A more powerful Curtain Call - The Australasian Federation and World War 2

[johnboy]

0616 2 March 1957, Garden Island Sydney

Rear Admiral Wilfred "Arch" Harrington had assembled his Task Force for the Indonesian operation. It's objective was simple enough, to interdict all Indonesian shipping in the Java Sea. He no longer had any real reason to fear the Indonesian Navy, it's only offensive vessels left after their disastrous encounter with HMAS Melbourne being three Whiskey Class submarines and five destroyers.

It was their land based air that would pose the most problem, however, the raid on the 28th February had destroyed the Indonesian fleet of Tu-16 bombers and it would be only the older types that need concern him. Firstly, his own flagship HMAS Sydney would be accompanied by the light carrier HMAS Wellington and six Daring Class destroyers. Two submarines had already departed from Fleet Base Perth, another two would follow from Fleet Base Auckland within days. Finally, underway replenishment forces, escorted by older Bathurst Class ships and the old destroyer Arunta would also follow.

The two carriers had large air wings, consisting of:
Sydney: 32 de Havilland Venoms, 24 Fairey Gannets, 4 Westland Whirlwind Helicopters
Wellington: 16 CAC-15's, 8 Fairey Gannets, 4 Westland Whirlwind Helicopters

The air force was moving assets to RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia as well as Darwin to support operations, including He 280 fighters and Vampire fighter/bombers. Strategic Nuclear forces had gone to a higher state of alert, status Yellow, from a peacetime status of Blue.

The army plans involved deployment of two Brigades as soon as they could be fully assembled and equipped, possibly followed by four more, including one armoured. Rumors abounded that SAS troops had already been deployed to Timor.

 

[johnboy]

1130 4 March 1957, Parliament House, Melbourne

One thing the Indonesian war, so soon after Korea, had made quite clear was that Australasia had drawn down it's armed forces too much and that the current defense budgets would not do, either for now or the foreseeable future. The currently percentage of GDP the government was allocating to defense, 2.4% was simply not sufficient.

One of the major sufferers of the draw down had been the senior service, the navy. Keith Hollyoake, as Defence Minister, watched he jackals of the Press Corps gather for the conference. He announced the the RAN would purchase HMS Terrible from the Royal Navy, the ship newly decommissioned. In addition, HMS Perseus, also newly decommissioned would be purchased as a amphibious transport and Australasia would construct three Type 41 frigates built locally.

Australasia's defence GDP was to rise from 2.4% to 4.3%, representing a substantial sum for a country now at 17 million people. Earlier procurement of the He-166 in greater numbers was also on the cards and the contract for 100 plus an option of 20 more Avro Arrows had been increased to 150 definitive orders with an option on 50 more. It was also specified that 20 be delivered by end July 1958.

 

[abc123]

Can we get a picture of He166 and He280?

 

[johnboy]

Can we get a picture of He166 and He280?

Post 2991 He-166. Post 3019-He 280

 

[johnboy]

6 March 1957, Sarikei, Kingdom of Sarawak

In response of appeals from the King, British forces, mainly consisting of Major General Richard Neville Anderson's 17th Gurkha Division had landed at Sarakei with the purpose of driving the Indonesians back and recapturing the capital, Kuching, which had fallen two weeks before.

With the Indonesians shipping starting to be interdicted by RN and RAN vessels, as well as RAF and RAAF aircraft, they no longer had much capacity of resupply or reinforce.

The Indonesian air force had, in fact, largely melted like butter, their two largest bases, Morotai and Surabaya, being hit badly by RAAF and RAF raids, respectively, destroying many aircraft on the ground. Two battalions of troops had also been deployed to Sandakan to hold British North Borneo until further reinforcements arrived.
It was common knowledge that Australasia had a Task Force aimed at Timor, aiming to reoccupy the island from Indonesian troops.

The destruction of the greater part of the Indonesian army and air force had stymied their objectives and their advance was slow indeed, in many cases unsupported by supplies.

 

[johnboy]

26 March 1957 Dili, East Timor

The Portuguese government agreeing on the 14th March to allow Australasian aircraft to use Dili in East Timor was to make the task of the RAAF and RAN just that much easier. With 38 He-280 fighters based at Dili, along with 10 CAC-15s as ground attack, the arrival of the RAN task force was to see almost 100 fighters able to cover shuttle raids of bombers from the air bases at Darwin.

