Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

'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.

Informal portrait of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris KCB OBE AFC, Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Bomber Command, with members of No. 460 Squadron RAAF, the original RAAF Lancaster Squadron in RAF Bomber Command, during his visit to the squadron at RAF station Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England. Identified from left to right: 425080 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) Jack Venning of Gympie, Queensland (later awarded DFC); 21082 Flt Sgt Thomas Lloyd Walkley of Craigieburn, Victoria; 414044 Flt Sgt Geoffrey Stewart Jordan of Sydney, NSW; 413986 Fl Sgt Wilfred Cyril Gordon of Raleigh, NSW (later awarded DFC); 414232 Fl Sgt Mervyn Edgar Hamilton of Brisbane, Queensland (killed on flying operations over the Netherlands on 15 August 1944); 420892 Pilot Officer (PO) Noel Knight of Coonabarabran, NSW (later awarded DFC); 414019 Flt Sgt Jan Goulevitch of Townsville, Queensland (later awarded DFC); 400102 Wing Commander Robert Alexander Norman DFC, Commanding Officer; 409632 Flt Sgt Samuel Whiteside of Korumburra South, Victoria (killed on flying operations over Germany on 27 January 1944); 14744 Flt Sgt Colin Stafford Francis of Summerhill, NSW (later awarded DFC); Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris KCB OBE AFC; 405909 Flt Sgt Ernest William Joseph Hurley of Ipswich, Queensland (killed on flying operations over Germany, 27 January 1944); 408559 PO Edward Hasall Anderson of Melbourne, Victoria; 412810 Flight Lieutenant James Robert Henderson of Sydney, NSW (later awarded DFC and DSO); 400577 Squadron Leader Kenneth David Baird DFC of Ballarat, Victoria; 422468 Flt Sgt John Joseph Egan (later awarded DFC) of Bankstown, NSW; and 414349 Flt Sgt William Kevin Halstead of Townsville, Queensland (killed on flying operations over the UK on 16 December 1943).

Ward at 2/4 Australian General Hospital, Labuan, Borneo 1945

The best tunnelling conditions were in the great chalk seams running across northern France. Excavation generally had to be conducted with great care to conceal t he diggings and where in the proximity of enemy miners, to prevent detection by listening devices. Men of the 3rd Australian Company excavating a chamber in the chalk in the Hulluch subway system. The chalk was dug out with miners' picks and filled into bags. These bags were trucked along the gallery to suitable positions, hauled to the surface and emptied at night. In places where the chalk crumbled, the walls had to be revetted, as is seen on the left. Identified left to right: Captain R. J. Langton MC, Officer Commanding, No. 1 Section (holding bag); 1194 Sapper (Spr) D. C. Vecchia; 6772 Spr C. A. L. Robinson, all members of the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company.

Group portrait of No. 4 Initial Training School, RAAF Course No. 22, A Squadron, Flight 13. Pugh is second from the left in the centre row.

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

Amiens Cathedral

Commemorative Medallion issued to the families of the Fallen - aka "The Dead Man's Penny"

Lance Bombadier Larry Davenport mans his weapon pit and an M60 Machine Gun the morning following the first attack on FSB Coral.

Burnside Memorial to the Fallen at Rose Park SA

Lance Corporal Frank Albert BROWN, 43rd Infantry Battalion RH # 65

Amos Austin BALDWIN

Australian pilots of No. 453 Squadron scramble to their Brewster Buffalo aircraft. A US aircraft never adopted by US forces, the Buffaloes were no match for the Japanese 'Zeros' and 'Oscars' ranged against them

awm - E040371.jpg Taken just after the Armistice, this image shows some of the detritus of battle which together with the bodies of the dead, remained on the field. The men whose remains were discovered thus lie in VC Corner cemetery, interred in a Common Grave with their names inscribed on the rear wall. Their remains were not at the time identifiable and in most cases their ID discs had been removed immediately after the battle by gallant comrades who risked and sometimes gave their own lives in the process of trying to account for the dead.

Memorial plaque to Thomas in the Victorian Garden of Remembrance at the Springvale War Cemetery.

No. 7 Service Flying Training School, Deniliquin in NSW during WW2. Deniliquin was one of many training bases established in inland Australia under the EATS with relatively flat terrain and benign weather making it suitable for early stage flying training.

Manly War Memorial being unveiled in 1916. Courtesy Manly Library.

"Australia Remembers" plaque. Inscription: Anthony Cameron, Navy, 1941-1946.

Vickers Warwick and crew including P/Offr John "Bart" Bartholomew 1st left, the Navigator. This crew was involved in a near disaster and their aircraft was lost after an emergency landing and runway overshoot brought on by an Engine Failure (and fire) After Take-Off (EFATO), resulting in the aircraft overshooting the runway and crashing into the sea. All of the crew survived. Crew in front of their Warwick `B4` L to R: Nav F/O Bart Bartholomew, 2/Pilot H.Bath, W/AG Ted Russell, Pilot Jack Murray, W/AG Cledwyn Evans, W/AG Colin Acton and A/G F/O C.H.Haywood. Photo: Ted Russell.

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

AWM P08095.002

A portrait made by celebrated war artist Stella Bowen who painted a series of portraits of Australian aircrew in England during 1944.

'Caught on the Surface'. The sinking of U-461 by an RAAF Sunderland "U" of 461 Squadron RAAF, in the Bay of Biscay in July 1943. [As depicted by aviation artist Robert Taylor.] See the attached story "The Bullet with your name on it"

7083 Private Robert William Thompson, with his motherless little children prior to Embarkation

Detail of hte Memorial - the Statue and east facing plaque - the front of the Memorial

WW1 post 31 Dec 1915 embarkation: L-R Military Cross, British War Medal, Victory Medal.

A colourised version of a photograph taken in the same sequence as. It shows two key colour schemes applied to RAAF Hudsons immediately prior to and during the early stages of WW2. A16-3 is painted matt black underneath, the others a sky blue. A16-38 is painted foliage green on the upper surfaces, the other two have a disruptive pattern with dark earth applied.

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

916 Frederick Rawlings Pheasant Wood Cemetery Fromelles France

An Australian transport wagon, galloping along the road near Red Lodge, behind Hill 63, in Belgium, whilst the Germans were shelling the batteries of the Australian and New Zealand Artillery concentrated there for the battle of Messines, which opened on 7 June 1917. Note that enemy shelling has set fire the camouflage over the guns. The gunners may be observed endeavouring to put out the fire although the position was still being shelled.

Reginald Alfred Charles HEALEY 54th Battalion

SX4193 Private SMART, Gilby Roy; 2nd/27th Battalion

QX10333 Athol 'Ned' Bayly - on right. Middle East, probably mid 1941

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.

A SQN in Syria

3639 Audley Esmond WEBSTER RH#25

Commemorative Plaque, colloquially known as "The Dead Man's Penny", issued to the families of the Fallen, together with a Commemorative Scroll signed by King George V

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.

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.

No. 77 Driver Sidney John PENHALIGON -from the Queenslander 31 Oct 1914

WW1 Distinguished conduct : L-R Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal