Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

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.

A Matilda Tank several of which payed a crucial role at Slater's Knoll

Troops burying Japanese dead in a mass grave after the overnight fighting at SLater's Knoll.

A 2 pounder (37mm) Anti Tank Gun firing at Japanese positions on Bougainville

Frank Hurley Machine-gunners of the 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment at Khurbet-Ibn-Harith, Palestine, on 31 December 1917 print from Paget plate P03631.087

Positions of forces at dusk on October 31, 1917, during the Battle of Beersheba at the time of the charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade. British forces are shown in red, Turkish forces are shown in blue. The position reached by the regiments of the 4th Light Horse Brigade after the attack is shown in pale red. Note: there is no evidence that the 4th Light Horse Regiment crossed the Wadi Saba during their attack, nor that the 60th Division attacked south of the Wadi Saba. The Australian Mounted Division headquarters is shown where the Anzac Mounted Division headquarters moved to, after the capture of Tel el Saba. Neither the Gullett map nor Bou's map locates the headquarters of Anzac Mounted Division, Australian Mounted Division and Desert Mounted Corps at Kashim Zanna despite numemrous sources placing them there. [Preston 1921 pp. 25–6, Powles 1922 pp. 136–7, Hill 1978 p. 126]

United Kingdom: London. 9 November 1943. Outside Buckingham Palace after an investiture is Wing Commander (Wing Cdr, later Group Captain [Gp Capt]) John Raeburn Balmer OBE, DFC, RAAF of Melbourne, Vic, Commanding Officer of Lancaster No 467 Squadron, RAAF Bomber Command (right), and Squadron Leader D. A. Green DSO DFC, RAF, Devon, UK. Grp Cpt Balmer was lost on operations over Belgium on May 11, 1944. He is buried in the Heverlee War Cemetery near Brussels.

A Bristol Beaufort a light bomber in which Jack Reed flew

Jack Reed (R) and mates somewhere in northern Australia

3697 PTE Patrick Weir 3rd Pioneer Battalion

Auction notes 25th September 2008 DNW website 1914-15 Star (O.N.2263 Ord. Sea.); British War and Victory Medals (A.B., R.A.N.); War and Australia Service Medals (2263 R. F. Grimley); Royal Australian Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension, with Second Award bar (2263 Leading Seaman, R.A.N.); H.M.A.S. Sydney - S.M.S. Emden Medal, 9 November 1914, silver Mexican Dollar dated 1895 , mounted by W. Kerr, Sydney, unnamed; Western Australia, Sydney - Emden Commemorative Medal, reverse inscribed (part engraved) ‘Presented by the People of Western Australia to R. F. Grimley, Boy 1 Class’, mounted for display, edge bruising, first three worn; others very fine (8) £1800-2200

The battered hulk of the SMS Emden after it was beached on North Keeling Island

AN RAF Catalina of No. 202 Squadron returns to Gibraltar after a patrol

Far and away: The young Private Bill Cassidy spent five of the eight years of his marriage away at war.

Far and away: The young Private Bill Cassidy spent five of the eight years of his marriage away at war.

John Francis TUCKER's grave

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.

ALexander McBride Kerr's Funeral Medal set. flying helmet and Photo

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.

Two soldiers of the Supply Depot, 1st Australian Division, with boxes of corned beef and canned meat and water cans, Anzac Cove, 1915. Image Australian War Memorial.

The mangled ruins of part of the light railway after a direct hit on a trainload of ammunition. Amidst the debris are damaged shell cases. The light railway was used to transport casualties and supplies within the Ypres area. From Birr Cross Roads casualties were transferred to motor ambulances to be transported to the advanced dressing stations on the Menin Road. Note in the background a line of motor lorries.

A wrecked M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), destroyed in 6RAR's 'Operation Bribie' by enemy Recoiless Rifle (RCL) fire which killed the driver and crew commander.

