History Guild Australia during WW2 Quiz
History Guild Australia during WW2 QuizSee how your Australian World War 2 history knowledge stacks up! Special Thanks to our Guest Quiz Author, Luke Sypkes. Want to know more about […]
The Battle of Greece – Australia’s Textbook Rear-Guard Action
Retreat doesn’t always mean defeat, sometimes it can be a victory to withdraw in good order and deny your enemy a total victory. This is was the outcome for the allied forces in Greece during April 1941, thanks in part to textbook rear-guard actions fought by Australian units, which allowed 50,732 men to escape the grasp of the advancing superior Axis force. But why were Australian units involved in Greece in the first place?
Escape from Greece – Podcast
ESCAPE FROM GREECE – PODCAST This podcast episode tells the story of Shanghai born John Robin Greaves, ‘Jack’, who emigrated to Australia in 1939 and volunteered for the Australian Imperial […]
The fall of Singapore
THE FALL OF SINGAPORE The Land Campaign Nothing in history is inevitable but the fall of Singapore Island after the defeat of British forces in Malaya came close to it. […]
The USAAF 49th Fighter Group over Darwin: a forgotten campaign
The prelude to the campaign of the 49th Fighter Group covers some of the darkest days of the Pacific War: the fall of Singapore on 15 February; the bombing of […]
Book Review: ‘Pacific Crucible: war at sea in the Pacific 1941–42′
With ANZUS in the news at the moment, this book is a good way to understand where it all started. In early 1942, America needed Australia’s location linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans […]
SIX of the best WORLD WAR II FILMS
SIX OF THE BEST WORLD WAR II FILMS World War II (1939-1945) was and remains the greatest conflict that humanity has ever seen both in scale and loss of life; […]
The Coral Sea, 1942: a nation-saving battle
THE CORAL SEA, 1942: A NATION-SAVING BATTLE The Battle of the Coral Sea isn’t as iconic in our national consciousness as Gallipoli, Kokoda, or even El Alamein, Villers-Bretonneux, Amiens or […]
Australia’s War with France
AUSTRALIA’S WAR WITH FRANCE The Nahr al-Kalb, or ‘Dog River’, meets the Mediterranean Sea just north of Beirut, after meandering thirty kilometres downstream from its wellspring in the Lebanon range. […]
Australia’s war with France: The Campaign in Syria and Lebanon, 1941 – Podcast
AUSTRALIA’S WAR WITH FRANCE: THE CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA AND LEBANON, 1941 – PODCAST Operation Exporter was a little known, but very important campaign for the Australian military. It involved Australian’s […]
The Benghazi Handicap and the Siege of Tobruk
The Benghazi handicap is the name Australian soldiers gave to their race to stay ahead of the German Afrika Korps in Libya, 1941. They won the race, but the reward was just to be besieged in the city of Tobruk for 241 days, the longest siege in British military history. In this article, we use the words of veterans themselves to describe these events, and how the Rats of Tobruk experienced the siege.
The Holocaust
Warning: some of the following photos may be disturbing to readers. The event traditionally defined as the Holocaust — by which I mean the systematic extermination of European Jewry between 1941 […]
Why we should remember the Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 has become the touchstone for the Australian-American strategic relationship. The 75th anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on why this engagement, […]
Early Raids Of the Pacific War
Less than two months after the devastating surprise attack at Pearl Harbour, the US Navy was on the offensive. They carried out several raids on Japanese territory in the Pacific. […]
Remembering the bombing of Darwin
If sometimes it seems that governments rush to appoint inquiries or royal commissions, then I want to assure you: this is no modern-day phenomenon. The bombing of Darwin, on this […]
The Franco-British Union: Genius, or Madness Born of Desperation?
When crisis strikes, one imagines members of government or heads of state stoically dealing with the issue at hand. A picture that doesn’t come to mind is a head of […]
Remembering the Victory at Bardia
Just over 80 years ago, Australian forces fought their first major battle of World War II. Bardia, a small town on the coast of Libya, some 30 km from the […]
Scrap Iron Flotilla: The Royal Australian Navy at its Best
To the Axis Powers, the Australian flotilla that fought in the Mediterranean during the Second World War appeared to be no threat. Anyone looking at the old, small and slow […]
The Battle of Cape Spada: The Australian Navy Proves Its Mettle
The Battle of Cape Spada was a short, violent encounter on the 19th of July, 1940 where the cruiser HMAS Sydney of the Royal Australian Navy sank one Italian cruiser […]
Who will have us? Jewish Refugees before WW2
The plight of Jewish refugees after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 is well documented. Hundreds of thousands of people fled Nazi persecution and hoped to find a […]
Taking back the Homeland – Ethiopian Guerrillas in World War II
Guerrilla warfare played a huge role in World War II. Partisans in France, Yugoslavia, the Eastern Front and the Philippines have much written about them. Vitally important but lesser known […]
Remembering Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg
REMEMBERING SACHSENHAUSEN-ORANIENBURG By Rachel Horne. 35 kilometres north of Berlin, you will find the Nazi concentration camp of Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg. Some particularly well-known figures were imprisoned here, including the Prime Ministers […]
Deceptive Ineptitude: German Spies in WW2 Britain
DECEPTIVE INEPTITUDE: GERMAN SPIES IN WW2 BRITAIN Operation Lena, the German espionage operation in Britain, turned out to be one of the least successful spy missions of World War 2. […]
A short, sharp history of the bayonet
By Peter Monteath, Flinders University. Even the sound of a bayonet could be frightening. The audible whetting of blades in the enemy’s trenches could puncture a night’s rest with premonitions […]