The Commonwealth Armies
A while ago, someone posed the question of why there was no reference on the site to the Commonwealth troops who fought alongside the British for the duration of the Second World War.
The reason for the omission was fairly simple. The site was originally intended to examine the multiplicity of battalion level organisations in use during the period. The formations described for the British Army were practically identical to those fielded by any Commonwealth nation. I say practically, because there was ample scope for variation in the precise detail. This was another reason for not attempting to analyse the Commonwealth forces in the same manner. I still count myself frustratingly short of detailed British Army war establishments for the various models of infantry unit. I certainly do not have such documentation for the equivalent battalions of the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, South African or Indian armies. If I did, rest assured they would be on the Example TOE pages for all to see.
On paper at least however, the forces of these and other Commonwealth nations conformed to the standards laid down for British troops. There was good reason for this. Commonwealth forces used the same patterns of weapons as the British, from the Rifle No.4 through to the Bren, Vickers and Sten, the 2 and 3 inch mortar, Boys and PIAT, to the Universal Carrier and all types of Cruiser and Infantry tank. With such commonality of equipment, it was only natural that the organisations would closely shadow one another. So, a Canadian Rifle Platoon was structured and armed in precisely the same fashion as a British one in both Italy or the West. An Australian Platoon in North Africa, while more distinctively clothed, had almost the same organisation as its British counterpart. Almost, because the official strength was thirty six all ranks, as opposed to thirty seven. I have never found out who the 'missing man' was, either the Platoon HQ orderly, or someone from the 2 inch mortar group. I have never, unfortunately, seen anything of detail for any of the other Commonwealth forces.
Relatively speaking however, once you have seen the template intended for use by British troops, you have a fairly good idea of that used by Commonwealth forces. The overall Infantry Battalion organisation remained the same, a dozen Rifle Platoons in four Companies, supported by Mortar, Carrier, Pioneer and latterly Anti-tank Platoons. These paper ideals were subject to the same amendments prompted by the realities of combat in Commonwealth armies as in the British. Carrier Platoons proved of little use in the jungles of Burma and seem to have disappeared from the Australian, and possibly New Zealand order of battle. The Canadians fielded experimental tank hunting companies in Italy, while in the West 3rd Division seems to have added integral Vickers machine gun platoons to its Infantry Battalions, additional to those in the Divisional Support Battalion.
The bulk of the Commonwealth nations lacked the manpower and resources to sustain both large military forces and an extensive industrial base. This largely limited them to using British supplied vehicles and weapons. These were never always adequate by any means, and lead to a number of innovations. Australia produced the excellent Owen submachine gun for use in the Far East. South Africa provided the Marmon Herrington armoured car, perhaps the ugliest vehicle of its type to see service, but a reliable machine. Canada proved uniquely placed to furnish both men and weapons to the allied cause. A great many of the weapons and vehicles used by British soldiers originated from Canadian factories. The nation also experimented with its own models of tank, firstly the Ram then the Grizzly. In similar vein to their British counterparts, neither project proved a success and the Canadian Armoured Corps went to war in Sherman and Churchill tanks. The Ram however, provided the chassis for the Sexton self propelled gun, mounting a British 25 pdr gun/howitzer. Canadian experiments with redundant US M7 Priests evolved into the Kangaroo armoured personnel carrier, another variant of the Ram. Both machines proved of immense value to the war in Europe.
But these technical and material matters are only a part of the story. The larger, more important contribution was that of the soldiers, sailors and airmen themselves. It is difficult in the comforts of today's freedom to truly appreciate the situation Britain found itself in for the darkest period of the war. From the fall of France in July 1940, to the invasion of Russia in June 1941, Nazi Germany was unopposed in Europe. For that seemingly endless period, the British Isles truly stood alone as the only beacon of continuing resistance to Hitler in the continent. But the British people were far from alone.
Strictly speaking of course, the Commonwealth was not founded until after the end of World War Two. Prior to that, nations were still regarded as being part of the Empire. In these more enlightened days, the chronologically correct terminology could well cause offence, so I will stick with the term Commonwealth (it will also stop disappointed Star Wars fans pulling up the page on a web search).
When Britain had gone to war in 1914, her armies were swelled by troops from the Dominions. Those men had fought, lived and died in the same rat infested hell holes as their British counterparts. Just a month short of the 25th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One, World War Two began. For those men who had survived the Great War, it must have been unnerving to see the columns of khaki clad servicemen boarding liners once again to fight in foreign lands. The experience of Commonwealth soldiers in the first war had been every bit as appalling as that of the British, French or even German. The memory of those long rows of headstones caused many to ask the question aloud 'Why should we fight a British war?' It was a difficult one to answer. Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were geographically safe from Nazi aggression in 1939. Australia and India were likewise, but had more to fear from a restless Japan. It was almost an assumption on the part of British planners that they would have hundreds of thousands more men to call upon from the Commonwealth nations to supplement their own. So the ships were duly filled and the young men waved off, once more entrusted to the care of largely British generals.
By 1941, Commonwealth troops were providing a vital part of the resistance to Germans and Italians in North Africa. The Australians had helped almost evict the latter from the continent by late 1940, until British generals directed them to the defence of Greece and Crete. A golden opportunity was lost, along with both objectives and thousands more Anzac and British soldiers. Then, at the end of the year, the Japanese opened their offensive in the East. Thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops found themselves fighting European foes in Africa while an Asian aggressor threatened their homelands. Stories still persist of men wanting to seize ships and sail to defend their homes. But they stayed. British, African, Australian, India and New Zealand troops would fight together in the jungles of Burma and New Guinea as they had in the wastes of the African desert before crossing into Italy with the South Africans.
The Canadian Army was not committed to North Africa. Instead, they were earmarked primarily for the invasion of Europe. In 1942, the first Allied assault on Fortress Europe was launched two years before D-Day by Canadian Infantry, British Commandos, and even a handful of US Rangers. Dieppe proved a costly fiasco. Practically everything that could have gone wrong did. Sten guns jammed, heavy Churchill tanks bogged down in the sand, and the troops were stranded on the open beach. It was a dreadful baptism of fire for the Canadians, with perhaps two thirds of the entire assault force lost. But the debacle was not entirely in vain. The landing highlighted innumerable pitfalls in launching an amphibious invasion of occupied Europe, which prevented a similar disaster being repeated on a scale a hundred times larger on D-Day itself. Part of the Canadian forces were sent to Italy in 1943, while the rest were eventually committed in June 1944, fighting as a distinct part of 21st Army Group until VE-Day. Canloan officers also served in every British Division in the West.
The cost of fidelity to the 'mother country' on behalf of the Commonwealth nations was immense. Australia buried over 23,000 men, New Zealand 10,000, South Africa 6800, Canada over 37,000 and India almost 25,000. The various British colonies added another 6800 to the toll. Set against the breathtaking losses of Russia and China, these figures may seem somewhat low. But one has to take into account the relatively small populations of many of the nations mentioned above. Though they may have lost fewer, they had far less blood to give in the first place. I would wager the percentage of casualties per head of population would paint a fairer picture of the sacrifice.
The contribution of the Commonwealth forces to the British, and by extension, Allied war effort was visible in every theatre. Whether it was through the presence of entire Divisions serving under their own Generals, or individual men serving in British formations, the Commonwealth troops provided a welcome and necessary antidote to the innate conservatism of the British Army. Few of the men who fought and died so far from their many homelands could have envisaged their fate before the war. Their exertions during it were as great, man for man, as any other combatant nation.
Infantry Weapons of World War Two
Infantry Tactics of World War Two