Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

WW1 (post Dec 15) and WW2 Home service - British War Medal, Victory Medal, British War Medal WW2, Australian Service Medal 39-45

Bristol Beauforts at No. 1 Operational Training Unit, Bairnsdale, Victoria. Nearer camera: A9-102, 262097, Flying Officer Peter John Gibbes, DFC; A9-66, 377, Squadron Leader Cyril Clarence Williams.

A Halifax of 462 Squadron taken from the flight deck of another, with the Bristol Hercules radial engines that powered this variant (B Mk III) in detail. Earlier variants had been powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin V12 liquid cooled engines made famous by the Lancaster and Spitfire. The legendary Merlin was outclassed on the Halifax airframe by the Hercules which delivered better speed and ceiling performance. Paradoxically, the reverse was true on the Lancaster. The Halifax B Mk III was also characterised by larger rectangular vertical stabilisers compared to the smaller pointed fins of earlier variants that had lateral caused stability problems.

Two soldiers from the 15th MG Coy posing for a photograph with a Vickers Machine gun. Its key features are the heavy tripod on which it mounted, the right hand belt feed of ammunition in canvas belts, and the cylindrical jacket over the barrel which is filled with water to aid cooling of the barrel. This facilitated the very high rates of sustained fire this gun was renowned for.

Gillies St Primary School - 1904

Lauri Sheard's grave alongside his colleagues at Bomana War Cemetery Port Moresby Papua New Guinea.

Surrounded by Australians, wounded North Vietnamese prisoners lie on makeshift stretchers and wait to be evacuated from Balmoral.

An Australian digger searches for his mate's grave amid the shell-torn landscape that was Pozieres. The fact that so many men have no known grave is unsurprising given field burials like these which could be subsequently obliterated by more fighting and shellfire. After the war these ad hoc burials were concentrated into the cemeteries we know today.

SA Premiers ANZAC Spirit Prize group visited Toronto Avenue on 19th April 2013. Toronto Avenue cemetery can only be reached via a walking track from the vicinity of Prowse Point cemetery,past Mud Lane cemetery and through Ploegsteert Wood.

Plymouth, England. C. 1943. Portrait of Flight Lieutenant R. W. Marks of Norwood, SA, a Sunderland aircraft captain of No. 10 Squadron RAAF at RAF Station Mount Batten.

Distinguished Flying Cross (original WW1 style ribbon), 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Memorial Stained Glass Window in the Uniting Church Knightsbridge SA, commemorating the life of Leonard GURNER, a parishoner

An Avro Lancaster Mk III of No. 50 Squadron late in the war - Squadron codes 'VN' clearly visible

Comforts Fund Banner

RAAF WW2 Europe medal set - L-R 1939-45 Star (6 months O/S service) , Aircrew Europe Star (operational service over NW Europe up to D Day 5 6 June 1944), Defence Medal (service in a defended area), British War Medal 39-45, Australian War Service Model 39-45.

A SQN in Syria

James Christian Ehrke, my great uncle. James' cerebral meningitis caused by camp conditions according to medical records. He renlisted in WW2 for Homeland Defence.

3639 Audley Esmond WEBSTER RH#25

Effect: Matilda Tanks destroyed by the Japanese naval guns emplaced at Mangam, Borneo

James Tyner's Medal Set - L-R 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

A Short Sunderland Mk.III (EK573/P) of No. 10 Squadron RAAF on the water after alighting to rescue 3 survivors from a Vickers Wellington of No. 172 Squadron RAF, clinging to a one-man dinghy (seen at right) after being shot down in the Bay of Biscay while attacking a German submarine on 26 August 1944. Although it was forbidden for flying boats to alight on the open sea in rescue attempts, the pilot of the Sunderland, Flight Lieutenant W.B. Tilley, decided the survivors could wait no longer for surface craft to arrive, and touched down to pick them up for a safe return to Mount Batten, Devon (UK). A fourth member of the Wellington crew, Flying Officer R.B. Gray RCAF, refused to risk the lives of the other survivors by overloading the dinghy, although he was seriously injured. He succumbed during their fifteen-hour ordeal at sea and was awarded a posthumous George Cross. The pilot of the Sunderland of No. 10 Squadron RAAF who made the hazardous sea landing and take-off was Flight Lieutenant William Boris Tilley DFC of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia).

We are so Proud of Clive R.I.P.a light horseman who died in the trenches with a sniper bullet to the heart, trying to save one of his platoon mates....never to return home to his Family. Died for Freedom and Honour.

Commemorative Plaque, colloquially known as "The Dead Man's Penny", issued to the families of the Fallen, together with a Commemorative Scroll signed by King George V

Studio portrait of 808 Private (Pte) Antonio Augustine Picone, 6th Machine Gun Company from Stawell, Victoria (born in Italy). A 19 year old fruiterer's assistant prior to enlisting on 14 June 1917, he embarked for overseas with the 15th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 26 November 1917 aboard SS Indarra. Following further training in Egypt and England and a period of illness in England, he arrived in France on 22 August 1918 and joined the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion. Pte Picone arrived back in Australia on 6 February 1920.

