The War service and duties by staff and students created an immediate crisis. History Professor Charles King, Law Professor Kenneth Shatwell and Modern languages Professor Louis Triebel immediately undertook war work, which interfered with their academic duties.

Not all of the war-related work had a negative impact on the University, however. Indeed, war-work had an invigorating effect on the Faculty of Science. In response to a shortage of optical equipment, the Australian Government began consulting with University science faculties across the country in order to secure the know-how needed to start large-scale manufacturing.

Physics Professor McAulay and his associate lecturer Cruickshank were permitted to do military optical work in the physics laboratory. Responding with alacrity to a government request for gun sight components, McAulay, Cruickshank and their colleagues excelled themselves, outshining their counterparts at Melbourne University.

From there, the Science Faculty began manufacturing optical lenses for the Australian Military. An optical annexe was thrown up, while staff and senior students supervised about 280 workers in two shifts. Cruickshank's hours of duty were 7:30AM to 11:00PM. McAulay's efforts to establish a third shift for himself almost brought on his physical collapse. A brilliant interned German, Hans Buchdahl, later a professor at the Australian National University, was recruited from Hayes Prison Farm to assist with the manufacturing.

Third year students now concentrated almost exclusively on problems relating to optical processes. Not only did the faculty excel at vital war-work, but the acquired knowledge allowed them to break new ground in optical astronomy after the war.

Wartime Controversy

Overall, staff and students were supportive in their opinions on the war effort. A staff-student meeting in June 1940 fully endorsed the war effort, while Togatus endeavoured to maintain a patriotic, if somewhat questioning, attitude.

As in World War I, however, some academics attracted controversy with statements that were interpreted as pro-German or detrimental to the war effort. One lecturer describing the German people as 'lovable' in a radio broadcast, while Economy Professor Ken Dallas, who later joining the Navy, declared that Australia would have to better demonstrate its democratic nature before miners in Tasmania would fully cooperate with the war effort.

Once again, this wartime hysteria began to encroach on the University’s autonomy. At a University Council meeting in June 1940, E.W Turner criticised university students who weren’t engaging in war-related activities, saying they should work to 'win the war, not win a degree'.

His motion to subordinate the University entirely to war necessities and close down all irrelevant departments was, however, voted down. The Vice-Chancellor showed that two-thirds of staff were doing war work, while twenty students had already enlisted. Of the seventy regular students remaining, sixty were under twenty-one and thus ineligible for enlistment. Also, as Canon Barrett pointed out, there were more ways of serving than shouldering a rifle. The optical work of the Physics Department was a sufficient answer to silence Turner.

Despite this opposition to Turner, however, the University Board did encourage students who could possibly change to a war-related course to do so. £750 (equal to $55,000 in 2013) was made available for science and engineering subsidies for students, while some students, especially in faculties whose qualifications could be related to the war effort, were exempted from all military service.

The need for men with some technical training led to the temporary institution of a two-year Bachelor of Engineering and Science, available to boys as young as sixteen, instead of the normal Bachelor of Engineering.

In March 1941, in stark contrast to Turners statements, Adjutant-General Victor Stantke told the Australian Vice-Chancellors that university staff and students should continue teaching students as normal, as the country needed a reservoir of men with full-time training to compensate for the large body of returning young men who forewent an education to fight in the war.

The University Struggles on

This devotion to the war effort naturally came at a cost to other areas of the University. As well as some voluntary reductions of faculty funding, all inter-varsity activities for 1940 were cancelled, allowing the the Student Representative Council to donate £100 (equal to almost $8000 in 2013) to the national cause. The University's annual jubilee celebrations were also cancelled to save funding.

Despite the drain on staff, student and funding, however, some activities still continued as usual. Sport and social life continued amongst the students and several clubs still operated, such as male and female hockey, while dances were held and plays performed again after 1941.

The reduced number of students also received reasonable teaching from the remaining staff. In the Arts Faculty, where there were few reserved places for men, the proportion of women students naturally increased. Women students slightly outnumbered men in arts for the first time in 1943, by 197 to 193.

When bombing fears were at their height in September 1941, thirty-six of seventy full-time students replied to a circular asking for air raid precautionary work. Professor Elliott's University ARP boasted a demolition squad, a stretcher-bearer unit and messengers. A men's sewing circle was set up to produce bandages.

Togatus warned students not to waste the time of staff preoccupied with war work when invasion threatened, and was adamant that students should work as hard as men in the army so that their training could benefit the country.

The fear of Japanese invasion was so great that the 1942 and 1943 Graduation Ceremonies were abandoned - all degrees being awarded in absentia. Despite this, the greatest threat posed to the University’s safety during the war came not from Japan, but from the University Debating Club, who left a gas fire on in the women's common room and almost started a fire.

Although World War II did not end until 1945, its impact on the University of Tasmania perceptibly lessened towards the end of 1943 when fears of defeat or invasion faded from public consciousness. Instead of dark foreboding, belt-tightening and appeals for sacrifice, a new era of euphoria and optimism dawned.

Now at last a serious effort could be made to recruit staff for anticipated enrolment growth and improve conditions, and development proved rapid when the war ended in mid-1945. Student numbers rose in 1946 to 586, which included 200 returned servicemen. Staff appointments increased even more rapidly, doubling since 1939.

Though the outbreak of hostilities in August 1939 appeared disastrous to the limping University, in the long term World War II had a stimulating effect. The War, moreover, created a need for training in science and engineering and encouraged research in military-related fields. Post-1945 there was, throughout the country, a more positive realisation of the importance of higher education.