 |
 |
Naval Auxiliary Patrol |
|
The Volunteer Defence Corps was at first proposed before the war - in 1938 - by members of Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia (later the RSL). From 1941 they were joined by other civilian men, and by 1942 the corps numbered 80,000. At first armed only with rifles, corps members prepared to defend their local area. Later, the Volunteer Defence Corps took over responsibility for anti-aircraft defences, freeing other troops to go overseas to fight the Japanese. The VDC was active from early 1942 and was not stood down until the war's end, long after the threat it was to face had passed. The duration of its service raises questions about the prudent direction of the Australian war effort. There were VDC units in virtually every town and suburb. They were mostly infantry, in battalions numbered state-by-state, but there were also light and heavy anti-aircraft units in the main defended centres (that is, the state capitals plus industrial towns and cities such as Wollongong, Newcastle and Whyalla, which were defended by "Fortresses"). Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) members wore a distinctive dark green uniform. First World War veterans displayed miniature colour patches of their old units on their VDC uniforms. Members of the VDC included three sorts of men. First, former members of the First AIF. Second, men in protected occupations eager to be seen to do their bit. Third, young men aged between 16 and 18 awaiting the opportunity to enlist. Naturally, it is only men in the latter two categories who will still be about to talk to. VDC units were responsible for aspects of the reaction to the threat of 1942. They devised (and would have carried out "scorched earth" demolition plans. They would also have regulated the evacuation of refugees had attack or invasion occurred. (A few ill-informed conspiracy theorists maintain that Japanese forces did land in Queensland and were destroyed by the VDC, but in fact none saw any action.) It is also possible that VDC conducted "surveillance" of suspicious characters, and some units may have devised plans to round up undesirables. There were RAAF and RAN equivalents of the VDC: Voluntary Air Observers' Corps The VOAC included men and women and was formed into "posts" all over the country. It flourished in 1942 but quickly declined from 1944. Its members wore no uniform but were connected (usually by telephone) to the RAAF air traffic control network. Naturally all of its members learned to recognise Japanese aircraft but almost none saw any. (There was no VAOC network in northern Australia, where Japanese planes mostly flew and the few occasions when submarine-based reconnaissance aircraft flew over Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Perth no one actually recognised them.) The VAOC was not a joke, though: its posts alerted searches for lost or crashed aircraft and in doing so probably saved many lives Naval Auxiliary Patrol The RAN formed an equivalent to the VDC in the NAP. It comprised experienced sailors who operated small craft, many launches requisitioned or donated. They patrolled harbours and waterways, regulating shipping. Two NAP launches operated against Japanese submarines in the attack on Allied shipping in Sydney harbour in 1942. Naturally, the NAP was much smaller and more specialised than the VDC. It too declined in importance as the perception of threat diminished. |
|
|