Australians at War stories

Larrikin survives years at sea

Name: Les Forrester
Date: 1940-1945
Unit: Royal Australian Navy
Location: Mediterranean, Middle East, Pacific
Les Forrester was a self-confessed larrikin. He liked to have a good time but when the chips were down he was in there with the best of them.

Len Bills' letter in a bottle finds its way home

Name: Len and Cyril Bills
Date: 1941-1945
Unit: 2/19 Battalion AIF
Location: Singapore, Malaya
Len and Cyril Bills were brothers who enlisted in the army at the same time and sailed on the Queen Mary in February 1941. They both wrote to their sister Mary on a regular basis.

Letters an important factor for troops serving overseas

Name: Cliff Secombe
Date: 1941
Unit: 2/1st Pioneer Battalion
Location: Libya
Cliff Secombe was with the 2nd/1st Pioneer Battalion in Libya under attack from German aircraft. He had just received a welcome letter from his girl friend Louie Pritchard and was writing in reply on 29 April 1941 when 'Jerry' sent his dive-bombers over once again.

Letters an important part of a soldier's life

Name: Fred Ball
Date: 1916-1917
Unit: 30th Battalion AIF
Location: France, Belgium
For most soldiers in World War I letters were an important part of their life. Many wrote long accounts of battles and complained when mail from home didn't reach them.

Letters home express feelings as wars end

Name: Levy
Date: 1916-1918
Unit: 36th Btn AIF, RAAF
Two men from the same family who celebrated the end of wars 27 years apart, were both moved to write to their mothers expressing the joy and relief felt when peace finally came.

Like putting up cardboard nine-pins in a hurricane

Name: Thomas Clair Whiteside
Date: 1916-1918
Unit: 59th Battalion, 5th Brigade AIF
Location: France
Thomas Clair Whiteside was a prolific letter writer. Throughout his service in World War I, he wrote regularly to his parents and sister, sending over 200 letters in the three years he was abroad.

Live on and love on war the motto of Jack Neil

Name: Jack Neil
Date: 1915
Unit: Australian Medical Corps
Location: Gallipoli
Jack Neil was a religious man with a strong sense of honour and duty.

Living through "friendly fire" in New Guinea

Name: Henry Booth
Date: 1943-194
Unit: 100 Squadron RAAF
Location: Milne Bay, New Guinea
Being shot at by planes and having bombs dropped near you was a fairly common occurrence in New Guinea during World War II, as Tony Booth would be the first to tell you. But when the bullets and the bombs came from Australian aircraft, it was a bit hard to take.

Living through the Tet offensive

Name: Brian Mayfield
Date: 1968
Unit: COMRAAFV at RAAF Headquarters
Location: Saigon
Brian Mayfield was Orderly Room Sergeant and Secretary to the COMRAAFV at RAAF Headquarters in Saigon throughout 1968. His tour of duty included the Tet and May offensives.

Lt Britt describes the first day on Gallipoli

Name: William Britt
Date: 1915-1918
Location: Gallipoli, France, Belgium
Lt William Britt seemed to be leading a charmed life when he survived the landing at Gallipoli. Bullets passed through his hat and several parts of his clothes. One broke his favourite pipe while another grazed his wrist, but still he fought on.

Lt Halcombe Brock, an officer loved by his men

Name: Halcombe Brock
Date: 1915
Unit: 3rd Australian Light Horse
Location: Gallipoli
It is rare for an officer to be so loved by his men that they genuinely grieved at his death and took the trouble to tell his family how much they had thought of their son.

Luckiest man alive saved by a coin

Name: Ern Pittard
Date: 1917
Unit: 10th Field Company Engineers
Location: France
Ern Pittard from Melbourne was one of the luckiest men alive after the Battle of Messines in Belgium during World War I. And he must have thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't broke at the time.

