Australia in the War of 1939–1945

A group photo of the authors of Australia in the War of 1939–1945 in 1954. Chester Wilmot died later in the year and was replaced by Barton Maughan.

Australia in the War of 1939–1945 is a 22 volume official history series covering Australia's involvement in the Second World War. The series was published by the Australian War Memorial between 1952 and 1977. Most volumes in the series were edited by Gavin Long, who also wrote three volumes in the series and the summary volume The Six Year War.

In contrast to the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, this series has a greater focus on the war's impact upon domestic events, including volumes on operations of the Australian Government and contributions made by Australian industry and science. In addition, Australia in the War of 1939–1945 includes a series on the history of the Australian military's medical services, and the problems encountered by these services, during the war.

Writing the series

In April 1943 the Australian War Cabinet decided that plans should be made to write an official history of Australia's involvement in World War II. Gavin Long was appointed the general editor of the prospective series on the recommendation of C.E.W. Bean, the editor of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, in January 1943 and presented a provisional plan of the series to the War Cabinet which approved it in July 1943. The War Cabinet approved a revised plan shortly after the end of the war and after further refinements in 1950 it was decided that the series would comprise 22 volumes. A proposed volume on Australia's strategic policies, including negotiations with the British and United States governments, was not authorised as it was believed that this could be detrimental to postwar policy. In 1982 the Australian War Memorial jointly published David Horner's book High Command. Australia and Allied Strategy 1939–1945 which was marketed as being "the book which Prime Minister John Curtin directed the official historian not to write".

Gavin Long selected the authors of the series and these appointments were approved by a government committee. Long required that the authors have "some or all of three positive qualifications: experience of the events, proved ability to write lucidly and engagingly, [and] training as a historian". It was also decided that authors would not be able to write on topics in which they had played a leading part during the war. Selecting and engaging authors took up much of Long's time, and some potential authors declined offers of appointment and a replacement for Chester Wilmot's volume on the Siege of Tobruk and Battle of El Alamein had to be found in 1954 after he was killed in a plane crash. Once selected by Long, authors were confirmed by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, two or three other ministers and the Leader of the Opposition. Long and the general editor of the medical series were salaried and the other authors signed contracts to complete their work within a specified time frame and were paid in installments as parts of their work were delivered. Of the 13 principal authors, five were academics and five were journalists. The official historians were supported by salaried research assistants who were members of the Australian Public Service and the project was administered by the Department of the Interior.

While the series was funded by the Australian Government, the authors were free to write on all topics other than technical secrets which were classified at the time and were not otherwise censored. The authors were given unrestricted access to official records, and the Army, Navy and Air series were mainly based on these records and the hundreds of interviews Long had conducted with Australian military personnel during the war. German, Italian and Japanese records were also used to provide information on the enemies the Australian military fought and draft chapters were sent for comment to the official historians in Britain, New Zealand and the United States.

The 22 volumes were published by the Australian War Memorial between 1952 and 1977, with most books being completed and released in the 1950s and early 1960s. The publishing company Collins began a project to print the series with new introductions by modern scholars in the 1980s after the University of Queensland Press reprinted the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. This project was terminated after the first three volumes in the Army series and both volumes in the Navy series were reprinted, however.

Volumes

The 22 volumes in Australia in the War of 1939–1945 were organised into five series. Gavin Long edited the Army, Navy, Air and Civil series and Allan Seymour Walker edited the Medical series and wrote most of the volumes on this topic. The series also included a concise history of Australia's role in the war, which was written by Long and was titled The Six Years War.

