Australia didn't have a huge role during WWII,but it did have a few important moments. Australia suffered a lot from the Great Depression and this left their armed forces pretty weak. Before the war, Australia followed the policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain which avoided war with Nazi Germany. On September 1st 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and when they wouldn't withdrawal their troops, Britain declared war. Australia entered the war against Germany a few days after this because they agreed with Britain and also because they knew that if Britain was to be defeated then Australia's defense that they would need against Japan would be broken.
The Australian government in the interwar years was a democracy closely related to that of Britain's and the United States'. In 1920 the Communist Party of Australia was formed but was banned during WWII because it supported the Hilter-Stalin Pact and the Menzies government. Another party that was formed in 1920 was the Country Party whose main slogan was "Countrymindedness".
There were five different prime ministers elected during WWII in Australia. They were Robert Menzies (Apr. 1939- Aug. 1941), Arthur Fadden (Aug. 1941-Oct. 1941), John Curtin (Oct. 1941- July 1945), Francis Forde (July 6th, 1945- July 13th 1945), and Ben Chifley (July 1945-Dec. 1949). John Curtin was arguably the most successful Prime Minister during this time. His close friendship with Douglas MacArthur gave Australia the voice it needed in Washington.
Australia obviously had close ties with Britain and so many troops were sent to Europe in WWII. Australia stared having some trouble wit Japan though, so Prime Minister John Curtin pulled the troops outof Europe so they could defend their own country. Britain didn't like this too much.
Australia spent a lot of money on this war and also lost quite a bit of it's military. During the war there were a little over 27,000 deaths. About 10,000 of which occured during the war against Germany and Italy, and about 17,000 occured during the war against Japan.
Personally I don't really like reading or writing about war. It kind of bums me out so this blog assignment wasn't one of my favorites. But also Germany seems to really get on my nerves during this time period, but that's probably true for a lot of people. Overall I think Australia didn't really have a huge impact on the war but definately had it's place.
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John Curtin ^
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vocham.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Australia_during_World_War_II
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_the_leader_of_Australia_during_World_War_2
http://www.about-australia.com/facts/government/
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