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The Sun 6 May 1917 p 11 ENLISTED AT FOURTEEN BOY SOLDIER AT "MOOCOW FARM" “Gas Smells Like Fruit” PATROL'S DEVOTION Beside the fire at 8 Pine-street, Manly, there sits a boy of 16, who is gradually recovering from shell-shock contracted on the historic field of Mouquet Farm in France, He enlisted at the age of 14 and a few months, and his name is Cecil Thomas. He Is fair and slight, and serious-looking, and as he talks he stares into the fire, seeing, you hardly dare imagine what ghastly pictures in the glowing coals. He gave his age as 18 at the Town Hall recruiting depot, and as he was fairly tall, the white lie passed undetected. His parents' permission lie filled in himself, writing backhand to disguise his boyish penmanship. They put him into reinforcements;' and after a time spent in Egypt Cecil Thomas had his 15th birthday on a troopship' 'bound for France! "No, no one guessed how young I was," heasoys; "they all took me on as one of themselves, and It- was not until I returned that some of the officers found it out. There was another boy there a month older than me, but I never got a chance of talking with him. He is still in France, I believe." Private Thomas's father left with another battalion soon after the boy enlisted, and he is still fighting in France, but his son, hearing that the elder Thomas's battalion was quartered near his own, searched it out, and on two different occasions was able to have a chat with his father. Of the actual battlefield the boy is yet unable to speak fluently. There are phases of it, which touched upon ever so gently, set his lips trembling with memories — memories to be pushed hastily aside as part of an evil dream that is over. His mother says that a thunderstorm makes him "restless as a kitten," and that for weeks after his return he sat listlessly with his head in his hands, hardly speaking to anyone, and showing interest in nothing about him. THE MOTOR BIKE CURE For two months his anxious little mother hoard not one word from her boy's lips about | war or any of the experiences through' which he had, passed. His one desire, he told her, I was to get out into the country, away from I the noise and clatter of the city. So off she packed him to relatives on the North Coast, and here the thing that made him a boy again was — a motor bike! He laughs softly at the incongruity of seeking quiet and practically living on a snorting, shaking, fussy machine of that kind. But on the bike his mind rode back to normal. Talking of gas, Cecil Thomas gives a surprisingly novel description. "It smells like all the fruit you ever smelt — as if the breeze were blowing oft an orchard. It is so lovely that you could go on snifllng and snifllng it, and all tho time it would be killing you. As soon as the first whiff reaches you, though, you put on your gas helmet. Usually the word is sent along that a gas attack is expected, just the 'same as you get warning of the bombs that you have to put on tear goggles for. They have cayenne and stuff in them that makes your eyes sore for some time. The tear goggles are made of rubber, in sections to lit closely against the eye, and have bits of mica to look through." "The thing that always beat me was how our side got all the information they did. We'd get word seat along that at 9 o'clock the enemy was going to bombard us for five minutes, and sure enough it would be as true as if we had arranged it ourselves. "There was. one. officer: I can't remember his name, who belonged to the Intelligence Department. He had a German uniform and could speak German, so they said, and used to go into the enemy lines for hours at a time. He is in England now with one leg amputated. The Germans put out – papers and a bag in No Man's Land one day, and dared our side to get them. He and another officer took up the challenge. He got the papers, but the other chap was killed. Often the Germans would stick a flag, out and dare us to get it. Once or twice when fellows went out a mine went off as soon as they pulled the flag out of the ground." The boy soldier did not find listening-post duty as dreadful as he has heard others describe it. He pokes the fire and talks quietly ON LISTENING POST "The first night you go out on listening post your hair stands on end at every sound and you see faces in the dark! (That is the fifteen-year-old speaking!) "The second night out you scrag the new chum that goes with you for yelling out when he sees things. You have to stand stock-still and not even breathe louder than you can help! When the flares go up from the German lines any movement from the listening post would mean death, but standing still you look just like one of the stumps that are scattered about in dozens all over the ground at Mouquet Farm." He tells you that at first he used to take a delight in potting these stumps, until he found that it attracted the enemy's attention to his part of the trench and made things too hot for him. Patrol duty, which entails crawling under the enemy's barbed wire entanglements and staying near their trenches In the hope of hearing something, did not appeal to him at all. He was glad when that was over. But the mention of it brings to' his mind a story that fires his imagination and sets a light burning In his quiet eyes. The battalion was to make a raid, the artillery first cutting the enemy's wires. By some miscalculation it was our own wire that was cut, and as the men dashed on, the enemy's entanglements confronted them with certain death. It was then the patrol threw themselves across the wires and made a bridge by which the raiders were able to cross. The raid was successful and the patrol had not given their lives in vain. Cecil Thomas pokes the fire and stares into the coals for a space. When he is 18 ho hopes to go hack and finish up what he began as a fifteen-year-old. He returned to Sydney in December and celebrated his 16th birthday a week later. His mother's eyes have not yet forgotten their anxiety of it year ago, but she laughs us she says; "He was always serious, and even as a baby he took his pleasures seriously. He always used to say that when he grow up he would build me a nice house und then buy a yacht and go sailing round the world. But he did the sailing first instead of last!"

