The “War to end all Wars” didn’t!While Australians voted NO to two referenda to allow conscription to replenish the armed forces devastated by casualties in Gallipoli and the Wester Front in the then called “Great War", bipartisan support for conscription became the norm for the next war against Germany, 20 years after the First one ended. It was called “National Service”.
Compulsory National Service began shortly after World War II started. It was a move supported by many veterans of World War I, including the Federal Congress of the Returned Soldiers’ League (RSL). Unmarried Australian men who turned 21 in the year ending 30 June were called up, beginning with 3 months of military training in the Citizens Military Forces - the CMF.
By mid-1942, some 290,000 men were enlisted in the CMF. At first, any conscripts who were called up only served in Australia. They could not be deployed to serve overseas.
Then, on 26 January 1943, the Curtin Government passed a bill to use Australian conscripts in the war in the South West Pacific Zone (SWPZ), which included.
• Australia
• the Australian Territories of Papua and New Guinea
• the Philippines
• Borneo
• the Dutch East Indies (excluding Sumatra)
• East Timor
• the western part of the Solomon Islands.
Under this arrangement, conscripts had no say in where they served, whether in Australia or overseas.
The Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Act 1943 stipulated that conscription would end 6 months after hostilities stopped, so the scheme was closed down in 1946.
There were two further periods of National Service: one from 1951 to 1959, and another from 1964 to 1972. Both schemes involved a lottery system to select individuals for mandatory service, followed by a period of full-time service in the Army and then part-time reserve service.
National Service from 1951-59 was a product of the global and regional conflicts facing Australia after World War II. These included:
• Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union in 1948
• first Arab-Israeli war in 1948
• Communist insurgencies in Malaya and Vietnam
• Communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in 1950
• Suez Canal crisis of 1956
• escalation of United States' involvement in Vietnam from 1961
• the Indonesian Confrontation in Borneo from 1962.
• Defeat of the Nationalists in the Chinese civil war in 1949 by Mao Zedong and the communists.
These tensions were overlaid with the added threat of nuclear war.
Policy-makers at the time widely believed in the 'domino theory'. This simplistic Cold War theory held that establishing a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist rule in neighbouring states. The analogy being the fall of one domino tile would lead to the collapse of a complete row.
In the context of Australia's close proximity to South-East Asia, three events appeared to threaten Australia directly:
• the start of the Viet Minh uprising against the French in Vietnam in 1946
• the start of the Malayan Emergency in 1948
• the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.
Many Australians believed that this could extend communist rule to Australia's doorstep. Recruiting for the regular Armed Services was insufficient to meet this perceived threat. So the Menzies' Government re-introduced military conscription with bi-partisan support.
In the National Service scheme between 1951 and 1959, all males aged 18 were called up for training in the Navy, Army or Air Force. A total of 227,000 Australians served in 52 intakes.
National Servicemen could nominate a preference to serve in Australia or overseas. However, in practice, most were allocated to units near their homes. The Navy and Air Force gave preference to family members of former personnel or members of school cadet units. Overseas service was automatic in the Navy and Air Force.
A major change for the Army was that national servicemen could, at call-up, nominate whether to volunteer for service anywhere overseas if war occurred.
The signing of the Korean armistice in 1953 meant no new perceived direct threats developed during the 1950s. With the role of national servicemen transitioning to reservists, the scheme was closed down in 1959.
Instructors for the scheme were drawn from all 3 Services. Most instructors had combat experience from either World War II, Korea, Borneo or South Vietnam.
The National Service Act 1951 stipulated that Australian males turning 18 on or after 1 November 1950 would do:
• 176 days of standard recruit training in the Navy, Army or Air Force
• 5 years of follow-up military service in their respective Reserves.
Australians living in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea could fulfil their obligation in Australia or by 6 years of service in the Papua-New Guinea Volunteer Rifles.
The first call-up notices were issued on 12 April 1951. The first national servicemen under this scheme were allocated to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), arriving in July 1951.
Only people who enlisted and fought in Malaya, Korea, Borneo and Vietnam had active service, and could become members of the RSL.
National servicemen were on naval ships that visited Korean waters during hostilities. They also were at the atomic bomb tests in 1952 at Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, and in 1956 at Maralinga, South Australia. National servicemen in the RAAF worked on aircraft that had flown through atomic clouds.
National servicemen were placed on alert as part of a wider standby for active service during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, but the crisis passed.
On 24 November 1959, the Australian Government decided to discontinue national service. All national servicemen were declared to have honourably discharged their obligation on 30 June 1960.
The 1965 to 1972 scheme for Borneo and the Vietnam War involved 2 years of full-time service integrated into expanded regular Army units, with overseas deployment where required.
Its goal was to increase defence manpower and address concerns about a perceived lack of soldiers, particularly during the Vietnam War era, when 20-year-old men were selected through a birthday ballot to serve 2 years in the Army, followed by 3 years in the Reserve. The scheme was abolished by the Whitlam government in 1972.
The schemes faced criticism for their perceived unfairness, the social divisions caused by the Vietnam War, and the impact on young men's lives.
Vietnam veterans were not treated as heroes, like the veterans of the two "World Wars", and it was not until 1987, 15 years after Australian involvement in the Vietnam war ceased, that the mood of Australians turned to officially welcoming the veterans home, and we began paying serious attention to their mental health.
And importantly, "Peace Keeping" became an important overseas role for the armed forces including reservists, and well as playing a vital role in reducing the human impact of natural disasters, like bushfires and floods, within Australia.
Sources: Australian War Memorial, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
