ADDRESS BY

HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR GENERAL MICHAEL JEFFERY AC CVO MC

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

ON THE OCCASION OF

THE BATTLE FOR AUSTRALIA COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONY

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL CANBERRA

6 SEPTEMBER 2006



Â·                        Major General John Hartley, Chairman, Battle for Australia National Council  Â·                        The Honourable Bruce Billson, MP, representing the Prime Minister  Â·                        The Honourable Kim Beazley, Leader of the Opposition  Â·                        Mr Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT;

Â·                        Mr Bill Stefaniak, ACT Leader of the Opposition;

Â·                        Major General Tony Fraser, representing the Chief of Defence Force  Â·                        Senior officers of the Australian Defence Force

Â·                        Distinguished guests

Â·                        Ladies and gentlemen



It is a great privilege this morning at this beautiful setting of the Australian War Memorial, to give  the commemorative address on the Battle for Australia.

When considering Australian military history, and it is an inspiring one, most Australians probably  recall such epic struggles as the Battles of Gallipoli, the Somme, El Alamein, Kokoda, Kapyong and  Long Tan, thanks to the extensive publication of material on these significant military conflicts - and  rightly so.

However, much less has appeared in print about the closer to home aspects of the Battle for  Australia, specifically the defence of the Australian continent from Japanese attack and potential  invasion during World War Two.

But if this important component of our nation’s history is to be both remembered and preserved - as  it should - we must ensure that the consequences, sacrifices and achievements arising from the  stirring events that took place in the Indian and Pacific regions, from 1941 to 1945 including the  mobilization of our nation, are appropriately remembered and commemorated.

And the Battle for Australia was indeed a series of stirring events.

For the first time our nation’s shores were attacked.  And for some time after, we were told by our  leaders that the Battle for Australia was for real and that air and naval attacks on our coastal cities  and towns could develop into a full-scale invasion by a powerful and brutal enemy. Thus the nation  mobilised; no part of our community unaffected; the entire population involved in a genuinely  perceived struggle for national survival.

The repulse of our then enemy, and his eventual defeat, would involve the overseas deployment in  the Indian Ocean and Pacific theatres of hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women in a  gruelling campaign, sometimes against great odds, that would see 17,500 lose their lives and some

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30,000 suffer from wounds or sickness.

The consequences were also far-reaching.  Australia would truly come of age with an identity and  maturity not previously seen or felt.  Increasingly independent, it would embark on a path of national  development and enhanced international relationships that would result in the blooming of a proud,  confident and prosperous nation.

It is for these reasons that the Battle for Australia needs to be remembered and suitably  commemorated.

So how did it happen?

In 1941, before Japan’s surprise attack entry into World War Two, Australian soldiers, sailors and  airmen were sent to Europe and the Middle East to fight magnificently with the Mother Country  against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Australian 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions were deployed to  the Middle East to fight at Sidi Barrani, Tobruk and El Alamein, whilst thousands of RAAF aircrew  fought in the brutal and costly air war of the European theatre. Our fighting ships were deployed far  and wide including in the Mediterranean and throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The Japanese attack into the Indian and Pacific areas began in December 1941 with a surprise attack  on Pearl Harbour, a simultaneous attack on Malaya and the Philippines and a rapid advance  southward that would capture the Dutch East Indies.

Facing a global conflagration on two fronts, the Allied priority was necessarily the defeat of Nazi  Germany. Australia, India, Burma, Asia and the south-west Pacific were to do what they could with  quite limited resources, until such time as Germany was defeated.

Australia’s greatest involvement in the first weeks of the war was in Malaya where the 8th Division,  after a hard fighting withdrawal down the Malay Peninsula, was forced to surrender at the fall of  Singapore.  Meanwhile, as a result of agreements with the UK, the Netherlands and the US,  Australian forces were committed to Timor, Ambon and to key points in New Guinea, such as  Rabaul.  A number of independent companies were deployed thinly in an arc from the New Hebrides  and New Caledonia to the Admiralty Islands.  A large force of coast watchers was also raised,

including the North Australia Observer Unit, or the “Nackeroos” as they became affectionately  known.  When elements of the 6th and 7th Divisions were returned from the Middle East in early  1942, most returned to Australia and only small numbers were deployed, before the fall of  Singapore, to strengthen the Malay barrier - the notional line extending down the Malayan  peninsula, through Singapore to Indonesia, under the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australia  Command.

The early Japanese success with only eleven divisions but with strong air and naval forces was so  stunning that its leaders were forced to revise their initial strategy and choose between a number of  competing options.  They considered strengthening their existing defensive perimeter, clearing the  British from the Indian Ocean, invading Australia, cutting the lines of communication between  Australia and the United States and finally, by occupying Midway Island, bringing the US Navy’s  carriers into a decisive battle where they would be destroyed, thereby giving the Japanese essential  sea control.

