Military history

Warwick O'Neill. A quick question for you, Dear Readers. Apart from the bombing of Darwin and Northern Australia, and the torpedo attack in Sydney Harbour, on what other occasion did Japanese and Australian troops clash on the mainland? ... But why did up to 900 prisoners charge the barbed wire and bullets? Where did they think they were going to run to? And who were the Australians who suddenly found themselves staring down hundreds of charging Japanese?

Gabrielle Duykers. A Naracoorte family has been reunited with a 70-year-old WWII medal, after months of effort from RSL volunteers ... After extensive research across VIC and SA war registers, he discovered the medal was in fact a Returned from Active Service badge, originally issued in WWI and again in WWII ... Bill Leitch said receiving the badge was like having another “piece to the puzzle” of his ancestry.

Warwick O'Neill. “Take that damned thing away and let me see it for the first time in half an hour.” The immortal words of General Charlie Cox of the 1st Light Horse Brigade in the mid-afternoon of 23rd December 1916. He was  referring to a direct written order from the Commander of the Anzac Mounted Division, none other than Harry Chauvel, ordering the withdrawal of troops from the attack on Magdhaba, Egypt. The Corps had been attacking all day without success and Chauvel, fearing that horses and men would soon run out of water had ordered the withdrawal. ‘Fighting’ General Cox had other ideas.