Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1267788&c=VIETNAM#R

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.

HSSA_Journal_2009_Scarfe.pdf

HSSA_Journal_2009_Scarfe.pdf

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1931090

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=113033

https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=64324

DCM Courage and good judgement as Lewis Machine Gun Sergeant. (Ligny 27 February 1917). 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He displayed great courage and determination in maintaining his position against very superior numbers of the enemy. He was wounde.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 169 Date: 4 October 1917

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3070340

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3436898

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1919468

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1943276

Frederick_Emil_Ledin_WW1_Diaries.pdf

ANZAC Cove

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

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=691544&c=WW2#R

Family journey to have Oscar identified. When we heard in 2008 that an archeological dig had recovered the remains of 250 Australian and British servicemen at Pheasant Wood, the family was buoyed with hope that our ‘Uncle Oscar’ might at last have been found. Newspapers in South Australia reported with great anticipation that Oscar and several other soldiers from the State could be among those identified. I’m his great nephew, my grandmother Olga was Oscar’s older sister. And growing up, my generation of his descendants had assumed he might forever be buried somewhere as an ‘Unknown Soldier’. With great expectation a cousin and I registered on the Missing Servicemen Database. Along with more than one thousand other Australians, we became DNA donors. A descendant of Oscar’s brother Walter also gave DNA. In the first few years of the Army’s Fromelles Project, many soldiers were identified from the 250 sets of remains. Unfortunately for us, Oscar Baumann wasn’t among them. The years passed, and we had all but given up hope. Then in 2021 I was approached by an Adelaide journalist who told me he believed that Oscar and two other Australian soldiers were about to be identified. I contacted an officer of the Army’s Fromelles Project, who told me it was likely that Oscar Baumann was among those recovered, but in the absence of one hundred per cent certainty there could not be official identification. The Army needed more DNA information, so I sent them the family trees of Oscar’s siblings. The ’missing link’ turned out to be the daughter of Oscar’s youngest sister- a living niece in Adelaide by the name of Barbara Elsley. She gladly offered her DNA, and on Anzac Day of 2023 the Australian government announced that Oscar, along with five other soldiers of Fromelles, had been officially identified. Barbara was so captivated with events that at the age of 85 she travelled to France for the rededication ceremony at Fromelles on 19th July. She represented the family to unveil a new headstone bearing his name- Oscar was no longer an Unknown Soldier. Oscar’s new headstone notes ‘His Duty Nobly Done’, the words chosen by his parents in the death notice in 1916. His story is poignant given his heritage. Oscar’s father had emigrated from Germany only thirty-seven years before the outbreak of war. While some German immigrants in Australia were interned and others were ‘Anglicising’ their names, Oscar’s parents offered permission for his enlistment- only to have their son killed in action by a German enemy on the battlefields of France. Trevor Bormann 20/9/23

Commemorative Plaque and Scroll signed by King George V, issued to the families of the Fallen

https://seapower.navy.gov.au/hmas-stuart-ii

https://seapower.navy.gov.au/hmas-stuart-ii

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=8014636

https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1187893&c=WW2#R

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/87242450

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/261134076

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5338957