6th Division (Australia)
The 6th Division was an infantry division of the Australian Army. It was raised briefly in 1917 during World War I, but was broken up to provide reinforcements before seeing action. It was not re-raised until the outbreak of World War II, when it was formed as a unit of the Second Australian Imperial Force. Throughout 1940–41 it served in the North African Campaign, the Greek campaign, on Crete and in Syria, fighting against the Germans, Italians and Vichy French. In 1942, the division left the Middle East and returned to Australia to meet the threat of Japan's entry into the war. Part of the division garrisoned Ceylon for a short period of time, before the division was committed to the New Guinea campaign. In New Guinea, its component brigades had a major role in the successful counter-offensive along the Kokoda Track, at Buna–Gona and around Salamaua–Lae in 1942–43. Throughout late 1943–44, the division was re-organised in Australia before being committed as a complete formation to one of the last Australian operations of the war around Aitape–Wewak in 1944–45.
History
Formation
The 6th Division was first formed in 1917 in Britain during World War I as part of an effort to expand the First Australian Imperial Force. Its existence was short-lived, though, and as a result of manpower shortages that occurred because of a failure to make good the heavy losses that the AIF had suffered on the Western Front in 1917, it was decided to disband the division and its subordinate units in September 1917 and use their personnel to reinforce other units. As a result, the division was broken-up as replacements several months later, before it saw action.The division was not re-raised during the interwar years and subsequently remained off the Australian Army's order of battle until World War II broke out. Due to the provisions of the Defence Act, which precluded the five existing Militia divisions from serving overseas, the government decided to raise an all-volunteer force known as the 2nd AIF. The 6th Division was the first division formed within the 2nd AIF, being raised on 28 September 1939. Initially under the command of Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey, upon formation the division consisted of the 16th, 17th and 18th Brigades, each established with four infantry battalions. Later, though, it was reorganised as a result of the 18th Brigade being sent to the United Kingdom in June 1940 and the decision to adopt the British establishment of three infantry battalions to a brigade. The 19th Brigade was subsequently raised as the division's third infantry brigade, being formed by taking one battalion from each of the other three brigades when they were reduced from four to three. Of the division's infantry battalions, all except one – the 2/11th – were raised in either New South Wales or Victoria.
In early 1940, the majority of the 6th Division was sent to Palestine, to complete their training before joining the British Expeditionary Force in France. Together with the 7th Division they formed the Australian I Corps. However, France fell to German forces in July 1940, before I Corps arrived. While the rest of the division was training in the Middle East, the division's third artillery regiment, the 2/3rd Field Regiment and the 2/1st Anti-tank Regiment were sent to the United Kingdom to help bolster the garrison there in light of an expected invasion following the Fall of France. After being partially broken up to provide personnel to serve as infantry in the 25th Brigade, once the threat of invasion was over these two regiments were sent to the Middle East to rejoin the division, arriving there in December 1940.
North Africa
The 6th Division first saw action in early 1941, against Italian forces in North Africa, in the advance to Benghazi as part of Operation Compass. By this time, Major General Iven Mackay had taken over command of the division. In June 1940, Italy had declared war on the Allies and began to build up forces in Libya. In September 1940, the Italian Tenth Army invaded Egypt, a British colony, threatening Allied control of the Middle East and most particularly, the Suez Canal and international supply routes. British forces under General Sir Archibald Wavell expelled the Italians from Sidi Barrani and pursued them back towards the Libyan border. In December 1940, the 6th Division was moved forward from training camps around Alexandria to relieve British troops around Bardia and at the end of December they were ordered to prepare to attack.On 3 January 1941, at Bardia, a small coastal town just inside the Libyan border, the first major Australian action of World War II took place. Amidst a heavy artillery barrage and supported by British Matilda tanks and Bren carriers of the divisional cavalry, the 6th Division penetrated the defences of the Italian stronghold. Despite some heavy resistance the town fell to the Australians just two days later. The Australians captured a large amount of Italian war material as well as thousands of Italian prisoners of war, many of whom were shipped to prison camps in Australia. The fighting continued until 5 January when the Italian position had been cut almost into two. The Allies took nearly 40,000 Italian prisoners and considerable amounts of enemy weapons, supplies and equipment. The battle for Bardia cost 130 Australian lives with 326 men wounded.
On 22 January 1941, the Italian held port of Tobruk fell to the AIF and 25,000 Italians became prisoners. During January and February 1941, the 6th Division, together with British units, pushed the Italian army back across Libya, including actions at Derna, Barce and Benghazi. The Italian Tenth Army was destroyed. Although Wavell initially planned to leave the 6th Division in Cyrenaica for defence, the 7th Division was still insufficiently trained and equipped. As such in early April 1941, the 6th Division was withdrawn from North Africa to defend Greece and replaced by the 9th Division, which took part in the epic Siege of Tobruk between April and November 1941 against Italian and German forces. Throughout the campaign, the division lost 241 killed, 790 wounded and 21 captured.
