Today we went to the War Memorial of Australia. This memorial is dedicated to all the soldiers who died in the wars of the 20th century. The place is absolutely huge! It's like the size of a super mall or something. It is filled with equipment (from canteens to bomber planes and submarines) with stuff from WWI, WWII, and the Cold War and even from after the Cold War.
The most important wars to Australia were the world wars. In WWI, the Ottomans were allied with the Germans. Australian and New Zealand (Anzac) troops arrived at Gallipoli on the 25th of April, 1915. They arrived at some mountains near Ari Burnu when they were attacked by the Turks at the top of the mountains. The leaders of the Anzacs told the soldiers to climb the mountain and meet the Turks face to face. The soldiers started to climb, despite the weight that they were carrying, and they were in a hot desert...oh yeah, and despite the fact that they were getting shot. The leaders told the soldiers to keep climbing. The soldiers climbed and tried to shoot the Turks at the top. They dug in with trenches and repeatedly tried to take the high ground from the Turks, but failed. The British came and tried an attack, which miserably failed. It wasn't until December that they decided to retreat. Among the Turks, 86000 died, and 38000 of the allies died. Among the Anzacs (and there weren't very many that arrived in Gallipoli), 8709 were killed and 19,000 were wounded. The retreat proved to be more successful than the attack. They took their guns with one load of ammunition in them and connected them to a pan which had a pan with water dripping on them. The water would cause the pan to move which would cause the trigger to go off; the Anzacs would retreat while the guns would go off and make the Turks think that they were still at the bottom of the mountain.
The battle of Gallipoli may have been one of Australia's worst defeats in battle, but it was a battle that showed the world the kind of patriotism and duty that they had. After Gallipoli, Australian troops also fought in Europe. The Australians suffered a high rate of casualties compared to other nations.
Before I start talking about the Australian involvement in WWII, I want to show you a couple pictures of planes that the Nazis, Japanes, and Australia (aquired from America) had and which were on display at the War memorial: Click Here please!
Now that we have come aquainted with some of the stuff that the Anzacs used, we can talk about the Australian point of view of WWII. When WWII broke out, Australia immediatley allied with Britain because they were allies during the first world war. The first action that they ever got in the war was in January of 1941; They helped out with the capture of an Italian fortress in Bardia and the port of Tobruk. In April of 41, the Germans, allied with the Italians, began their efforts to beseige Tobruk. The Australians, with weaponry supplied by the British, held the Nazis out of Tobruk (which is in Libya) until the government of Australia told them to retreat in October. The Australians also helped out in action in Crete and Greece.
Since 1940, France was ruled by pro-German candidates. To stop German influence in France, the Allied forces invaded France on D-Day. Within five weeks, the Germans were routed from France. The Australians suffered with 379 dead and 1150 wounded.
But the Australians didn't get involved in a big way in WWII until 1942, when the Japanese started moving towards them by invading their neighbors. The Japanese were seriously aggressive and their successes even surprised themselves: within 3 months, Japanese had control of all of the Pacific islands (except for Hawaii). With the attack of Peal Harbor, America also joined the fight. Australia, seeing this the only way to resist the Japanese, allied with America. The Japanese, whith the bombing of Darwin, convinced the Australians that one of their great strengths was the air force; which Australia didn't really have. America provided Australia with many forms of fighter planes. In Papua New Guinea, the Japanese had conquered all but the southern part which consisted of Milne bay annd Port Moresby, an Allied base. If the Japanese captured Milne bay, it would help them conquer Port Moresby, disconnecting all connections with Australia and America. But Australia, with Kittyhawks, bombed the Japanese trying to get Milne Bay starting on the 24th of August. By the 5th of September, the Japanese retreated. The campaign for Papua new Guinea was really the biggest Australian accomplishment of WWII.
Then there was a turning point in the war; it started with two important battles: the battle of Coral Sea, and the Battle of Midway. The Australians were not very involved in these battles, but benefited from the outcome.
The Battle of Coral Sea:
The Battle of Coral Sea started when the Japanese tried get Port Moresby. The Japanese sent two aircraft carriers. They were intercepted the Americans who sent 1 air craft carrier and 1 destroyer. The Americans sunk one of the ACCs and badly damaged the 2nd. The Japanese then had to retreat. It was called the battle that saved Australia; if the Japanse would have captured the port, the Japanese would have cut off all the supply routes of Australia and Australia would have fallen to the Japanese.
The Battle of Midway:
The Battle of Midway was a big deal victory. The Japanese sent all four of the ACCs that they had to get Midway Island. The Americans found out that they were coming and made ready 41 torpedo carrying planes and 3 ACCs. The Japanese came and the Americans first sent their torpedo carrying planes. The Japanese planes from the Japanese ACCs destroyed 36 of the 41 planes; the other 5 retreated. The Japanese, thinking they had won prepared their planes for the capture of Darwin. While they were getting ready, the American ACCs came and their planes destroyed 3 of their carriers and damaged one badly. The damaged ACC destroyed one American ACC. Later the Japanese carrier sank from damage. All of Japan's ACCs, almost all of their planes, hundreds (maybe thousands) of crewmen were destroyed. This crippled Japan.
The Australians have some pretty bad memories of how their prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese. I saw the photos of the 2600 men who died in the Sanbakan Death March in Borneo: only 6 men survived. It is interesting that the Japanese government gave Australia a beautiful Japanese garden (in Cowra) to thank them for taking such good care of the Japanese prisoners of war that the Australians held.