Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

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

Portrait of Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE CB DSO, Royal Australian Air Force.

Mareeba, Qld. 1944-03-15. An Australian-built CAC Boomerang fighter aircraft coded BF-S (serial no. A46-126) nicknamed "Sinbad II" of No. 5 (Tactical Reconnaissance) Squadron RAAF, piloted by 402769 Flight Lieutenant A. W. B. Clare of Newcastle, NSW.

Nutsy Bolt's grave at Fromelles

Sappers work on dugout near Hooge Crater, near Ypres, September 1917

The Honour Rolls within the National War Memorial Adelaide

A Poster urging Australians to avenge the sinking of the Centaur by contributing to the war effort

Early in the war, 455 Squadron was equipped with the Handley Page Hampden light bomber, in what were Bomber Command markings

Wing Commander Hughie Edwards

6787, Pte S.A. Beare 27 Battalion AIF

The MG Company of the 59th ("Hume") Battalion, probably 'in camp' at Seymour in 1940, before it merged with the 58th Battalion in late 1942

Short ‘Empire’, VH-ABB ‘Coolangatta’ of QANTAS. Impressed by RAAF as A18-13 and allocated to 11 Squadron RAAF. It was returned to QANTAS on 13 July 1943, but crashed in Sydney Harbour on 11 October 1944.

Flying Officer Anthony Shanahan

The grave of 937 Sergeant Harold Prisk of the 9th Light Horse Regiment, at the AIF Cemetery, West Terrace Adelaide

Buckingham Palace, London. C. 1943-06. Group portrait taken outside Buckingham Palace after the Queen's Investiture. Left to right 408076 Flight Sergeant T. D. Simpson DFM of Hobart, Tas; 406248 Pilot Officer C. L. Howard DFC of Perth, WA; 407729 Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) D. J. Shannon DSO DFC of Bridgewater, SA; Wing Commander G. P. Gibson VC DSO and Bar DFC and Bar, RAF; 407074 Flt Lt R. C. Hay DFC and Bar of Malvern, SA; 402367 Flt Lt J. F. Leggo DFC and Bar of Lake Macquarie, NSW; Flt Lt H. B. Martin DSO DFC of Sydney, NSW, RAF; 407380 Pilot Officer F. M. Spafford DFC DFM of Wayville, SA. They were all decorated for the part they had played in the famous raid on the German dams, led by the Commanding Officer Wing Commander Gibson who was awarded the VC.

WW1 medal set - embarkation before 31 Dec 1915. 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

S/N 1 LT Edward Addy, 9th Australian Infantry Battalion Pieta Cemetery Malta

WW1 (post Dec 15) and WW2 Home service - British War Medal, Victory Medal, British War Medal WW2, Australian Service Medal 39-45

A Halifax of 462 Squadron taken from the flight deck of another, with the Bristol Hercules radial engines that powered this variant (B Mk III) in detail. Earlier variants had been powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin V12 liquid cooled engines made famous by the Lancaster and Spitfire. The legendary Merlin was outclassed on the Halifax airframe by the Hercules which delivered better speed and ceiling performance. Paradoxically, the reverse was true on the Lancaster. The Halifax B Mk III was also characterised by larger rectangular vertical stabilisers compared to the smaller pointed fins of earlier variants that had lateral caused stability problems.

Lauri Sheard's grave alongside his colleagues at Bomana War Cemetery Port Moresby Papua New Guinea.

Distinguished Flying Cross (original WW1 style ribbon), 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Laurence

Effect: Matilda Tanks destroyed by the Japanese naval guns emplaced at Mangam, Borneo

James Tyner's Medal Set - L-R 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Studio portrait of 808 Private (Pte) Antonio Augustine Picone, 6th Machine Gun Company from Stawell, Victoria (born in Italy). A 19 year old fruiterer's assistant prior to enlisting on 14 June 1917, he embarked for overseas with the 15th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 26 November 1917 aboard SS Indarra. Following further training in Egypt and England and a period of illness in England, he arrived in France on 22 August 1918 and joined the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion. Pte Picone arrived back in Australia on 6 February 1920.

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.

Pilot Officer Clarence Charles Bennett

Photographed during WW2 service

"Sonny" Wright, Frank's childhood mate enlisted as under age and served through WW2 in all theatres and then deployed to Japan as part of the BCOF, where he was accidentally killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1946. He was initially interred under the name C.R. O'Neil - the name of Frank's uncle whose driver's licence SOnny used as ID to enlist. His headstone has since been corrected. He is buried in Yokohama Military Cemetery.

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

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

3190 Private Kenneth Morton KNOX 50th Battalion

Willaston Cemetery Grave of parents

One of the former 87 Squadron Mosquitos painted red privately registered and sponsored by AMPOOL ready for departure to London for an air race. It never made it crash landing in a swamp in Burma after a bad weather diversion.

Some of the Australians involved in the Dams Raid. Most were not to survive the War.

3294 PTE Leslie DOWDELL RH#11

North Africa Western Desert - A Tomahawk aircraft of No. 3 Squadron RAAF being re-armed before another sortie. Image made by George Silk

Signage indicating the location of Bancourt British Cemetery

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

Morphettville Camp in 1915 (i.e. after Cowper passed through).

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.

845, Jack Reginald KENYON, of Prospect SA