Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

S/N 1 LT Edward Addy, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion Pieta Cemetery Malta

The Vultee Vengeance single engine dive bomber which equipped 12 Squadron RAAF.

QX10333 Athol 'Ned' Bayly - on right. Middle East, probably mid 1941

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

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

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.

920 Francis Michael LOCK AFC RH#23

CALLANDER Arthur Stanley 3047 Pte 27th Bn

Pilot Officer Clarence Charles Bennett

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 Gough's medal set: L-R Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914/15 Star, British War medal , Victory Medal

An Australian patrol in part of the anti-tank ditch. Compared to another photo purporting to be in an anti tank ditch, which is not much more than a shallow depression, this image gives avery graphic impression of the nature of the obstacle. The aim is to ground a tank in the bottom of the ditch at an angle that prevents self-recovery.

433549 FSGT Len Henderson 463 SQN

Harold Bourke's grave at Pheasant Wood

This aircraft, restored to non-flying status and formerly located at the Parafield Fighting Jets Museum in South Australia is a Bell P39 Airacobra of 82 Squadron (although it is wearing 24 Squadron codes - part of a flight detached to 82 Squadron) as it was when it was written off in a forced landing near Bulli in NSW in June 1943. The aircraft has sine been sold to aviation interests in Russia, where Airacobras served with great distinction in WW2. Airacobras were operated in limited numbers (22 in all) by the RAAF as a stop-gap in defence of cities on the eastern seaboard. Some are believed to have been used as training aircraft at Mount Gambier in SA. The Airacobra had some unique features which are shown in this image via open hatches. Most notable at first glance, it had a tricycle undercarriage, the engine was centre mounted, behind the pilot, driving a transmission shaft between the pilots feet to the propellor. This gave a lot of room up front for a very heavy nose armament comprising 1 x 20mm cannon (a 37mm cannon in some variants) firing through the propeller hub and two .50 calibre guns in the nose and one in each wing. While not highly regarded in the Pacific theatre, the most prolific user was the Soviet airforce who were provided large numbers under the Lend Lease Agreements. The Russians loved them, particularly as tank attack aircraft. They were replaced in Australian service by the ubiquitous Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk.

A memorial to the 460 Squadron crew lost on 13th June 1943

MID Medal Set: British War Medal, Victory Medal (with oak leaf symbolising Mentioned In Dispatches)

3491 Private John Stanley SGELTON 9 LHR RH#21

Arthur Blackburn, VC, arguably Australia's most remarkable citizen soldiers. Among the first ashore at Gallipoli and with another man reached farthest inland, he was later commissioned. He won a Victoria Cross at Pozieres in unrelenting fighting. He had a distinguished career in public life between the wars and commanded with distinction in the Middle East and Dutch East Indies in WWII becoming a POW after commanding 'Blackforce' in Java.

3294 PTE Leslie DOWDELL RH#11

North Africa Western Desert - A Tomahawk aircraft of No. 3 Squadron RAAF being re-armed before another sortie. Image made by George Silk

Short ‘Empire’, VH-ABB ‘Coolangatta’ of QANTAS. Impressed by RAAF as A18-13 and allocated to 11 Squadron RAAF. It was returned to QANTAS on 13 July 1943, but crashed in Sydney Harbour on 11 October 1944.

MEMBERS OF 2/2 FIELD REGIMENT, ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY, LOADING THE 155MM M1 "LONG TOM" BEFORE FIRING ONTO THE JAPANESE POSITIONS 14,600 YARDS AWAY. THE SHELL WEIGHS 95 POUNDS.

Amiens cathedral from the canal precinct

1763 Trooper Joseph Wren

The grave of Captain Herman Fritz Hubbe at Albert cemetey

HMAS Bataan, a destroyer, off the Korean Peninsula. The destroyer is seen here engaged in receiving a jackstay transfer from the Royal Navy carrier HMS OCEAN. It is sufficiently clear to show the late Commander Warwick Gracegirdle, RAN - BATAAN 's Korean War CO - on the bridge. This photo is taken off Korea, and the destroyer in the background is HMS CONSORT. Photo: Photographer unknown, the image was published in 1986 for the RAN's 75th Anniversary celebrations. The image is held in the Naval Historical Collection, Australian War Memorial, image ID 300378, listed copyright expired, public domain. It has also been posted on an InvisionFree ship modeller's blog. These are the AWM's descriptive notes that accompany the image: KOREA. ELEVATED PORT SIDE VIEW SHOWING DETAIL OF THE FORWARD PART OF THE DESTROYER HMAS BATAAN (EX-HMAS KURNAI) (D191) AS SHE RECEIVES PERSONNEL BY HIGHLINE FROM THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS OCEAN. NOTE FORWARD TWIN 4.7 INCH MK XII GUNS IN CP XIX MOUNTINGS, WITH THE BREECHES OF B MOUNTING PROMINENT AND THE 40 MM BOFORS AA GUN IN THE PORT BRIDGE WING. BEHIND THE BRIDGE ARE THE DIRECTOR CONTROL TOWER AND RANGEFINDER TOWER MK II WITH A TYPE 285 FIRE CONTROL RADAR MOUNTED UPON THE LATTER. NOTE ROPE STOWAGE IN THE BLAST SCREEN FORWARD OF B MOUNTING AND CARLEY FLOATS BY THE FORWARD SUPERSTRUCTURE WITH PADDLES NEATLY ARRAYED. THE SCREENING DESTROYER IN THE BACKGROUND IS HMS CONSORT. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION)

