Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUSq7pxux4

"The last Squadron involved was No. 463, which included pilot William (Bill) Jack Purdy. The Squadron flew Arvo Lancasters, each equiped with ‘14 1,000 pound bombs,’ and on D-Day, attacked the five German naval guns at Point du Hoc. Bill recalls D-Day as ‘a sight to be seen,’ with ‘5,000 small boats and 300 warships’ blanketing the English Channel. It was almost as if he could have ‘put his wheels down and taxied home,’ such was the proximity of the ships clustered together. On D-Day, all of 463 Squadron’s bombs on D-Day were dropped in an area ‘less than the size of a city block,’ completely obliterating the German defences and artillery. Without the success of this critical mission, the American Ranger Assault Group may not have been able to capture Point du Hoc later that day. Bill’s final memory of the mission is returning back to base and eating bacon and eggs, only to be interrupted and sent back into the fighting. Bill flew in a further 36 sorties during the invasion of Normandy. He survived the war, and was awarded the DFC. In 2014, at the age of 90, he flew lead Tiger Moth in the Anzac Day fly over of Sydney Harbour, proving that even 70 years after D-Day, he is still very at home in the air."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBZPVQBna3o

Pilot Officer Warren Cowan, 31 years old from Angaston SA, was killed in action on 22 July 1942, along with his crew, Second Pilot / Navigator, Sergeant Russell Polack, 24 of Summer Hill NSW, Wireless Operator, Pilot Officer David Taylor, 33, from Hobart Tasmania and Air Gunner Lauri Sheard, 20, of Nuriootpa, SA. They were the crew of a Lockheed Hudson Mk IIIA, tail number A16-201 on a solo armed reconnaissance mission. They died in a forlorn and lonely air combat against six Mitsubishi Zeros over New Guinea's northern beaches near Buna, the site of Japanese amphibious landings that were a prelude to the Kokoda campaign. What distinguishes this action from many like it in the early stages of Australia's war in the SW Pacific, is that an accurate account of what happened came from the other side. They gave a distinguished account of themselves, so much so that 55 years after the incident, one of the Japanese pilots, none other than top Japanese 'Ace' of the war, Saburo Sakai, who was one of the pilots involved in the destruction of this aircraft, lobbied the Australian Government to present Cowan with a posthumous award for his actions that day. Warren Cowan and his crew were on an armed reconnaissance mission launched from Port Moresby's Seven Mile Drome at 1130hrs, in response to the Japanese landings in the Buna Gona area. The aircraft they were flying had been assembled in Australia just three months before and delivered to No. 32 Squadron on 25 April 1942. They were looking for the destroyer escorts and the departing convoy that had landed Japanese troops and were heading back to Rabaul. Two hours after leaving Port Moresby, the Hudson reported they were 20 miles out to sea having flown over the north coast near Gona. Unreported by them but recorded by Japanese records it is fair to assume they did not locate the convoy and dropped their bomb load on Japanese positions at Buna on the return journey. Unfortunately they flew into the Japanese air defence net cast over the landing area. A total of 18 Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros belonging to a detachment of the Tainan Naval Air Group were rostered in three 'Chutai' (squadrons) of six aircraft, organised in two flights of three aircraft each, to patrol the landing area from their base at Lae further up the coast. The pilots were all combat experienced and had most recently been engaged in raids on Port Moresby. Saburo Sakai was the flight leader of the second flight, of the third Chutai, each aircraft marked with blue stripes around the rear fuselage. The other Chutai were marked yellow and red respectively. Sasai Jun'ichi was No 1 Flight Commander, Ota Toshio and Endo Masuaki were his wingmen. Flying with Sakai were Yonekawa Masayoshi and Mogi Yoshio. Like Cowan, the Zeros failed to locate the convoy, but they did spot Cowan's Hudson, and his crew spotted them as was evident from his actions, which was basically to undertake a smooth descent to build up as much speed as it could towards Milne Bay. The Zeros jettisoned their drop tanks and gave chase, sacrificing the increased range afforded by the lost fuel in exchange for speed to catch their quarry. Now it was just a matter of time, if Cowan adhered to the expected tactic of throttles to the firewall and attempting to gain maximum speed - which would not be enough to outpace the Zeros. He didn't. In a move that startled his pursuers, perhaps realising that his expected course of action was futile, Cowan stood the Hudson on its wingtip in a very steep turn presumably assisted by the application of 'asymmetric power', and turned to face his attackers as perhaps his only remotely viable option. He fired his nose guns as he sped through the Japanese formation which broke up as he did so. The Japanese pilots were not carrying radios due to technical difficulties with their sets and the Zero airframe and engine. They were however, disciplined and experienced pilots and they regained their formation and tried to position themselves to attack despite defensive fire from the Hudson's dorsal turret. According to Sakai, it was ten minutes or so, an age in aerial dogfighting, before the Zeros could land hits on the Hudson thanks to Cowan's desperate maneuvering to evade them. Eventually the Zeros successively took out the Hudson's dorsal turret then set fire to the port engine, moments before it rolled into the jungle below and exploded, near the village of Popogo. Cowan's actions impressed the Japanese pilots, but most ultimately became casualties themselves. Sasai Jun'ichi, the No 1 Flight Commander was lost just a month later in air combat with US Wildcat fighters over Guadalcanal. Sakai lost the sight in one eye but returned to flying late in the war as Japan's circumstances became dire. In 1997, 55 years after the event, the only surviving participant in this action, Saburo Sakai, wrote to the Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs, Hon Danna Vale, requesting that Cowan's bravery be recognised. The Minister thanked him for his submission but advised that, regrettably, the request could not be legally honoured because the 'End of War' list had closed in 1945 thus closing off the avenue for a posthumous award. This set of circumstances however makes for a unique anecdote in the history of the struggle in which Australia found itself in those dark days of 1942. As a footnote, the wreck of the Hudson and the remains of the crew were discovered in 1943 by a USAAF search team who had been told of the wreck by villagers while they were recovering the remains of the crew of a C-47 Dakota crew that had crashed near Popondetta. The Hudson wreck was near the village of Popoga. It was realised it was not American and a later team including Australians recovered the remains of the crew in early 1945, which were subsequently interred in the Lae War cemetery although they are now in the Port Moresby Bomana War Cemetery (CWGC records). In 2023, the crew of Hudson A16-201were posthumously awarded the Medal of Gallantry, by order of the Governor General, Lieutenant General David Hurley. Compiled by Steve Larkins Dec 2016 from the source cited below: Source: 'Outgunned and Outclassed' an article by Michael John Claringbold as published in 'Flightpath ' magazine Vol 28 No.2 Nov 2016-Jan 2017 Yaffa Media Pty Ltd Sydney Updated 2025

