{{Short description|Historiographical term to describe battles that took place near Australia during WWII}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox military conflict | image = MA I084436 TePapa Poster He's Coming South.tiff | caption = An Australian propaganda poster released in 1942. The poster was criticised for being alarmist when it was released and was banned by the Queensland Government. | conflict = Battle for Australia | partof = World War II during the Pacific War | date = 19 February 1942 – 2 September 1945 | place = Coral Sea, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia | result = Allied victory * End of attacks following the capitulation of Japan | combatant1 = Allied Powers *{{Flag|Australia}} *{{Flag | New Zealand}} *{{Flagcountry | US | 1912}} *{{Flag | United Kingdom}} *{{Flag | Netherlands}} *{{Flag | Canada | 1921}} *{{Flag | Norway}} | combatant2 = Axis Powers *{{flagicon|Japan|Empire}} Japan *{{Flagicon|Nazi Germany}} Germany | commander1 = {{Flagdeco | Australia}} John Curtin <br/> {{Flagdeco | Australia}} Joseph Burnett <br/> {{Flagdeco | Australia}} David V. J. Blake <br/> {{Flagdeco | Australia}} John Crace <br/> {{Flagdeco | United Kingdom}} Gerard Muirhead-Gould | commander2 = {{Flagdeco | Japanese Empire}} Chūichi Nagumo <br/> {{Flagdeco | Japanese Empire}} Mitsuo Fuchida <br/> {{Flagdeco | Japanese Empire}} Kanji Matsumura <br/> {{Flagdeco | Japanese Empire}} Sakonjo Naomasa <br/> {{Flagdeco | Japanese Empire}} Sasaki Hankyu <br/> {{Flagdeco | Nazi Germany}} Robert Eyssen <br/> {{Flagdeco | Nazi Germany}} Theodor Detmers | strength1 = | strength2 = | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | campaignbox = {{Axis naval attacks on Australia}} {{Campaignbox South West Pacific}} }} The '''Battle for Australia''' is a contested historiographical term used to claim a coordinated link between a series of battles near Australia during the Pacific War of the Second World War alleged to be in preparation for a Japanese invasion of the continent.
==Definition== After the fall of Singapore in 1942, Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin compared its loss to the Battle of Dunkirk. The Battle of Britain occurred after Dunkirk; "the fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia", Curtin said, which threatened the Commonwealth, the United States, and the entire English-speaking world. While Japan did not plan to invade Australia and in February 1942 could not successfully do so, the Australian government and people expected an invasion soon. The fear was greatest until June 1942. Curtin said on 16 February:<ref name="hasluck1970">{{cite book |last=Hasluck |first=Paul|title=The Government and the People 1942–1945 |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070214/|series=Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 4 – Civil |year=1970 | pages=70–73 |publisher=Australian War Memorial |location=Canberra |id=6429367X}}</ref>
{{blockquote|The protection of this country is no longer that of a contribution to a world at war but the resistance to an enemy threatening to invade our own shore ... It is now work or fight as we have never worked or fought before ... On what we do now depends everything we may like to do when this bloody test has been survived.}}
==Historiography and commemoration== The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) and the Battle for Australia Commemoration National Council campaigned for over a decade for official commemoration of a series of battles fought in 1942, including the Battle of the Coral Sea, Battle of Milne Bay and Kokoda Track campaign, as having formed a "battle for Australia".<ref name="Battle won" /> This campaign met with success, and in 2008 the Australian Government proclaimed that commemorations for the Battle for Australia would take place annually on the first Wednesday in September, with the day being designated "Battle for Australia Day".<ref name="Battle won"> {{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/battle-won-on-dedicated-pacific-war-day/story-e6frg8yo-1111116737663 | title = Battle won on dedicated Pacific war day|last=Walters|first=Patrick|date=26 June 2008|work=The Australian|access-date=13 February 2011}} </ref> This day recognises "the service and sacrifice of all those who served in defense of Australia in 1942 and 1943".<ref>{{cite web |title=Anniversaries |url=http://www.dva.gov.au/commems_oawg/commemorations/commemorative_events/major_anniversaries/Pages/index.aspx |publisher=Department of Veterans' Affairs |access-date=23 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219061956/http://www.dva.gov.au/commems_oawg/commemorations/commemorative_events/major_anniversaries/Pages/index.aspx |archive-date=19 December 2011 }} </ref> The day is not a public holiday.<ref name="Day in September">{{cite news|last=Blenkin|first=Max|title='Battle for Australia' Day in September|url=http://news.smh.com.au/national/battle-for-australia-day-in-september-20080626-2xf3.html|access-date=23 December 2011|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=26 June 2008}}</ref>
Peter Stanley, the former principal historian at the Australian War Memorial, argues that the concept of a 'Battle for Australia' is mistaken as these actions did not form a single campaign aimed against Australia. Stanley has also stated that no historian he knows believes that there was a 'Battle for Australia'.<ref name="Stanley_What_BoA?"> {{cite news|last=Stanley|first=Peter|title=What 'Battle for Australia'?|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-09-03/32530|work=The Drum|date=3 September 2008 |publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=9 February 2011}} </ref> In a 2006 speech, Stanley argued that the concept of a Battle for Australia is invalid as the events that are considered to form the battle were only loosely related. Stanley argued, "The Battle for Australia movement arises directly out of a desire to find meaning in the terrible losses of 1942" and that "there was no 'Battle for Australia', as such", as the Japanese did not launch a coordinated campaign directed against Australia. Furthermore, Stanley stated that while the phrase "Battle for Australia" was used in wartime propaganda, it was not applied to the events of 1942 until the 1990s and that countries other than Australia do not recognise the "battle" as being part of the Second World War.<ref>Stanley, Peter (2006). [http://www.awm.gov.au/events/talks/oration2006.asp "Was there a Battle for Australia?"]. Australian War Memorial Anniversary Oration, 10 November 2006</ref><ref>Stanley (2008), pp. 221–222.</ref>
==See also== *Military history of Australia during World War II *Operation FS *Proposed Japanese invasion of Australia during World War II
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *Stanley, Peter (2002). ''[https://www.awm.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/conference/2002/stanley_paper.pdf He's (Not) Coming South: The Invasion That Wasn't]''. Paper delivered to the Australian War Memorial conference [https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/events/conference/remembering-1942 Remembering 1942]. *{{cite book|last=Stanley|first=Peter|title=Invading Australia. Japan and the Battle for Australia, 1942|publisher=Penguin Group (Australia)|location=Melbourne|year=2008|isbn=978-0-670-02925-9}} *{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24244900-16947,00.html|title=Battle lines II: what invasion?|last=Stanley|first=Peter|date=2008-08-30|work=The Australian|access-date=2008-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727192922/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24244900-16947,00.html|archive-date=27 July 2009|url-status=dead}}
==Further reading== *{{Citation|first=Elizabeth |last=Rechniewski |title=Remembering the Battle for Australia |journal=Portal: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies |volume=7 |number=1 |date=January 2010|issn=1449-2490 |publisher=UTSePress, Sydney, Australia |doi=10.5130/portal.v7i1.1153 |url=http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/1153|doi-access=free }}
==External links== *[http://www.battleforaustralia.org.au/ Battle for Australia Association] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051228071344/http://www.awm.gov.au/underattack/index.asp Australian War Memorial "Australia Under Attack 1942–1943"] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051220105355/http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/bfa/default.html anzacday.org.au "Battle for Australia"]
{{Military historiography}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle For Australia}} Category:Conflicts in 1942 Category:Conflicts in 1943 Australia Category:1942 in Australia Australia Category:Military attacks against Australia