Australasia

The Good Guts

Without doubt the most important crew member in a Bomber Command aircraft was the navigator; if you did not...

HMS Euryalus — An Engineer's Reminiscences

Nobody had yet told us where we were going, but as we cleared the harbour, Captain Oliver Bellasis informed...

My Sporadic Airforce Flying Career: From New Zealand to Canada and the UK

Timaru was not the centre of New Zealand aviation at this time, but there was quite a large hangar at the...

HMS Terrapin's Final War Patrol

Terrapin left Fremantle for what proved to be her final war patrol on 20 April 1945 and passed northward...

H.M.S.Victorious, A Sailor's Diary

Arrived at Greenock on September 29th.New orders to proceed to Liverpool... March 8th leave Liverpool for...

Round the World at Government Expence Chapter 5: Training with the RAF and by Boat to New Zealand via Panama Canal

Next I was sent to 11 EFTS, a Pre AFU unit at Scone, a small village near Perth in Scotland, where we...

Mum

Our world then was a happy place, we lived in a small weatherboard house in an inner suburb of Sydney. I...

China to Australia 1939-47

During 1938, I started school at the Cathedral School for Girls, in Shanghai — Geoffrey was already...

A Merchant Seaman's Survival

We were sailing from Sydney to Wellington, in the Tasman Sea, when attacked by a German converted Merchant...

The Story of the Sepik River Man

Whilst recuperating in Holland Park Military Hospital he met an extraordinary character, Sgt. Major...

RMS Niagara

When we got on to diving the Niagara the film crew could not come with us, so Dave was given a video...

‘A WISH COME TRUE’ .........Ponam Island

I was rudely awakened from my meditative state by a blast from the Tannoy, "M.S.R. 6 MUSTER IN THE...

All At Sea

Whenever we left harbour there was a pipe over the Tannoy followed by an instruction "Close all X and Y...

Childhood Memories of a Family at War (Part 2)

Father went down with the SS Ceramic, which had left Liverpool with 600 men, women and children bound for...

My Life My War - Chapter 12a

Gradually, the sounds faded into the distance as we slowly entered the main channel and made our way...

Ken Webb's War

While on duty at the Reculver lookout some months later, we had to look out for the German Focker Wolf 190...

A Wren's WW2 Experiences..... As Narrated at Schools in Sydney by Doreen Orr

Hitler then turned his attention further afield and started the bombing of all the large cities in England...

Round the world at government expense Chapter 6: With the RAF in Australia

To begin with our route to the Phillipines was via Lae in New Guinea and then to Momote strip, 3 hours to...

A Toddler in Singapore at the Outbreak of WW2

In 1971, whilst serving at Dharan, the then British Gurkha base in Nepal, I was given permission to go to...

Four personal years of WW2

The Opawa went out via Jamaica-Panama Canal to Sydney then on to Aukland and returning the other way via...

A Wartime Memory

I was fifteen when I began lessons at Gwen Mackay's School of Ballet and the Ballet joined George...

Round the world at government expense Chapter8: With the RAF in Australia and SE Asia

This meant flying via Darwin to Morotai in the Halmahera Islands and then up to Balikpapan in Eastern...

Round the world at government expense Chapter7: With the RAF in Australia, The Philippines and Hong Kong

On one occasion we held a dance at Camden and Dickie came out giving me the chance to show her around the...

Troopship # 5

The captain introduced himself and then the SECURITY OFFICER talked to me: He wanted me to go to a certain...

Flour Power

I was then employed by Mathews and Thompson's Food Factory, in Newtown Sydney, which was a 35 minute...

Norma Hanson-Red Cross Nurse

The Portsmouth and Gosport area suffered frequent air raids and the hospital Operating Theatres were...