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/montevideo_maru

https://montevideomaru.naa.gov.au/pows-internees-list-en/index.aspx

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1568340

25-6-1944 No.21 Sqn Mosquito VI LR373 In a borrowed aircraft, W/C Braham set out on a day patrol to Denmark. His aircraft was intercepted by Fw Robert SPRECKELS, of Stab./JG 1, and shot down into the sea. Braham and his navigator were rescued by a German vessel and became PoWs 40667 W/C (Pilot) John Robert Daniel BRAHAM DSO**DFC** - PoW AUS404489 F/L (Nav.) Donald Curtis WALCH DFC RAAF PoW Interned Stalag Luft III

HMAS Bataan, a destroyer, off the Korean Peninsula. The destroyer is seen here engaged in receiving a jackstay transfer from the Royal Navy carrier HMS OCEAN. It is sufficiently clear to show the late Commander Warwick Gracegirdle, RAN - BATAAN 's Korean War CO - on the bridge. This photo is taken off Korea, and the destroyer in the background is HMS CONSORT. Photo: Photographer unknown, the image was published in 1986 for the RAN's 75th Anniversary celebrations. The image is held in the Naval Historical Collection, Australian War Memorial, image ID 300378, listed copyright expired, public domain. It has also been posted on an InvisionFree ship modeller's blog. These are the AWM's descriptive notes that accompany the image: KOREA. ELEVATED PORT SIDE VIEW SHOWING DETAIL OF THE FORWARD PART OF THE DESTROYER HMAS BATAAN (EX-HMAS KURNAI) (D191) AS SHE RECEIVES PERSONNEL BY HIGHLINE FROM THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS OCEAN. NOTE FORWARD TWIN 4.7 INCH MK XII GUNS IN CP XIX MOUNTINGS, WITH THE BREECHES OF B MOUNTING PROMINENT AND THE 40 MM BOFORS AA GUN IN THE PORT BRIDGE WING. BEHIND THE BRIDGE ARE THE DIRECTOR CONTROL TOWER AND RANGEFINDER TOWER MK II WITH A TYPE 285 FIRE CONTROL RADAR MOUNTED UPON THE LATTER. NOTE ROPE STOWAGE IN THE BLAST SCREEN FORWARD OF B MOUNTING AND CARLEY FLOATS BY THE FORWARD SUPERSTRUCTURE WITH PADDLES NEATLY ARRAYED. THE SCREENING DESTROYER IN THE BACKGROUND IS HMS CONSORT. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION)

HMAS Sydney rides out Typhoon Ruth . As a result of this storm, the Sydney lost one aircraft overboard and another seven were written off, representing more than half its total losses during operations in Korea.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232534910/25010680

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134585382

From the Runnymede Memorial to the Missing The first rays of the dawning sun Shall touch its pillars, And as the day advances And the light grows stronger, You shall read the names Engraved on the stone Of those who sailed on the angry sky And saw harbour no more. No gravestone in yew-dark churchyard Shall mark the resting place; Their bones lie in the forgotten corners Of earth and sea But, that we may not lose their memory With fading years, their monument stand here, Here, at the heart of England, half-way between Royal Windsor and Lordly London; looking down, Here, where the trees troops down to Runnymede Meadow of Magna Carta, field of freedom, Never saw you so fitting a memorial, Proof that the principles established here Are still dear to the hearts of men. Here now they stand, contrasted and alike, The field of freedom's birth, and the memorial To freedom's winning. And, as the evening comes, And mists, like quiet ghosts, rise from the river bed, And climb the hill to wander through the cloisters, We shall not forget them. Above the mist We shall see the memorial still, and over it The crown and single star. And we shall pray, As the mists rise up and the air grows dark, That we may wear A brave a heart as they.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13uljTNmtA

Newspaper_Clip_Black_Swan_Matilda.pdf

https://radioadelaide.org.au/2022/08/15/colin-wagener-labuan-baba-masaos-surrender/