The RAN Task force was able to invade and recapture the port of Kupang after a short but hard two day fight on the 26th March, losing one transport thankfully only after it had unloaded to an Indonesian submarine that was later itself sunk, driving the scattered Indonesian forces into the jungle. The Indonesians were now completely on the defensive, isolated in West Timor against a hostile local populace and in control of a large section of Borneo, but with substantial enemy forces in their line of advance and no way to resupply or reinforce.

It was an untenable solution that any military analyst could tell was no able to be sustained. The final catalyst for change was to be a controversial but certainly effective raid against Jakarta. It had been approved as Australasian intelligence sources were concerned that Soviet Russia was potentially readying itself to involve it's Pacific Fleet in the war, a worry that was later to prove groundless.

68 older He-2, as well as 5 He 166 bombers, escorted by 26 He-280 fighters attacked the city on the 12 April, laying waste to a large part of the Gambir district of the city, particularly the Presidential Palace. One day later Indonesia offered to surrender all forces outside Indonesia and withdraw from all captured territory. Mohammad Hatta had been installed as the new President, Sukarno having survived the bombing of the Presidential Palace but having been "retired."

It was an offer that was accepted and a peace conference was set for 16 April in Kupang.

 

[johnboy]

17 April 1957, Kupang, East Indonesia

Mohammad Hatta duly signed the peace treaty of behalf of Indonesia. In truth, he had little choice. At least in the firestorm of international protest at the bombing of Jakarta, Indonesia had gotten way with no territorial losses and little in the way of reparations, only 12 million to East Indonesia and 8 million of Sarawak.

Sukarno had been a fool, overreaching himself spectacularly. It was almost to late in life for Hatta to be President, but he was stuck with the job now. It was certainly preferable to the other option, military government. It was a blow to the country's prestige and indeed economy that was to take until the early 1970's to recover.

 

[johnboy]

12 August 1957, Domain Palace, Australasia

Sir Robert Menzies relaxed comfortably in the back of the limousine on the way to the palace. The aftermath of the Indonesian war and it's swift and decisive victory after the bloodbath of the Second World War and his governments policy of essentially thumbing their nose at international condemnation of the Jakarta bombing had paradoxically made his government immensely popular at home.

The country had accepted a large number of East Indonesian refugees in the few months of the conflict and he had made provisions for some that had no homes to go back to to be able to stay as refugees. With a 57 seat majority and popular support he could increase defense budgets to ensure the countries security and embark on a new, ambitious set of capital work programs by a modest increase in taxation that would partly be offset by the countries burgeoning population, now at more than 17 million and growing rapidly.

With the Snowy Schemes underway and the Ord River scheme an election promise that he intended to implement, Menzies wanted a definitive Nation building project to stamp his prime ministership on. With his government's majority, he had virtually a six year term. Investigating thermal power in New Zealand was certainly one, but the largest project, one that had come up many times in the past, was the Bradfield scheme. Estimated at 30 million pounds in 1937, it would be dearer by more feasible from an engineering point of view now. He had some ideas on how to fund it, not least of which was to release the brake on exports of both Iron Ore, of which vast deposits had been discovered in Werstern Australia and Uranium, present in both South Australia and the Northern Territory.

 

[johnboy]

10 November 1958 RAAF Richmond

"Jack" Frost watched as the first eight Avro Arrows were delivered. They were the first eight of what was to be an eventual order of 120 machines, slightly less than had been asked for during the Indonesian Crisis in 1957, but the same as the original order. Avro Canada was booming and would have fulfilled delivery to the Royal Canadian Air Force by end 1960 and the RAAF by mid 1961.

Also present was Ernst Hencall. He had chatted to Hencall about the development and delivery of the He-166. Constructed now by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation after Hencall had sold his own concern, Hencall had finally been retired in 1957 aged 69. Sadly, this was the last time Frost would see him, leukemia claiming him in early 1960 after a life that had revitalized the Australasian aircraft industry. The 166 would eventually be made for both Australian(122 machines) and Canada(48). It was to see the He-280 pushed back to service in the air force reserve only by the end of 1961, still, ironically, alongside the CAC-15, which was deemed the better machine for ground attack.

 

[johnboy]

11 January 1960 State Dockyard, Newcastle, New South Wales

The Queen conducted the official ceremony to bless the ships before her maiden voyage next week. Princess of Oceana was the second ship of her class and represented a dramatic change in the way Australasian National Line was running their passenger services. Like her sister Princess of Tasmania, now in service on the Melbourne-Launceston run, she was a smaller ship, 3,900 tons, but roll on roll off. Her regular run would be Cairns- Guadalcanal- Bouganville- Port Morseby-Darwin.

