Australia and the War in the Pacific, 1942–45

The preparations for defending Australia during the period from federation in 1901 to the start of the war in the Pacific in 1942 are a sorry tale of wishful thinking, misplaced hope, and a failure to understand that Australia’s geostrategic situation was vastly different to the one faced by Great Britain in Europe. The problem was that – being tied so closely to Britain’s imperial apron strings – Australia tended to do as it was told, ¹ and consequently made plans for wars that bore no resemblance to the strategic realities of home defence.