Falling bombs and the rise of a nation - Six: Drawing lines and pulling back

in OCD5 years ago

Give up most of Australia to the enemy? It seems crazy to say it, but that's exactly what was tabled. It was a last resort strategy considered as one of the options against a determined enemy. Here's some of the story.

Australia is a huge country with relatively few people. It meant our military forces were quite limited back in the late 1930's and early 1940's when war broke out. This was mainly due to our small population and limited financial resources together with our reliance upon Britain and her resources. It paid to have powerful friends. Our main military forces, the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) was serving in far away lands leaving very little back home to hold the fort.

With the brutal way in which Japan was conquering territory it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the big brown land at the bottom of the world, and its resource-rich land.

Due to the sheer size of the land it would be almost impossible to defend so other plans were devised.

Plans were tabled to focus defensive efforts to the "more vital" industrial centres in the east and south-east portion of the country. An imaginary line, to be known as The Brisbane Line was to begin above Brisbane and arc around to Adelaide with the everyone outside of that line being pulled back into the more defensible area.

The image above shows the defensive positions in 1942 as per an official report from General MacArthur. The defensive positions are circled and the black curved line to the right is the Brisbane Line, or part of it.

You can see the main defence area marked from Adelaide around to Brisbane, including Tasmania. The rest of Australia was to be forsaken. src

This "Brisbane Line" strategy was first secretly discussed by Britain's Winston Churchill and Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies before the war but it was kept extremely quiet, for obvious reasons. Abandoning seven eighths of the land wouldn't be popular.

Exactly when the plan was first proposed is unknown, nevertheless, there is evidence that there were indeed plans to fall back to more defensible positions allowing a concentrated effort to repel the enemy when they came rather than trying to defend a massive front which would surely lead to failure.

It came up again in 1942 when Eddie Ward, a politician from Sydney, stood before Parliament and called-out Robert Menzies for the plan questioning how the country could follow such a man who proposes such an abominable plan without even firing s shot first!

You can imagine the arguments that ensued between the politicians; One side so ready to abandon seven eighths of Australia to the Japanese and the other not wanting to have anything to do with a government so willing to forsake the country without so much as a shot fired in anger. Unheard of!

Fortunately once war actually did break out the plan was not supported by the new government headed by Prime Minister John Curtain although incarnations of it were talked about with General MacArthur referring to the Brisbane Line in an official report. The map above is from that report.

This was all good and well for those down south, well away from the death and destruction but up in Darwin was where the real work was getting done.

In Darwin things were moving apace with the RAAF base being cleared of the destruction and debris from 19th February bombing attacks and those since. They were busy finding and disposing of unexploded ordinance dropped by the Japanese and bolstering the defences for what may, and did eventually, come.

One way they sought to mitigate the bombing risk was to construct roadside airstrips for the fighters spread around the area rather than concentrated in a single location. These were often crudely constructed, usually compacted by 44 gallon drums full of water rolled along by the men...The Aussies were short of equipment, but not ingenuity. They still exist today too...One can walk on them, imagine a spitfire taking off climbing skyward and into battle.

The air strips were crude but serviceable and soon more P40 Kittyhawk fighters began arriving along with the efficient American Liberator bombers and the much-sought-after Spitfires! Now they could take it to the Japanese!

The Japanese were still bombing but now realised one of their biggest mistakes; They had not followed up the devastating Darwin bombings with a ground invasion.

They should have taken Darwin when it was battered and bleeding from the intense bombing, when it was in disarray and its defence was in tatters. It would have meant they had a firm footing on the continent, air fields to launch heavy bombers from and a supply line reaching all the way back to Japan. That ground invasion would have been virtually impossible for Australia to dislodge once it had gained a toe-hold. It would have changed the course of the war in the Pacific and probably the outcome here in Australia had they done so, especially considering the Brisbane Line strategy of pull back and hold. If that happened, and my ancestors survived, this post may have been written in Japanese.

Still, despite that error, the bombings didn't let up with the Japanese ranging further inland to destroy the airstrips and supply dumps where possible. It was harder work though; There was no longer any element of surprise and the Aussies and Americans were getting organised from a defensive perspective. There was more resistance from the ground, anti-aircraft and machine gun batteries, and the arrival of the Liberators and Spitfires meant the air was no longer ruled by the enemy.

