page_title: Australian Army during World War II
section_title: Women's services
hierarchical_section_title: Australian Army during World War II / Organisation / Women's services
caption_attribution_description: A group of Australian Army Nursing Service sisters who had served in the Middle East with the 2/1st Australian General Hospital in front of a building occupied by the unit at Guildford, Western Australia in September 1942
context_page_description: The Australian Army was the largest service in the Australian military during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of war the Australian Army was split into the small full-time Permanent Military Forces and the larger part-time Militia. Following the outbreak of war, on 14 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced that 40,000 members of the Militia would be called up for training and a 20,000-strong expeditionary force, designated the Second Australian Imperial Force, would be formed for overseas service. Meanwhile, conscription was introduced in October 1939 to keep the Militia at strength as its members volunteered for the AIF. The Australian Army subsequently made an important contribution to the Allied campaigns in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa fighting the Germans, Italians and Vichy French during 1940 and 1941, and later in the jungles of the South West Pacific Area fighting the Japanese between late 1941 and 1945. Following the Japanese surrender Australian Army units were deployed as occupation forces across the South West Pacific. Meanwhile, the Army contributed troops to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan from 1946.
context_section_description: Prior to World War II the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was the only female branch of the Army. A reserve formation that had served overseas during World War I, the AANS was mobilised following the outbreak of war in 1939 and its Matron in Chief, Grace Wilson, served on the staff of the Director-General of Medical Services, Major General Rupert Downes. For most of the war, AANS nurses were the only Australian servicewomen permitted to serve overseas, and many volunteered for the AIF. These women served in all the major theatres in which the Army fought and a total of 71 were killed on active service. The majority of these died in early 1942 during the fighting in Malaya and Singapore where 41 nurses were killed. In March 1942, the Volunteer Aid Detachments (VADs) also became a branch of the Army Medical Service. Consisting of volunteers originally coordinated by the Australian Red Cross and Order of Saint John, the VADs  were redesignated the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS) in December 1942, and were employed in military hospitals in Australia and overseas until after the end of the war, before returning to civilian control in 1948.
  Shortages of manpower also led to the establishment of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) in August 1941. AWAS members filled a wide range of roles to allow the Army to redeploy male soldiers to fighting units. While they mainly worked in clerical and administrative positions, and auxiliary roles such as drivers and signallers, many served in anti-aircraft batteries, operating radars and searchlights but not the guns themselves. While Blamey sought to have members of the AWAS posted overseas from early 1941 onwards, the Australian Government did not agree to this until 1945. As a result, only about 400 of the 24,000 women who joined the AWAS served outside Australia. The AWAS was reduced in size following the war, and was finally disbanded on 30 June 1947. Colonel Sybil Irving commanded the AWAS from September 1941 until 1947. In total some 35,000 women served in the Army, making up about 5 percent of the force.
caption: A group of AANS sisters who had previously served in the Middle East at Guildford, Western Australia in September 1942
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