Series 1 – Army

• Volume I – To Benghazi - Gavin Long (1952)
• Volume II – Greece, Crete and Syria - Gavin Long (1953)
• Volume III – Tobruk and El Alamein - Barton Maughan (1967)
• Volume IV – The Japanese Thrust - Lionel Wigmore (1957)
• Volume V – South–West Pacific Area – First Year: Kokoda to Wau - Dudley McCarthy (1959)
• Volume VI – The New Guinea Offensives - David Dexter (1961)
• Volume VII – The Final Campaigns - Gavin Long (1963)

Series 2 – Navy

• Volume I – Royal Australian Navy, 1939–1942 - G. Hermon Gill (1957)
• Volume II – Royal Australian Navy, 1942–1945 - G. Hermon Gill (1969)

G. Hermon Gill wrote both the volumes in the series on the Royal Australian Navy's activities. Gill was a journalist who had served in the RAN's Naval Intelligence Division and Naval Historical Records section during the war. He was more successful than most of the other authors in placing his subject in the global context in which it operated, though on occasions he exaggerated the RAN's importance in Australia's war effort. The two volumes in the naval series were published in 1957 and 1969.

Gill's account of the battle between HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran in November 1941 has been criticised by some authors who view it as being part of an official cover-up. Gill, however, reached his conclusions independently and without censorship and his account of the battle is generally considered to have been as accurate as possible given that little evidence is available on the events which led to Sydney being sunk with the loss of her entire crew. Nevertheless, naval historian and Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force Tome Frame argues that while Gill "was a man of integrity" and not influenced by the Navy, his account of the battle is "bad history" as it is contradictory and "went beyond the reliable and corroborated evidence which was available to him".

Series 3 – Air

• Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force, 1939–1942 - Douglas Gillison (1962)
• Volume II – Air War Against Japan, 1943–1945 - George Odgers (1957)
• Volume III – Air War Against Germany and Italy, 1939–1943 - John Herington (1954)
• Volume IV – Air Power Over Europe, 1944–1945 - John Herington (1963)

The Air series covers the operations of the Royal Australian Air Force during the war, including the experiences of the thousands of members of the RAAF who were trained through the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) and served with the British Royal Air Force. The series was written by three authors. Douglas Gillison was regarded as Australia's leading aviation journalist and served in the RAAF during the war, George Odgers was also a journalist who had served in both the Army and Air Force and John Herrington was a trained historian who had served in RAF and RAAF maritime patrol squadrons.

While George Odgers' volume covered only RAAF operations against Japan, the other three authors of the Air series, and particularly John Herington, faced the challenge of covering the diverse experiences of the EATS graduates who served in over 500 British squadrons. Herington's solution to this challenge was to write a comprehensive short history of British air warfare, with a focus on the small number of Australian squadrons and the main activities of Australian personnel in RAF units. Gillison and Herington also wrote about how EATS operated and its implications for Australia. Herington's account of EATS is generally considered superior to that provided by Gillison, whose account is regarded as being relatively uncritical of the scheme.

Series 4 – Civil

• Volume I – The Government and the People, 1939–1941 - Paul Hasluck (1952)
• Volume II – The Government and the People, 1942–1945 - Paul Hasluck (1970)
• Volume III – War Economy, 1939–1942 - S.J. Butlin (1955)
• Volume IV – War Economy, 1942–1945 - S.J. Butlin and C B Schedvin (1977)
• Volume V – The Role of Science and Industry - David P. Mellor (1958)

Series 5 – Medical

• Volume I – Clinical Problems of War - Allan S. Walker (1952)
• Volume II – Middle East and Far East - Allan S. Walker (1953)
• Volume III – The Island Campaigns - Allan S. Walker (1957)
• Volume IV – Medical Services of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force with a section on women in the Army Medical Services - Allan S. Walker and others (1961)

Allan S. Walker was a pathology specialist who served with Australian Army medical units in both world wars and taught at the University of Sydney. He declined Long's initial invitation to write the Medical series in 1944, but accepted it after Long's second choice, Rupert Downes, was killed in 1945. While Downes had intended to engage a number of specialist authors, Walker regarded this a being impractical and wrote the series himself. Walker wrote the first three volumes and completed much of the work for the final volume before ill-health forced him to resign in 1956 and the book was completed by other writers. The five chapters on the experiences of women in the Army Medical Services in Volume IV are significant as they cover the first time large numbers of female members of the Australian military had been posted overseas. The medical volumes were written primarily for the benefit of practitioners of military medicine, but have a wider appeal as they contain military detail not found in other volumes. The books proved relatively popular, and were reprinted in the years after publication.