920 Francis Michael LOCK AFC RH#23

CALLANDER Arthur Stanley 3047 Pte 27th Bn

Bullecourt church and Slouch Hat memorial. Stevve Larkins collection

A flight of three Lockheed Hudson aircraft from No. 23 Squadron RAAF based at Amberley in 1941. Nearest camera is A16-3 flown by 22 Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Phillip Walter Howson, OBE. In the centre is A16-38, flown by 251607 Flying Officer (FO) Edward Andrew Dorward, and at rear, A16-47, flown by 260518 FO Oscar George Diethelm. A16-38, was later issued to No. 32 Squadron. Flown by Wing Commander Deryck Kingwell, it was badly shot up in New Guinea on 31 March 1942. After repair it was issued to No. 1 Operational Training Unit (1 OTU), Bairnsdale, Vic, when it was flown during a press demonstration at Bairnsdale, on 27 October 1942 by Flt Lt Frank Tampion, lost its starboard mainplane and crashed and burned 'in shot' of Fox Movietone and Cinesound Newsreel cameraman Geoff Thompson. The film was impounded and used in the subsequent enquiry, which eliminated the rumour that undetected corrosion caused by an undetected Japanese bullet hole was responsible; the cause was determined to be a poorly repaired mainplane. In the interim, however, eighteen 1 OTU Hudsons were withdrawn during November 1942 for mainplane replacement. All four Lockheed Hudson photographs (AC0058, AC0066 AC0067 and AC0068) were taken by Flt Lt John Harrison from Wirraway A20-115, flown by Commanding Officer of 23 Squadron, regular officer 80 Squadron RAAF Leader Dixie Robison Chapman. Of note is the unusual, small RAAF serial applied to the tailplanes of A16-3. A16-3 was on strength with 1 OTU when the unit was called on at short notice to provide aircraft for the air supplying of allied troops at Buna. A group of twelve Hudsons was formed, known as 1 OTU Detached Flight, including A16-3, flown from Bairnsdale to Ward's Drome at Port Moresby, and began operations on 14 December 1942, flying over the Owen Stanley Mountain Range to drop supplies at Soputa and, later, landing at Dobodura. Flown by Flt Lt Neville Hemsworth, with Sergeant Bert Rodd and Flight Sergeants Robert Bamber and Henry Stephens as crew, A16-3, taking off from Dobodura with four wounded infantry aboard at 11.00 am on 26 December, was attacked by several Ki-43 Oscars from the 11th Sentai and chased south to Hariko. An incendiary bullet started a fire and Hemsworth ditched the Hudson into Oro Bay near Hariko, resulting in the drowning of the two stretcher bound wounded. A US Navy PT Boat picked up the survivors, but Stephens died of burns the next day, while Hemsworth was badly burned about the face and arms and Bamber wounded by gunfire. The ditching was witnessed and sketched by Official War Artist Roy Hodgkinson (who comments that the Hudson made 'a perfect belly landing on the sea') and appears in the Memorial's collection as ART21695. A16-47 was attached to the RAAF's Survey Flight in early 1944, then based at Lowood, Queensland. On 23 July 1945, A16-47, crewed by Flt Lt Lance Clarke, FO Thomas Steel and Leading Aircraftman (LAC) Frank Chiverton, and carrying as passengers the Flight's new Commander, Squadron Leader Nigel Pilcher plus unit members Corporal Bill Gaze and LAC Walter Nielson and Squadron Leader Cuthbert Griffin, departed for Bowen to visit the Flight's Anson detachment. They never arrived and despite a week long search, were never located.

Discharge Certificate (original) Edward Hewlett, 43 Bn AIF

Australia's first submarine AE1 in dry dock at Cockatoo Island in Sydney in June 1914

Flying Officer Jack Brittain

Normandy, France. C. 1944-06. Spitfire aircraft of No. 453 Squadron RAAF, painted in black and white stripes, invasion markings, at dispersal at the edge of a barley field airstrip, ALG B.11, ready for operations over the Normandy battlefield.

Pilot Officer Clarence Charles Bennett

3495A Gunner (Gnr) Harold Constantine 5th DAC

Two 11 Squadron Catalinas over Lake Macquarie in NSW. Rathmines, on the edge of the lake, was a key base and depot for Australia's maritime patrol assets.

Photographed during WW2 service

"Sonny" Wright, Frank's childhood mate enlisted as under age and served through WW2 in all theatres and then deployed to Japan as part of the BCOF, where he was accidentally killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1946. He was initially interred under the name C.R. O'Neil - the name of Frank's uncle whose driver's licence SOnny used as ID to enlist. His headstone has since been corrected. He is buried in Yokohama Military Cemetery.

Reginald Francis GRIMLEY

This is an image of the officers of the 10th Battalion.

A map depicting the disposition of forces at 4 Oct 1917, immediately prior to the commencement of the Battle of Broodseinde Ridge

Studio portrait of 874 Private Joseph Archdall Beacom, 15th Battalion of Barrengarry, NSW. Son of John Beacom and Elizabeth Chittick (formerly Beacom). A farmer prior to enlisting, he embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Ceramic (A40) on 22 December 1914. He was killed in action on 10 August 1916 in France, aged 31. He has no known grave, and is remembered with honour on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. His brother 4078 Private David Beacom was killed in action 5 days earlier.

William Wilson Smith

A de Havilland Mosquito FB1 of No. 464 Squadron RAAF