NX30NR Henry HULIN 2nd / 4th Field Regiment

Wirraways of No. 2 SFTS, c. July 1941; No. 7 SFTS also operated the type, and inherited aircraft from No. 2 SFTS when it disbanded in April 1942

The ubiquitous DH 82 Tiger Moth, backbone of the Empire Air Training Scheme and the aircraft in which Tom Tobin learned to fly. http://www.stephanschutze.com/uploads/3/1/0/6/3106267/1942_tigermoth_01.jpg

1613 Richard William KIRBY 3rd Light Horse Regiment / 1st LH Machine Gun Squadron

A 25 pounder 'Short' pack howitzer being towed by a Willys jeep. Uncharacteristically, this gun is fitted with a ballistic shield which was generally not fitted on operations.

A 4.5 inch howitzer of 108th Howitzer Battery of the 8th FIeld Artillery Brigade deployed in line behind a dyke or elevated road which provides them with cover from fire and view by the enemy

No. 625 Squadron, RAF based in Yorkshire. Flying Officer Ian Denver, DFC, RAAF, front row, fourth from left. He is wearing the distinctive darker blue uniform of the RAAF in WW2. Denver and his crew flew 16 missions before being transferred to No. 156 (Pathfinder) Squadron, where they flew a further 32 together.

Vietnam War Memorial, Adelaide, South Australia

429369 Flying Officer (FO) Richard Rodney (Rod) Young, 463 Sqn RAAF, of West Maitland, NSW at the controls of 'H' for How, about to depart on a raid on the Dortmund-Emms Canal in Germany. Just three weeks later he was flying JO-K when it was lost over Giessen, Germany

FSgt George Hale, 77 Squadron, and his aircraft "Halestorm", one of very few Meteor pilots to get the better of the Mig 15s over Korea. The effect of the muzzle blast from the two 20mm cannon mounted either side of the nose is clearly evident.

Painting by Will Longstaff depicting the night counter-attack o Villers Brettoneux that recaptured the town and checked the German advance on Amiens, 24/5 April 1918.

Richard FETHERSTON - Postcard to Work Colleagues in Australia

BRave of Warrant Officer Reginald Russell Wicks - Becklingen War Cemetery

The 102nd Howitzer Battery, Australian Field Artillery using 4.5 inch Q.F. Howitzers, in action in a wheat field on the morning of the start of the advance. Left to right: Gunner (Gnr) T. F. McDermott (1); Gnr C. E. Brasington (2); Gnr George Brasington (3); Bombardier (Bdr) C. R. Newton (4); Corporal (Cpl) G. Moysey (5); Gnr L. C. Bennison (6); Lieutenant (Lt) L. C. Wade (7); Lt Heppingstone (8); Bdr D. J. McAlister (9); Gnr W. H. Whitburn (10); Sergeant (Sgt) J. H. Cooper (11); Gnr J. A. Riley (12); Gnr W. Campbell (13); Bdr H. F. Renton (14); Gnr W. N. McCallum (15); Sgt J. Shingles (16); Lt N. J. Delaney (17); Bdr E. T. Green (18); Gnr Dyson-Holland (19); Gnr F. Renton (20); Major D. Toomey (21).

October 1914. Informal group portrait of nine members of the 10th Battalion, all of whom enlisted in 1914, and embarked from Adelaide, SA, on 20 October 1914 aboard HMAT Ascanius and served at Gallipoli. All of these men, except Private (Pte) Guy Fisher and Pte Eric Meldrum were students at St Peters Anglican College in Adelaide, and five of them died during the First World War. Identified, left to right, back row: Sergeant (later Lieutenant) John Rutherford Gordon, invalided to Australia with slight enteric fever, after which he joined the Australian Flying Corps and served as a rear gunner/observer with the 62 Squadron. He was awarded a Military Cross for his courage and returned to Australia (RTA) 6 May 1919; 40 Pte Francis Herbert 'Bertie' Stokes, killed in action on 27 April 1915 at Gallipoli after saving many lives on the day of the landing by rescuing those who fell into the water on the beach and carrying them to the relative safety of the cliff face; 33 Pte Guy Fisher, discharged on 2 January 1916; 41 Pte Eric Douglas Meldrum, returned to Australia on 21 December 1917; 638 Lance Corporal (LCpl) Philip de Quetterville Robin, killed in action at Gallipoli, on 28 April 1915. Front row: 47 Pte Thomas Anderson Whyte, died of wounds at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915; 31 Pte (later Lieutenant) Arthur Seaforth Blackburn, awarded the Victoria Cross on 9 September 1916 for his actions on the night of 23 July 1916; 38 Pte (later Lieutenant) Wilfrid Oswald Jose, transferred to the 50th Battalion, and was killed in action at Noreuil, France on 3 April 1917; 286 Pte Malcolm St Aiden Teesdale Smith, killed in action on 27 April 1915 at Gallipoli, while rescuing fellow soldiers who were wounded.

MILLETT, Reginald Wellington

NF462502 Gunner Norma Vesta MEAKIN's headstone at Rookwood War Cemetery