Thread: LEST WE FORGET

Reg Saunders , the first aboriginal commissioned in the Australian Army.

Reg Saunders | The Australian War Memorial

Fighting Hec Waller,

Captain Hector Macdonald Laws Waller RAN, DSO and Bar.

Fighting Hec Waller | The Australian War Memorial


HMAS PERTH - The Gallant Ship | GUN PLOT

Thr RAN WW1, first to fight.


Australian Navy in WW1 - First To Fight! | GUN PLOT

Lt.Col. Charles Groves Wright Anderson, VC, MC , 1897-1988. The highest ranked Australian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross.


Charles Anderson | The Australian War Memorial

Official WW1 Australian War artist, Will Dyson. An incredible story of an artist who volunteered for no pay, was often at the Front with Charles Bean, left a wife and daughter in England living in poverty. After the War and all it's dangers, Dyson and his much adored wife were planning a brighter future, when she died from the Spanish flu. They deserved a much better destiny, but it was typical of those dark times.


'I'll never draw a line except to show war as the filthy business it is' | The Australian War Memorial

Submarines AE1 & AE2 in WW1.


HMA Submarine AE2 | GUN PLOT


The Silent ANZAC - AE2 - YouTube






HMA submarine AE1
The wreck of the AE1 was found near Rabaul. Information from the Australian submarine website says that an engine room vent valve could be seen in the open position, indicating she dived in that condition, causing massive water ingress , and the boat to dive out of control until she hit the bottom, the impact caused the fin and bridge to fold over into the bow.

YouTube

Good stuff Bob; as sappers we had a bit to do with mines , and I remember some strange blokes coming to Nui Dat to look at our mine collection.

after the “ official” bit was over ,we chatted a bit, they were clearance divers......sheeeeesh! not this little black duck, a couple of warm tunnels would be no comparison .

Dave


This is was in reference to the navy clearance divers.

Originally Posted by Hogarthde

Good stuff Bob; as sappers we had a bit to do with mines , and I remember some strange blokes coming to Nui Dat to look at our mine collection.

after the “ official” bit was over ,we chatted a bit, they were clearance divers......sheeeeesh! not this little black duck, a couple of warm tunnels would be no comparison .

Dave


This is was in reference to the navy clearance divers.

I have the book, "A Sappers War ", Jimmy Thomson, with Sandy Macgregor. How the tunnel rats fought the Vietcong. You blokes did much more than go down tunnels. A very impressive read. I dips me lid. I like the concept of " work hard and play hard "

A book I can recommend is Navy Divers, by Gregor Salmon. Starting from WW2, it tells the story of the Clearance Diving branch. Bomb and mine disposal, covert swimmers in enemy waters, boarding parties in the anti-piracy role, counterterrorist special forces on call 24/7. From the rivers of Vietnam to the deserts of Afghanistan , defusing a mine in Iraq working by touch alone or dismantling a Taliban roadside bomb, one of the most respected and versatile operators in the military world.

A mate of mine I played some rugby with was mentioned in dispatches in Vietnam for diving into zero visibility waters and found a mine placed on a ship berthed alongside, working by touch, he thought he had neutralised the mine, so he surfaced to report it, and as he did the mine partially detonated. Took him a while to settle down, but he was back in the water , and he and his mate discovered a Russian BMP-2 limpet mine, the first of the type discovered in Vietnam. As a matter of fact it was the first time some one in the Western World had laid hands on one. Both safety pins were intact, indicating the enemy swimmer had been interrupted , possibly by the detonation of the previous mine. A swimmer was pulled from the water close to where this went on, and turned out to be a Captain from the NVA's 126th Sapper Regiment. My mate was a front row forward , tough as nails, but he said he'd never been so frightened as when that mine went off, just after he cleared the water.

EDIT. Just as a postscript, the US Navy awarded two Navy Unit Commendations to Team 3 in 1970 in recognition of their outstanding work. Senior RAN Staff took no action to recognise, accept and honour the awards , and they sat in a filing cabinet until 2010, when Chief of Navy Russ Crane " stumbled " across them. On October 1, 2010, Crane and USN Admiral Gary Roughhead officially awarded Team 3 Vietnam, the Unit Citations. 43 remaining veterans, and families of the deceased were present. Lest We Forget.