Strategic Context for Australia’s WW2 mobilisation

Australia spent 20 years preparing for a war most politicians refused to discuss publicly — and that systematic industrial strategy may be the nation's greatest governance success story. Dr. Mark Bailey traces how bipartisan policy from 1919 built the secondary industry that would have annihilated Japanese forces had they landed at Port Stephens in 1942, while Major General Jason Blake connects those lessons to today's Army transformation through HIMARS, PrSM missiles, and the AS9 Huntsman.

This is a special seminar presentation in conjunction with the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company's Firepower Seminar Series, "Firepower: Lessons from World War II"  Our presenter is Dr Mark Bailey and it is followed by our Panel Discussion with Major General Jason Blaine, DSC, AM, CSC and Dr Mark Bailey and Dr Peter Layton.

 

Key learnings:
• Why defence spending increased 20% in 1932-33 despite the Great Depression, following Japan's Manchurian invasion
• How 730,000 soldiers mobilised from a population of 7 million through national census and preserved training infrastructure
• What the shift from manoeuvre supporting fires to fires supported by manoeuvre means for modern Australian capability

Full show notes and transcript: https://theprinciplesofwar.com/

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