World War II (1939-1945)

Ipswich played a significant role in the war effort.

In 1938, the Commonwealth Government started construction of the RAAF airbase, with the base commencing operations in June 1940, by which time the war in Europe had been going on for 9 months. Following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, personnel of the United States Air Corp began arriving, with up to 1000 stationed at Amberley during 1942 and 2290 by the following year.

The first HMAS Ipswich, built at Evans Deakin and Co., Brisbane, and was commissioned in June 1942. It was one of 60 Bathurst class minesweepers built in Australia during WWII. Before the ship was commissioned, Ipswich residents raised money for a "Comforts Fund" for sailors on board. HMAS Ipswich served in the Western Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and until the end of the war, worked escort duty around New Guinea and the Philippines. At the end of August 1945, the Ipswich was in Tokyo Bay, in preparation for the Japanese surrender ceremony.

In October 1939, work began on the Redbank Rifle Range, transforming it into the Redbank Army Camp. By November, the camp was home to 2500: a small township of wooden huts, mess rooms, kitchens, hospital, an entertainment room for 1000, a barber's shop, library, Post Office, bank and it was sewered and drained with a water supply. When the Americans entered the war, they too were stationed at Redbank.

The Railway Workshops were involved in wartime production, making gun barrels and water evaporation units for naval corvettes. When a munitions factory was opened at Rocklea, the Tool and Gauge Shop at the Workshops built the required tools. Aircraft parts were also produced.

The Ipswich Showgrounds were used as a Field Hospital with the main pavilion converted into a convalescent ward and smaller pavilions used as orderly rooms, pharmacy, storm, canteens, and a recreation room. Sandy Gallop Asylum was used as the site of an operating theatre, X-ray and post-operative ward.

At home, first aid posts and volunteer fire-fighting teams were established by mid-1941, as the threat of war came closer to Australian shores. A blackout was declared, paper was pasted over windows, car headlights shielded and the Denmark Hill reservoir was painted in a camouflage pattern. Fire watch stations were set up at elevated positions around the city -- Ipswich Grammar School tower, Ipswich Girls Grammar School rooftop skylights, and the hill at Bundamba where the TAFE collage now stands. Men joined the Volunteer Defence Corps, Auxiliary Fire Service and Fire Wardens. Women drove ambulances, staffed canteens, and operated the fire brigade switchboard. Air raid shelters were built in Ipswich streets and slit trenches dug at schools, businesses and private homes.

Petrol was rationed by 1941. 1942 introduced ration coupons for clothing and basic food items like butter and tea. Chocolate and stockings became rare luxuries. At Ipswich Girls Grammar School, the lawns were replaced with vegetable gardens. 4IP appealed for listeners to collect scrap aluminium (one aluminium teapot equalled 438 aircraft rivets).

The Ipswich General Cemetery became the final resting place for Australian military personnel, and Manson Park a temporary resting place for American Servicemen – 1260 in all.