In July, 1944, Flight Lieutenant Fopp was acting as instructor during a night flying test, when his aircraft collided with another aircraft, tearing away the whole of the starboard elevator and about one-third of the starboard tail' plane. In addition, the port tail plane was damaged and all but one foot of the port elevator torn away. The aircraft' became uncontrollable. Assuming command, Flight Lieutenant Fopp made preparations to abandon the aircraft but by careful piloting was able to regain control and fly it back to the airfield. He lowered the wheels and made preparations for landing but the aircraft went out of control again. With great skill and presence of mind, he raised the flaps and, regaining some degree of control, effected a landing, at the same time succeeding in preventing a blockage of the runway. It was then found' that the tail wheel had also been ripped away in the collision. Throughout the whole incident, this officer showed the greatest coolness and skill and his action was entirely responsible for the safe landing of the aircraft and its occupants."

Born: 10/8/1884 in Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia (SA Birth Records 1842 - 1906 Book: 333 Page: 200 District: Nor.) Father Rowland Barbenson Robin and Mother Mary Friend Whitney Robin (nee Canaway), living at 28 Edwin Terrace, Gilberton, SA. Sisters: Mrs E C Ashwin Dorothy Margaret Robin (b. 3/7/1887 East Adelaide - d. ___) - SA Birth Records 1842-1906 Bk:399 Pge:486 District: Nor. Beatirce Ruth Robin (b. 31/10/1888 East Adelaide - d. ___) - SA Birth Records 1842-1906 Bk:427 Pge:315 District: Nor. Mary de Quetteville Robin (b. 14/5/1894 East Adelaide - d. ___) - SA Birth Records 1842-1906 Bk:543 Pge:406 District: Nor. Rowland Cuthbert Robin (b. 5/8/1898 St Peters - d.___) - SA Birth Records 1842-1906 Bk:627 Pge:14 District: Nor. Next of kin in service - Cousins: 2180 Corporal Arthur Mervyn Robin, 7th Battalion (KIA 29/6/1916 at Messines) 329 Sergeant Geoffrey de Quetteville Robin, 53rd Australian Infantry Battalion (KIA July 1916 at Fromelles) Lieutenant James Keeling Robin MC, 4th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery (KIA February 1917) Julieanne Ryan 2014

From the Operational logbook on 16/6/1942 - "On this day the squadron completed a total of 69 operational sorties, totalling 40.50 hours, thus establishing a record for this command. Great credit is due not only to the pilots, who carried out the strenuous duties cheerfully and courageously, but to the ground crew who worked unceasingly thoroughout the day, maintaining the necessary high standard of serviceability..."

From the Operational logbook on 16/6/1942 - "On this day the squadron completed a total of 69 operational sorties, totalling 40.50 hours, thus establishing a record for this command. Great credit is due not only to the pilots, who carried out the strenuous duties cheerfully and courageously, but to the ground crew who worked unceasingly thoroughout the day, maintaining the necessary high standard of serviceability..."

