Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sister Ellen Keats, 2nd/10th Australian General Hospial

Australian troops crammed on to the deck of a warship bound for Greece

A map illustrating the general line of attack of the 15th (top) and 13th (lower) Brigades, encircling the town of Villers Bretonneux.

The 54th Siege Battery in action in support of the Third Ypres campaign in September 1917. The guns are 8 inch howitzers, the shells for which have been shipped in by light rail right to the gun position. This is one of a series of photographs taken by Official War Photographer Frank Hurley.

German POWs captured by Allied Forces in 1942 at El Alamein. AWM 044985.

HAMS Canberra Sydney Harbour 1929, dressed with flags and firing a salute. Note the Supermarine Walrus seaplane, belonging to and crewed by No. 9 Squadron RAAF.

Bell UH 1 "Iroquois", more familiarly known as 'Hueys' dropping supplies at FSB Coral

VIEW OF THE VALLEY FROM THE ROAD TURNING INTO THE BRALLOS PASS, LOOKING FROM SOUTH TO NORTH-WEST. IN THIS AREA WERE POSITIONS OF THE 2/11TH BATTALION AND 2/2ND FIELD REGIMENT, ON SLOPES BELOW THE ROAD, AND 16TH BRIGADE POSITIONS. SSW IN THE MID-DISTANCE, WERE POSITIONS OF 2 PLATOONS OF 2/8TH BATTALION. SOUTH-WEST AND IN THE DISTANCE, 17TH BRIGADE POSITIONS, AND IN THE FOREGROUND, 2/4TH BATTALION POSITIONS.

Wellington GR.XII 221 Sqn RAF over Greece 1945

Group portrait of the crew of Lancaster ME733, radio call sign CF-Z, 625 Squadron, RAF. Identified are: (back row, from left) 1868639 Sergeant (Sgt) Samuel John Spooner (Flight Engineer), RAF, of Kettering, Northamptonshire; 1389429 Sgt William Edward Lynch (Bombardier), RAF, of Leonards-on-Leigh, Sussex; 423214 Sgt Rric A;lan Bock (Navigator) RAAF, of Newcastle, NSW; 43025 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) Noel Wilkinson Gadsden (Aerial Gunner), RAAF, of Kew, Vic; front row from lrft to right, 411099 Flt Sgt Malcolm Douglas Moffat, RAAF of Armidale, NSW; Warrant Officer (WO) Francis McLeod Percy of West Maitland, NSW (Pilot) RAAF and 1119630 Sgt Frederick Howard (Wireless/Aerial Gunner), RAF. Lancaster ME733 crashed at Hollenstein, Germany whilst returning from a raid over Brunswick on the night of 12/13 August 1944, killing all crew members.

DCM, MM, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

MEMBERS OF 2/28 INFANTRY BATTALION USING A HAND RAILWAY TROLLEY TO MOVE THEIR HEAVY GEAR TO THE NEW UNIT POSITION.

Major General Paul Cullen, AC, CBE, DSO and bar, ED

Flying Officer Anthony Shanahan

John Francis TUCKER's grave

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

AWM caption : Richmond, NSW. c. 1938. Supermarine Seagull V (Walrus) amphibian aircraft of No. 5 (Fleet Cooperation) Squadron RAAF lined up for inspection on the tarmac in front of the Squadron's hangar at RAAF Base Richmond. Note the squadron pilots in front of the aircraft with maintenance personnel standing under the wings of the aircraft. Aircraft serial numbers A2-2 and A2-5 are at the far end of the line.

A trench at Lone Pine on 8 August 1915. The scene captures something of the savagery of the action. Sergeant Apear de Vine, 4th Battalion, NSW, of Maroubra, Sydney, wrote of the dead: … they are stacked out of the way in any convenient place sometimes thrown up on to the parados so as not to block the trenches, there are more dead than living … [De Vine, quoted in Bill Gammage, The Broken Years, Ringwood, 1990, p 84]

Plymouth, England. C. 1943. Portrait of Flight Lieutenant R. W. Marks of Norwood, SA, a Sunderland aircraft captain of No. 10 Squadron RAAF at RAF Station Mount Batten.

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.

Two 11 Squadron Catalinas over Lake Macquarie in NSW. Rathmines, on the edge of the lake, was a key base and depot for Australia's maritime patrol assets.

Reginald Francis GRIMLEY

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.

Mk21 Beaufighters just after delivery to No. 93 Squadron after its formation in early 1945, at Kingaroy Queensland.