Major Nat Barton mentioned in despatches

Name: Nat Barton
Date: 1914-1918
Unit: 7th Light Horse Regiment
Location: Gallipoli, France, Belgium
Nat Barton was born at Wellington in 1894, the third son of Charles and Annie Barton. He spent most of his life growing up on their property, Nanima, close to Wellington, which his parents had bought in 1894.

Major Thomas defended Harry 'Breaker' Morant

Name: James Thomas
Date: 1901
Unit: New South Wales Bushmen
Location: Pretoria, South Africa
Major James Francis Thomas earned world fame at the South African War in 1902 for the defence of Harry "The Breaker" Morant, but long before that he was known, in Tenterfield, for his sense of justice and fair play

Malaya the unknown

Name: C.C. Bingham, Through magazine
Date: 1941
Unit: Signals 8th Australian Division
Location: Singapore
Through magazine was the official journal of Signals 8th Australian Division. The first edition was produced in Singapore in December 1941, shortly before Singapore fell.

Marine artist Ian Hansen in East Timor

Name: Ian Hansen
Date: 2000
Unit: Civilian artist
Location: East Timor
Marine artist Ian Hansen has a deep love of the sea and ships. He began painting them in water colours when he was eight and graduated to oils at the age of 11. He joined the Royal Australian Navy at 15 and served for 12 years, including service on HMAS Sydney in 1967-68 during the Vietnam War.

McVinish family members served in all conflicts

Name: Colin John McVinish
Date: 1901-1902
Unit: 6th Queensland Imperial Bushmen
Location: South Africa
When two brothers, Colin John and George McVinish, migrated to Australia from Scotland in the late 1800s they had no idea they would be starting a chain of events that would lead to members of their family taking part in virtually every conflict involving Australian troops that followed.

Medical evacuation

Name: Recording of contact with enemy
Date: 1969
Unit: 7 Platoon, C Company
Location: Vietnam
During the Vietnam War wounded were generally speedily evacuated by helicopter. If war movies are to be believed, scarcely has a soldier been hit before a medical evacuation helicopter appeared over the horizon. But sometimes the reality was quite different. This recording shows how difficult medical evacuation could be

Merchant Navy played important role in D-Day landings

Name: Geoff Maidment
Date: 1944
Unit: Merchant ship Isle of Guernsey
Location: English Channel
Geoff Maidment had a good view of the D Day landings - from the deck of a merchant ship carrying Canadian troops to France.

Merchant seaman travelled the world during the war

Name: Brian Foliot Cane
Date: 1939-1945
Unit: Merchant Seaman
Location: The high seas
Living in a house that looked out over the Derwent River and having access to the many trading ships that unloaded their cargoes in Hobart, it was hardly surprising that Brian Cane became a merchant seaman

Mills family struck by tragedies

Name: Frank Mills
Date: 1915–1916
Unit: 3rd Brigade AIF
Location: Gallipoli, France
David Sharp Mills, a volunteer fire brigade captain who lived in Parramatta, NSW, must have wondered often enough where he had gone wrong. His wife died following a miscarriage, two of his sons were killed in World War I and his third son died of septicaemia. Only his daughter survived to reach the age of 83.

Minesweeper patrols during Indonesian Confrontation

Name: Alan Smoothy
Date: 1963
Unit: HMAS Snipe, RAN
Location: Malaysia
Friction between Indonesia and the newly created Malaysia forced the Australian Government to come out in support of Malaysia in 1963. Australia introduced high-speed patrol boats to intercept any seaborne infiltrators.

Mixed feelings as POWs waited to be released

Name: Reg Mahoney
Date: 1945
Unit: POW
Location: Changi
Every day that Australians spent as prisoners of war they longed for freedom. They thought about family and friends at home and just hoped to survive for the end of the war.

Morale booster flight took them under the Harbour Bridge

Name: Bill Stanbury
Date: 1943
Unit: No 1 General Reconnaissance School, RAAF
Location: Sydney, Australia
Flying an aircraft under the Sydney Harbour Bridge is not a common occurrence. On the rare occasions that it has been achieved, the pilot has generally become an overnight celebrity.

