Warwick O'Neill, Military Historian

As an Australian military history nut, I like to think I know at least something about most of our major military actions since the late 1800s ... So what better opportunity to fill in that missing piece of my history puzzle for myself than to try and explain to you what it was all about? So here we go, the Malayan Emergency.

So in the last two articles we’ve covered the role the Royal Australian Navy had played around the periphery of the war, the action in Rabaul right at the start of things, escorting the first convoy, involvement in the Gallipoli campaign and the patrolling undertaken by the HMAS Psyche. But, just as it was on the land, the only real chance of bringing the war to a successful conclusion was to directly target the German forces in Europe.

... with the AIF safely delivered across the Indian Ocean, the RAN was free to undertake other duties. Some stayed to support the AIF during the Gallipoli Campaign while others went to join the wider war ... Eventually though, both HMAS Sydney and Melbourne were ordered back to European waters by the end of 1916 ...

Gale force winds, icebergs and sheer mind-numbing monotony ... for a few thousand of Australia’s WWI servicemen, this was their war. An endless round of escort and blockading with the ever-present threat of a torpedo from underneath. I am of course referring to those clean-cut young men from the Royal Australian Navy.

So, last time, we looked into the early years of Australia’s only ever Field Marshall, Thomas Blamey. From his admittedly sterling service in the Great War to his less than admirable service as Victoria Police Commissioner. This time around we’ll look at his time as the top dog in Australia’s World War II involvement and see if we can come up with some kind of summary of just who this bloke was.

When it comes to polarising figures in Australian history, somewhere up the top of the list you’ll find Sir Thomas Blamey. On one hand he played a large role in extracting Australian troops from North Africa and bringing them home to defend Australian interests. On the other hand, he accused the under trained and under equipped 39th Militia battalion of cowardice because they fell back under the onslaught of highly trained and battle-hardened Japanese troops.

While Sir John Monash rightly holds the distinction of being Australia’s greatest ever General, there was another Australian who came a close second to Monash in the annals of Australian Military History. And it was his humility which partially smoothed Monash’s bumpy road to command of the Australia Corp in 1918. But because of this, he is quite often overlooked when the Great War Generals are discussed.