Section 5: Remembering and honouring: memorials and heritage
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day
(11 November) is the anniversary of the armistice which ended World
War I (1914–18). It is set aside as a day to remember the sacrifice
of those who have died for Australia
in wars and conflicts. It was originally known as Armistice Day.
For a history of how Armistice Day became Remembrance Day see Jennifer
Amess, ' A
day of remembrance: 11 November ', Sabretache , vol. 24,
April–June 1983, pp. 25–26.
The Flanders poppy
(a bright red poppy) has been part of Armistice or Remembrance Day
since the early 1920s. Wearing a red poppy is a sign of remembrance
for the servicemen and women who have died in war.
War memorials overseas
Kevin Blackburn discusses
the restored Changi Murals originally
created in a chapel (St Luke's) within the huge prisoner
of war camp established in the Changi area by the Japanese after the
fall of Singapore in February
1942. Between September 1942 and May 1943 five near life-size murals
of scenes from the New Testament were painted by a British prisoner,
Stanley Warren, on two of the chapel's walls.
The Hellfire
Pass Memorial in Thailand
is dedicated to those Australian and other allied prisoners of war (POWs)
and Asian labourers who suffered and died at Hellfire Pass (Burma-Thailand
Railway) and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region during World War II.
It was officially opened on 24 April 1998 by the Prime Minister, John
Howard and the Prime Minister of Thailand, Chuan
Leekpai.
The Australian
War Memorial in London was dedicated on the morning of 11 November
2003 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister John
Howard, in the presence of HRH The Duke of Kent, Prime
Minister Tony Blair
, and a party of 27 Australian World War II veterans. The Memorial features
a long, curving wall of West Australian green granite, reflecting the
sweep of the Australian landscape. Inscribed on the wall are the names
of many of the battle sites where Australian
and British military personnel fought, superimposed upon the names of
thousands of home towns of Australian men and women who served during
the two world wars. The periodic flow of water across the wall highlights
these names and is designed to evoke memories of the suffering and loss
felt by all.
The Australian
National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in northern France
was unveiled on 22 July 1938 by King George VI.
It lies within the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery and was erected
to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium
during the First World War, and their dead, especially those with no
known grave. The servicemen named on the
memorial were Australians who died ‘in the battlefields of the Somme,
Arras, the German advance of 1918 and the Advance to Victory’.
The
Park of the Australian Soldier at Be’er Shev in Israel,
commemorating the charge of the Australian Mounted Division’s 4th
Brigade against Turkish positions at Beersheba (now called Be’er Sheva)
on 31 October 1917, will be dedicated in Israel
on 28 April 2008. The 90th anniversary of the
charge of the Australian Light Horse was commemorated last year.
The website of the Office of Australian War Graves contains links to
overseas memorials, with
information on current projects on overseas and Australian memorials.
War memorials in Australia
In addition to the homepage of the Australian War Memorial (opened
on 11 November 1941), there are a number of other sources of information
about war memorials in Australia:
In ' War
Memorials in the Australian landscape ', Ken Inglis describes the
importance of local memorials to Australian communities.
The Australian Ex-Prisoners
of War Memorial located in Ballarat, Victoria, honours more than
35 000 Australians who were held prisoner during the Boer War,
World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
The National Capital Authority's internet pages have information about
the memorials
lining Anzac Parade in Canberra. New memorials planned for positions
on or near Anzac Parade are: the Australian
Peacekeeping Memorial, the site of which was dedicated on 29
November 2007; the Boer
War Memorial which will be placed next to the New Zealand Memorial;
and twin
memorials to World Wars I and II on the Rond Terrace at the opposite
end of Anzac Parade to the Australian War Memorial.
The Queensland Anzac Day Commemoration Committee's website has the
history, descriptions and photographs of the State war memorials
in each State capital.
The Australian-American
Memorial was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 February 1954.
It stands 73 metres high in the forecourt of Field Marshal Sir Thomas
Blamey Square at the Department of Defence Offices, Russell, in Canberra
It is one of the city’s most prominent and distinctive landmarks. The
press release
from Senator the Hon. Robert Hill on the 50th anniversary
of its unveiling contains further details.
War Memorials in Australia—locations,
descriptions and images of war memorials in the states and territories
of Australia.
Remembrance Driveway, which
runs between Sydney and Canberra, was suggested by the Garden Club of
Australia. Over fifty groves have been planted alongside the Hume and
Federal Highways. The Driveway is a memorial to those who served in
World War II and subsequent wars. The first of its trees—at Macquarie
Place in Sydney (a plane tree), and the War Memorial in Canberra (a
snow gum)—were planted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954. It was intended
to have a variety of trees, each selected for its suitability to local
soil and climatic conditions. Each of the trees honours a serviceman
or woman and some bear a plaque with his or her name. During the 1990s
the Remembrance Driveway Committee and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority
worked together to develop 'Victoria Cross' rest areas along the highway—Gordon
VC, Mackay VC, Kingsbury VC, Chowne VC, Derrick VC, French VC, Kibby
VC, Edmondson VC, Wheatley VC and Gurney VC.
Australia’s military heritage—some developments 2006–08
Post-1945 Conflicts Gallery at the Australian War Memorial
After a major redevelopment at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra,
the Australian War
Memorial’s Post-1945 Conflicts Gallery was opened by Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd on 26 February 2008. The new gallery expands the displays
of post-1945 conflicts, including the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency,
Indonesian Konfrontasi , the Vietnam War, peacekeeping, and more
recent conflicts, including the First Gulf War and the current Afghanistan
and Iraq wars.
