Vintage Military - Part 76

Australia, World War II

Australian forces fought in the Pacific in World War II, but Australia also sent troops to the European, Mediterranean and Middle East theaters.  Above, Australian troops in 1940 or 1941 swimming in the Sea of Galilee in Palestine.  Currently the Sea of Galilee is in Israel, but at the time, Palestine was a British territory.

Australian soldiers improvising a shower with a watering can in 1942.

New Guinea, just to the north of Australia, was the scene of fighting with the Japanese from 1942 to 1945.  These are naked Australian soldiers in New Guinea posing by an ironic sign.

Australian and U.S. soldiers landing in Dutch New Guinea, the western half of New Guinea that is now part of Indonesia, in 1943 or 1944.

Sgt. E. A. Waller operating a home-made shower for his friend in 1944.

In New Guinea, Australian forces made use of the indigenous population.  These are Kaya Kaya men carrying dirt on stretchers in 1944.

And these are Kaya Kaya men pulling a large roller in 1944.  

We end with an Australian man taking a shower on Morotai Island, which is now part of Indonesia.  The photo is dated 1939-1945 (i.e. sometime during World War II), but it was most likely taken in 1944 or 1945, when the Allies captured Morotai Island and built an air base to be used in the Allied recapture of the Philippines from Japan.