The chosen option was to destroy the British fleet in the Indian Ocean, cut communications between  Australia and the US - which included the seizure of Port Moresby - and occupy Midway.  The  invasion of Australia would be reconsidered later.

Of course, at this time, Australians were not to know this. Japanese air attacks against Australia  began with a major assault on Darwin on 19 February 1942 when ninety Japanese aircraft, followed

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soon after by a second wave of 54, bombed and strafed the town and ships in the harbour, killing 243  people and inflicting heavy damage.  In all, Darwin received 64 air raids and other centres -  Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham, Broome, Derby and Port Hedland - were also bombed.  Such  attacks continued until May 1943.

This meant that war was no longer simply an issue for military personnel, as it now affected all  Australians. I clearly remember, as a young boy, the construction and provisioning of an air-raid  shelter in my family’s backyard in Perth. I am sure many others share similar memories. But these  preparations from potential invasion helped unify the country and fostered a strong, sense of  patriotism.

Japanese midget submarine operations were also launched against Eastern Australia.  Three entered  Sydney harbour on the night of 31 May 1942 and a replica is suspended in ANZAC Hall here.  Two  of the midget submarines were sunk or scuttled but only after they sank the converted ferry Kuttabul,  killing 19 sailors.  A few days later, another submarine fired shells into a Sydney suburb while  another bombarded Newcastle.

Japanese submarine attacks continued until June 1943.  Nineteen ships were sunk aggregating  80,873 tonnes with a loss of 503 lives.  The most significant loss was that of the Australian hospital  ship Centaur. On 14 May 1943, she was near Stradbroke Island, off Queensland’s coast, steaming  for New Guinea to embark wounded soldiers. In the early hours of the morning, a Japanese torpedo  sunk the Centaur with the loss of 268 lives.

Lieutenant Ellen Savage, one of twelve nursing officers on board and the sole survivor of them,  displayed great heroism despite her own extensive injuries, and was awarded a George Medal. Part  of her citation reads:

“She rendered conspicuous service whilst in the raft attending to wounds and burns sustained by  other survivors. Sister Savage’s example of high courage and fortitude did much to maintain the  morale of her companions during their ordeal.”

And while it is now clear, following the Japanese carrier losses in the Battles of the Coral Sea and  Midway and after hard fighting, the defeat of their land forces at Kokoda, Milne Bay and  Guadalcanal they were forced on the defensive, and Australians for much of 1942 continued to  prepare for the possibility of a direct assault on our mainland.

In this process, whilst Australians at home did not suffer as severely as did many civilian populations  elsewhere, the war did have a profound impact on the Australian home front.  Not only did the nation  experience attacks on its own soil for the first time, the Australian people faced unprecedented levels  of concern as Japan advanced seemingly unstoppable in the Pacific. The domestic landscape

changed, as Australians became fearful of possible spies and saboteurs, such that by 1942, eighteen  internment camps were established across the continent containing German, Italian and Japanese  Australians.

The Curtin Government implemented a wide range of measures in preparedness for a “total war”  situation. For example, there was an urgent need to increase available manpower for the armed  services and the production of arms and munitions. Resources were increasingly marshalled under  government control and civilians willingly surrendered many of their individual rights. People on the

home front were expected to make economic and social sacrifices for the war effort.

The Curtin Government launched a campaign of “Austerity” in August 1942 and home-front  propaganda pushed the concept of “equality of sacrifice”. Ration cards came into being. People were  expected to work harder and avoid luxuries and waste. However, despite the difficulties and  hardships experienced on the home front, many Australians remember this time for its sense of unity,  when people for the most part worked hard and pulled together.

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Whilst Australia continued to fortify itself in 1943, General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme  Commander, commenced offensive operations against the Japanese, gradually forcing them into a  northward retreat. The Americans and her allies now had land and ship-based air superiority to  properly support Allied assaults against the Japanese.

We recall the bitter fighting from mid-1942 including the battles on the Kokoda Track, the beach-heads of Buna, Gona and Sanananda; the Guadalcanal campaign; the battle of Shaggy Ridge in late  1943/early 1944; Finschhafen and Wewak and the liberation of New Guinea, Labuan and Borneo in  early 1945.

At this stage of the war, the Allies were preparing for what might have been a very costly invasion of  Japan, pre-empted in August 1945, when Japan surrendered unconditionally after atomic bombs  were dropped on Hiroshima, then three days later on Nagasaki.

And so ended the Battle for Australia.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is both timely and fitting that we record and commemorate these events in  paying tribute to the hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women and the civilian population of  Australia who so ably supported them in those hard fought years, and in so doing, ensured this  country’s survival and unparalleled future prosperity.

Thank you.

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