Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Research_Checklist_WW1.pdf

Research_Checklist_WWII.pdf

Mericourt-L'Abbe Communal Cemetery Extension

No. 467 Squadron's 'S for Sugar' being bombed up at Waddington Yorkshire. This redoubtable airframe survived the war having completed 132 missions. It is reserved in the RAF Museum at Hendon near London.

Showing Slater's Knoll a week after the Japanese attacked on the morning of 5 April 1945. The front had now been pushed forward and life was quiet again on Slater's Knoll; the 25th Australian Infantry Battalion had just vacated the position and it was now occupied by troops of 'B' Company, 58/59 Australian Infantry Battalion. This work was painted with the simple object of showing life in a dug-in forward position, and gives an idea of many other sites where the infantry had been dug in for some time. The latrine with a 4-gallon oil drum serving as a seat, would be out in the open, away from the tents on the right, and food would be carried in dixies from the cook house, further back, and served to the men on the position. In the tents were two bunks made by using the canvas of the issued stretchers, supported by saplings. The legs of the stretchers were then stored in the Left Out of Battle (LOB) area, as they would be too bulky to carry. Pictured, is a Bren gun pit in the immediate left foreground where a lad is shown cleaning his weapon. There is a steep bank on the left of the picture, making a natural defence. This is actually at the rear of the site. As the Japanese attempted to take the knoll by force of numbers they approached up the gently sloping side to the right, beyond the limit of the painting. The Bren gun in the pit in the foreground supplied most effective cross fire. On the right can be seen part of a large bomb crater, made during the Japanese occupancy, and the uprooted trees cutting diagonally across the picture were evidently thrown up when the crater was made.

In November 1967 a 9 Squadron Iroquois lands to pick up members of the 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (7RAR) during operation Santa Fe, a gruelling three week-long operation through inhospitable country some 23 kilometres from the Task Force Base at Nui Dat. [AWM COL/67/1127/VN]

Nine members of 5 Platoon, B Company, 6RAR. By the end of Operation Bribie three of these young men were dead and five had been wounded. Only one emerged from the battle unscathed. Image courtesy of J. O'Halloran. [AWM P02452.002]

Unidentified radio operator of B Company 9 RAR on Operation Friendship 3. Radio communications were better and more readily available than in any previous conflict.

Wellington GR.XII 221 Sqn RAF over Greece 1945

Sister Kath Neuss a victim of the Banka Island massacre

Peggy Eveett Farmaner

QLD. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of QFX22714 Captain Pauline Blanche (Blanche) Hempsted, 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She was one of sixty five Australian nurses and over 250 civilian men, women and children evacuated on the Vyner Brooke from Singapore three dyas before the fall of Malaya. The Vyner Brooke was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk in Banka Strait on 14 February 1942. Of the sixty five nurses, twelve were lost at sea, twenty two survived the sinking and were washed ashore on Radji Beach, Banka Island, where they surrendered to the Japanese along with twenty five British soldiers. On 16 February 1942 the group was massacred, the soldiers were bayoneted and the nurses were ordered to march into the sea where they were shot. Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier survived the massacre. Both were taken POW, but only Sister Bullwinkel survived the war. Sister Hempsted was one of the remaining thirty two nurses who also survived the sinking and were captured as POWs, eight of which later died in captivity. Sister Hempsted died of illness on 19 March 1945 in Sumatra. (Photograph copied from original photograph attached to attestation form, lent by Central Army Records Office.)

Stonehaven War Memorial Panel

An artists rendition of the attack by 15 Brigade north of the village of Villers-Bretonneux on the evening of 24/5 April 2018

QX10333 Corporal Athol 'Ned' Bayly. Taken in mid to late 1940 not long after enlisting and prior to overseas service.

Discharge Certificate (original) Edward Hewlett, 43 Bn AIF - obverse

Private Paul ANdrew LARGE was a national service conscript from Coolah in Queensland, and part of D Company 6RAR. He was one of the 17 soldiers of D Company killed in action in the course of the Battle of Long Tan.

Korea, 1952-05. Three officers from 'A' Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), share a bottle of beer in a reserve area. The soldiers are (left to right): Captain Brian Poananga, a New Zealander serving with the battalion; 3/40105 Lieutenant Gilmer John (Gil) Lucas MC; 3/395 Major Jeffrey James (Jim) Shelton MC, the company commander. A graduate of the Royal Military College (RMC) Duntroon, Captain Poananga later became Chief of the General Staff (CGS) in the Royal New Zealand Army (RNZA).

