This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go under the end.

I remember the sheets of flames came up and almost blinded us for my guns.

Hello, welcome to another episode of the World War II podcast.

I'm Angus Wallace.

Since I started the podcast, I've looked at all aspects of the war from the point of view of various countries, but one glaring emission has been any Australian narrative of the war.

The Australians fought across the world in land, sea and air, notably in the Pacific and the Middle East, which is what we'll be discussing today.

With the fall of France, her overseas territories predominantly remained loyal to the French Vichy regime, and this was true for Syria and the Lebanon.

To the south with the British in Egypt, with Rommel fighting in the western desert and the Germans fostering and uprising in Iraq, the British feared Germany may take over Syria and the Lebanon.

From there, the Nazis could supply rebels in Iraq and threaten Egypt from two sides.

General Weirville was ordered by Churchill to go on the offensive and take the French territories.

It wasn't envisaged, the French would put up much of a fight.

The bulk of the Allied attacking force will be made up of the Australian 7th Division.

Joining me today is Richard James. Richard is the author of Australia's War with France, the campaign in Syria and the Lebanon 1941.

Now it's a big thank you to David Phillipson, who is president of the Australian-based History Guild, a charity promoting historical literacy for all.

David reached out to me to suggest I have a chat with James. If you're interested in finding out more about the History Guild, go to historyguild.org.

Richard, thanks for joining me. Shall we start with some background?

Australia declared war in 1939. What was motivating her to fight a war, which at this point was half a world away?

It's basically automatic following the British. As soon as the British declared war on the Germans, Australia within a matter of days was also at war almost automatically.

The process of raising an army began in 1939. During the interwar period, Australia didn't really have much of a standing army at all.

We sort of kept an officer core and basically reserve units. In 1939, even before there had been any real hostilities, Australia began the process of raising a volunteer army with the intention that they would go to Europe and fight somewhere in Europe.

If you volunteer for the Australian army, you can volunteer for the army but not to serve abroad during the war.

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