The two sides squared off and fell into a series of brutal punch, and counter-punch, air battles. Bombing sorties came inland from the Japanese and the allies took them out to see to bomb the Japanese fleet and many dogfights took place between the Japanese Zero fighters and the Kittyhawks and Spitfires of the allies. Of course men died, on both sides; It was the way of war, and this one was no different.

The two combatants attacked and defended with the Australian's usually on the back foot however they had motivation, and the nation at their back.

The Aussies didn't like what had happened to Darwin, and that it had caught them unawares...It wouldn't happen again, they vowed, and they dug deep within, worked hard and fought hard in the typical Aussie way. They put themselves in harms way for those down south, their families, and yes, even those bloody politicians who were happy give most of Australia to the enemy. "Not on your bloody life you bastards," the men thought. "Not on my watch."

The Brisbane Line policy was never tested fortunately. I believe it would have been disastrous and could have lost the whole of Australia to the enemy in quick fashion. We will never really know of course, thanks to a few who put themselves in harms way, both Aussies and those brash, likeable yanks. A bunch of dedicated and selfless people offered themselves up in defence of the country in the far away Northern Territory; A town called Darwin and the skies over head, was the battlefield. The fight for Australia was on.


Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
An original post written by a human
Discord: galenkp#9209 🇦🇺

NOTE about this series:
A little while ago I announced a series I would do about the bombing of Darwin, Australia. I've done three posts so far and it's time for part four. You can find the other three by following the links part one, part two, part three, part four and part five here.

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Thanks, good History! When they did bring their invasion fleet, they had a little trouble in the Coral Sea....

The fighting you guys did in New Ginea was some of the nastiest in the war. The conditions were stunningly bad, almost worse that the enemy! Sitting on top of it was New Briton (Rabaul) in Japanese hands....

We had a different kind of condition problem in the Allutians, but still brutal.

Does altitude enter into windage, due to decreased air density / wind pressure?

Yes, the PNG campaign was horrific. You know I've trekked the Kokoda Trail right? I think you saw the posts a while back right?

Altitude affects the shot yes. Mostly the drop, not windage. I factor in the altitude, temperature and humidity as a single figure called density altitude (DA) which can make a massive difference to the shot.
Depending on the range the elevation dial can be massively different. I think the windage isn't all that different as you will see below. Greater distance affects windage more than altitude.

The chart below is straight off my ballistics app and shows a DA of 1200m. The rifle is .243 CTR.

You will note the windage isn't affected too much as I set the wind at 1mph full value (90 degrees)

Screenshot_20200225-071757_Strelok Pro.jpg

Now look at this one where I set the wind at 10mph full value...DA 1200.

Screenshot_20200225-072347_Strelok Pro.jpg

Now the same as above with a DA of 200.

Screenshot_20200225-074006_Strelok Pro.jpg

The settings...

Screenshot_20200225-072553_Strelok Pro.jpg

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I would love to dive in Iron Bottom Sound to look over the lost ships from both sides. That sounds like a 'Nice' hike for sure! I have a 7.7mm Ariska that came from Ie Shima. My Father was there, in a repair unit. A group of starving Japanese got behind our lines, and surrendered to his unit.

Surrendering most of the continent without a fight was a crazy idea! I am glad they changed their minds.

I was just wondering because they correct the power curve for wind generators up in Denver (5000 foot altitude) for a reduced output.

It still surprises me that the velocity drops off so fast, I need to get a good calculator for this.

I recall your dad served. Also your father in law? Was shot in the arm? I'm sure you have some stories from them, although many don't talk about their experiences.

Yes, velocity drops away quickly. I find it fascinating how a few degrees and some humidity can make such a dramatic difference. Get it wrong and it means a miss. In some situations missing a target can have monumental ramifications.

I use Strelok Pro for my ballistics. I'll do a post on it someday.

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Dad was wounded in the arm, Her Dad was shot down twice in a B29. Great fun in the 1940's.

Humidity is a variable I had not considered...still learning, SMH! Temperature is something that lowers the air density due to expansion, so I can see that changing drop. Working to wrap my arms around these variables.

More work to do to properly use my toys at long ranges. Lots to learn still, but I am enjoying the learning process!

Does Strelok Pro un on the smart phone, or is it a separate unit?

