The Australian home front during World War II played a significant role in the Allied victory and led to permanent changes to Australian society.
During the war the Government of Australia greatly expanded its powers in order to better direct the war effort, and Australia's industrial and human resources were focused on supporting the Allied armed forces. While there were only a relatively small number of attacks on civilian targets, many Australians feared that the country would be invaded during the early years of the Pacific War. By 1942 the Americans under Douglas MacArthur were arriving in large numbers and used Australia as one base of operations against Japan. In foreign policy reliance on the United States replaced reliance on Britain.
Menzies Government
Robert Menzies was sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia for the first time on 26 April 1939 following the death of Joseph Lyons. He led a minority United Australia Party government, after Country Party leader Earle Page refused to serve in a Coalition government led by Menzies. On 3 September 1939, Australia entered World War II, with Menzies making a declaration of a state of war in a national radio broadcast:
Earle Page as leader of the Country Party and John Curtin as leader of the Labor Party both pledged support to the declaration, and Parliament passed the National Security Act 1939. A War Cabinet was formed after the declaration of war, initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers (RG Casey, GA Street, Senator McLeay, HS Gullet and World War I Prime Minister Billy Hughes). When Page still refused to join a government under Menzies, he was replaced by Archie Cameron as leader of the Country Party on 13 September 1939, allowing the conservative parties to re-form a Coalition by March 1940.
The recruitment of a volunteer military force for service at home and abroad was announced, the Second Australian Imperial Force, and a citizen militia was organised for local defence. Menzies committed to provide 20,000 men to augment British forces in Europe, and on 15 November 1939 announced the reintroduction of conscription for home-defence service, effective 1 January 1940, freeing volunteers for overseas service.Long (1961). p. 39.
By June 1940, Germany had overrun the Low Countries, Norway and France leaving the British Empire standing alone against Germany. Menzies called for an 'all in' war effort and, with the support of Curtin, amended the National Security Act to extend government powers to tax, acquire property, control businesses and the labour force and allow for conscription of men for the "defence of Australia". Essington Lewis, the head of BHP was appointed Director-General of Munitions Supply to assist with mobilisation of national resources. However, in spring 1940, the coal miners under communist leadership struck for higher wages for 67 days. On 15 June 1940 the Menzies government suppressed 10 communist and fascist parties and organizations as subversive of the war effort. Police and army intelligence made hundreds of raids that night, and later broke up public meetings in the capital cities.F.K. Crowley, ed., Modern Australia in Documents: 1939–1970 (1973) 2: 23–24 In July 1940, the Menzies government imposed regulations under the National Security Act placing virtually all of Australia's newspapers, radio stations, and film industry under the direct control of the Director-General of Information. Newspaper publishers complained it was a blow struck at the freedom of the press. In January 1941, new regulations were directed against speaking disloyalty in public or even in private. The regulations were aimed at "whisperers" who undermined morale by spreading false rumours.F.K. Crowley, ed., Modern Australia in Documents: 1939–1970 (1973) 2: 29–30, 35–36 During World War II many enemy aliens were interned in Australia under the National Security Act 1939.
Prisoners of war were also sent to Australia from other Allied countries as were their enemy aliens for internment in Australia. About 7,000 residents were interned by Australia, including more than 1,500 British nationals. A further 8,000 people were sent to Australia to be interned after being detained overseas by Australia's allies. At its peak in 1942, more than 12,000 people were interned in Australia.
Jews seeking to escape the Nazis such as two-year-old Eva Duldig and her parents Karl Duldig and Slawa Duldig were classified as enemy aliens upon their arrival due to their having arrived with German identity papers. The Australian government therefore interned the three of them for two years in isolated Tatura Internment Camp 3 D with 295 other internees, mostly families.Miriam Cosic (April 29, 2022). "Melbourne's newest musical a multi-generational European family saga," Plus61J.Melinda Mockridge (2014). "Art behind the wire: the untold story of refugee families interned in Australia during the Second World War," Victorian History Library. There, armed soldiers manned watchtowers and scanned the camp that was bordered by a barbed wire fence with searchlights, and other armed soldiers patrolled the camp. Petitions to Australian politicians, stressing that they were Jewish refugees and therefore being unjustly imprisoned, had no effect."To the other side of the world," National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism.
With the 1940 election looming, a Royal Australian Air Force crash at Canberra Airport in August 1940 resulted in the death of the Chief of the General Staff and three senior ministers. The Labor Party meanwhile experienced a split along pro- and anti-Communist lines over policy towards the Soviet Union for its co-operation with Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland. At the 1940 federal election in September, the UAP–Country Party Coalition and the Labor parties each won 36 seats and the Menzies Government was forced to rely on the support of two Independents to continue in office.
