It's a running joke that Australia and New Zealand don't actually exist; however, we can assure you
this isn't the case. While *Tasmania* may be fictional, Australia and New Zealand are far
from it, and these two Allied nations fought with bravery and distinction in the Second World War.
In this video, we're going to talk a little about the ANZAC
Corps and then provide you with an overview of Australia and New Zealand in World War II.
Firstly, let's distinguish the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (or just ANZAC Corps) from
the Australian Army and New Zealand Army. As the title implies, the ANZAC Corps was a military unit
comprised of Aussies and Kiwis. It was created in the First World War, during the Gallipoli
campaign, though it was disbanded in 1916. The corps was briefly remade in World War II,
during the Battle of Greece, and so too in the Vietnam War and the East Timor Crisis.
The term ANZAC, however, is used a little differently in Australia and New Zealand.
When Aussies and Kiwis first commemorated the war-time sacrifices of their fathers, sons,
husbands, and brothers on the 25th of April 1916, that day was deemed ANZAC Day. Though, every ANZAC
day since commemorates not only the sacrifice of those who fought in the First World War but
the sacrifice of *all* Australian and New Zealand military personal in *all* subsequent conflicts.
In Australia, at least, we attend a dawn service and hold a minute of silence for the dead. We also
wear blood-red poppies, the same that bloomed on the fetid battlefields of Europe in the Great War.
So, we know that the ANZAC Corps briefly served as a distinct unit in World War II,
but what else did the Aussies get up to in the most devastating event in human history?
A British Commonwealth nation, the Land Down Under followed Britain into war against Nazi
Germany on the 3rd of September 1939, and against Germany's allies later on.
The Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force (or RAAF), and Royal Australian
Navy (or RAN) fought in many theatres of the war, though their contributions in Western Europe,
the Mediterranean and North Africa, and the Pacific are perhaps their most renowned.
Some 13,000 Aussie pilots and aircrew served in British and Australian air units in the defence
of Britain and over Western Europe. In terms of percentage, these men sustained the highest
casualty rates of all branches of the Australian military (20%), with just shy of 3,500 Aussie
pilots and airmen paying the ultimate price. RAAF and RAN units also supported the June 1944 D-Day
landings, helping the Allies gain a foothold in Normandy. Some of these squadrons went on
to support the Western Allies' occupation of Germany in the final days of war in Europe.
RAN warships clashed with Italian vessels in the Mediterranean in 1940, and Australian
ground forces made their mark in December that year in the Allied Operation Compass,
part of the North Africa Campaign. The Aussies fought with utmost bravery in this operation,
notably when the 6th Australian Infantry Division assault the Italian-held Libyan
fortress of Bardia. In this battle, the Aussies (bolstered by the Brits)
ultimately took some 36,000 Italians prisoners and inflicted an additional 4,500 casualties.
They also managed to capture some 800 Italian vehicles and 400 Italian artillery guns.
Conversely, only some 450 Allied personnel became casualties of this battle.
The Aussies fought a different war in the Pacific, staving off the brutal Japanese right
on Australia's doorstep. In the Battles of Malaya and Singapore, thousands of Aussies were captured
by the Imperial Japanese troops, with 15,000 falling into enemy hands in Singapore alone.
Further losses were endured in the New Guinea campaign, which went all the way from January
1942 to just about the end of the war, and Aussies fought and died in the bloodthirsty 1945 Borneo
campaign too, a conflict famed for its savage guerrilla warfare, in which Special Operations
Australia (or SOA) played a crucial role. Australia herself tasted Japanese ruthlessness,
most notably in the February 1942 Bombing of Darwin, the Northern Territory's capital. This was
the first of some 100 Japanese air raids exacted on Australia throughout the war, and the Bombing
of Darwin remains the largest attack on Australia in all the island nation's history. Defences were
carried our primarily by the RAN and RAAF, though the Yanks were there to lend a helping hand too.
So, Australia was bombed by the Japanese, and therefore it must be real.
But what about New Zealand? What did it get up to in the war?
The Kiwis also followed Britain into war against Germany on the 3rd of September 1939 and, like
the Aussies, fought in many different theatres, in many cases *alongside* their Australian comrades.
