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Learning Intention: understand where Australian's fought during World War II
Success Criteria: I can:
Identify the countries involved in each sphere (Pacific and European) of World War II
Geographically locate on a map where Australians fought at during World War II
Activity 1 - Whilst watching the following Clips (second one is more detailed)
Address the following (you can format your answers to the two questions in table format like the one below in YOUR BOOKS.
Identify the main countries involved with each sphere of WWII.
List the world events that are interpreted as the actual ‘start’ of WWII.
Activity 2 - Read the following passage on "Where Australian's Fought" - WWII 1939-1945
Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia and other parts of the Pacific. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time, as Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-west Australia and Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) participated in operations against Italy after its entry into the war in June 1940. A few Australians flew in the Battle of Britain in August and September, but the Australian army was not engaged in combat until 1941, when three Divisions joined Allied operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Photo 1: At sea off Crete in the Mediterranean, 19 July 1940: Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni under attack from HMAS Sydney near Cape Spada. AWM P01103.005
Following early successes against Italian forces in the Mediterranean, the Australians with their Allies, suffered defeat at the hands of the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa. In June and July 1941 Australians participated in the successful Allied invasion of Syria.
Approximately 14000 Australians held out against repeated German attacks in the Libyan port of Tobruk. After being relieved two Divisions departed from the Mediterranean theatre for the war against Japan. The last Division remained to play an important role in the Allied victory in Africa before it also left for the Pacific. By the end of 1942 the only Australians remaining in the Mediterranean theatre were airmen serving either with 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) or in the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Photo 2: North Africa, 6 January 1941: Australian troops advance into Bardia. AWM 069221
Japan entered the war in December 1941 and swiftly achieved a series of victories, resulting in the occupation of most of south-east Asia and large areas of the Pacific by the end of March 1942. Singapore fell in February, with the loss of an entire Australian division. After the bombing of Darwin that same month, all RAN ships along with the two Divisions of soldiers in the Mediterranean theatre, returned to defend Australia.
In March 1942, after the fall of the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), Japan's southward advance continued but they met greater resistance when the return of Australia’s experienced soldiers from the Mediterranean campaigns. The threat of invasion receded as the Allies won a series of decisive battles: in the Coral Sea (on the Great Barrier Reef), at Midway, and in Papua New Guinea (on Imita Ridge, the Kokoda Trail, and at Milne Bay).
Photo 3: Milne Bay, Papua, September 1942: a Bofors gun position manned by the 2/9th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, at Gili-Gili airfield. In the background a Kittyhawk is about to land. AWM 026629
Source of text - The Australian War Memorial.
Activity 3 - Mapping where Australians fought in WWII: (Your teacher will print the map for you)
Identify these places Australians were involved during WWII by matching the locations with the numbers on the map:
● Burma
● New Guinea
● Crete and Greece
● Singapore
● El Alamein (Egypt)
● Tobruk (Libya)
● Lebanon, Syria and Iraq (Middle East)
● Indonesia (Dutch East Indies)
Further details to add to your map
● Britain
● Coral Sea
1.2 Where Australians Fought.docxPage updated
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