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Australia in the War of 1939–1945

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

Author

Gavin Long (general editor)

Authors

English

1952–1977

Australia

Print
Online

In contrast to the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, the 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. Australia in the War of 1939–1945 includes a series on the history of the Australian military medical services and the problems encountered by these services during the war.

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 – (1957)

Lionel Wigmore

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)

Reception[edit]

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 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.[39] Although Gavin Long's achievement has not received the same degree of recognition as C.E.W. Bean's, both series are generally seen as having created an important tradition for Australian official histories which includes high standards of accuracy, comprehensiveness and literary skill.[40]


The lack of footnotes to the official documents and other primary sources consulted by the official historians were identified as a shortcoming of the series by some reviewers. For instance, in a generally positive review of Royal Australian Air Force, 1939–1942 James C. Olson stated that "Although the author had access to official documents and obviously made extensive use of them, he seldom cites documentary sources- a serious shortcoming, particularly in the absence of a bibliography".[41] Similarly, USAAF official historian Robert F. Futrell noted in his review of Air War Against Japan 1943–1945 that "While the author acknowledges the official collection of the RAAF War History Section as his principal source, the volume contains no bibliography, or essay on sources, and footnote citations are unusually sparse. This lack of exact documentation reduces the value of the history to serious military scholars, who may well wish to evaluate the author's facts in terms of their source".[42] The next official military history series commissioned by the Australian Government, Australia in the Korean War 1950–53 (published between 1981 and 1985), included footnotes to primary sources.[43]


The level of detail in the series was also considered excessive by some reviewers. British official historian Stephen Roskill regarded Royal Australian Navy, 1942–1945 as being "well written, excellently illustrated and produced, and provided with a good index", but stated that it was "perhaps too detailed for the general reader".[44] In his unfavourable review of The Final Campaigns Louis Morton, who wrote a volume in the official history of the US Army in World War II, judged that "even the student of military affairs and of World War II will find this meticulous account of operations that had little bearing on the final outcome far too detailed".[45] In 1992, Australian historian Peter Stanley suggested the New Guinea Offensives' length and highly detailed narrative may have contributed to the fighting in New Guinea during 1943 and 1944 being little known amongst the general public and neglected by other historians.[46]


Though much has been written on C.E.W. Bean and 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.[35]

Geeves, Philip (December 1967). "Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 1 (Army), Vol. III, Tobruk and El Alamein". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 53 (4): 371–373.  42598805.

OCLC

(1998). A Commonwealth of Histories: The Official Histories of the Second World War in the United States, Britain and the Commonwealth (PDF). London: The Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Institute of Commonwealth Studies. ISBN 1855070863. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

Grey, Jeffery

Australian War Memorial: PDF versions of the series