Harold Bourke's grave at Pheasant Wood

Burnside Memorial to the Fallen at Rose Park SA

LABUAN, NORTH BORNEO. 1945-08-10. 2623 FLIGHT LIEUTENANT FRANK R. SCHAAF DFC OF PAGEWOOD, NSW, WHO LED A FLIGHT OF FOUR AIRCRAFT OF NO. 82 (KITTYHAWK) SQUADRON RAAF, WHICH DESTROYED THREE SINGLE-ENGINED JAPANESE FIGHTER AIRCRAFT, ALLIED CODE NAME OSCAR, ON KUCHING AIRSTRIP. IT WAS THE LONGEST STRIKE FLOWN BY SINGLE-ENGINED FIGHTERS FROM THE LABUAN BASE. HIS AIRCRAFT CARRIES MARKINGS AND INSIGNIA (NOSE ART) INDICATING THAT HE FLEW WITH THE FAMED DESERT HARASSERS IN THE WESTERN DESERT.

109 AGH, Alice Springs, marquee and tented section

Flying Officer Vic Hodgkinson

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.

The Bullecourt Digger - the famous bronze statue of a digger looking across the Bullecourt battlefield from the town cemetery. Steve Larkins colelction

A Spitfire Mk XIV in the colours of No. 91 Sqn summer of 1944

A photograph taken on 10 July 1918. Two men of the 7th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery operate a mortar established in a machine gun post on the new front line. From left to right: 1916 Lance Corporal A J Ellis and 2700 Private A Lawler. This position was part of a few hundred yards captured from the enemy in a silent daylight raid on 9 July by a party of the 27th Battalion. The location is just east of Villers-Bretonneux between the railway and the south side of the Amiens-St Quentin main road, alongside a position called 'The Orchard'. A fine example of the "peaceful penetration" tactics employed by the Australians at this time.

9th-Light-Horse-9th-Light-Horse-crossing-the-Suez-Canal-at-Serapeum-Egypt-in-February-1916

The Burnside Primary School Memorial Gates, officially dedicated in 1925 to former students who lost their lives in the Great War.

Flying Officer David Payne Croston, 463 Squadron.

Reference image only to provide position detail for those named. This image is not for sale. Group portrait of the men of the 6th and 8th Battalions making their way under shell fire from the trenches near Railway Wood, in the Ypres Sector. Identified are: 442 Sergeant (Sgt) Robert Alexander McLean from Beeac, Victoria (1); unidentified (2); 1639 Sgt Percy Gye Flemington, Victoria (3); 1423 Private (Pte) Henry John Streets from Portsmouth, UK (4); 4444 Pte Thomas Alexander Brown from Golden Square, Victoria (5); 5208 Pte Eric Clinton Teague from Bendigo, Victoria (6); 3800 Sgt Arthur Ronald Holloway from Chiltern, Victoria (7); 4615 Pte Matthew Trewhella from Bendigo (8); unidentified (9); unidentified (10); 131 Pte E M Hughes, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) (11); unidentified (12); 5088 Pte H J Floate, RGA (13); unidentified (14); unidentified (15); unidentified (16); 5246 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) James Callil Ferry from Carlton, Victoria (17); unidentified (18); L Cpl Benjamin Crosby from Richmond, Victoria [killed in action in Belgium 8 July 1916] (19); 2936 Corporal (Sgt) John Thomas Pinchen MM from South Melbourne, Victoria(20); 5454 Pte David Styles from Hamilton, Victoria (21); 7150 L Cpl Harold James Gray from Parkville, Victoria (22); 3115 Sgt Bernard Gordon Murphy from West Melbourne (23); 5107 Pte Herbert Edward Hellyer from Cavendish, Victoria (24); unidentified (25); 6728 L Cpl Reginald Miller Cullen from Temora, NSW (26); Lieutenant John Gibson Pitt from Surrey, UK (27); 5443 L Cpl Samuel Redmayne from Alexandra, Victoria (28); Captain Alexander George Campbell DSO from Sandringham, Victoria (29); 3831 Sgt Leslie Gordon Kittle MM from Shepparton, Victoria (30); 2017 Pte David Owen MM from North Melbourne (31); 1111 Sgt Jack John Jorgenson from Hawthorn, Victoria (32); 2423 Pte Arthur Leslie Beachcroft from Moonee Ponds, Victoria (33); Pte Trevalla [possibly 2166 Pte John Rowe Travers from Werribee, Victoria (34); 354 Sgt Allan Couper Robertson from Leongatha, Victoria (35); unidentified (36); 1839 Pte William John Thomas from Geelong, Victoria (37); 2448 Pte Albert James Radley from Dunkeld, Victoria (38); 4306 Pte Blain Stanley Skinner from Albert Park, Victoria (59).

SX2663 Private Edward Ernest SMITH