Outbreak of war
Five women bid farewell to a troop ship as it leaves Melbourne carrying 6th Division's advance party in December 1939.
Between World War I and World War II, Australia suffered greatly from the Great Depression. This limited Australian defence expenditure and led to a decline in the size and effectiveness of the armed forces during the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the years leading up to the war, Australia followed Britain's policy towards Nazi Germany, supporting first its appeasement of Hitler and then its guarantee of Polish independence.[3]
Australia entered the war against Germany on 3 September 1939, shortly after Britain declared war when its ultimatum for Germany to withdraw from Poland expired.[4] The Government's decision to immediately enter the war was primarily made on the grounds that Australia's interests were inextricably linked to those of Britain, and that a British defeat would destroy the system of imperial defence which Australia relied upon for security against Japan. This position received almost universal public support, though there was little enthusiasm for war.[5]
At the time war was declared, the Australian armed forces were less prepared than at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was the best prepared of the three services, but was small and equipped with only two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, two sloops, five obsolete destroyers and a number of small and auxiliary warships.[6] The Australian Army comprised a small permanent cadre of 3,000 men and 80,000 part-time militiamen who had volunteered for training with the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was the weakest of the services, and few of its 246 aircraft were modern.[7] While the Government began a large military expansion and transferred some RAAF aircrew and units to British control upon the outbreak of war, it was unwilling to immediately dispatch an expeditionary force overseas due to the threat posed by Japanese intervention.[8]
Mercado de Divisas
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