It was planned to revitalise the shipping line and retire the older, larger, less efficient vessels. Also under construction at Cockatoo Island Dockyard were two larger, 12,000 ton ferries. These, to be completed later in 1960, would ply the Melbourne-Auckland and Melbourne-Wellington/Christchurch routes. A sister, Queen of Fiji, had started on the Brisbane-New Caledonia-Fiji route three months ago.

She had to get back to Melbourne to attend the funeral of Ernest Hencall on the 14th. It was to be a proper state funeral, as befitted a man who had made such a significant contribution to World War 2.

She was also worried about her own son Charles. At 28 it seemed his main interests were racing cars, racy women and inappropriate music.

 

[johnboy]

14 June 1960, Toorak, Melbourne, Australasia

Menzies had comfortably won the 1960 election, losing only six seats to the Labor Party. It was a crushing parliamentary majority of 105 to 54, with two independents. With Australasian riding the crest of a economic boom that showed no signs of slowing, courtesy of mining and mineral exploration and significant capital works that had resulted in virtually zero unemployment, he was now ready to start what he had campaigned on, the massive Bradfield hydro electric and irrigation scheme that would hopefully result in a permanently flooded Lake Eyre and construction was to commence in October 1960, preliminary planning having already been done. It was not to be completed until 1977.

It would be the biggest civil engineering project ever attempted in Australasia and one of the bigger ones world wide. He now had a mandate to do it, however, it being part of the election promises that he had made. With Labor in disarray, their leader Walter Nash almost 78 and infirm, their deputy Arthur Caldwell an uninspiring political figure, he could see himself in the prime ministership for some years yet.

 

[johnboy]

22 November 1962, Marlborough, South New Zealand

For newly minted Admiral Peter Phillips, it had been a good day at home. Watching the start of the Commonwealth Games on TV, newly promoted to head of the Australasian navy and in addition, he had had his choice of the previous year, the A4 Skyhawk, confirmed as the new fleet fighter. It was to replace the Venom and, finally, the CAC-15 in 1963.

The whole navy was reequipping. The Skyhawk and the Sikorsky Sea King, the new choice of helicopter, would be made by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. In all, to equip all three carriers, 72 Skyhawks had been ordered.

There was also an article on the news about Australasia making a small contribution to quelling the ongoing activities of communist rebels in Vietnam, rebels that had been, for a time in control of the North of the country but were now running an ongoing insurgency. At the time, it seemed like nothing, however, it was to drag on to be a lengthy and controversial contribution.

 

[johnboy]

25 April 1965, Domain Palace, Melbourne

AS the Queen returned from ANZAC Day, as they said in the song, "times they were a changing." For things in Australasia that was also the case, Menzies had won the 1963 election comfortably, defeating Arthur Caldwell and he had announced to her last week that, after some though, he would contest the 1966 election as well, wanting to see his now well underway Lake Eyre project progress further. Their had been increasing resistance to it's huge fiscal cost, but Menzies had brushed that aside, having a solid grip on the leadership after 15 years as Prime Minister and 25 as party leader.

He had also announced last week an increase in Australasia's commitment to the Vietnam insurgency, an insurgency that had already resulted in the deaths of two army advisers.

The Queen was now almost 68. The country was undergoing great change. Rock bands the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had both toured the country to huge crowds. Older ideas and institutions were being challenged by a newer generation. The end of pounds as the currency was set for 1 July 1967, to be replaced by dollars. Their was increasing pressure for her, personally, to provide an opinion or even intervene in the debate about capital punishment. Increasing resistance was being brought to bear in opposition to a nuclear reactor proposed for Port Pirie. Hand backs of traditional tribal lands had been mooted, particularly in New Zealand.

There was also international pressure to prepare those areas still administered by Australasia as Territories, namely the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, New Caledonia, Bougainville and so on.

At this stage, if she was able to make it, she planned to abdicate within ten years in favour of her son. However, he was still, in her own mind, not behaving as she would desire. He had settled down to one women, but her suitability was certainly in question. He had met Judith Durham, unsurprisingly, at a car racing meet in 1963. She had just started a band called "The Seekers", who were to garner fame earlier this year when their first record rocketed to number one in both Australasia and the UK, the publicity of dating her son certainly adding to the mix. She worried she would be unsuited to the life and her son was 12 years the twenty year old's senior, as well, another concern.

 

[johnboy]

25th December 1967, Domain Palace, Australasia

It was the sort of shock that any mother does not need. It had been a good Christmas celebration with her family, when, after lunch, her son had pulled her aside. It did not take long to come to the point "Judy's pregnant".

