Australian History: World War I and World War II Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, treaties, campaigns, and homefront legislation from World War I and World War II based on the provided history assessment notes.

Western Front

A series of trenches that ran 700 kilometres from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border, where Australian troops fought from 1916 to 1918.

Eastern Front

Also known as the Russian Front, a main theatre of war between Germany and Russia in Eastern Europe that continued until the Russians made a separate peace in 1917.

Italian Front

A theatre of war where the Italians, who had left the Triple Alliance, fought against Austria–Hungary.

Middle East Theatre

A theatre of war where Allied forces, including the Australian Light Horsemen, fought against the Turks.

Trench Foot

An infection of the feet brought on by prolonged exposure to damp, cold conditions allied to poor environmental hygiene, treating over 20,000 British Army soldiers in the winter of 1914-15.

Dardanelles

A narrow passage of water that Churchill believed the British Navy could force its way through to bombard Constantinople, open supply lines to Russia, and force Turkey out of World War I.

The Big 3

The prominent leaders at the Paris Peace Conference who influenced the Treaty of Versailles outcome: David Lloyd George (Britain), George Clemenceau (France), and Woodrow Wilson (USA).

League of Nations

An international body created by Woodrow Wilson for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace agreement signed on 28 June 1919 that forced Germany to cede 13% of its European territory, pay 132 billion gold marks in reparations, cap its army at 100,000 soldiers, and demilitarise the Rhineland.

Spanish Flu

A global disease pandemic following WWI that infected almost 500 million people, killing approximately 10% of them, including almost 11,500 Australians.

The Rats of Tobruk

The nickname given to Australian troops held under siege during the Battle of Tobruk while defending the Suez Canal in Egypt against German forces.

Fall of Singapore

The capture of Britain's strategic naval base by Japanese forces on 15 February 1942, leading to the surrender of over 130,000 Allied troops, including 14,972 Australians.

Changi

The main POW base on the eastern side of Singapore Island, consisting of military barracks and camp areas that served as a staging point for assembling POWs before transport to forced-labour sites.

1929 Geneva Convention

An international agreement establishing rules for the humane treatment of prisoners of war, signed but not ratified by Japan prior to World War II.

Burma–Thailand Railway

A 415–420 kilometre railway constructed through difficult jungle and mountainous terrain using forced labor, where about 9,500 Australian POWs worked and over 2,800 died.

The "Speedo"

A period in 1943 during which Japanese authorities accelerated the construction rate of the Burma–Thailand Railway.

39th Battalion

An Australian militia unit sent toward Kokoda in July 1942 to help oppose a possible Japanese overland advance across the Owen Stanley Range.

Total War

A conflict in which all of a nation's resources are mobilised to assist the war effort.

National Security Act

Legislation passed by the Australian government on 9 September 1939 allowing it to make extra-constitutional laws, enact regulations through executive approval, and impose total war controls.

Citizen Military Forces (CMF)

The Australian militia used for compulsory military training and conscription, initially restricted to home defense and later expanded to service in Papua and the South-Western Pacific Zone.

Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Act 1943 (Cth)

Australian legislation that extended the service area for conscripts to include the South-Western Pacific Zone and led to the conscription of women for auxiliary services.

Directorate of Manpower

An Australian government body established during WWII authorized from January 1943 to conscript childless women aged 18-45 into essential industries to address labor shortages.

Rationing

The system introduced during WWII to control scarce consumer goods, requiring citizens to present coupons alongside money to purchase items like petrol, butter, meat, sugar, tea, clothing, and footwear until it ended between 1947 and 1950.