Weird ideas rattling around in my head again, at least the voices have gone.
How about a couple of quite minor changes in WWI and between the wars.
First Lt Gen Harry Chauvel is able to obtain tanks, armoured cars and armoured lorries in sufficient numbers to reequip a brigade of the Desert Mounted Corps by late 1917. As successful as the horse cavalry are the armoured and mechanised brigade is even more so, in fact so successful is the integration of armour, motorisation, aviation and traditional cavalry that the fiction that the Arabs captured Damascus is impossible to engineer as the whole world witnesses the combined arms campaign that captures not just Palestine and Syria but also most of Turkey south of the Dardanelles.
In France Monash is not only delivering on his immensely successful, precise, planned to the minute battles, but has secured significant equipment to create a tank corps, converting five AIF infantry brigades into motor brigades to provide each division with its own organic tanks, armoured cars and troop transport, also dramatically expanding the AFC to provide direct support to the Australian Corps. This had the effect of dramatically reducing casualties, while even further increasing their successes, in the last year of the war meaning Australian forces were able to remain at the forefront through to Armistice, gaining much greater recognition than they actually did.
Finally, armed with the proven effect of combined arms operations and evidence that it could actually provide Australias military, with its limited man power, much greater combat effect, the government listens to Monash and Chauvel when they recommend the formation of a standing motorised / mechanised army. The AIF becomes the standing army and although greatly reduced in size, is fully motorised and partially mechanised over the next two decades. Initially the 1st and 2nd Brigades, including their organic armour become regular, as do a number of other individual infantry, Light Horse, artillery, engineer and other regiments and battalions. Remaining units are reserve for the rest of the 1st Division and 1st Light Horse Brigade being at the highest level and fully manned with large full time elements, while the remainder of the AIF is maintained at least cadre strength.
Additionally back in Australia a visionary industrialist, Edward James Devlin of Melbourne and his partners had dramatically expanded the embryonic lorry, coach and engine building division of their company, Devlin Holdings, Devlin Automotive, to not only licence produce regular cars and lorries but also design and manufacture armoured cars and armoured lorries. Additionally Devlin ramped up a munitions arm, and as a matter of some urgency secured mining leases in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, where massive iron ore reserves had been found in the 1880s, as well as large copper reserves in central South Australia, to feed the nations factories and the war effort. While much of this came to fruition too late to contribute to the war it came to drive the growth of robust local automotive, transport, construction, mining, refining, shipping, shipbuilding and other industries with associated growth in road, rail and transport which inturn drove major road, rail and port projects through until rearmament took over in the late thirties. Ironically a major export partner emerged in Japan, originally for ore and primary produce but also to a lessor degree manufactured goods, there was very real concern over Japans expansionist tendencies but overall it was considered more beneficial to work with them than to isolate them.
During the war substantial numbers of vehicles, munitions and raw materials were exported to, not only by the AIF and British Commonwealth Forces, but also by the US, French and Italians. Armoured cars and lorries, in particular, were supplied in their tens of thousands directly to the United States as they had nothing comparable anywhere near production. The 1929 Wall Street crash was a major shock but the infra structure programs were already underway and were more expensive to stop than continue, which meant the associated employment continued which kept the economy as a whole going. Basically these projects drove immigration and population growth, so while times were hard, Australia suffered a series of recessions rather than a depression, the biggest factor in this was, instead of a crippling war debt, Australia was debt free and owed money by other nations, the main issue was the debtors were struggling to pay causing cash flow issues.
Back onto armour, the 2nd AIF is formed as in reality but as the 1st AIF still exists as a standing army and its reserve the 2nd AIF is named the Australian Expeditionary Force (as in the British Expeditionary Force) and its subordinate formations and units are numbered consecutively from the existing AIF formations and units, i.e. 61 Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division AEF instead of 2/1 Australian Infantry Battalion. As in reality the AEF is initially deployed to Palestine but the 8th Division is sent to the UK instead of Malaya, where as a matter of urgency, following the sock collapse of France, the 8th in the UK and 1 Corps in Palestine are converted from Infantry to Motor Infantry as quickly as possible. This is achieved through reorganising the original four battalion per brigade establishment to three battalion brigades British establishments with the three spare battalions being converted to infantry tank battalions, thus each AEF (and subsequently AIF) division gains an infantry tank brigade, while the divisional cavalry are converted into cruiser, light tank, or armoured car regiments. The AIF cavalry, long converted to armoured cars and lorries, gain cruiser tanks, tracked and half track APCs.
Post war armour is reorganised into six main steams.
- Armoured Cavalry with fast universal tanks (Comets / AC4/5 then Leopards), Kangaroo type Cavalry Fighting Vehicles, and tracked support elements including SPGs, tracted mortars, engineering vehicles etc.
- Cavalry with armoured cars and wheeled CFVs (Saladin, Saracen etc. then more modern types through to Centauro Ferricias etc.)
- Army Tank Brigade with five battalions of the Armoured Regiment Infantry tanks then MBTs (Churchill
- Royal Australian Regiment with an armoured support company in each battalion including fast universal tanks, SP tank destroyers / assault guns etc.
- Light Cavalry Regiment to support light forces (airborne and light infantry brigades)
- Marine Armoured Regiment to support RAM (USMC type armour)