An outline, era by era

Australia and New Zealand in the World Wars

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

Australia and New Zealand were British dominions in 1914, self-governing in domestic affairs but closely tied to Britain in foreign policy. When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, both countries were at war with it and sent volunteer forces overseas. In the First World War (1914 to 1918) they fought at Gallipoli, on the Western Front and in the Middle East. In the Second World War (1939 to 1945) they fought in Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean, and then closer to home as Japan advanced through the Pacific.

The wars shaped how both nations saw themselves. Anzac Day, held on 25 April, became their main day of remembrance. The wars also changed their place in the world. Japan's entry into the war in December 1941, followed by the fall of Singapore in February 1942, led Australia to look to the United States for security, and both countries later formalised that tie in the ANZUS Treaty of 1951. The Pacific campaigns and the independence of Pacific islands are covered in the next entry.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Australia and New Zealand enter the First World War

    Event

    What happened

    On 4 August 1914 Britain declares war on Germany, and this declaration binds the dominions, which make no separate declarations. Australia raises the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, both made up of volunteers. New Zealanders occupy German Samoa in August 1914, and Australian troops take Rabaul and secure the surrender of German New Guinea at Toma in September 1914.

    The rest is history

    The two forces were gathered in Egypt in early 1915 and formed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose initials gave the word Anzac. Both countries paid heavily in the war, and it gave each a strong sense of national identity. Australia's voters twice rejected conscription for overseas service, in referendums in 1916 and 1917. New Zealand introduced conscription in 1916.

    Sources

    1. BookBeaumont, Joan, ed. Australia's War, 1914-18. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1995.
    2. BookPugsley, Christopher. The ANZAC Experience: New Zealand, Australia and Empire in the First World War. Auckland: Reed, 2004.

  2. The Gallipoli landing, 1915

    Event

    What happened

    On 25 April 1915 Anzac troops land on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire, as part of an Allied attempt to open the Dardanelles. They come ashore at a spot later called Anzac Cove, and are held to a narrow foothold by Ottoman defenders under Mustafa Kemal and others. The campaign drags on until the Allies withdraw in December 1915 and January 1916.

    The rest is history

    Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders died in the campaign, and many more were wounded. The Ottoman side suffered far heavier losses. Though a military failure, Gallipoli became central to both countries' memory of the war. From 1916 the anniversary of the landing was marked as Anzac Day. The Australian official historian Charles Bean shaped the Anzac tradition through his multi-volume history of the war.

    Sources

    1. BookBean, C. E. W. The Story of Anzac. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, vol. 1. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1921.
    2. BookBroadbent, Harvey. Gallipoli: The Fatal Shore. Melbourne: Viking, 2005.

  3. The Western Front and the Middle East

    Event

    What happened

    After Gallipoli the Australian and New Zealand divisions are sent to France. Australians fight at Fromelles and Pozières in 1916, and both countries' troops at Passchendaele in October 1917. In 1918 Australians help halt the German spring offensive and play a major part in the Allied advance, including the battle of Hamel in July. Mounted troops from both countries also fight in the Sinai and Palestine campaign.

    The rest is history

    Australia lost around 60,000 dead in the war and New Zealand around 18,000, from small populations. The Australian Corps was commanded from 1918 by Lieutenant General John Monash, an Australian. At the war's end each country joined the Paris Peace Conference as a separate delegation, and each signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Both later received League of Nations mandates over former German territories.

    Sources

    1. BookGrey, Jeffrey. A Military History of Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
    2. BookPedersen, Peter. Monash as Military Commander. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1985.

  4. The Statute of Westminster

    Event

    What happened

    The 1926 Imperial Conference declares the dominions equal in status to Britain. The Statute of Westminster in 1931 gives the dominions full legal freedom to make their own laws. Australia adopts the statute only in 1942, and New Zealand in 1947.

    The rest is history

    The two countries delayed for their own constitutional and political reasons, and adoption came during the war in Australia's case and soon after it in New Zealand's. When war came in 1939, Australia's prime minister, Robert Menzies, announced it on the basis of Britain's declaration. New Zealand's Labour government under Michael Joseph Savage declared its own state of war, saying that where Britain went, New Zealand went. The legal independence of the 1930s did not much change political loyalty at the time.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryStatute of Westminster 1931. Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 22 & 23 Geo. 5 c. 4.The act that gave the dominions legislative independence.
    2. BookHancock, W. K. Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs. London: Oxford University Press, 1937.

  5. Entry into the Second World War

    Event

    What happened

    Australia is at war with Germany from 3 September 1939, announced by Menzies on the basis of Britain's declaration. New Zealand declares war itself, with effect from 3 September, and the declaration is usually dated 4 September. Australia raises the Second Australian Imperial Force, and New Zealand the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Their troops serve in North Africa, Greece and Crete in 1941, and air crews from both countries serve in the Royal Air Force and in their own squadrons.

