Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The iconic image of the Kokoda campaign. Taken by Damien Parer, it portrays members of the 39th Militia Battalion, AMF, parade after weeks of fighting in dense jungle during the Kokoda campaign. The officer in front is Lieutenant Johnson. The men behind him are left to right, Armie Wallace, Bill Sanders, Harry Hodge, Kevin Surtees, George Cudmore, GeorgePuxley Kevin Whelan, Len Murrell, Dick Secker, Neil Graham, Clive Gale and Jack Boland.

JEH Butler's name on last shell fired from Anzac Cove, 12 December 1915

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.

Howard Pope is presented with the French Legion d'Honeur at the Australian National Memorial, Villers Bretoneaux, France as part of ceremonies marking the 80th Anniversary of the cessation of Hostilities in the Great War

Bancourt British War Cemetery entrance portal.

1087 Private Thomas Carrican

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.

One of the ship’s assault landing craft, viewed from the aft gun platform of the landing ship infantry Westralia, as it swung aboard during the movement of the 2/24 Infantry Battalion troops, Morotai, 18 April 1945.

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.

An Armstrong WHitworth Whitley of No 77 Squadron at RAF Driffield

Nine Elms British War Cemetery - near Popereinge Belgium

Physios and nurses of 2/4 AGH staging on Morotai Island, 1945 (Marjorie Hill back row, left)

Painting by Will Longstaff depicting the night counter-attack o Villers Brettoneux that recaptured the town and checked the German advance on Amiens, 24/5 April 1918.

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

Private VERE PARKINSON

Private Leslie Robert Templeman RH#26

AWM Image of three unidentified 7 Battalion men near a 'bomb' stop or barricade in the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine, illustrating the overhead cover that had made the initial break-in so difficult.

For the first time since Gallipoli, the New Zealanders attacked alongside the Australians at Messines on 7 June 1917. Here New Zealand troops watch British tanks advance towards Messines Ridge. E01417

Albert James DUNSTER's headstone at Trois Arbres Cemetery

The Noonan SA Police Heavyweight Boxing Championship Trophy Belt won by Tom Tobin 1938-1940. On display in Police Headquarters

Outdoor group portrait of six signallers in the snow. Identified back row, left to right: 19636 Gunner (Gnr) Reginald Sylvester Mason; 19822 Gnr Gilbert James Simmonds; 19657 Stanley Clarence Whiting; 19806 Gnr Lewis Ewen McKenzie (later MM). Front row, seated: 19616 Gnr Frank Orman Ball and 19634 Gnr Allan Lyle McPherson (later MM). These men embarked for service overseas with the 8th Field Artillery Brigade aboard HMAT Medic (A7) on 20 May 1916 (Gnrs McPherson, Whiting and Ball from Sydney and Gnrs McKenzie and Simmonds from Melbourne). Gnr Mason, a printer from Corrowa, NSW, prior to enlistment, died of wounds in Belgium on 27 September 1917, aged 22. The other five men survived the war.

Rowan Boys Jack standing Joe seated. Probably taken at Abbassia towards the end of their Provo training (Circa mid-1916)

An account of one of the many otherwise unheralded acts of courage and the underlying sense of duty that is so evident in so much of the available literature, exhibited from the highest to the lowest ranking soldier.

E Regiment at Gawler Army Camp

Commemoration at VC Corner Cemetery. A guard of 10/27 RSAR July 1998 coincident with the opening of the Memorial Park at Fromelles.. Image Steve Larkins private collection

Livingstone, NT. 20 January 1943. Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr) R. (Dick) Cresswell, Commanding Officer of No. 77 Squadron RAAF, standing beside his Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk aircraft, serial no. A29-113, on which are painted as `nose art' the US, Australian, and RAAF flags. In this aircraft Sqn Ldr Cresswell shot down a Japanese Mitisubishi G4M medium bomber aircraft, code-name Betty, on 23 November 1942.

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).

LHS Plaque at St Peters Heroes Memorial

Studio portrait of 407713 Aircraftman (AC), later Sergeant (Sgt) No. 32 Squadron RAAF, James Alexander Herman, of Kilkenny, SA.

Robert Glendenning Jemison's 'Dead Man's Penny' in a circular wooden frame. In the collection of his Great Nephew, Bruce James-Martin. In a fascinating twist of fate, Bruce is a friend of John Wadlow, narrator of the accompanying story.

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

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