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Declaring War on Germany
On 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced that Australia was at war with Germany.After Great Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Australia raised a volunteer force, the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and sent the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions of the AIF overseas to support Britain.
Japan would enter the war on the side of the Germans. -
Siege of Tobruk
The Australian, British and Polish divisions under siege in Tobruk were twice attacked by Rommel's forces, and both times retained control of the Libyan port. The siege was lifted after nearly eight months. -
HMAS Sydney sunk in Indian Ocean
On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney, a light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy with an impressive record of war service, was lost following a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran in the Indian Ocean off the Western Australian coast. The loss of the Sydney with 645 on board remains Australia’s worst naval disaster. -
Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin
On 19 February 1942, 188 Japanese planes were launched against Darwin, whose harbour was full of Allied ships. It was the largest Japanese attack since Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941, and followed a reconnaissance flight on 10 February 1942. -
Japan invades New Guinea
The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. In the initial phase in 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian-administered territories of the New Guinea Mandate (23 January) and Papua (8 March) and overran western New Guinea (beginning 29/30 March), which was a part of the Netherlands East Indies. In the second phase, the Allies cleared the Japanese first from Papua, then the Mandate and finally from the Dutch colony. -
HMAS Canberra sunk in Battle of Savo Sea
In the darkness of the early hours of the morning of 9 August 1942 the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was severely damaged off Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) in a surprise attack by a powerful Japanese naval force in an action that became known as the Battle of Savo Island. Canberra was hit 24 times in less than two minutes and 84 of her crew were killed including Captain Frank Getting. Following an order to abandon ship the Canberra was sunk the next day by a torpedo from a US destroyer. -
600 Japanese soldiers arrive at Milne Bay
Development of the first airstrips at Milne Bay began in July 1942. Australian infantry and American engineers were sent to begin clearing land for the airstrips and the base that would support them. Over the following weeks, more ships arrived, bringing more men, supplies and equipment for base development, and by the end of August nearly 9000 Allied personnel, mostly Australian, were based at Milne Bay. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Battle of El Alamein, fought in the deserts of North Africa, is seen as one of the decisive victories of World War Two. The Battle of El Alamein was mainly fought between two of the outstanding commanders of World War Two, Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed Auchinleck, and Rommel. The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of Africa.
The war ended on the 11th November 1942. -
Australians recapture Kokoda
On, 2 November 1942, when the Australians returned permanently, which is the official date of the recapture of Kokoda. On that day a patrol from 2/31st Battalion, the vanguard of Maroubra Force, entered Kokoda Government Station to find the Japanese had left two days before. By the afternoon the whole battalion had arrived and secured the area, capturing also Kokoda village, two kilometres away to the east on the track leading to the north coast. -
Battle of Sanananda
The battle of Sanananda, 19 November 1942-22 January 1943, was the longest of the three battles that saw the Allies eliminate the Japanese beachhead on the northern coast of Papua. This beachhead, spread out from Gona in the west to Buna in the east, had been established to support a Japanese offensive across the Kokoda Trail towards Port Moresby. The Japanese reached within 30 miles of Port Moresby, before first being ordered to go onto the defensive. -
Battle of North Borneo
The Borneo campaign of 1945 was one of the most complex operations involving Australian land, air and sea forces in the war.
Borneo had been captured by the Japanese in early 1942. Most of the island was part of the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia) but the north and north-west was British territory.During 1942 and 1943, many prisoners of war, including Australians, were sent to various locations on the island. -
End of World War 2-Victory of Japan Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
