DVA 50 Monday 23 April 2001

This Week In History - Our Wartime Heritage

Issued by the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Scott, to foster awareness of Australia’s wartime history and heritage during the Centenary of Federation.

April 27-May 3

28 April 1952: Ratification by Australia of the peace treaty with Japan and the official end of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces deployment in Japan. It is estimated 19 000 Australians served with BCOF. The Australian occupation forces were predominantly responsible for the Hiroshima Prefecture and assisted in rebuilding the city devastated by the atomic bomb.  BCOF later served as a staging point in Japan for Australian forces involved in the Korean War.

29 April 1965: Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced the deployment of an infantry battalion (the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment) to South Vietnam, with an armoured personnel carrier troop, a signals troop and a logistic support company.

1 May 1941: The Allied evacuation from Greece, begun on 24 April, was completed. Although the Allied forces could not successfully defend Greece, some credit the Greek campaign with stalling Hitler’s invasion of Russia, thus ensuring the defeat of German forces in the Russian winter.

1 May 1942: Townsville was put on invasion alert.  Townsville would be the target of three Japanese night air raids during 26-29 July 1942.  At the time the city was the most important Allied air base in Australia.

1 May 1945: Australia’s 25th Brigade troops invaded Tarakan on Borneo’s east coast.  This operation was intended to seize the airfield and thus support further operations against Japanese forces in Borneo.  On 5 May, the airfield was secured.  However, pockets of Japanese soldiers, unable to withdraw from the island and unwilling to surrender, continued to fight on doggedly.  What had been originally planned as a three-week operation ultimately turned into a difficult and exhausting two-month campaign in which 225 Australians were killed and another 669 wounded.

3 May 1917: The second attack on Bullecourt, a sector of the Hindenberg Line, in France.  The first attack on Bullecourt had been a complete disaster, in which many Australians died.  The second attack was better prepared and part of a major British assault along a 25km front.  The role of the 2nd Australian Division was to attack German positions running through Bullecourt and to capture several villages well beyond them.  The Australians went into action with 96 Vickers machine-guns, more than had ever been used before for a divisional attack.  Bullecourt was secured on 17 May after a successful British attack.

Media Contact:   Mark Croxford   02 6277 7820    or     0408 645 787



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