It had been a turbulent two years. Menzies had been reelected again in 1966, a blow that had finished Arthur Caldwell's political career and saw him replaced by the new comer, Gough Whitlam. The debate about both the Vietnam insurgency and capital punishment had both reached a fever pitch after a helicopter crash had killed 15 troops in August and Ronald Ryan had been hung in February. The dreadful fires in Tasmania in February 1967.

Seeing some conscientious objectors pulled out of their homes for national service many feared would lead to Vietnam had cut deeply into the Menzies government's popularity and the capital punishment debate was not helping either, many pushing for the Commonwealth to exercise it's power to abolish such punishments in Federal law. Both New Zealands, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales had all abolished.

Well, thought Alice, now it looks like we have a shotgun Royal wedding. Thankfully the girl was only 8 weeks. If they could get it done quickly enough she might not be showing.

 

[johnboy]

22 November 1969, Domain Palace, Australasia

Alice had stumbled through the swearing in of the latest Menzies Ministry, more from memory than anything else. As the ruling liberal?national coalition government had become steadily more electorally unpopular it had resulted in the closest election ever in Australasia, the Liberal Party's win in the seat of Corangamite by 52 votes being confirmed only more than a week after the 8th November poll.

It had in all senses for herself been a disastrous year. The death of her son Charles driving a Monaro in a massive pile up on the first lap of the Hardie-Ferodo 500 had been devastating, leaving as it did a one year old girl and a 5 months pregnant wife. It had produced a massive state funeral of a size not seen since her own father so long ago where she had struggled to hold herself together and her daughter in law had been unable to attend.

It would be the last victory for Menzies, who had privately announced to her his intention to retire in 1970. The Labor party, rejuvenated by Gough Whitlam, had run a campaign that had almost brought it to government for the first time in 20 years. Vietnam had been a continuing noose around the government's head and the execution of a convicted multiple murderer in New Caledonia in 1969 had again reignited the capital punishment debate.

 

[johnboy]

3 May 1971, Sydney International Airport

It was his last official act as Prime Minister, opening the new Sydney Airport. He had held on until the opening of the first stage of the Lake Eyre project had resulted in the first release of water from the Thompson River into Lake Eyre. By the end of 1971 the Lake would be permanently flooded, although all work on the scheme would not be completed until 1978 at the enormous cost of 2.95 billion dollars. The scheme had prompted a large wave of immigration to Australasia of ethnic groups that had not appeared before, in particular Indians, but also numbers of immigrants had started to arrive from Vietnam, fleeing the fighting and instability there.

With things in Vietnam quietening and there being feelers as to peace talks, now was the time to go, leaving his successor, Keith Holyoake, to fight the 1972 election against Whitlam.

 

[johnboy]

20 May 1973 West Launceston, Tasmania, Australasia

Lance Barnard, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, contemplated the last 6 months of the new Labor government. Whitlam's iconic election mantra, "It's Time", had resonated with the general public and labor had secured a large swing to gain power on 9th December.

Many of their election promises were now in the wings. With talks in Vietnam still dragging in, the government had announced a withdrawal of Australasian troops in any case, to be completed by August. Hollyoake's Liberals government had decriminalized homosexual acts last years and the government was also pushing forward on allocating traditional tribal land back to aboriginal people in Northern Territory and Western Australia despite State government opposition. This had already occurred some years ago in New Zealand and many years ago in Fiji.

The main focus now was on Australasia's external territories and colonies. Commissions had been set up to arrange for a transition for Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Tokelau, Cocos Islands and Christmas Islands.

Options included statehood, which was also being considered for the Northern Territory, becoming an official overseas territory, independence or remaining a colony, although the government did not really want to pursue the last option. The government had set an official date of 1 July 1975 for these decisions to be actioned, the same date as the breakup of the PMG department into Telecom and Australia Post had been set for and the target date for the sale of the Commonwealth bank, which would go a long way to hopefully providing the remainder of the money required to finish the Lake Eyre and Snowy Mountains schemes.