    The rest is history

    Greece and Crete in 1941 were costly defeats for the Allies, and the New Zealand Division was heavily involved. Australian forces held the port of Tobruk in Libya for months in 1941. Both countries had many of their best troops far from home when Japan entered the war in December 1941. That mattered greatly in the debates over how to defend the Pacific.

    Sources

    1. BookLong, Gavin. To Benghazi. Australia in the War of 1939-1945, series 1, vol. 1. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1952.
    2. BookMcGibbon, Ian, ed. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  6. The fall of Singapore and the turn to America

    Event

    What happened

    Japan attacks Malaya and Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In that month Prime Minister John Curtin publishes a statement saying Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom. Singapore surrenders on 15 February 1942, with many Australian troops among those captured, and Darwin is bombed on 19 February 1942.

    The rest is history

    Curtin also insisted that the Australian divisions return home from the Middle East rather than be diverted to Burma. American forces under General Douglas MacArthur based themselves in Australia from 1942. In 1951 Australia, New Zealand and the United States signed the ANZUS Treaty. The shift from Britain to the United States as the main security partner was one of the lasting results of the war.

    Sources

    1. BookWigmore, Lionel. The Japanese Thrust. Australia in the War of 1939-1945, series 1, vol. 4. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957.
    2. BookDay, David. The Great Betrayal: Britain, Australia and the Onset of the Pacific War, 1939-42. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1988.

  7. Women and the home front in the Second World War

    Event

    What happened

    As men go overseas, both governments organise women into war work. Australia forms the Australian Women's Army Service in 1942 and New Zealand the Women's War Service Auxiliary in 1942. Women work in factories, on farms and in the services. Both countries introduce rationing and direct labour into war industry.

    The rest is history

    Women's service did not at once change pay or rights. Many left their jobs when men returned. Even so, the war made paid work for women more accepted, and both countries recorded rises in female employment. Historians still discuss how lasting the change was.

    Sources

    1. BookDarian-Smith, Kate. On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime, 1939-1945. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990.
    2. BookNolan, Melanie. Breadwinning: New Zealand Women and the State. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2000.

  8. The Anzac Day tradition

    Event

    What happened

    The first Anzac Day in 1916 is marked with services and marches in Australia and New Zealand, and by troops in London and Egypt. Through the 1920s each state in Australia and the New Zealand government fix it as an annual day of remembrance, and war memorials appear in towns across both countries. The dawn service becomes a standard part of the day.

    The rest is history

    After the Second World War the day honoured those who served in all wars. Public holiday status came in New Zealand under the Anzac Day Act 1920 and in Australia state by state over the 1920s and 1930s. Some historians, such as Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, have argued that the focus on Gallipoli can crowd out other parts of the national story. The day remains widely observed.

    Sources

    1. BookInglis, K. S. Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 1998.
    2. BookLake, Marilyn, and Henry Reynolds. What's Wrong with Anzac? Sydney: NewSouth, 2010.

  9. Simpson and his donkey

    Folk tale

    The legend

    At Gallipoli a stretcher-bearer named John Simpson Kirkpatrick uses a donkey to carry wounded men down from the hills to the beach. He keeps working under fire for weeks until he is killed. His story is told in schools as an example of courage and mateship.

    The rest is history

    The man was real. Kirkpatrick, a British-born merchant seaman who had enlisted in Australia as John Simpson, landed on 25 April 1915 and was killed on 19 May. He used donkeys, and more than one, to move wounded men. The tale grew after his death, and details such as the donkey's name were added over time. He was not awarded the Victoria Cross, though many Australians have long argued he deserved a decoration, and his statue stands at the Australian War Memorial.

    Sources

    1. BookBean, C. E. W. The Story of Anzac. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, vol. 1. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1921.

  10. Birth of the nation at Gallipoli

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Australians and New Zealanders often say their nations were born on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915. In this telling the landing proved the character of the young dominions in battle, and made them nations rather than colonies.

    The rest is history

    Both countries were already self-governing: Australia's federation dates from 1901 and New Zealand became a dominion in 1907. The Gallipoli idea took shape through wartime writing, notably Bean's, and through memorials and ceremonies of the 1920s. Historians such as Alistair Thomson have shown how the Anzac legend was built and how it differed from individual soldiers' memories. The claim reflects how people came to remember the war, not the constitutional record.

    Sources

    1. BookThomson, Alistair. Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994.
    2. BookCarlyon, Les. Gallipoli. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2001.

  11. The Anzacs as natural soldiers

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A popular belief holds that Australian and New Zealand soldiers, raised in the bush, were natural fighters who were undisciplined but brave, and who disliked authority and saluting.

    The rest is history

    This picture owes much to wartime writing and to Bean, who praised the bushman type. In fact most recruits came from towns and cities. Discipline was a real issue, but the forces were well trained by 1918, and Monash's planning at Hamel in 1918 rested on careful preparation. Historians such as Bill Gammage, in The Broken Years (1974), used soldiers' letters and diaries to show a more varied picture.

    Sources

    1. BookGammage, Bill. The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1974.
    2. BookBean, C. E. W. The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Allied Offensive, 1918. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, vol. 6. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1942 (reprinted Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1983).

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