Writing to his mother from the Ninth Training Battalion, Fovant, Wiltshire, early in February, Corporal Carl Klaus says : — I have had a pretty rough time of did not get a crack. I have been it the last 15 months in France, but turned over a lew times with concussion, but got over it alright. I've seen some rotten sights. Poor old Jack Morgan was Killed at Messines. I suppose you have heard all about that. Our Battalion was right in the thick of it. The first time I ever handled a dead man was at Messines -— I had to help a couple of other chaps to dig George Weatherstone and Jack Morgan out. The dugout was blown in on top of them. And again at Ypres poor old Harry Mallam was killed right alongside of me. I had to lift him out of the line and bury him in a shell hole, as it was too far to take him back to a cemetery. Just took his pay book and private belongings and gave them in to our platoon officer. I suppose you read about the battle of Passchendaele. We were the ring-leaders of that turnout. With the assistance of the Canadians we took the hill about a kilometre from Passchendaele, and the Canadians hopped in and took the town, so now we have nearly all the high ground in Belgium in our hands, and have Fritz in the hollow and chopping hell out of him. Have more artillery behind us now than ever they had before on the western front. In this stunt Bill Eliem was killed and Percy Fisher was wounded. I have met Paddy Lulham, Bert Daley, Stan Tyler from Wardell, and all the old lads of 1st-41st that went away to the Ninth Battalion. They were all doing well until the Ypres stunt, when Jim McDonald from Broadwater was killed, Paddy wounded, Tyler wounded, while Fitzpatrick lost his eye and is going home, and of course Don Livingstone is home long ago. Bert Daley, is still going strong, and looks splendid. I saw him a couple of days before I left France. I am likely to be in England for a six months spell from shell fire anyway, but I suppose there will be plenty work attached to it just the same. Still it will do me. They told me when I left France that they were giving me six months in this Training Battalion at Fovant. I have met Clarrie Fredericks, he is in the 8th of the 41st, and soon will be going over to France. He is training to be a signaller. I also had tho pleasure of meeting another old mate that I went to school with under Mr. Bath, that was Tom Grant from Woodburn. He is a corporal in the 25th Battalion, has been wounded twice, and now they have sent him over to the training battalion for a few months. He is in the 10th, but he is not far away from us. Writing to his brother Rupert, Corporal Klaus says : — I see where the girls are getting married. I don t know how I am going to get on when I go back, there will be none left for me, and I don't like the idea of picking one up here in England to take back like some of them are doing. Well, old Fritz could not get me with his old scrap iron, so instead of giving me fourteen days furlough in London they have sent me here to the 9th Training Battalion for six months. I have seen some rough work over there, not only in the fighting, but rotten weather conditions. Last winter was bitterly cold. All the rivers were frozen up; boats could not work at all, and in some places in Belgium I have seen a foot of snow, and had to carry on through it all backwards and forwards to the trenches, but of course we were only holding the line at that time at Armentieres. We were there about four months, and then we shifted down lower to a place called La Pisset, and from there to Messines. I suppose you have read about the battle of Messines. We were holding the line at Messines right up till the morning of the hop-over. Our brigade was not really in the hop-over, but to my idea we had worse, because we had to do all the carrying parties (after the 9th and 10th Brigades took their objectives) under heavy shell fire all the time — day and night. From there we went down to Ypres in October, and the 11th Brigade was in the battle of Passchendaele. I was right in the thick of it. That is where poor old Bill Eilem (brother of Tom of the Bee-Hive) was killed, and Harry Mallam from Bungawalbin. We had a good possy made, well sand-bagged, and were waiting for the Tommies to relieve us the night after the push, but old Fiitz must have taken a tumble that there was a relief on, and barraged hell out of us for about two hours — Harry Mallam, Ben Hall and another chap I don't know were killed outright by a shell which lobbed right on the parados of the trench. I don't know how I escaped, for I was not above two yards from them, but I was round a bend of the trench. I think what saved me was the ground being soft and the shell, did not scatter much. The three chaps that were killed were huddled up together taking shelter. When Jack Morgan and George Weatherstone were buried at Messines we had to dig them out, for the dugout was blown in on top of them. Jack did not have a mark on the outside of his body, but the concussion killed him. Weatherstone hailed from the Clarence, but we were mates from the time we left Brisbane. He was smashed to pieces.