New Zealand's principal overseas force was the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary force (or 2NZEF),
while its air force was the Royal New Zealand Air Force (or RNZAF), and its
navy was the Royal New Zealand Navy (or RNZN).
New Zealand's contributions to the Allied war effort in Europe were primarily through the RNZAF,
whose pilots and airmen served in Kiwi units under the RAF or directly in RAF squadrons.
Like the Aussies, they fought for the Queen in the Battle of Britain. Generally, serving
directly in the RAF, Kiwi pilots went wherever the RAF went and bombed whatever the RAF bombed.
Men of the 2NZEF fought hard in the bloody Battle of Monte Cassino in March 1944 too, playing
a crucial role in what would ultimately lead to the Allied capture of the town and castle.
New Zealand artillery units, in particular, paved the way for the Polish and British offensive which
gained the Allies the town. The Māori Battalion fought here, under the 2nd New Zealand Division.
By the bullets of a stubborn German defence, the battalion suffered devastating losses, with 128
out of the 200 Māori soldiers in it becoming casualties of war — that's 64% of the unit.
Like the Australians, the New Zealanders feared a Japanese invasion, so they fought hard against
Imperial Japan in the Pacific. While New Zealand *did* have some violent encounters with Axis naval
vessels in its own waters, the country did not feel the heat of Japanese bombs, and an invasion
never came to pass. With Kiwi pilots fighting under the British RAF in other theatres,
the Americans supported the RNZAF in the Pacific by lending them planes and what not.
To put New Zealand's contributions in perspective, it suffered, proportionately,
more casualties than any other Commonwealth nation involved in the Second World War;
i.e. 12,000 of New Zealand's 1940 population of 1,600,000 lost their lives in the conflict.
Now, we said earlier that the ANZAC Corps was remade in the Battle of Greece, so let's explore
that a little. In March 1941, the Australia I Corps, with the New Zealand 2nd Division under it,
landed in Greece to defend the nation against a German invasion.
It was soon after this that the combined Aussie-Kiwi unit was officially renamed
the ANZAC Corps, though this title was short-lived. The German invasion,
unlike the Italian invasion before it, was hugely successful, and the ANZAC Corps (along with
the Greeks and the Brits) was mostly undone. Instead of fleeing Greece entirely, however,
some ANZAC remnants remained on the Greek island of Crete and put up a stubborn defence alongside
Cretan military personal and civilians. These were primarily the Australian 6th Division's
19th Brigade and some Kiwi units, including the aforementioned Māori Battalion, which took part
in a series of savage engagements throughout the island. In more than one instance, the
battalion carried out bayonet charges, stabbing and bludgeoning hundreds of Germans to death.
In the latter half of 1941, many Australian units left the Mediterranean and North Africa to contest
the Japanese in the Pacific. Some Aussie units, such as the Australian I Corps' 9th Division,
remained. These men didn't have it easy, especially in the Libyan port city of Tobruk,
which came under siege by Axis and was largely defended by Australian troops.
But the Kiwis were done licking their wounds after the Battle of Greece, and (alongside other Allied
nations) came to their Aussie brothers' aid on the 18th of November 1941 in Operation Crusader. Here,
they clashed with Rommel's Afrika Korps and ultimately sent the German general running.
The Australian 9th Division and New Zealand 2nd Division fought
and sustained heavy casualties together in the First and Second Battles of El
Alamein too. In the second battle, of the 13,500 casualties sustained by the Allies,
22% were Aussies, and 10% were Kiwis; they bled and died watching each other's backs. The Aussies
largely left the North African theatre of war after this, though the Kiwis stayed on throughout
the Tunisia campaign, ultimately pushing German and Italian forces back into the sea.
Obviously the contributions of Australia and New Zealand to the Allied victory in World War
II extended far beyond what we've covered today. There were also many other battles
in which Aussies and Kiwis fought and died side by side — far too many for one video.
For now, we hope we've provided you with a decent overview of these two fighting nations.
What, however, interests you more? Would you like to learn more about Australia?
New Zealand? How about the ANZAC Corps, both in the Great War and in conflicts
following the Second World War? Please share your thoughts in the comments.