Mother wrote letters not knowing if her son was alive

Name: Annie 'Daisy' Boyden
Date: 1942
Unit: 12th Field Company, RAE
Location: Singapore
When Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, almost 15,000 thousand Australian troops were taken prisoner.

Myrtle's sling shows how it's done

Name: Myrtle Sheppard
Date: 1939-1945
Unit: Civilian
Location: Qld, Australia
When war broke out in 1939, Myrtle Sheppard (Nunn), like many other young Australians, wanted to do her bit for the war effort. She thought she'd like to be a nurse, but her mother (whose husband was a World War I veteran and had died when Myrtle was two years old) was reluctant to let her daughter join up because it would mean she'd be posted away from her home area.

Naked diggers seek relief from bugs

Name: Frank Boyes
Date: 1915-1918
Unit: 14th Btn, 3rd Brigade AIF
Location: Gallipoli, France
The sight of Australian diggers walking naked up the beach at Gallipoli would have caused great amusement had it not been for the seriousness of the situation.

National servicemen took part in undeclared war

Name: Michael O'Dea
Date: 1966
Unit: 4RAR
Location: Indonesian Confrontation, Malaysia
Private Michael O'Dea was called up for National Service in 1965 when his birth date was pulled out of the hat. But unlike many of his colleagues he didn't go to Vietnam. Instead he went to Borneo where Indonesian guerillas were infiltrating Malaysia.

No waltzing after Matilda hit mine

Name: Des Lloyd
Date: 1943
Unit: 1st Australian Army Tank Battalion
Location: New Guinea
Fighting in New Guinea produced all sorts of problems, not the least being the terrain over which the troops had to travel. Heavy rain often turned tracks into quagmires and made progress hazardous to say the least.

Not everyone welcomed the Aussies

Name: Bob Talbot
Date: 1915-1918
Unit: Australian Artillery Regiment
Location: Belgium, France
Not everyone in France and Belgium thought the Australian soldiers were wonderful in World War I, as Gunner Bob Talbot discovered.

Nurses often passed on sad news to families

Name: William Hatcher
Date: 1916
Unit: 22nd Battalion AIF
Location: Somme, France
Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) were the first stop for many of the soldiers wounded in World War I. These advanced surgical stations were located as close to the action as possible.

Nurses prepared injured troops for medevac flights from Korea

Name: Gay Bury
Date: 1951-1954
Unit: Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service
Location: Kimpo
More than 18,000 Australians served in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. Of these, 339 lost their lives.

Nurses survive evacuation from Greece

Name: Sylvia Duke
Date: 1941
Unit: 6th Australian General Hospital
Location: Greece
Sylvia Duke and Sophie Healy were good friends and colleagues. So when Sylvia was posted abroad as a Sister in the 6th Australian General Hospital in Greece it was only natural they should stay in touch.

Only one brother returned from the Boer War

Name: William Lilley
Date: 1902
Unit: 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen
Location: Northern Transvaal, South Africa
Two Lilley brothers, William and Dave, joined the 5"' Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War but only one of them returned.

Operation Sabre helps end war in the Pacific

Name: Ken Briggs
Date: 1945
Unit: Operation Sabre
Location: Saigon River delta
It seems hard to believe that a piece of cable 45cm long could have a profound effect on the outcome of the war but that's how it was.

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Name: A. J. "Butch" Gaudry
Date: 1944-1945
Unit: POW
Location: Singapore, Saigon
A. J. "Butch" Gaudry had survived working on the Burma-Thailand railway and was sent with many other troops back to Singapore where they were put to work on the wharves.

Paddy Bugden won VC for his bravery

Name: Patrick 'Paddy' Bugden
Date: 1917
Unit: 31st Battalion AIF
Location: Belgium
Paddy Bugden was a religious man who took every opportunity to attend church even in the throes of war. He was also a regular letter writer who corresponded with his family until the day he died.

