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Originally posted by AlfAndrews
And you are too ignorant to know that, by far, the vast majority of Australians killed in war have been volunteers. There was no conscription in World War 1 and the only conscripts used in World War 2 were those who directly defended Australia.
Ignorance is something you have with abundance Alf.
Of course from a simplistic viewpoint there was no conscription in world war 1 despite two referendums on the issue which were defeated, by a womens anti-war movement and the church. The referenda were vehemently fought. (1 087 557 in favour and 1 160 033 against) But the reality of the situation was that military training for Australian men aged 18 to 60 had been compulsory since 1911 and that the psychological aspect of such training ctreated a substantial enough volunteer force that the conscription issue was really of little importance for most of the war and by 1916 the deaths incurred had put the nation against it. There can, however, be no doubt that had a referendum been held at the beginning of the wat that conscription would have been a certainty.
As for the second world war you are wrong. CMF fought in Papua New Guinea.
read http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/doc/overview.asp








