Demobilisation of the Australian military after World War II
The demobilisation process was largely successful, but some military personnel stationed in the South West Pacific complained that their repatriation to Australia was too slow.
[1] The department was involved with drawing up plans for determining veterans' entitlements and the assistance which would be provided to discharged personnel to help them settle into civilian life.
It was decided to achieve that by continuing many wartime economic regulations such as price controls to limit inflation and direct resources to where the Australian Government believed they were most needed.
[3] The Australian War Cabinet approved the Department of Post-War Reconstruction's proposed principles to govern demobilisation on 12 June 1944.
[1] Men were also eligible for early discharge on compassionate or health grounds, if they had skills which were important to the Australian economy or had been accepted into a full-time training course.
[1] The military then had a strength of 598,300 men and women, 310,600 in Australia, 224,000 serving in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) and 20,100 in Britain and other parts of the world.
[5] The only personnel to be discharged during August and September were former prisoners of war and those with a long period of service; general demobilisation did not begin until 1 October 1945.
The centres were to provide information on employment, land settlement, housing, training, loans, tools for trades and other benefits for service personnel as their discharges were processed.
The first stage ran from October 1945 to January 1946 and involved the discharge of 249,159 personnel, which was higher than the targets of 10,000 members of the Royal Australian Navy, 135,000 soldiers and 55,000 airmen specified in the demobilisation plan.
[13] Demobilised service women were provided with similar assistance to male members of the military, but were placed under pressure to return to traditional family roles.
[14] The return of Australian personnel from the SWPA was delayed by shipping shortages and the need to maintain a force in the area for garrison duties.
On 10 December 1945 4,500 men at Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies staged a protest march demanding that shipping be made available to return them to Australia.
[15] Soldiers at Bougainville also complained about having to remain on the island after the war had ended, and Prime Minister Ben Chifley's plane was sabotaged in an apparent protest during his visit on 27 December 1945.
The timing of equipment release had to be carefully planned, however, to avoid harming employment by creating surpluses of manufactured goods.
[21] Preparations for the disposal of equipment began in the second half of 1944 when the War Cabinet directed the military to survey all stocks and indicate any surpluses.
That position was opposed by the acting Minister for the Army, and the RAAF and RAN made some attempts to identify their surpluses, but was successful in delaying the Disposal Commission's work until July 1945.
Consumer goods and raw materials which could be used immediately by manufacturers were the first items to be sold and sales of motor vehicles grew rapidly.
[23] The Disposal Commission's sales were also important in meeting shortages of clothing, housing, industrial and construction equipment and tractors.
At the end of the war inadequate preparations were made for the storage of equipment in New Guinea, and many stores were stolen by soldiers, native New Guineans and 'salvage pirates' or damaged by the tropical conditions.
