Key Dates in Australia's Military History: World War Two – 1945
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Crew members of HMAS Australia carry the propeller of a kamikaze aircraft that had attacked their warship in the Lingayen Gulf, January 1945.
(AWM 306770)
December 1944–August 1945
Australians conduct operations against Japanese on Bougainville Island and advance along north coast and inland of New Guinea from Aitape to Wewak.
January–August
Australian and British prisoners of war in Borneo are sent on notorious Sandakan–Ranau death marches.
8 May
VE Day (Victory in Europe) as Germany surrenders.
May–August
Australian campaign against the Japanese in Borneo.
An Australian soldier shortly after his release from Japanese captivity, 1945.
(AWM negative 019195)
5 July
Death of Prime Minister John Curtin.
6 and 9 August
Atomic bombs are dropped on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
15 August
VP Day (Victory in the Pacific) as Japan surrenders, followed by formal surrender ceremony on 2 September on board USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
The battlefield grave of Private B Blair, 2/14th Battalion, killed in action on Borneo, 10 July 1945
(AWM 112297)
2 September
Allied forces arrive in Singapore and release prisoners of war.
19 October
Foundation of War Widow’s Guild of Australia. The Guild’s first President is Mrs Jessy Vasey, widow of Major-General GA Vasey, who had enjoined his wife to ‘look after the widows...’
1 November
Australia ratifies the Charter of United Nations
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