Archives for the month of: December, 2012

With Dad at Dawa Dawa.

December 31, 2012 //
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Dad and I went back to Milne  Bay in Papua New Guinea in 2000 where he had served with E Battery Australian Heavy Artillery in 1942. It was a memorable trip, especially for Dad, as we were the first non-locals to visit the isolated spot on the  southern arm of Milne Bay where he and his mates had installed their 155mm gun, and were left to live on hope and bananas (according to Dad).

This story first appeared in The Age in September 2006.

The water is transparently deep: porpoises play around the bow, flying fishes skim metres ahead of the sturdy Masurina workboat rumbling close to the southern arm of Milne Bay. This is the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea, where the last ridges of the Owen Stanley’s subside into the Coral Sea. If the island of New Guinea is shaped like a great bird of paradise, Dad and I are sailing among the tail feathers, searching for the place where he did his bit in World War Two. Read the rest of this entry »

Categories Milne Bay, Second World War

Brigadier Walter Cass, SIr John Monash, Brigadier ‘Pompey’ Elliott

December 29, 2012 //
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Brigadier Walter Cass leads cortege at funeral Sir John Monash 1931.

 

Three great Victorians of the Great War

by Garrie Hutchinson

This article appeared in Remembrance: the official magazine of the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne in April 2012 and accompanied the exhibition of Colonel Walter Cass’s photographs and memorabilia at the Shrine April – September 2012.

The slideshow is of Cass’s Gallipoli photographs.

Brigadier Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott, Sir John Monash and Brigadier Walter Cass all served at Gallipoli. Elliott and Cass were profoundly affected by the tragedy of Fromelles.  Elliott and Cass also saw served and saw action in the Boer War in different Victorian contingents. They were Victorians whose careers had different trajectories, but whose paths crossed on the battlefield, or in the course of their duties, and ended in the same sad year – 1931. Read the rest of this entry »

Categories First World War

Fromelles POW’s – Berlin Southwest Cemetery

December 28, 2012 //
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I visited Berlin South Western Cemetery in September 2012. It’s easy to get to, but requires catching the Sbahn (S7) from Berlin to Potsdam, and then catching the X1 bus from outside the station to Stahnsdorf – ask the driver to let you know the stop. It’ then a 20 minute walk to the cemetery entrance, and a further  45 minutes to the  Commonwealth plot.

Two Fromelles POWs

More than 500 Australians were taken prisoner at Fromelles. About 40 of died of wounds as prisoners or from disease, mostly the  deadly Spanish influenza epidemic that spread through western Europe as the war ended. Read the rest of this entry »

Categories First World War

Remember Them

December 27, 2012 //
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Coming in 2013 Garrie Hutchinson’s books – old (and new),  updates and corrections, galleries of photographs of Australian and New Zealand sites of remembrance and a new blog – Remember Them.

Pilgrimage: A Traveller’s Guide to New Zealanders in Two World Wars  was published by Penguin New Zealand in September 2012. Available from  Booktopia and Fishpond.

Remember Them: A Guide to Victoria’s Wartime Heritage is a Kindle book, and at the iBook store

Categories Uncategorized