Greece, Crete and Syria
Hitler was concerned that if Greece—which since 28 October 1940 was fighting against the Italians in Albania—became a British ally then the Ploesti oilfields in Romania, on which Germany relied for her fuel, might be open to air attack from Greece. As the Germans were planning an invasion of Russia for June 1941, they could not allow such a threat to their essential oil supplies, and so they began planning an invasion of Greece. In March 1941, Prime Minister Robert Menzies, of Australia, with the concurrence of his Cabinet, agreed to the sending of Australian troops to Greece to defend against a German attack. Both Menzies and the I Corps commander, Blamey, felt that the operation was risky and might end in disaster, but Menzies stated that Greece should be supported against German aggression and that the defence of Greece was a "great risk in a good cause".The 6th Division arrived in Greece in late March and early April 1941, where they joined with a New Zealand and British force. On 6 April the Germans began their invasion of Greece, sending a total of 27 divisions. After arriving in Greece, the Australians were transported north towards the Yugoslav border, where they took up defensive positions around the Florina Valley. During the fighting around Vevi that followed, troops from the 2/4th and 2/8th Infantry Battalions and the 2/3rd Field Regiment, from Brigadier George Vasey's 19th Brigade, fought against the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler brigade. Despite their efforts, the Allied force, together with Greek units, was unable to halt the rapid German advance down central Greece towards Athens. The Allies were outflanked by the Germans, and by 27 April they were driven off the Greek mainland, with a final act of defiance being made around Porto Rafti. The division's casualties in Greece amounted to 320 killed, 494 wounded and 2,030 captured.
After the withdrawal from Greece, while some elements of the division were evacuated back to Alexandria, the majority of the 6th Division was sent to Crete where they were cobbled together to form a hasty garrison. The 19th Brigade had been landed intact with all of its infantry battalions, while only elements of the 16th and 17th Brigades had been landed and these two were combined to form composite battalions. In addition to the infantry, two of the division's field artillery units, the 2/2nd and 2/3rd Field Regiments had also been landed. They had both lost all of their equipment in Greece and as a result the 2/2nd were thrown into the line as infantry, while the 2/3rd were hastily re-equipped with 14 captured French and Italian artillery pieces. On 20 May, the Germans launched an airborne assault on the island and over the course of a week-and-a-half heavy fighting ensued around Maleme airfield, Heraklion, Canea, and Retimo during which heavy casualties were inflicted upon the Germans before, having exhausted their ammunition and lacking air support, the garrison was evacuated back to Egypt close to the end of the month. As in Greece, a large number of men were unable to be evacuated and as a result many 6th Division personnel, including the majority of the 2/1st, 2/7th and 2/11th Battalions, were taken prisoner. A great deal of equipment was also lost. During the fighting, the 2/7th Infantry Battalion, fighting alongside the New Zealand 28th Battalion, undertook a bayonet charge at a position known as 42nd Street that was later described as "one of the epics of the war", which resulted in about 300 Germans being killed. The fighting on Crete added a further 274 killed, 507 wounded and 3,102 captured to the division's casualty list.
While the majority of the division was in Crete, the 6th Division Cavalry Regiment, which had not been sent to Greece, was detached to the British 7th Armoured Brigade and subsequently took part in Operation Brevity in the Western Desert in May. Following the evacuation of Crete, while the 6th Division began rebuilding in Palestine, the cavalry was allocated to take part in the bloody but successful attack on Vichy French forces in the Syria-Lebanon campaign. Two depleted infantry battalions from the 17th Brigade – the 2/3rd and 2/5th – were also committed and subsequently took part in the drive on Damascus in mid-June. They were later joined by the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion and together they fought through the campaign until the French capitulated in mid-July. In the process they suffered 168 casualties; total 6th Division casualties for the Syrian campaign amounted to 39 killed and 129 wounded.
After the conclusion of the fighting in Syria, the rest of the 6th Division joined the 17th Brigade and undertook garrison duties there. In December 1941, the division received news that the Japanese had attacked on Pearl Harbor and invaded Malaya. Nevertheless, the division remained in Syria over Christmas, during which time they endured a bitterly cold winter that saw heavy snow falls. Finally, in January 1942, the decision was made to withdraw them back to Australia to meet threat posed by Japanese advances in the Pacific. The 19th Brigade departed first and subsequently arrived at Fremantle on 10 March. Meanwhile, the 16th and 17th Brigades were diverted to defend Ceylon from the Japanese. They remained there from mid-March through to early July 1942.