WW2 Pacific Veterans - Battle for Australia Day

Battle won on dedicated Pacific war day
Patrick Walters, National security editor June 26, 2008

AFTER a long campaign by the RSL and a group of dedicated World War II Pacific veterans, the Rudd Government will today officially declare the first Wednesday in September "Battle for Australia Day".

Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin will announce the new official commemoration, which marks the year 1942, when Australia thwarted Japan's southward advance into New Guinea and the Coral Sea.

Governor-General Michael Jeffery officially proclaimed "Battle for Australia Day" as a national day of observance in a proclamation published in yesterday's Commonwealth Gazette.

Kokoda - Front Line.

Kokoda - R.A.A.F Eagles over New Guinea.

Appointment in Tokyo (1 of 6)

The idea for a special Battle for Australia Day commemoration was first raised more than a decade ago by the RSL with the veterans' organisation wanting a sharper focus on the momentous events of 1942 in the southwest Pacific.

While the proposal won in-principle endorsement from the Howard government, it has been strongly challenged by mainstream military historians who reject the formal notion of a "Battle for Australia".

"We are commemorating a battle which did not occur. Australians want to commemorate their wartime experience, but they have chosen the wrong vehicle," leading military historian Peter Stanley told The Australian last night.

Dr Stanley, the author of a book to be published next week on the battle for Australia, says the new "revisionist" view of 1942 has never figured in general histories of Australia or in specialist studies of the Pacific war.

The RSL has cited a speech by wartime prime minister John Curtin in February 1942 as the inspiration for the concept.

At that time, Curtin said the fall of Singapore "opens the battle for Australia".

The RSL and the unofficial Battle for Australia Council has wanted to see much more visible recognition of the series of 1942 battles against the Japanese, including the initial victory at Milne Bay in early 1942 followed by the battle of the Coral Sea and the Kokoda campaign.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23923683-31477,00.html

LINKS:

http://www.ww2pacific.com/

www.awm.gov.au/underattack/index.asp

www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/

www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/bfa/attack.html

www.diggerhistory.info/.../ww2/coral_sea.htm

readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2006/11/turning-j...

www.ww2australia.gov.au/underattack/airraid.html