Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=324943

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/awm-media/collection/RCDIG1068845/document/5544837.PDF

227 page autobiography by Air Commodore Lyall Robert Klaffer entitiled "Fighter Pilot". Manuscript details the authors personal history before enlistment. Accounts post-enlistment are divided into chapters based on posting: Enlistment in Citizens Air Force; Flying training at Point Cook; Flying training at RAAF base East Sale; No.3 Squadron; Central Flying School; No. 77 Squadron Japan; 24 City of Adelaide Squadron; Officer Training school Rathmines; No.2 Operational Conversion Unit; No.75 (F) Squadron Malta; ADC to the Governor-General of Australia; No.2 (F) OCU RAAF Williamstown; Central Flying School RAAF Base East Sale; RAAF College Point Cook; No.3 Fighter Combat Instructors Course; Air Armaments School; RAAF Base Williamstown; RAAF Staff College Point Cook; Air Force Headquarters; Central Flying School; No.16 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (US) South Carolina; Headquarter Operational Command; No.1 Squadron Amberley; Base Squadron Amberley; Air Base Butterworth, Malaysia; Air Force office, Canberra. Accounts of active service during the Korean War. Training, conversion and posting experiences through the rest of his career including his role as ADC to Governor-General Field Marshal Sir William Slim. Personal photographs included throughout.

Aircrew Photo Late 1943 Just before Joining 57 RAF Squadron for First Tour in Jan 1944. All RAF apart from Ian. All Sgts apart from Nav. Rear L-R W/Op Ken Jenkinson (Survived War), Mid Upper AG Charlie King (Survived War), F/E William (Bill) Walter (KIA 12 Jan 1945) and Rear AG Bert McKellar (KIA 12 Jan 1945). Front L-R Nav Terry O'Brien (Survived War), Pilot Ian Ross (KIA 12 Jan 1945) and BA Ed Tilby (KIA 12 Jan 1945). Charlie and Terry elected not to Continue Flying and were Rested after completing their First Tour. Ken Remained with Crew but was Grounded Due to Illness and did not fly on Bergen Op. Replacement Crew - Nav Syd Anderson DFM, Mid Upper AG Les Griffiths and W/Op Ray Ellwood DFM MID. All were Killed with Ian. Rays body was Recovered and Buried in Norway, he had been on Operations since 1939. The Remainder are all on Runnymede with Ian. Family 1943

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=5523054&S=1&N=34&R=0

Commissioned by the 28th Batttalion and 24th Anti-Tank Company Association Inc. as part of the Australian War Memorial’s Plaque Dedication Program.

Awarded the following Battle Honours: Beaufort - 1945 Borneo - 1945 Busu River - 1943 Defence of Alamein Line - 1942 Defence of Scarlet Beach - 1943 Defence of Tobruk - 1941 El Alamein - 1942 Finschhafen - 1943 Gusika - 1943 Labuan - 1945 Qattara Track - 1942 Sanyet el Miteirya - 1942 Siki Cove - 1943 Tell el Makh Khad - 1942

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1457390/ALEXANDER,%20CHARLES%20HENRY