Padres to the rescue with hot tea and coffee

Name: Terry Fairbairn
Date: 1941
Unit: 2/1st Battalion AIF
Location: Greece, Crete
The men of the 2/1 Battalion could hardly believe their eyes when they crossed the Aliakmon River in Greece in April 1941 after retreating from Veria Pass. There in the snow and ice were two Australian padres offering them a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Parental advice to soldiers leaving home

Name: John Hallily Greenwood
Date: 1918
Unit: 14th Battalion AIF
Location: England
When thousands of young men left their homes to take part in World War I, they went with the good wishes of their families for a safe return.

Pilot's pride in Australian efforts

Name: Vic Cashmore
Date: 1941
Unit: 454 Squadron RAAF
Location: Middle East, Kenya, Italy
Having learned to fly in Australia, Vic Cashmore found himself on board the Queen Elizabeth in April 1941 heading for the Middle East, qualified to fly twin-engined Ansons at the age of 21

Plague forces troops to load coal

Name: Gordon Burden
Date: 1918
Unit: 10th Battalion AIF
Location: South Africa, Europe
Corporal Gordon Burden wrote lots of letters home describing the sights and events that occurred while travelling by ship from Australia to England in 1918. He was only 18 but had a great eye for detail which he put into both his letter writing and his photography.

POW camp journals kept morale high

Name: POW camp newsletters
Date: 1942-1944
Location: Europe
To offset the boredom of life in prisoner of war camps, particularly those in the European conflict, a huge amount of effort went into physical and creative activity - apart from the many escape plans.

POW survives horrendous conditions

Name: Justin Dawson
Date: 1917
Unit: 15th Battalion AIF
Location: France, Belgium, Germany
Private Justin Dawson was fighting with the 15th Battalion near Baupaume in France on 10 April 1917 when a 'stunt' went wrong and he was captured by the Germans.

Premonition saves his life

Name: Frederick Quill
Date: 1944
Unit: RAAF attached to USAAF
Location: New Guinea
An excerpt from diary of Frederick Quill, RAAF, describes a patrol with US troops and an ambush by the Japanese.

Private Craig's view of Gallipoli landing

Name: Harold Gordon Craig
Date: 1915
Unit: 6th Battalion AIF
Location: Gallipoli
The harrowing accounts add substance to the horrors faced by the ANZACS as they headed for the beach in boats and while they were fighting their way up the steep inclines against appalling odds.

Private Hewish died carrying stretchers through the mud of Belgium

Name: Ernest Hewish
Date: 1915-1917
Unit: Australian Army Medical Corps
Location: France, Belgium
Private Ernest Hewish from Adelaide, South Australia, couldn't wait to get to the war. Despite seeing the casualty lists from Gallipoli, or maybe because of them, he signed up in May 1915 with the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was just 17.

Private Kelly 'ran away' to the Boer War

Name: Jack Kelly
Date: 1899
Unit: Tenterfield Mounted Rifles
Location: South Africa
Private Jack Kelly, from Tenterfield, NSW, was determined to take part in the Boer War. So keen was he to go that he defied his father's wishes and then "bought himself out" of his Artillery unit because it was not going to the war.

Private Litchfield describes the day he was shot

Name: Charles West Litchfield
Date:1915-1917
Unit: 9th Reinforcements, 10th Battalion, AIF
Location: France
Like many troops in World War I, Private Charles Litchfield kept a diary through the two years from the time he left Australia until he was wounded and repatriated to Australia.

Propaganda leaflets aimed at undermining morale

Name: R. A. Maladay
Date: 1944-1945
Unit: HMAS Arunta
Location: Pacific
Propaganda has been used by all sides during the various wars and the Japanese were no exception in Pacific during World War II.

Protecting the name of Anzac

Name: Crown Solicitor's Office
Date: 1917
Unit: Civilian
Location: Australia
Even before Australian troops had left Gallipoli, people had come to realise the value of the name Anzac.