The only exclusively Aussie airborne unit was still training back home during the war, although that doesn’t mean that Australians didn’t take the initiative and serve with other Commonwealth units - they tended to be rather more fluid about those things back then. No combat drops on the Adriatic coast though, if memory serves, so doubt they were airborne. 1st Airborne headed up to Foggia but for training went back to England.
The place was bombed and strafed in the war as the site of a Luftwaffe air field, so maybe a crewman bailing out? Aussies certainly served in bombers.
That was certainly true during World War II. But were there multi-national forces under American commanders during World War I? It seems unlikely. The Americans were a relatively small and inexperienced force in World War I and there was the issue of their associate status.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry, posting late at night and didn’t make myself clear:
“In both wars, the Dominion troops were under the command of either the British [in WWI], or [in WWII], the Allied command, which could ultimately be an American or a Briton, depending on the theatre.”
Basic point is that the Dominions insisted on keeping their troops under their own organizational structure, but then agreed to them being placed under the overall command, whether that was British in WWI, or the Allied command structure in WWII. It was the Canadian Corps / Canadian Army, as part of the Allied effort, not Canadians being slotted into British regiments.
Farley “Never Cry Wolf” Mowat (RIP) wrote a great book about his experiences in WWII; his outfit was in the game from the fall of France and shed a lot of blood in Italy.
Mowat actually wrote two books covering hos war-time experiences: “The Regiment”, mentioned above, and then 30 years later, another one: “And No Birds Sang.” Both cover the Italian campaign, when his regiment, the Hastings & Prince Edward (nicknamed the “Hasty Pees” ) was fighting in Sicily and up the boot.
The difference between them is that The Regiment was written by a much younger Mowat, and is more of the traditional “Going off to war, chaps!” kind of book.
What he doesn’t deal with is that he was badly affected by the war: PTSD. That is the theme is “And No Birds Sang” - the absolute horror of war and what it does to soldiers.
The British never did have colonials slotted into British regiments. Units and as much as possible formations consisted of locals and or settlers, with maybe regular British officers.
However, the reletive paucity of Canadian troops meant the units and formations were often attached and augmented British formations. The 3rd Canadian Division which landed in Normandy was part of the British I Corps. It did not revert to Canadian command until July.
Australians were British at the time. They could vote in either country, as could Britishers. They didn’t need to be ‘slotted in’: they could join up at any recruiting station.
Even in the 70’s, when I was at school, going to London was a rite of passage for young Australians (Margret Roadnight), so there were many young Aussies in Britain when the war broke out.
You know, not that I harbour imperial German sympathies or anything, but I could see how they might have figured they were the good guys when they were told “Men, tomorrow we face the soldiers of… The Dominion”. There’s an in-built scare chord to that word.
Oh they did have colonials slotted into the British regiments, in special slots like Air Force, or Navy, but if you mean ‘consume the colonies regiments … integrate them into ours’ , no.
(You might have misused “slot”.)
The existence of the colonial regiments was on purpose.
helps promote identity for the colony nations… eg the “ANZAC” identity for Australia…
Provides cannon fodder. eg Australians… send them to Gallopili …
Anybody could join up at any recruiting station. You didn’t need to be a British subject; they weren’t about to turn anyone away. A fair number of Australian-born, Canadian-born, etc people did join up.
But when people talk about Australian troops in the context of either WWI or WWII, they are not talking about individual Australian-born British subjects serving in the British forces, although there were many such. They are talking about military units formed by the Australian government, recruited and trained in Australia, paid by the Australian government and under its direction (units which, of course, included many UK-born members).
Unless, of course, you were in one of the 53 Thankful Villages that lost no one in WW1. There are also a smaller set of Doubly Thankful villages that lost no one in either World War, and it’s always amused me that one of them is called Upper Slaughter.
Before the US entered the war formally, there were also enough Yanks who had gone over and joined up to form three entire “Eagle Squadrons” in the RAF or RCAF. It was easy enough to go to Canada, pretend to have lost one’s birth certificate if asked, and remember to say Eh? Although most transferred to the USAAF later on, there were some Americans who chose to stay in the RAF throughout the war.
WWI was a meat-grinder. I’ve never seen anything which suggests the British command used Dominion troops in a way that put them at greater risk than British troops. Casualty rates were horrific for all.
Oh, come on. You’re going to have them take over Iceland? Give them someplace warm to vacation. Have them take out Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - they’d never see it coming (and they also have no military, except a coast guard).
The Canadian military is designed around participating in multinational operations, not as a stand alone “let’s go invade Denmark” military force.
Offensively Canada don’t have a large troop lifting capacity so they aren’t going anywhere quickly in force. Defensively no country other than the US can stage a cross ocean invasion and American’s don’t actually have to.
Or want to - we’ve weaponized Celine Dion and put her in Vegas.
I do agree with this in theory. I remember laughing as a teenager in the 80s when I heard that in Russia they were taught that WWII was mainly a Soviet-German war. “Those silly Russians”, I thought, “They’ll take credit for anything.” It was a few years later before I learned that they were in very many ways correct in their view.
Having said that, I don’t think it is necessary to replace one set of inaccuracies (“USA won the ward by ourselves!”) with an equally ludicrous set (“America was a small part of D-Day”).
) was fighting in Sicily and up the boot.