Menzies proposed an all party unity government to break the impasse, but the Labor Party refused to join. Curtin agreed instead to take a seat on a newly created Advisory War Council in October 1940. Cameron resigned as Country Party leader in October 1940, to be replaced by Arthur Fadden, who became Treasurer and Menzies unhappily conceded to allow Page back into his ministry.
In January 1941, Menzies flew to Britain to discuss the weakness of Singapore's defences and sat with Winston Churchill's British War Cabinet. He was unable to achieve significant assurances for increased commitment to Singapore's defences, but undertook morale boosting excursions to war affected cities and factories. Returning to Australia via Lisbon and the United States in May, Menzies faced a war-time minority government under ever increasing strain. In Menzies's absence, Curtin had co-operated with Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Fadden in preparing Australia for the expected Pacific War. With the threat of Japan imminent and with the Australian army suffering badly in the Greek and Crete campaigns, Menzies re-organised his ministry and announced multiple multi-party committees to advise on war and economic policy. Government critics however called for an all-party government.
After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Australian trade unions supported the war. Australian Women's Army Service was formed in August 1941 as a non-medical support service for the military.
In August 1941, Cabinet decided that Menzies should travel back to Britain to represent Australia in the War Cabinet, but this time the Labor caucus refused to support the plan. Menzies announced to his Cabinet that he thought he should resign and advise the Governor-General to invite Curtin to form Government. The Cabinet instead insisted he approach Curtin again to form a war cabinet. Unable to secure Curtin's support, and with an unworkable parliamentary majority, Menzies resigned as prime minister and leader of the UAP on 29 August 1941. He was succeeded as prime minister by Fadden, the leader of the Country Party, who held office for a month. Billy Hughes, then aged 79, replaced Menzies as leader of the UAP. The two independents crossed the floor, bringing down the Coalition government, and enabling Labor under Curtin to form a minority government.
Curtin government
Eight weeks after the formation of the Curtin government, on 7 December 1941 (eastern Australia time), Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii. On 10 December 1941, the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse sent to defend Singapore were sunk by Japan. British Malaya quickly collapsed, shocking the Australian population. British, Indian and Australian troops made a disorganised last stand at Singapore, before surrendering on 15 February 1942. On 27 December 1941, Curtin demanded reinforcements from Churchill, and published an historic announcement:
Curtin predicted that the "battle for Australia" would now follow. Australia was ill-prepared for an attack, lacking armaments, modern fighter aircraft, heavy bombers, and aircraft carriers. Most of Australia's best forces were committed to fight against Hitler in the Middle East. On 19 February, Darwin suffered a devastating air raid, the first time the Australian mainland had ever been attacked by enemy forces. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times. Most elements of the Australian I Corps, including the 6th and 7th Divisions, returned to Australia in early 1942 to counter the perceived Japanese threat to Australia. All RAN's ships in the Mediterranean were also withdrawn to the Pacific but most RAAF units in the Middle East remained in the theatre.Beaumont (1996). p. 17.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered his commander in the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, to formulate a Pacific defence plan with Australia in March 1942. Curtin agreed to place Australian forces under the command of General MacArthur, who became "Supreme Commander of the South West Pacific". Curtin had thus presided over a fundamental shift in Australia's foreign policy. MacArthur moved his headquarters to Melbourne in March 1942 and American troops began massing in Australia. In late May 1942, Japanese midget submarines sank an accommodation vessel in a daring raid on Sydney Harbour. On 8 June 1942, two Japanese submarines briefly shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs and the city of Newcastle.
In an effort to isolate Australia, the Japanese planned a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea. In May 1942, the U.S. Navy engaged the Japanese in the Battle of the Coral Sea and halted the attack. The Battle of Midway in June effectively defeated the Japanese navy and the Japanese army launched a land assault on Port Moresby from the north.
The Australian Women's Land Army was formed on 27 July 1942 under the jurisdiction of the Director General of Manpower to combat rising labour shortages in the farming sector.
The Battle of Buna-Gona, between November 1942 and January 1943, set the tone for the bitter final stages of the New Guinea campaign, which persisted into 1945. MacArthur to a certain extent excluded Australian forces from the main push north into the Philippines and Japan. It was left to Australia to lead amphibious assaults against Japanese bases in Borneo.
Curtin went on to lead federal Labor to its greatest win with two thirds of seats in the House of Representatives and over 58% of the two-party preferred vote at the 1943 federal election in August. Labor won 49 seats to 12 United Australia Party, 7 Country Party, 3 Country National Party (Queensland), 1 Queensland Country Party, 1 Liberal Country Party (Victoria) and 1 Independent. The Labor Party also won all 19 of the seats contested for the Senate.