Australia
With the outbreak of war, Australia sent its air force, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) overseas to assist. Throughout the war effort, RAAF soldiers flew on missions with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Australia, with other British Dominions had adopted the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) to swell RAF ranks.
In spite of racist regulations that discouraged ‘non-European’ servicemen, at least 3,000 Aboriginal and 850 Torres Strait Islanders joined the Australian war effort.
Australian troops took heavy casualties in their Greek campaign; but the main focus of their war effort from 1942 was to fight Japan. Nearly 600,000 served overseas and almost 40,000 died. Twenty Australian soldiers received our highest military honour the Victoria Cross.
Canada
Canada declared war on Nazi Germany on September 10, 1939. Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie King maintained that the overseas contribution would be voluntary.
Yet the Canadian armed forces were ill-prepared for war. The regular army had just 4,500 men; backed by over 50,000 semi-trained reservists. Its air force and naval capacity looked meek.
Three years into the war and Canada committed 250,000 soldiers overseas.
Domestically, many young Norwegians trained as fighter pilots in Canada. Canadian soldiers assisted Britain in Hong Kong and helped secure Sicily, Italy in 1943. The Canadian contribution during D-Day involved air and sea support. At the cost of hundreds of lives. Conscription only took place during the final year of the war.
In total, 6,000 First Nations soldiers in Canada’s armed forces in both world wars.
Nepal
The Gurkhas of Nepal have been a feature of British Army life for nearly 200 years. During both world wars around 200,000 Gurkhas fought beside their British counterparts. In the Second World War alone, Gurkha forces experienced 32,000 casualties.
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung VC (1917-2010) received the Victoria Cross for his bravery in impossible circumstances when facing down a larger Japanese army. When a grenade left Gurung badly injured, he continued to fire his rifle and inspire his fellow Gurkhas to hold the position in what proved an important victory.
New Zealand
Unlike Australia, New Zealand declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939. A year later and conscription intensified their war contributions. With the climax of this global war, 12,000 New Zealanders (of whom 27 per cent died) had served with the RAF and almost 10,000 served in the Royal Navy. The RAF formed its own New Zealand squadrons to complement those in ordinary RAF squadrons.
In total, 140,000 men and women contributed to New Zealand’s war effort. The country sadly boasts the highest ratio of killed per million of population in the Commonwealth (6,684).
One of the most celebrated units in New Zealand’s military during this period was the 28th Maori Battalion. Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu elevated the valour of the battalion in 1943 after receiving the Victoria Cross. In total, 16,000 Maori contributed to the war effort.
South Africa
The outbreak of war created a sense of divide among many Afrikaners, though South Africa remained a British territory, many held cultural ties to Germany.
The coalition government had competing ideas about moving forward. Prime Minister Herzog pressed for neutrality but resigned, allowing coalition partner J C Smuts to enter the war as British allies.
During the battle of El Alamein in North Africa, more than 1,200 soldiers (of different ethnicities) came from South Africa. An extensive ‘roll of honour’ details the names of individuals who fought in WW2. Other campaigns took South African troops to Italy. Over 700 troops died cleaning up the last pockets of German resistance in Italy as the war concluded. In total, estimates put the total number of South African fatalities at 9,000.