In 1940, most Australians were focused on news from the United Kingdom (UK). After the fall of France, the UK faced the threat of a German invasion. Some Australians helped to defend Britain against the Germans. However, most of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (AIF) were serving in North Africa and the Mediterranean. The 18th Brigade was diverted to England in May 1940, then went to the Middle East.
Between July and October, the Royal Air Force (RAF) fought an aerial campaign against the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). The Germans wanted air superiority over southern Britain. This would help them invade, or could be used to coerce the UK Government to seek peace with Germany. Only one Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron was in Britain at the time of the Battle of Britain. The other Australians who took part served in RAF squadrons. They fought alongside personnel from across the British Empire and the occupied nations of Europe.
Change in strategic situation
After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Australian Government formed the 2nd AIF with volunteers recruited for service in Australia and overseas. Initially, AIF troops were stationed in the Middle East to complete their training.
Two factors caused a change in strategy:
- Germany's invasion of France on 10 May 1940 (followed by the fall of France)
- Italy's declaration of war against France and the UK on 10 June 1940.
Some 8,000 troops of the 6th Division's 18th Infantry Brigade left Melbourne in May 1940. While at sea, the 'third convoy' (Convoy US3) was diverted to Britain instead of Egypt. The AIF troops were to defend Britain from the threat of a German invasion.
Australian units that disembarked from Convoy US3 in Scotland on 17 June 1940 included:
- the 18th Infantry Brigade (2/9th, 2/10th, and 2/12th Battalions)
- the 2/3rd Field Regiment
- the 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment
- the 2/1st Machine Gun Battalion
- the 2/3rd Field Company
- the 2/1st Field Park Company
- signallers from the 6th Division
- Army Service Corps
- ordnance personnel
- 459 infantrymen (dispatched as reinforcements)
- medical staff of the 2/3rd Field Ambulance
- medical staff of the 3rd Australian Special Hospital
- 77 female members of the Australian Army Nursing Service.
From Scotland, the AIF troops were moved south to military camps on the Salisbury Plain.
The 18th Brigade provided some specially trained soldiers for the newly raised 25th Brigade AIF, which was formed in Britain. Both these brigades would form the Australian 9th Division, the only Australian division raised in Britain. (The 9th Division eventually deployed to the Middle East in 1941, when Britain's threat of invasion subsided.)
While this was a small force, the Australian official historian Gavin Long reflected that:
Politically the presence of Canadian, Australian and New Zealand soldiers in England in that time of danger probably had a greater importance than their numbers justified. Yet so empty was England of trained men, and even of such arms as the Dominion forces brought with them, that they made an appreciable addition to the defending army.
Apart from a small headquarters staff based in London, other units of the AIF that deployed to the UK included a forestry unit and personnel of the 2/3rd Australian General Hospital.
The 2/3rd Australian General Hospital served in Britain and eventually redeployed to the Middle East in early 1941. The unit included nurses from the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), the only Australian women to serve in Britain during World War II.
In 1939, to help it meet its timber needs, the UK Government requested the formation of forestry units from among the Dominions (Australia, New Zealand and Canada) to support operations in France. Australia formed 3 companies of foresters. With the fall of France, the Australian Forestry Group was deployed to the UK in 1940 and served there until 1943.
The AIF also formed a Railway Construction and Maintenance Group, which redeployed to the Middle East in 1941.
Battle of Britain in 1940
After the fall of France, the UK was facing the threat of a German invasion. It called on the support of the dominions and the Empire.
Australian soldiers
The British Army, reinforced by units such as the 18th Brigade AIF, prepared for a potential invasion.
The fall of France put Germany's air force, Luftwaffe, within close range of Britain. Britain's frontline defence lay with the RAF and its metropolitan commands. One British unit existed solely to defend the country from attack: RAF Fighter Command.
By early July 1940, the first phase of the Battle of Britain began. Germany tried to force the UK to surrender. The battle lasted until mid-October 1940.
Australian airmen
Only No. 10 Squadron RAAF served with RAF Coastal Command in the Battle of Britain, during which 35 Australians flew combat missions. Ten Australian pilots and 4 enlisted airmen were killed in action.
