Indian Ocean and South-East Asia

Indian Ocean

In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), RAN vessels and RAAF squadrons operated from Colombo and Trincomalee. They supported Allied air and naval defence against German and Japanese raids in the Indian Ocean.

Along the Indian Ocean and Maldives convoy routes, RAN vessels escorted merchant shipping. HMA Ships Canberra, Hobart, Perth and Sydney and the corvettes ran escort duties to Ceylon, India and the Middle East.

In British India (now India), RAAF transport and medical units were stationed in Assam and Bengal. Australia operated training bases for operations into Burma (now Myanmar).

In Burma, RAAF transport squadrons supplied Allied forces. Australians also served as commandos in Force 136; an Allied special operations group engaged in guerrilla warfare.

Australian troops were garrisoned on Christmas Island until the Japanese invasion in 1942.

Garrison detachments and communications facilities on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands were supporting Indian Ocean defence.

South-East Asia

Before the Malaya region was occupied by the Japanese, Australians were serving:

• in the Malaya Campaign
• on Singapore island.

After February 1942, many of them became prisoners of war (POWs). Thousands of them were forced to work on a Japanese engineering project, the Burma-Thailand Railway.

In the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), Army and RAAF personnel supported Dutch and British forces to defend Java until it was occupied by the Japanese in 1942. Both the RAN and RAAF evacuated personnel from Sumatra, but some Australians were captured when the Japanese took the airfields.

From 1942, the Allies controlled operations in the eastern parts of the Netherlands East Indies under the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA).

Across the region

RAN vessels were escorting convoys across the entire Indian Ocean. They were also involved in Allied Fleet operations in Malaya, the Sunda Strait, the Java Sea and across the SWPA.

RAAF bomber and fighter squadrons were based in Malaya and Singapore until the Japanese occupation in early 1942. RAAF personnel served in transport, reconnaissance and long-range strike operations through Burma and India, as well as Borneo and Timor in the SWPA.

Many Australian expats joined the Coastwatchers network. Stationed throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific, they reported intelligence from remote locations, such as the Netherlands East Indies and Timor.

Australians also served in the Allies' Z Special Unit and M Special Unit, which operated in Borneo, Timor, Java, Celebes and some remote islands.

Throughout the war, many Australians also served in the Allied Merchant Navy.