The Six Years War

The Six Years War was Gavin Long's short history of Australia's role in World War II. In 1943 Long proposed producing a short history of Australia's role in the war as soon as possible after the war ended. This did not eventuate, however, and The Six Years War was the second last volume to be published. Long began work on the book in 1945 and continued on it throughout the official history project. The Six Years War is "derived almost entirely" from the work of the 13 authors of the official history series, and these authors drafted substantial parts of the book. While Long completed the book's manuscript in 1967, its publication was delayed until 1973 while the second volumes in the Navy and Civil series were completed. As a result, Long did not live to see the book published as he died in October 1968.

Reception

Australia in the War of 1939–1945 had less of an impact on later Australian histories of World War II than the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 has had on histories of World War I. The series has been criticised as lacking the authority of Bean's work and some of the volumes on campaigns are regarded as being over-detailed. The volumes dealing with government and politics and the war economy remain dominant in their fields, however. Bean's history has also out-sold the World War II series. While Gavin Long's achievement has not received the same degree of recognition as C.E.W. Bean's, both series are generally seen has having created an important tradition for Australian official histories which includes high standards of accuracy, comprehensiveness and literary skill.

While much has been written on C.E.W. Bean and the the other authors of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, there has to date been little research published on how Australia in the War of 1939–1945 was written and the experiences of Long and the other authors.

References

• Beaumont, Joan (1996). "Introduction". In Joan Beaumont (ed.). Australia's War, 1939–1945. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1864480394.
• Condé, Anne-Marie. "Gavin Long and the Official History of Australia in the War of 1939–1945". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
• Dennis, Peter (1995). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195532279. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Edwards, Peter (2000). "Australian Official War Histories 1970–1994". In Robin Higham (ed.). Official Military Historical Offices and Sources. Volume II: The Western Hemisphere and Pacific Rim. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313308624.
• Edwards, Peter (2003). "Continuity and Change in the Australian Official History Tradition". In Jeffrey Grey (ed.). The last word? Essays on official history in the United States and British Commonwealth. Westport: Praeger. ISBN 0313310831.
• Ekins, Ashley (2007). "On Writing Official History". Australian War Memorial Anniversary Oration. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
• Horner, David (1982). High Command. Australia and Allied Strategy 1939–1945. Sydney: Australian War Memorial and Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0868610763.
• Frame, Tom (1993). HMAS Sydney. Loss and Controversy. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340584688.
• Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (1999). The loss of HMAS Sydney. Canberra: Parliament of Australia.
• Maclean, Ian (1993). A Guide to the Records of Gavin Long. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. ISBN 0642196818.
• Long, Gavin (1954). "The Australian War History Tradition". Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand. 6 (23).
• Long, Gavin (1970). "The History of Australia in World War II". In Robin Higham (ed.). Official Histories. Essays and bibliographies from around the world. Manhattan, Kansas: Kansas State University Library.
• Long, Gavin (1973). The Six Years War. A Concise History of Australia in the 1939–1945 War. Canberra: The Australian War Memorial and the Australian Government Printing Service. ISBN 0642993750. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Nelson, Hank. "Report on historical sources on Australia and Japan at war in Papua and New Guinea, 1942-45". Australia-Japan Research Project. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
• Ramsey, Alan (2006-04-22). "A mateship that spoke volumes". Opinion. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
• Stanley, Peter (2003). "Gavin Long and History at the Australian War Memorial". In Jeffrey Grey (ed.). The last word? Essays on official history in the United States and British Commonwealth. Westport: Praeger. ISBN 0313310831.
• Sweeting, A.J. (2000). "Long, Gavin Merrick (1901–1968)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
• Veitch, Harriet (2008-03-31). "The last keeper of the flame". Obituaries. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-08-26.

External links

• Australian War Memorial: PDF versions of the series