ANZACs in World War III?

Anaxagoras

Banned
Suppose a conventional conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact broke out in the 1970s or 1980s. What role might Australia and New Zealand have played?
 
A naval role I suppose. Perhaps some Australian troops in Europe? Though between the USN, the Australian, and New Zealand navies, the Allies would control the South Pacific navally and perhaps hurt the Soviets badly in the Indian and North Pacific Oceans.
 
It'd depend on when it was and whether we go with a draft or not. If we do, then I'd imagine that we send a fairly serious troop contribution, although I can't really see an ANZAC being reconstituted. The Kiwis would also send their troops and may institute a draft. On the naval front there'd certainly be a contribution, though again timeperiod would be an issue. We had the HMAS Melbourne until '82, which makes life a little interesting. The RAAF would contribute substantially to patrolling for ships and submarines, and potentially could be ramped up quite a bit - IIRC at the end of WW2 it was one of the largest in the world. I would imagine, though, that much of the RAAF and RAN, and RNZAF and RNZN, remain in the Pacific with some units in the Indian, to secure those areas. Probably only bombers and fighters to Europe, and not all of them at that.

It'd be an interesting one given that Australia pulled out of Vietnam after it became incredibly unpopular at home, while New Zealand never got involved. Given our locations it does seem likely that there'd be some crossover. I wonder if the local lefties might see this as reopening Vietnam or as something completely new?

Without a year, it's hard to say exactly what could happen - the ADF and the Australian political scene changed quite substantially between 1970 and 1990.
 
I'm not sure that NZ at least would have the stomach for a European deployment, especially after Vietnam, which as you'd suspect became very unpopular.
 
The ANZUS treaty said:

"The resulting treaty was concluded at San Francisco on September 1, 1951, and entered into force on April 29, 1952. The treaty bound the signatories to recognize that an armed attack in the Pacific area on any of them would endanger the peace and safety of the others. It stated 'The Parties will consult together whenever in the opinion of any of them the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened in the Pacific'. The three nations also pledged to maintain and develop individual and collective capabilities to resist attack."

I think significant portions of the naval and air forces of Australia & NZ would have been put under the command of CINCPAC, for sub-hunting and keeping open the lines of communications across the Pacific (to Subic Bay) and the Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia). I think the RAAF base on the Malayan peninsular would be a major pivot for strategy.

But this is only speculation. The idea of 'Forward Deployment' was deeply unpopular after Vietnam, it would take a global war for the governments at Canberra and Wellington to send large forces overseas.

There's important communications bases at Alice Springs, North West Cape (WA) and Melbourne. I think the US would have sent air units to Darwin and Townsville, to beef up the RAAF squadrons there.

I haven't read anything in the media reports of the yearly release of Cabinet papers under the 30-year-rule about fighting a conventional WWIII.
 
It'd be an interesting one given that Australia pulled out of Vietnam after it became incredibly unpopular at home, while New Zealand never got involved.

IIRC New Zealand had an artillery battery attached to the taskforce at Nui Dat.
 
During the Vietnam war there were ANZAC battalions, which had a company of Kiwis in a mostly Aus btn. These btns were even called ANZAC btns so the tradition was alive up to the early 70s, so if WW3 broke out I daresay ANZAC units would be formed again.

As for the role, it would be around Malaysia somewhere. There was a Mirage sqn at Butterworth until 1988, and cats and dogs of the entire ADF were there constantly. Australian defence policy didn't become 'defence self reliance' until the Dibb report of 1986 and subsequent white paper of 1987.

The best thing about ANZAC units is that the Kiwis use giant Maoris in their MG sections, they carry the GPMG with ease and carry way more ammo between them than equivilent Australian MG sections.
 
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