disease or Japanese brutality), Aussies spearheaded U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s campaign in New Guinea. Their notable victories there included the July-November 1942 Kokoda Track campaign fought atop the rugged Owen Stanley Mountains and the November 1942-January 1943 Battle of Buna-Gona.

The heroism exhibited by Australian soldiers during World Wars I and II has been recognized 81 times (64 and 17, respectively) by the award of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest valor medal.

 

 Jerry D. Morelock, PhD, “Armchair General” Editor in Chief.

Originally published in the January 2014 issue of Armchair General.

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Jerry D. Morelock (3/29/2024) Australian Soldiers, 1914-45. HistoryNet Retrieved from https://www.historynet.com/australian-soldiers-1914-45/.
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