A Consolidated Catalina aircraft (right), with the serial number A24-100 and code number RK-L of 42 Squadron, RAAF, piloted by 401846 Pilot Officer (PO) (later Flying Officer (FO)) Clifford Dent Hull of Hawthorn, Vic. After completing a successful mine laying operation off Macassar (Celebes) Harbour on the night of 23 & 24 October 1944, the starboard engine of this aircraft was damaged by Japanese anti aircraft (AA) fire. Unable to maintain height on his return and with the second engine failing, PO Hull made a forced landing in the open sea south of the South Western Celebes Peninsula. He and his crew spent the next twelve hours on the water uncomfortably close to four Japanese airfields based in Southern Celebes, before a second Catalina (left), OX-U of 43 Squadron, RAAF, arrived to rescue PO Hull and his crew. A rubber dingy is visible transferring the downed crew to the rescue aircraft. A United States B24 Liberator bomber located the downed Catalina and guided the rescue Catalina in. The B24 continued to circle overhead providing protection. After the disabled Catalina had been sunk by machine gun fire, the rescue Catalina took off and returned safely to Darwin. This operation was one of the epic sea rescues of the Second World War, entailing a round trip of 1800 miles mainly through Japanese held territory. The rescue crew were: 415632 FO (later Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt, DFC)), Armand Andre Etienne (Captain), of West Perth, WA; 408409 FO (later Flt Lt), Ian McCallister Robson of Sandy Bay, Tas; 428809 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) (later Warrant Officer (WO)), John Joseph Sweeney (Navigator), of Newcastle, NSW, (visible standing on the wing of the rescue aircraft); 428832 Flt Sgt (later WO), Raymond Victor Tumeth of Haberfield, NSW; 428360 Flt Sgt (later WO), Derek Fanshawe Robertson of Camberwell, Vic; 12912 Sergeant (Sgt) (later PO), Robert Richard Tingman of Brighton, Vic; 12223 Sgt (later Flt Sgt), Albert Leslie Warton of Sydney, NSW; A2398 Sgt, Thomas Roy Elphick of Bondi, NSW; 33642 Corporal, James Francis Burgess Oliver of Glen Innes of NSW.

The Rose Park Gun. German 7.7cm Feldkanone 96 (FK96) Field Gun (1896).* One of a battery of German 77mm field guns captured by the 32nd Battalion during the Battle of Amiens that are now located in parks around SA.

A 4.5 inch howitzer of 108th (Howitzer) Battery of the 8th Field Artillery Brigade

A Bell UH 1H Iroquois (aka "Huey") of No. 5 Squadron

11th Light Horse

Catfield War Memorial - commemorating S/N 1 LT Edward Addy, 9th Battalion

A 77 Squadron Halifax B Mk III

An Armstrong WHitworth Whitley of No 77 Squadron at RAF Driffield

920 Francis Michael LOCK AFC RH#23

Eric Slade approximate age 19 Farmer and Loving Husband and Father

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).

Gunners of the 2nd/4th Field Regiment with one of their short 25 pounder pack howitzers prepared for air dropping at Nadzab New Guinea September 1943.

A 144 Squadron taken during the D Day operations phase at Davidstow in Cornwall

Jim Whalley's Boomerang A46-63 on short finals

179 Sgt (later Lieutenant) William John Shaughnessy RH#14

NX207799 Private John Ernest PARRY

The front cover of Alex Kerr's wartime experience as a bomber pilot member of the 'Catepillar Club' and PoW

c. 1943. Studio portrait of 411768 Sergeant J. S. Freeth who flew with 455 Squadron. He was credited with sinking a submarine with depth charges in April 1943. He was killed in a flying accident on 24 May 1943. This hand coloured photograph is set in a gold brooch (REL25225) that is inscribed on the back with "To dear John Freeth's mother with regard from his friends at Angus and Coote 1944". Mrs Freeth had refused to give up hope that her son had survived, and it was hoped that by giving her this brooch that she would come to accept his death. (Donor D. Freeth).

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.

2/4 Australian General Hospital, Labuan, Borneo 1945

NX30NR Henry HULIN 2nd / 4th Field Regiment

FSGT Noel Wilkinson GADSDEN 625 Sqn RAF. Flt Sgt GADSDEN trained as an Air Gunner as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), and was posted to No. 625 Squadron RAF operating Lancaster bombers. On the night of 12/13 August 1944, Flt Sgt GADSDEN's Lancaster, serial number ME733, radio call sign CF-Z, was shot down and crashed at Hollenstein, Germany after an operational sortie over Brunswick. He was killed alongside six other crew members

Commemorative_Plaque

657 St Elmo Rupert CORBETT - Prior to departure HMAT Hororata

Distinguished Flying Cross, British War Medal, Victory Medal, War Medal 1939-45, Australian War Medal 1939-45

This is the Australian Hospital ship ‘S.S. Kyarra’, that William travelled back to Australia on. This photo was taken on the 6/12/14.

This is an image of the letter that William sent to the camp commander, begging for his discharge.

This photo is of St. Barnabas Church of England, which is where Crowder got married, in 1916.

This image is of a soldier from the 10th battalion at Mena Camp, Egypt playing with a kangaroo, which was the regimental mascot. The soldiers in the background are from the 9th and 10th Battalions, and they are looking towards the pyramids.

This picture is of the ship Ionian that Crowder travelled on to reach Lemnos. He boarded it on the 1/3/1915.

The cover of Gellert's most successful book of poetry, which cemented his reputation as Australia's premier warrior poet of WW1