This story was first related to me in 1998 when I met Conrad Dumoulin in Ieper. He had a photo of a crashed Lancaster, on a property owned by his grandfather, near Langemark just north of Ieper. His own father Antoon, a young man at the time, was an eye-witness to the aftermath of the crash and the recovery of the wreckage and the bodies of the crew. His account is recorded on the 463 Squadron page. The accident report describes the events; the following text has been augmented with additional information: Lancaster LL882 callsign JO-J took off from RAF Waddington at 2200 hours on the night of 10/11th May 1944 to bomb the marshalling yards at Lille, France. Bomb load 1 x 4000lb and 16 x 500lb bombs. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Fourteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and three of these including LL882 / JO-J failed to return. Post war it was established that the aircraft was shot down by a night fighter, flown by Lt Hans J. Schmitz of Jagdscwhader 4N. JG1. It was attacked from below by Schmitz's Messerschmitt Bf 110G night fighter equipped with upward firing cannon, nicknamed 'schrage musik" by the Germans. This allowed the fighter to get into the Lancaster's blind spot and open fire with devastating effect. The Lancaster exploded mid-air and fell in pieces into a waterlogged clay pit at the Dumoulin brickworks some 2kms west of Langemark (West-Vlaanderen) and about 8kms north of Ieper (Ypres). Schmitz was later killed in action in September 1944. The other losses on this night appear to have been similarly lethal with just one survivor from the total of 12 aircraft lost from No. 5 Group including the six RAAF aircraft. All the crew of JO-J are buried in the Wevelgem Communal Cemetery which is located about 22kms east of Ieper a town centre on the Meenseweg NB connecting Ieper to Menin, Wevelgem and Kortrijk, Belgium. Exactly why they were buried so far away is unknown. The crew of JO-J were: RAAF 402817 Sqn Ldr M Powell, DFC Captain (Pilot); RAF FO Jaques, R (Navigator); RAF Flt Sgt B Fraser, (Bomb Aimer); RAAF 406700 Flt Lt Read, W N (Wireless Operator Air Gunner); RAF Sgt H L Molyneux, (Flight Engineer); RAAF 407199 FO Croft, R McK (Air Gunner); RAAF 407821 FO Croston, D P (Air Gunner). Steve Larkins March 2019 A link to the Aircrew Remembered page for this incident is posted against the names of each of the crew.

3 August 2019 THE Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has completed a search and recovery mission in Indonesia for the remains of 10 Australian airmen aboard Catalina A24-50, 76 years after the aircraft failed to return from a wartime mission. Reported missing on 2 September 1943 while on a sea mining operation to Sorong in occupied Dutch New Guinea, the wreckage of RAAF No 11 Squadron Catalina A24-50 was located near Fakfak, in West Papua in April 2018. Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel Darren Chester said the Air Force Unrecovered War Casualties team positively identified the missing aircraft during a reconnaissance mission to the crash site last year. “We are committed to honouring the service and sacrifice of Australian military personnel from all theatres of war,” Mr Chester said. “The RAAF team has concluded further search activities in the field and have reported finding a number of items of interest which require further testing in order to confirm the origin of each item. “The only major recognisable pieces of wreckage were two sections of the wing, engines and propeller, and the empennage (rear part of fuselage) across the top of a ridge. “We are very grateful for the support and assistance provided by the Indonesian Air Force throughout this process, without which this work could not take place.” The Hon Darren Chester MP

Flying Officer Joe Herman (RAAF), the captain of a 466 Sqn Halifax B.Mk.III, narrowly escaped death in a remarkable incident on 4 November 1944.  During a night mission over Germany, his aircraft (LV936, "HD-D"), was badly damaged by Flak. After ordering the crew to bail out, Herman was blown out of the plane, without a parachute. After falling a long way, possibly more than 3,000 metres, Herman fell onto the Halifax's mid-upper gunner, F/O John Vivash (RAAF), and grabbed one of his legs. Both men descended on one parachute, suffered minor injuries when landing and survived the war as prisoners of war. From a total crew of seven, only one other airman, Sgt H. W. Knott (RAF), survived. According to one source, at least three crew members were murdered after being captured by civilians on the ground. 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70790632

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1946739

https://johnknifton.com/tag/avro-lancaster/

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8860342

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7365874

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3052647

https://vwma.org.au/collections/home-page-stories/poor-devils--the-battle-of-pozieres

https://somethingverybig.com/category/gilbert-pate

https://vwma.org.au/collections/home-page-stories/adelaides-soldier-poet-of-the-great-war