A 21 Squadron Liberator A72-92, lost on27 July 1945. It had perviously flown with 7 OTU, 24 and 25 Squadrons. Seven of the crew were lost

AWM caption : Fenton, NT. 1945-03. An informal group portrait of a crew of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft of No. 21 Squadron RAAF, standing beside their aircraft. Left to right: Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) P. Rousseau of Darling Point, NSW Flt Sgt D. W. Johnston of Kogarah, NSW Flying Officer (FO) H. A. Seymour of Coogee, NSW Sergeant (Sgt) F. A. Dean of Brighton, Vic Flt Sgt W. C. Randall of North Sydney FO C. L. Henry of Ivanhoe, Vic Pilot Officer R. W. Brooks of Coogee, NSW Flt Sgt R. W. McLeod of Northcote, Vic Flt Sgt W. H. Storey of Bexley, NSW Sgt R. H. Brown of Allora, Qld Flight Lieutenant R. W. Court of Collaroy, NSW

RAAF OVERSEAS HQ, LONDON, ENGLAND. 1943-03-16. 402571 PILOT OFFICER (PO) C. R. G. GRANT DFM (LEFT) WON HIS AWARD 1942-11 FOR HIS CONSISTENT SKILL AND DETERMINATION IN NIGHT OPERATIONS OVER ENEMY TERRITORY, AND 403564 FLIGHT LIEUTENANT J. K. DOUGLAS DFC WAS CITED 1943-01 AS "A MOST DETERMINED AND SUCCESSFUL CAPTAIN OF AIRCRAFT WHOSE QUIET CONFIDENCE AND KEEN SPIRIT HAVE BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO ALL."

Wellington GR.XII 221 Sqn RAF over Greece 1945

846 Private Roy Stephen KENYON, MM

Original grave marker of the crew of Lancaster LL847 JO-D and the common grave in which they are now interred in Le Gros-Thiele Communal cemetery

A memorial to the crew of No. 463 Squadron RAAF Lancaster LL847 JO-D, which crashed nearby after being shot down with the loss of all seven crew on the night of 18/19 December 1944

Original grave marker of the crew of Lancaster LL847 JO-D and the common grave in which they are now interred in Le Gros-Thiele Communal cemetery

FLGOFF Robert Wentworth BYRNES 463 Squadron

Sister Kath Neuss a victim of the Banka Island massacre

Nursing SIster Dorothy Elmes, a victim of the Banka Island massacre

Lieutenant Gladys Hughes, a survivor of the Vyner Brooke sinking, captured as a PoW died just three months from war's end in May 1945 from the effects of disease ill treatment and mal-nourishment.

Malaya. 1941. Group portrait of three nursing sisters of 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station (2/4 CCS), 8th Australian Division. Left to right: Sister D. S. Gardam, who survived the sinking of the Vyner Brooke, was taken prisoner by the Japanese and died later in captivity in April 1945, Sister E. M. Hannah, also a survivor from the Vyner Brooke and the only surviving nurse of the 2/4 CCS, and, Matron I. Drummond, who, after surviving the sinking of the Vyner Brooke was among those massacred by the Japanese on the foreshore of Banka Island, Sumatra on 1942-02-16.

Sister Merle Trenery, presumed lost at sea in the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke on 14 February 1942

Captain Joan Hempstead of the 2nd/13th Australian General Hospital

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.)

R237 ADDEMS Percival Edward 2333

RAAF SGT David Leicester

A memorial erected to the crew of Lancaster LL874 JO-D of No. 463 Squadron RAAF which crashed nearby on the night of 17/18 December 1944 with the loss of all crew

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.

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.

his rare colour photo shows P/O Orme and his crew back at Watton after a successful attack on shipping off the Dutch coast, 18th August 1941, just 10 days before they were lost in this same aircraft V6436 YH-L. P/O Orme can be seen climbing from the cockpit, behind him are two members of his ground crew, next to them wearing his Officers cap is P/O Gunnis, and far right on top of the fuselage is F/O Collins. (L. Gover)

The second attack at Dernancourt on 5 April 1918

4501 Pte Herbert Edward Ballard

'Raid on Duisburg' Handley Page Halifax B.III bombers of No.462 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Air Force Driffield, Yorkshire, October 1944. Handley Page Halifax B.III “Lily of the Lamplight” aircraft MZ296, was lost on the 15 October 1944 while returning from a raid on Duisburg. Damaged by anti-aircraft fire and low on fuel, the crew successfully bailed out over Allied territory. The pilot on the final trip was New Zealander Flying Officer (FO) W.B. Cookson. The crew included three Australians:Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) W.F.Tolhurst (Bomb Aimer), FO L.J.Power (Wireless Air Gunner) and Flt Sgt N.O.Reed (Rear Gunner). FO Cookson later received the DFC for his actions.

Family photo of Arthur James KERR KIA 27 Aug 1916 at Mouquet Farm