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Early Exploration
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Penal Settlement
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Expanding Colonization
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The Commonwealth
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Australia's role in World War II
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Australia's role in World War II
Australia played a huge role in World War II. Australia declared the war on Germany in June 1940. The first operation for the Australians was to attack Italy. The Royal Australian Navy was the only troop who took part in this operation. In the same year the Royal Australian Air Force aided the British government during the air battle of England. The Australians helped to defeat the Germans.
As a result of winning the air battle of England, Hitler decided not to conquer Great Britain. These battles took place in August and September of the year 1940. The troops of the Australian Army joined World War II a year later. The 6th, 7th and 9th division fought in the Mediterranean Sea and in North Africa. Due to the new role of the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean the Australian ships had to defend the English colonies in the Pacific Ocean.
While defeating Singapore, against the strong Japanese force, the Royal Australian Navy lost an entire division. After the loss in Singapore the Japanese tried to invade Australia. To achieve this goal the Japanese started to drop bombs on Darwin. The City of Darwin was very important for the war industry. After the Japanese bombed Darwin the Australian government feared an invasion in Australia. Hence, the government ordered the 6th and 7th divisions to return home. When the Japanese started losing their first battles in the Pacific Ocean, the fear of an invasion was almost gone in Australia.
The allies (for the Pacific Ocean: Australians and Americans) started to win their first battles in coral reeves or on small islands that were occupied by the Japanese forces. In 1944 the Australian forces began their biggest movements against the Japanese. They started fighting in Borneo. This fighting didn't stop, even when the war was over in August 1945. This is still a big issue today in Australia, as nobody apologized for this cruel act. The Australian Navy didn't lose a single ship during the whole war. Every other nation who took part in that cruel war lost at least one boat.
 The role of Australians in Europe is really complex. Australia is a member of the Commonwealth and therefore had to aid Britain when they declared war on Germany in 1939. Their first obligation was to send supplies to Britain. These supplies were attacked by the Germans and therefore they lost a lot of food and other necessary supplies which were needed to survive such a big war. The Australian soldiers had to fight at the front whenever the allied troops attacked a German bunker. The underlined goal was not to lose any English soldiers and not to care too much about the Australian death toll.
The Australian soldiers also took part in the battles in the Normandy when the allied forces could finally land in Europe to invade Germany and to defeat Hitler.
Felix Krüger 13d
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