Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Two unidentified gunners sitting beside a 4.5 inch howitzer Mark I in a gun pit of the 102nd Australian Howitzer Battery in northern France. Each man is holding a shell

1986 Simpson Trophy - Winning Team 10RSAR Team1. L-R Capt Graham"Growler" Growden, Sgt Wayne Birch and Capt Steve Larkins. Dean Range Port Adelaide

Unexploded WW1 artillery shells exposed by the grading of the road adjacent to Courcelette Cemetery. Vast numbers of these are recovered every year from farmland in Flanders and France.

This Australian soldier’s skull has extensive damage caused by bullet wounds sustained in the Battle of Passchendale (or Third Ypres, Battle of Polygon Wood) in the First World War. He was shot on September 28, 1917. Most of the damage was caused by a lead bullet that entered the mouth and passed through the palate and right eye. Shrapnel destroyed the ascending ramus of the right jaw, and another bullet, visible here, struck the left frontal sinus. Philadelphia opthalmologist and surgeon WT Shoemaker treated this soldier at a battlefield hospital in France. This soldier survived his initial injuries and treatments. But, five days after his injuries, blind and disoriented, he pulled out the bandage materials in his mouth that packed the wounds. He bled to death. Mutter Museum Philadelphia

9.2 inch Howitzers of the 55th Siege Battery in action near Pozieres, late summer 1916

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165691420

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.

CPL W.M. JOLUIS, RADIOLOGIST AT WORK AT 106 CASUALTY CLEARING STATION. HE IS X-RAYING THE WOUNDED KNEE OF V64795 PRIVATE J. P. SPORN, 7TH BATTALION AMF WHO WAS WOUNDED AT WEARNE'S HILL.

A QANTAS Catalina operated for the RAAF at the Nedlands base in WA before setting out on one of the longest flights of the war.

Ian Henry Denver (enlisted as I.H. Deramore-Denver), DFC

Japanese PoW awaiting transhipment to Japan

A picture of Geroge Harriot that appears to show his rank as Lieutenant and thus taken some time before April 1917 when he was promoted Captain.

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.)

HMAT Ascanius at Outer Harbour embarking the 10th Battalion. State Library of SA B10303

FLGOFF Kenneth BENNETT 463 Squadron

Capt Hyman SYMONDS

William Mannix Baker William was killed in action on 4th March 1942 on HMAS Yarra against an overpowering Japanese fleet. His niece Catherine Cave, received a citation of gallantry medal on behalf of William, presented by the then, Governer General Quentin Bryce

Unidentified solder entering tunnel under Hill 60, near Ypres

Personnel from HMAS Sydney, Tobruk and Murchison marching along George St, Sydney on 6 March 1953. [AWM 304621] ...

Map displaying the defensive layout during the siege during April to May 1941.

392 Sergeant Leon Maxwell GELLERT

Royal Air Force Coastal Command, 1939-1945. Air and ground crew of No. 202 Squadron RAF check equipment and ordnance issued to Consolidated Catalina Mark I, AJ159 'AX-B', on the slipway at North Front, Gibraltar, in preparation for a patrol.

Richard FETHERSTON - Postcard to work colleagues from Cairo

Korea, 1952-05. Three officers from 'A' Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), share a bottle of beer in a reserve area. The soldiers are (left to right): Captain Brian Poananga, a New Zealander serving with the battalion; 3/40105 Lieutenant Gilmer John (Gil) Lucas MC; 3/395 Major Jeffrey James (Jim) Shelton MC, the company commander. A graduate of the Royal Military College (RMC) Duntroon, Captain Poananga later became Chief of the General Staff (CGS) in the Royal New Zealand Army (RNZA).

Brass 25 pounder shell case engraved with 'THE LAST SHOT FIRED IN AITAPE-WEWAK CAMPAIGN NEW GUINEA FIRED BY C.TP.4BTY.2/2 AUST FD REGT AT ULEBILUM NEAR YAMIL SOUTH OF THE TORRECELLI MOUNTAINS AT 1002HRS 3 SEP 1945. AND PRESENTED BY C.TP TO BRIGADIER M.J. MOTEN. CBE.DSO AND BAR ED COMMANDING 17 AUST.INF. BDE. A.I.F.'