RAF Fighter Command has received the most attention concerning the defence of Britain. But 2 other RAF commands also played an important role:
- RAF Bomber Command
- RAF Coastal Command.
As Herington reflected:
While Fighter Command was repulsing the large-scale Luftwaffe attack designed to eliminate the RAF and drive the Royal Navy from southern water, Bomber Command and Coastal Command were counter-attacking the enemy amphibious forces gathering in Belgian, Dutch and French ports for the projected invasion itself.
Germany's planned invasion of Britain was postponed indefinitely. German air attacks moved on to what became known as 'the Blitz'.
As the RAF sought to defend against the night-time air attacks, RAF Fighter Command moved onto the offensive over France.
Australian sailors
During the Battle of Britain, the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet played an essential role as a deterrent against Germany.
HMAS Australia served with the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet during the Battle of Britain.
Before World War II, Australia served in Australian waters, the Pacific, and with the Royal Navy in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
At the outbreak of war, Australia was recommissioned and deployed on convoy duties between Australia and South Africa.
By June 1940, after the fall of France, Australia was operating with the Royal Navy off the West African coast. On 9 July, Australia joined a convoy bound for the UK. It joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet.
During the period of the Battle of Britain, the Home Fleet had 2 key responsibilities:
- to ensure that the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) could not escape from the North Sea and attack convoys in the Atlantic Ocean
- to act as a deterrent against a German invasion.
During Australia’s time with the Home Fleet, the ship played a role in these critical aims. For example, in late July, Australia took part in a mission to locate the German battleship Gneisenau, which was believed to have sailed from Trondheim in Norway.
Similarly, in August, Australia was involved in several patrols off Norway, including one where its Supermarine Seagull seaplane was launched to conduct reconnaissance over Tromso and bomb military targets. Poor weather prevented the bombing operation.
During September, Australia was detached from the Home Fleet and formed part of Operation Menace. This was the Allies' unsuccessful attempt to take the Vichy French port of Dakar in Senegal.
Then in October, Australia spent time patrolling around the Azores in the mid-Atlantic, west of Portugal.
Reactions in Australia
Newspapers in Australia regularly carried news of what was happening in the skies over Britain. For example, just after the Germans launched their main assault against RAF airfields in August 1940, The Telegraph in Brisbane reported on 15 August that:
For practically a week now Britain has been experiencing a ferocity of air attack from Germany which has tested not only the capacity of its defences but also the temperament of its people. There is reason for retaining firm faith in both. Day after day the Royal Air Force and its sister service attached to the Navy have met the onslaught with the boldness of well-calculated courage and have fully sustained that qualitative superiority which was established in the days of the fighting in France.
Reports were not limited to descriptions of the Battle of Britain. They also described the effects of the war on civilians.
After the outbreak of World War II, the UK Government feared the effects of bombing. There was a push to evacuate children away from large cities for their safety. After the fall of France, the likelihood that Britain would be attacked increased. The UK Government established the Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB). The CORB scheme was to send children to Commonwealth countries, including Australia. About 600 children were evacuated to Australia before the scheme stopped. The scheme ceased after the Germans sank 2 ships carrying child evacuees.
An article in the Westralian Worker in Perth on 25 October 1940 noted that:
The arrival in Australia of some of the children being sent out of Britain for the duration of the war serves to remind us of the ordeal that is being experienced by the British people who chose war rather than submit to Hitler.
The article then described how difficult it was for Australians to understand the challenges faced by Britain. It also noted that:
the British people are proving to the world that Britain cannot be conquered, and while Britain lives civilisation cannot die.
Continued service in Britain
In early 1941, the first RAAF Article XV fighter squadron arrived to serve with RAF Fighter Command. At various times, 5 RAAF Article XV squadrons served with RAF Fighter Command.
By 1944, RAAF units were involved in defending Britain from a renewed air assault by Germany. By this time, the Germans were using the V-1 flying bomb to attack Britain.
In February 1944, No. 464 Squadron RAAF was involved in Operation Jericho, a small raid on a prison in Amiens. No. 180 Wing RAF undertook a precision strike raid that tried to free French Resistance fighters who were being held by the Germans.
Glossary
- convoy
- deploy
- infantry