We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
The story of the 6th Division's origins is the story of the founding of the Second Australian Imperial Force, for the division was the first raised for World War II.
Twelve days after Australia followed Britain into war against Germany on 3 September 1939 the government decided to raise a division for overseas service. Lack of equipment, hesitation about the value of land forces in modern warfare, Labor party opposition, fear of Japanese intentions and uncertainty about the length of the coming European war all delayed the decision. However, on 15 September 1939, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced in a radio broadcast that a new Australian infantry division would be created to serve at home or abroad. The division would be the nucleus of a 20000-man special force, to be called the Second Australian Imperial Force, or AIF. Australia already had a militia of 80000 men who had volunteered for home defence and a regular force of about 2800. Half of the 20000 vacancies in the new special force were allotted to the militia, but only about 5000 volunteers came forward from that source. Most of the remaining volunteers had no military experience.
Because five militia infantry divisions already existed in Australia, the new division was named the 6th Division. It was, however, the first division of its kind raised for World War II. Inevitably, World War I and especially the First AIF loomed large in the minds of politicians and soldiers of all ranks as the new force was organised. For example, the first entry in the war diary of one of the division's three infantry brigades says:
Today the years between the demobilisation of the famous 1st. A.I.F. and the formation of the 2nd were bridged when Bde Cmdrs and Bde Majors attended a Divisional conference at Army H.Q., Victoria Barracks, St. Kilda Rd.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