HMAS Perth engaged in the Battle of Sunda Strait 1 March 1942, during which both HMAS Perth and USS Houston were sunk.

3940 Cecil George LARSEN with his sister, Agnes Annie Yates (nee Larsen) shortly after his enlistment.

The Rose Park Gun. German 7.7cm Feldkanone 96 (FK96) Field Gun (1896).* One of a battery of German 77mm field guns captured by the 32nd Battalion during the Battle of Amiens that are now located in parks around SA.

The 54th Siege Artillery Battery in action. Note that light rail is laid right to the gun position to facilitate the movement of the massive shells fired by these guns. Note the guns are wheeled so they can be relocated far easier than was the case with the 9.2 inch Howitzers of the 55th Battery.

No. 2 Squadron B-25s lined up at Batchelor in the NT

Reuben Starr, member of the victorious 1913 Waikerie team that defeated Morgan in the Grand Final

Australian soldiers from the 29th/46th Battalion carrying a wounded man on a stretcher following combat operations against the Japanese around Gusika, New Guinea, November 1943.

BARMERA, SA. 1943-03-11. OFFICERS OF THE 25/33RD GARRISON BATTALION, 14TH PRISONER OF WAR AND INTERNMENT CAMP, LOVEDAY GROUP. IDENTIFIED PERSONNEL ARE:- S481 LIEUTENANT E.L. ROESLER (1); CAPTAIN G.A. GABELL (2); S427 LIEUTENANT F.W. EVENS (3); S23604 LIEUTENANT A.W. ORCHARD (4); SX21324 LIEUTENANT E.N. EDWARDS (5); S2840 LIEUTENANT C.R. JURY (6) S34891 LIEUTENANT E. FARMER (7); S3065 CAPTAIN R.R. RUDD (8); SX28479 CAPTAIN H.W. HOCKNEY (9); VX114018 CHAPLAIN D.A. GANLY, CHURCH OF ENGLAND (10); S213500 CAPTAIN C. ARCHER (11); V354137 CAPTAIN W.R.J. PHILLIPS (12); S109 CAPTAIN N.M. BARUSCH (13); SX28896 CAPTAIN P.S. EYLES (14); SX22323 MAJOR L. VON BERTOUCH (15); SX223831 MAJOR C.E. HUNKIN (16); S812 LIEUTENANT COLONEL E.L. DEAN, DSO., VD., COMMANDING OFFICER (17); S2700 MAJOR A. DICK (18); SX22325 MAJOR D.W. SHEPHERD (19).

Studio portrait of Arthur John Lammey

Group Captain Hughie Edwards VC DSO DFC meeting the Prime Minister of Australia at RAAF Binbrook where Edwards was the Base Commander and RAAF No. 460 Squadron was based.

Sister Kath Neuss a victim of the Banka Island massacre

Flying Officer Robert McKerlie Croft

Art Work of Halifax crew at Driffield U.K. by Stella Bowen (Jack Venning top left)

Pembroke Dock, Wales. C. 1942. Crew of aircraft "A for Apple" of No. 461 (Sunderland) Squadron RAAF based at an RAF Station. Back row, left to right: 405083 Sergeant (Sgt) A. Miller; 401562 Sgt R. Hattam; 411426 Pilot Officer H. I. Dent; 403129 Flight Lieutenant B. Buls; 5942 Sgt A. J. Taylor; 405206 Sgt E. B. Gallagher; 6241 Sgt R. Tucker. Front row: Four members of the RAF.

Studio portrait of 427775 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) Harry James Boyd, No. 24 Squadron, of Pomborneit North, Vic. Boyd enlisted as a private, service number V170264, in the Citizens' Military Forces in Oct 1941. In September 1942 he enlisted in the RAAF. On 23 March 1945, Flt Sgt Boyd was the 2nd pilot, and one of twelve men on board, of Liberator aircraft A72-80 which left RAAF Truscott to undertake reconnaissance over the Lombok Strait and island of Bali. Shortly after take off, A72-80 developed engine trouble and crashed into Vansittart Bay, WA. All on board were killed. Flt Sgt Boyd was 22 years of age.

Sergeant John Francis Montgomery, 1st Light Horse Regiment Train, September 1914

4501 BALLARD, PTE H.E.32nd and 50th Battalions