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3030329&isAv=N

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10446410?search=

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3025159&isAv=N

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=335491

This list is a work in progress and is incomplete as it is being compiled from fragmentary records of individual airmen. 11 January 1945 152 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H raid on the railway yard in the Uerdingen suburb of Krefeld. No aircraft lost. 13 January 1945 158 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked the railway yards at Saarbrücken. The bombing appeared to be accurate, though with some overshooting. 1 Lancaster crashed in France. 16 January 1945 1138 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked the benzol plant at Wanne-Eickel. No results known. 1 Lancaster lost. 28 January 1945 153 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked the railway yards at Cologne/Gremberg in conditions of good visibility. Some of the bombing fell on the target but some overshot. 3 Lancasters were lost and 1 crashed in France. 2/3 February 1945 495 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups to Wiesbaden. 3 Lancasters crashed in France. This was Bomber Command's one and only large raid on Wiesbaden. There was complete cloud cover but most of the bombing hit the town. 5 important war industries along the banks of the Rhine were untouched but the railway station was damaged. 20/21 February 1945 514 Lancasters and 14 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups attacked Dortmund in Bomber Command's last large-scale raid on this target. 14 Lancasters lost. The intention of this raid was to destroy the southern half of Dortmund and Bomber Command claimed that this was achieved. 22 February 1945 167 Lancasters of No 3 Group in forces of 85 and 82 aircraft to oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen and Osterfeld. A Film Unit Lancaster of No 463 Squadron, No 5 Group, accompanied the Gelsenkirchen force. Both targets were accurately bombed in clear weather conditions. 1 Lancaster lost from the Gelsenkirchen raid. 25 February 1945 153 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H attack on the synthetic-oil refinery at Kamen. 1 Lancaster lost. 26 February 1945 149 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H attack on the Hoesch benzol-oil plant at Dortmund through cloud. No results were seen but the bombing appeared to be concentrated. No aircraft lost. 28 February 1945 156 Lancasters of No 3 Group in a G-H raid on the Nordstern synthetic-oil plant at Gelsenkirchen. No aircraft lost. 1 March 1945 151 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked an oil plant at Kamen through cloud. 4 March 1945 128 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H attack through cloud on Wanne-Eickel. No results were seen. 6 March 1945 119 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H attack through cloud on the Wintershall oil refinery at Salzbergen. 1 lost. 7/8 March 1945 526 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups raided Dessau. 18 Lancasters lost, 3.4 per cent of the force. This was another devastating raid on a new target in Eastern Germany with the usual town centre, residential, industrial and railway areas all being hit. 10 March 1945 155 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H attack on the oil refinery at Scholven/Buer. Photographs taken later showed this to have been a very accurate and effective raid. No aircraft lost. 12 March 1945 1,108 aircraft - 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos attacked Dortmund. This was another new record to a single target, a record which would stand to the end of the war. 2 Lancasters lost. Another record tonnage of bombs - 4,851 - was dropped through cloud on to this unfortunate city. The only details available from Dortmund state that the attack fell mainly in the centre and south of the city. A British team which investigated the effects of bombing in Dortmund after the war says that, 'The final raid … stopped production so effectively that it would have been many months before any substantial recovery could have occurred’. 14 March 1945 169 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out G-H attacks through cloud on oil plants at Datteln and Hattingen (near Bochum). Both attacks appeared to be accurate but no results were seen. 1 Lancaster lost from the Hattingen raid. 4/5 April 1945 327 Lancasters and 14 Mosquitos of Nos 3, 6 and 8 Groups attacked the synthetic-oil plant at Leuna. The target was cloud-covered, the bombing was scattered and only minor damage was caused. 2 Lancasters lost. 186 Squadron lost FOff Beck's aircraft and crew. 9/10 April 1945 591 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3 and 8 Groups to Kiel. 3 Lancasters lost. This was an accurate raid, made in good visibility on two aiming points in the harbour area. Photographic reconnaissance showed that the Deutsche Werke U-boat yard was severely damaged, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was hit and capsized, the Admiral Hipper and the Emden were badly damaged. The local diary says that all 3 shipyards in the port were hit and that the nearby residential areas were severely damaged. 13/14 April 1945 377 Lancasters and 105 Halifaxes of Nos 3, 6 and 8 Groups to Kiel. 2 Lancasters lost. This raid was directed against the port area, with the U-boat yards as the main objective. Bomber Command rated this as 'a poor attack' with scattered bombing. 18 April 1945 969 aircraft - 617 Lancasters, 332 Halifaxes, 20 Mosquitos - of all groups attacked the naval base at Heligoland, the airfield and the town on this small island. The bombing was accurate and the target areas were turned almost into crater-pitted moonscapes. 3 Halifaxes were lost. 20 April 1945 100 Lancasters of No 3 Group bombed the fuel-storage depot at Regensburg accurately. 1 Lancaster lost. This was the last raid in the current campaign against German oil targets which had been waged since June 1944. Much of Bomber Command's effort during this period, sometimes at considerable loss, had been devoted to these oil operations, which had helped not only the Allied ground forces on the Western Front but also those fighting in Italy and on the Eastern Front.

SINGLETON, AUSTRALIA. 1943-01. GUNNERS OF THE 2/2ND FIELD REGIMENT, ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY, TAKING PART, WITH THEIR 25-POUNDER GUNS, IN A GAS-SHELL DEMONSTRATION.

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.

That picture is HMAS <i>Sydney (III)</i> in the Tsushima Straits the morning after evasive/survival action trying to minimise the effects of the infamous Typhoon Ruth. The storm killed 500 ashore in Japan and registered the limit of 120 knots on <i>Sydney's</i> anemometer before it broke. We regularly shipped green water over the flight deck and lost five aircraft overnight damaged beyond economical repair, including one overboard. Also, one forklift and the captain's jollyboat broke adrift and went for a swim, never to be seen again. But our faithful doggie, the Netherlands' <i>Von Galen</i>, fared much worse. Glimpsed astern every now and then through blinding rain at night, <i>Sydney</i> told her that she need not keep station. By flickering Aldis retrieved from a wrecked motorboat she reported four major fires, boiler and engine rooms flooded, only one boiler working, total electrical failure, no radar, no radio, no gyro compass, useless (spinning) magnetic compass, manual steering and all boats and rafts either stove in or swept away. It was suffixed with a plaintive, <i>"May we stay with you?"</i>

https://vwma.org.au/research/home-page-archives/120th-anniversary-of-the-relief-of-kimberley---boer-war

https://vwma.org.au/research/home-page-archives/queen-victorias-last-war