/collections/home-page-stories/october-revolution-and-wwi

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3026930

http://stories.anmm.gov.au/ae1/the-search-for-ae1/

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/168463400?searchTerm=n.%20j.%20thompson&searchLimits=l-title=828

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2173575

https://somethingverybig.com/category/467-postblog/page/3/

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/rslvwm/comfy/cms/files/files/000/000/495/original/From_here_they_marched_edited.compressed.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7376236

https://vwma.org.au/collections/home-page-stories/the-well-travelled-soldiers

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2359769

https://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/67807/sunken-road-cemetery,-contalmaison/

https://vwma.org.au/collections/home-page-stories/adf-peacekeepers-day

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7373537

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1743089

http://aircrewremembered.com/holland-alan-james.html

https://www.awm.gov.au/sites/default/files/Wartime_Issue_12_Savige_Saviour_by_Ross_Lloyd.pdf

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1953342

Meritorious Service Medal - Sergeant John William ('Jack') INGHAM HQ 4th Infantry Brigade 'For conspicuously good work and devotion to duty during the period 22nd September 1917 - 24th February 1918. In the recent operations at POLYGON WOOD and ZONNEBEKE the Brigade and dumps were always kept replenished, due to the energy and foresight displayed by this N.C.O. Regardless of danger he has performed his duties to the utmost satisfaction and set a fine example to those working under him.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 110 Date: 25 July 1918

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https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=137281&c=WW2

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2165025/ROBERT%20JOHN%20WORKMAN/

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1025409&c=WW2#R

01_Transcript_-_Parts__01___02_Laurence_McEwen.pdf

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SKM_C36821042212570.pdf

John Talbot Wright, aged 32, a motor mechanic and former chauffeur, was arrested on 11 September 1920 by Constable Cecil Elliott after a sensational car chase through city streets. Wright had stolen a brand-new luxury car, a Studebaker limousine belonging to Albert Cosman Jones, managing director of a company called Australian Motor Services Limited. Jones told the press that he had parked the car in the street outside his flat in Bayswater Road, Rushcutters Bay. He was in conversation with a friend inside the flat when he heard the car being started. Rushing from the apartment, he found Constable Elliott on point duty nearby. Together they commandeered a passing car and gave chase to the limousine, Constable Elliott on the footboard firing his revolver at intervals. Eventually, just outside the Captain Cook Hotel in Paddington, the pursuing car drew abreast of the stolen car and Elliott jumped across to the footboard of the limousine, threatening to shoot the driver if he did not stop.1 Wright’s photograph shows him wearing a Returned from Active Service badge. When he came before the court on Monday 13 September, his solicitor pleaded in his client’s defence that Wright was a returned soldier who had enlisted in 1915 and been wounded in action and ‘badly buried as a result of a shell burst’, and that he was ‘a complete nervous wreck when he arrived home’. The solicitor had a letter from a medical specialist stating that Wright had a ‘morbid mental bearing’.2 The solicitor did not mention that Wright had enlisted under the assumed name Jack Russell, Russell being his mother’s maiden name. As Jack Russell he had embarked for the front on 30 September 1915 with the 4th Reinforcements of the 17th Battalion on HMAT Argyllshire. His service dossier shows that he saw active service in Egypt and on the Western Front, that he spent quite a bit of time in military detention for various offences, and that he was hospitalised on a number of occasions for mostly unspecified ailments, but it has nothing specific to say about his being wounded in action. In any event, when Wright appeared before the committal court in August neither the magistrate nor the police prosecutor was sympathetic to the solicitor’s shell-shock plea, the prosecutor asking: ‘If everyone came before the court with the excuse of shell-shock where would we be?’3 Constable Elliott’s actions, on the other hand, were much acclaimed. He was himself a returned soldier, only 22 years old and a policeman for just seven months. As one journalist put it: ‘Before Elliott joined the force he was engaged in the most exciting of all chases – for Germans in France’.4 1.The National Advocate (Bathurst), 13 September 1920, p1. 2.Evening News, 13 September 1920, p6. 3.Ibid. 4.The National Advocate, op cit.

Guide_to_Remembrance_Day.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3511572

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https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=67016

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