How Did Australia Lose Ww2

During World War 2, Australian’s were prisoners of war all over Europe. More than 30,000 Australian’s became prisoners between the years 1940 – 1945. These prisoners included airmen, soldiers of the 6th, 7th, and 9th division, and some nurses. They were prisoners of many countries. The main countries that captured Australian’s were Germany and Japan.
There were about 8,600 Australians captured by the Germans as prisoners of war. This included about 7,100 soldiers, which were captured in North Africa and Greece and about 1,500 airmen and a few sailors. The Germans called their prisoners of war ‘Kriegies’. Kriegies means prisoners of war in German. Most of the prisoners were there for three years. Many were captured twice as the Germans took them after the Italians surrendered. These prisoners lived in extremely harsh conditions. Large amounts of prisoners were cramped into small areas. Their food consisted of a mugful of water a day, a handful of rice, and tinned food. With all the hard labor they had to do, the amount of water and food they were given wasn 't enough. Australians reached the camps in Germany by three different routes. If they were captured in Greece in 1941, they would stay in unhealthy temporary camps in Greece before going

Sailors, airmen, as well as civilians were captured. Most of them were captured in 1942 when the Japanese forces captured New Britain, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies. Australians were imprisoned in camps throughout Japanese occupied territories. By the end of the war, more than one in three of these prisoners died. In 1945, survivors were liberated from camps all over Asia. Only 13,900 of the prisoners of war survived. The Australian prisoners of war were often forced to live in uninhabitable places, perform exhausting manual labor, have no medical treatment, were starved, abused, maltreated, beaten and mocked by their Japanese