who was the leader of australia during ww2
Australian Army during World War II The Australian Army was the largest service in the Australian military during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of war the Australian Army was split into the small full-time Permanent Military Forces (PMF) and the larger part-time Militia. Following the outbreak of war, on 14 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that 40,000 members of the Militia would be called up for training and a 20,000-strong expeditionary force, designated the Second Australian Imperial Force (Second AIF), would be formed for overseas service. Meanwhile, conscription was introduced in October 1939 to keep the Militia at strength as its members volunteered for the AIF. The Australian Army subsequently made an important contribution to the Allied campaigns in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa fighting the Germans, Italians and Vichy French during 1940 and 1941, and later in the jungles of the South West Pacific Area fighting the Japanese between late 1941 and 1945. Following the Japanese surrender Australian Army units were deployed as occupation forces across the South West Pacific. Meanwhile, the Army contributed troops to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan from 1946.
Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War From May 1969 the main effort of the task force returned to Phuoc Tuy Province.[55] Later in June 1969, 5 RAR fought one of the last large-scale actions of the Australian war, during the Battle of Binh Ba, 5 kilometres (3.1Â mi) north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province. The battle was unusual in the Australian experience, involving infantry and armour in close-quarter house-to-house fighting through the village of Binh Ba against a combined force of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. For the loss of one Australian killed at the communists lost 107 killed, six wounded and eight captured in a hard fought but one-sided engagement.[56]