:)>

That's right, I recall now...The B29 crewman...Good that they both survived.

Strelok Pro is available for smartphone. I run it on my Samsung S9. I think it's also available to iOS as well. if you have any questions email [email protected] as he is the developer. A Russian chap. I've emailed him with a question or two and he gets back to me really quickly. Seems a good sort.

I will look for it, what will it cost? I like responsive vendors! Besides, I need a Man named Igor on my mailing list....

:)>

Hmm, I cant recall the cost and it doesn't show up on the Playstore now as I already have it installed. It was not much. I'm thinking $30 AUD or something like that. Worth the money though. Here's the website.

http://www.borisov.mobi/StrelokPro/android/



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A fascinating post mate. I went back and read your others from this series and yes WWII was a global event but anything which occurred outside of Europe is only mentioned briefly if at all in UK schools. So this is a whole theatre of war I’m very lacking in knowledge of, thank you for sharing and curing my ignorance.

Hey there, thanks for reading and commenting. Yes, so much happed outside of the EU. It's amazing. Aussies were there the whole way. We faced Rommel and his tanks in Africa, the Japanese and and even flew over England in the Battle of Britain. Have you been reading my Kokoda Trail posts also?

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I haven’t read your Kokoda Trail posts no mate, but I will be now. I think a lot of people in Britain know that more happened in the Pacific theatre and around the world but we just never get around to looking into it (and our education system is now shying away from teaching anything remotely pro Nationalistic or British Empire). I’d say the majority of people would think of WWI and Gallipoli in reference to Australians and New Zealander’s fighting for the the Commonwealth and it’s embarrassing and a little shameful we don’t acknowledge or know about the sacrifices so many others have made.

Yes, I agree with all you say, however that's the British for you. It's how they were at the time. Australia was a colony and as such subject to the whims of the British government, and as such, the military. We, along with other countries, would often get fed to the wolves in preference to British soldiers. That happened at the Nek, on the Gallipoli peninsular. We were the diversion. See my post below.

https://steemit.com/hive-174578/@galenkp/showcase-sunday-goodbye-cobber

Still, we did our duty for king and country, as did the Kiwi's and many others. It's how it was. It would be nice to have it remembered though, and not annexed under a British operation. This is happening these days of course, and I believe Australia has found a place in the hearts of many because of the tenacity and sprit they showed on the battlefield.

Well your linked post was bloody impressive and powerful mate. I don’t really know what else to say, you’re right so many men from all around the world died fighting for their rulers and ‘country’ and it’s nearly impossible for us to really comprehend that today. Hopefully if enough people remember their sacrifices we may one day not repeat the actions as a society which led to these men having to give their all in the first place.

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Thank you mate, I appreciate you saying so.

Humans have short memories when it comes to learning from the past, or maybe we're all just stupid. Maybe someday we'll learn though huh?

Realistically I feel that our world will always be a conflicted one and that we’re doomed to repeat our mistakes. But it’s the hope in things being better one day which keeps us going, that and I think all people fundamentally know right and wrong and make a choice of which to favour.

As long as greed, ego and hubris are part of the human make-up then yes, our world will continue to be conflicted. Of course, as you say, all, (or most), people know right from wrong but add in those other three elements above and common sense seems to fly out the window.

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I donno, properly pissed off Australians can be an angry bunch and sometimes all you have to do is want something more than your opponents and then it doesn't matter if they're bigger and better resourced than you XD

Were the invading forces stretched pretty thin too? There seemed to have been a bit going on in that period of time (though I would have to actually dive back into research to see how much x_x).

properly pissed off Australians can be an angry bunch

I know this to be true as I've been one...A pissed off Aussie. Lol.

The invading force wasn't really stretched thin. They were operating of aircraft carriers and had a lot of resources at their disposal. Had they invaded by land after the initial bombing they would have taken Darwin, Townsville and Broome before Australia even knew it. Lucky that didn't happen. The fleet ended up being all but destroyed in the battle at Midway with the carriers sunk and that inhibited their operations somewhat. Thats when the Kokoda campaign in PNG was happening too. The Japanese were running out of rubber and oil, steel also...This is why they needed Australia. It was a near thing really. They almost got it.

Howdy sir galenkp! This is so interesting and great writing too! I had no idea they actually had a plan to let the Japanese have most of the country!