He was also reviewing the armed services and in light of the draw down with Vietnam and the seeming absence of other current external threats would bring the defence budget back to 3.3% of GDP. At this stage, national service was still operational and there were several dissenting views as to it's continuation. Personally, The armed services currently consisted of:

Air Force:
Bomber/Photo Recon/Maritime Patrol
He 166 jet bombers 114
Lockheed Orion 54
Lockheed Neptune 42

Fighters
Avro Arrow 145
He 280 38
RF111 8

Transport
De Havilland Caribou 92

Navy:
The navy had disposed of all of it's light carriers and had purchased two US Essex Class carriers to supplement HMAS Sydney, it deeming the light carriers to small to operate modern aircraft in significant numbers. One such ship, ex USS Bon Homme Richard, had been renamed HMAS Christchurch. The second, ex USS Kearsage, would be moored and cannibalized for spares. The navy now consisted of:

2 Essex Class carriers, operating A4 Skyhawks, Grumman Trackers and Sea King helicopters
1 Heavy Cruiser, HMAS Melbourne
4 Charles Adams Class destroyers, 7 Daring Class destroyers
6 River Class Frigates, 4 Leander Class Frigates

 

[johnboy]

1 July 1975, Noumea, Australasia

At 77, the Queen had been using her unmarried daughter Adelaide more and more as her representative on trips that required extensive travel. Some events, such as today's, were simply to important and besides her daughter was in Darwin for a similar ceremony, her daughter in law in Arawa for another. It marked a day when Australian states went from 9 to 12, with the admission of Northern Territory, New Caledonia and Bougainville, the later quite unexpected.

Referendums in the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tokelau and the Ellice Islands had resulted in all four joining Australasia as external territories under a special arrangement that granted much local autonomy and included provisions where the islanders were classed as Australasian citizens, but the reverse was not true. ie Australasians were not citizens of the Ellice Islands external territory as so on.

Both the Gilbert Islands and Nauru had opted for independence, which was due to be granted on 4th September and 1st October, respectively, as had Samoa and Tonga. Papua New Guinea had been granted independence of 1 April and the Solomon Islands on 12th May. Christmas Island was kept as a dependency, as was Cocos, which was forcibly purchased by the the government from the Clunes-Ross family after years of mismanagement and abuse of power.

The three new states would not have the same representation as the original nine states of Australasia, a reflection to some extent of their lower populations. Instead of 12 senators, they would have only two senators.

Bougainville had been offered independence as part of either the Solomon Islands or Papua New Guinea but had been steadfast in it's refusal of both and in early 1975 Alexis Sarei had petitioned the Australasian government for statehood within Australasia or as an external territory. There was little doubt that the Bougainville people wish to be isolated from their neighbors was only part of the reason, the other being the enormous Panguna copper mine, but, in May 1975 this was agreed and voted upon, with the residents overwhelmingly in favour.

This left the Australasian States as:
State Population Capital
New South Wales 7.01 million Sydney
Victoria 5.78 million Melbourne(Nat Capital)
Queensland 3.11 million Brisbane
North New Zealand 2.31 million Auckland
South Australia 1.97 million Adelaide
Western Australia 1.86 million Perth
South New Zealand 1.01 million Christchurch
Tasmania 0.54 million Hobart
New Caledonia 0.22 million Noumea
Northern Territory 0.19 million Darwin
Bougainville 0.12 million Arawa

Total Population(including external territories) : 24.13 million

 

[johnboy]

12 November 1975 Domain Palace, Melbourne

For Alice, it had been the most difficult thing politically that she had ever done. Gough Whitlam had finally, after a night to think, acquiesced to calling a federal election that had, in any case, shortly been due.

The government had lost control of the Senate and, in the aftermath of the Khemlani loans affair, topped by several government ministerial scandals, the Liberal/National coalition under Robert Muldoon, led in particular by his own deputy Malcolm Fraser, who had threatened Muldoon with a leadership spill if he would not do so, had stopped supply of money bills through the senate for Whitlam's government.

It had quickly developed into a crisis from which their was no retreating and it had required the Queen to indicate directly to Whitlam that if he did not called a double dissolution election immediately that she would be forced to to dismiss him as Prime Minister and appoint Muldoon, which she did have the constitutional power to do. She had made this very clear indeed, asking "Do you wish to me the man that brings this countries constitutional structure crashing down and then go to an election asking for the public's vote or do you wish to call an election under your own steam and place your faith in the Australasian public?"

 

[johnboy]

11 February 1980, Domain Palace, Melbourne

Muldoon's government had won a snap election called some nine months early and had gained a second term. It had been a troubling two years with unemployment rising and the 1975 world oil price crisis disrupting many world economies. The government had been returned with a much lower majority and the recent testing of nuclear weapons by Manchuria in late 1979 had made all democratic countries concerned about the level of tension in Asia.

The giant Lake Eyre irrigation scheme had finally been completed after some 15 years and had resulted in greatly increased agricultural possibilities in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales and had resulted in two 20,000 plus person two towns springing up that had not existed before, Warburton and Emeros Point.

For Alice, now 82, it had been a much longer period than she had anticipated. She now had to wait for her Grandson, almost ten, to reach 18 to hopefully avoid the complications of a regency.