How Australia might remember a sacrificed Royal Navy squadron

How would Australians view the loss of nine Royal Navy protected cruisers and two sloops alongside their own ships while defending Australia?

As heroic sacrifice if Britain ultimately secured the theatre, but as abandonment if the small squadron was all Britain sent and the campaign failed.

If Britain wins the wider conflict, Australians could remember the squadron's loss as a sacrifice made in their defence. If Britain loses and those ships are all it sends, the likely response is to ask where the battle fleet was. The scenario recalls late nineteenth-century Australian fears of the Russian Pacific Fleet. It also invites comparison with the sense of betrayal over British support during World War II, when the sequence of the wars and decisions in London left Australia exposed.