Battle for Australia Commemoration Service

Honouring the service and sacrifice of those who defended Australian shores from invasion in the Second World War.

As WWII raged in the Pacific, Australian soldiers and Royal Australian Air Force Kitty Hawk squadrons repelled an assault by Japanese Marines who had landed at Milne Bay (in what is now Papua New Guinea) on 25 August 1942. By 7 September 1942, the Japanese had evacuated Milne Bay. The Allied victory was a major morale booster and handed Japanese land forces their first defeat of the war.

The victory at Milne Bay is now commemorated annually on the first Wednesday in September as Battle for Australia Day. On this day, we remember over 39,000 Australians who lost their lives in WWII, mostly in Asia and the Pacific campaigns. Some 22,000 Australians became Japanese prisoners of war, of whom 8,000 lost their lives. 

The battles on land and sea and in the air in the South and South West Pacific campaigns of 1942-1945 helped turn the tide of the war and prevented an invasion of mainland Australia.