Major exhibits include an Iroquois helicopter,
using cutting-edge light and sound technology to show troops leaving
the helicopter for a jungle patrol. Mr Dick Smith provided $1 million
of sponsorship for this display. Visitors are also able to enter the actual
bridge of HMAS Brisbane, which served in the Vietnam
and Gulf Wars, and be part of an interactive experience. There are many
exhibits, artworks, relics, stories and large- and small-scale multimedia
presentations which depict Australians in war and peacekeeping since
1945.
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans
The Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans was
originally launched in August 2006. Approximately 60 000 individuals
served with Australia’s defence forces in Vietnam or in the waters adjacent
to Vietnam between 23 May 1962 and 29 April 1975. The newly enhanced
version of the on-line Nominal Roll was launched
on Vietnam Veterans’ Day on 18 August 2007. This provides additional
details of each individual’s military service in Vietnam.
Visit Gallipoli website
Visit Gallipoli is now the number one
website displayed for a Google search of ‘Gallipoli’. The website includes
history and educational resources, and for those planning a visit, there
is also a guided walk that takes trekkers to 14 locations such as North
Beach, Anzac Cove, Shrapnel Gulley, Lone Pine, Quinn’s Post and The
Nek. For each site, there is also a downloadable MP3 commentary.
Western Front
The Office of Australian War
Graves (within the DVA) have stepped up activities to enhance commemoration
of Australian service in France
and Belgium. In response to
an increasing number of visitors to the battlefields and war cemeteries,
information panels are being erected at several sites to explain their
significance, and a feasibility study has been conducted into the possibility
of establishing an interpretive centre for Australians (and others)
visiting the Western Front. The Australian
Corps Memorial Park at Le Hamel—one of several memorials on the
Western Front—was closed to visitors in February 2008 for rebuilding,
after the original memorial deteriorated due to environmental damage
and vandalism.
Remains of war dead
Bodies of service personnel are often discovered on old battlefields
or in wrecked ships or aircraft. When such discoveries are made, the
standard practice is to inter bodies in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission
cemetery.
Northern France
In May 2008 limited archaeological excavation work is due to begin
on what is believed to be a mass
grave possibly containing the remains of 170 missing
Australian soldiers and 327 British soldiers. These soldiers are
believed to have been buried by the Germans in a paddock near Pheasant
Wood in northern France in July 1916 after the Battle of Fromelles.
The Army History Unit has re-engaged a team from the Glasgow University
Archaeological Division which conducted a non-invasive survey at Fromelles
in May 2007. This earlier survey revealed underground anomalies matching
five pits seen in aerial photographs after the battle.
HMAS Sydney II
The wreck of HMAS Sydney
II, which sank with all 645 crew after engaging the German raider
HSK Kormoran on 19 November 1941, was found
on 16 March 2008 twelve nautical miles from the wreck of the Kormoran
and eight nautical miles from the scene of the principal battle site,
at a depth of 2470 metres. The Kormoran lost over 80 sailors
in its attack on the Sydney. The
Finding Sydney Foundation
website contains video footage of both wrecks, background information
on the ships and a roll of honour. ABC TV broadcast a documentary, The Hunt for HMAS Sydney,
which detailed the successful search for both the Sydney
and the Kormoran.
Both wrecks have been given legal
protection by the Australian Government under the Historic Shipwrecks
Act 1976. On 31 March 2008 the Australian Government announced the
establishment of a commission
of inquiry into the loss of HMAS Sydney, which will
be headed by His Honour Mr Terence Cole.
A memorial
ceremony attended by some relatives of the crew of HMAS Sydney
was held over the site of the wreck of the Sydney and then over
the site of the wreck of the Kormoran on 16 April 2008. The Australian
Government also plans
to hold a national memorial service on 24 April in Sydney.
On 19 November 2008, the 67th anniversary of the sinking,
a memorial service will take place on board the current HMAS Sydney
above the wreck site, in conjunction with a national memorial service
at the Australian War Memorial. While there is already a memorial
to the loss of HMAS Sydney at Geraldton in Western Australia,
the government is considering building a national memorial to the Sydney
either in Sydney or Canberra.
World War II aircraft wrecks
An ABC Radio National Background Briefing
program, ‘Lost
planes, lost men’, examined the situation of the many Australian
war planes which crashed in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific
during World War II, and the trade in war souvenirs.
Vietnam
The Army
History Unit is supporting searches for the remains of missing personnel
in Vietnam. In 2007 the remains of three Australian servicemen, Lance
Corporal Richard Parker, Private Peter Gillson and Lance
Corporal John Gillespie were found in Vietnam
with the help of Operation Aussies Home, and repatriated to Australia.
One Australian soldier, Private David
Fisher, who fell while suspended below a Royal Australian
Air Force (RAAF) helicopter during a ‘hot extraction’ of his SASR patrol
in 1969, remains missing. The Army history Unit reports that ‘work continues
to try and account for his remains’. Two RAAF airmen from 2 Squadron
remain missing in action in Vietnam.
Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver were
believed to have been killed when their Canberra bomber disappeared
during a night bombing mission in South Vietnam.
Submarines
HMAS AE1—in Papua New Guinea
During the Great War, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) operated two
submarines, HMAS AE1 and AE2. Both participated in the
expedition to German New Guinea in September 1914. On 14 September,
AE1 and HMAS Parramatta sailed from Blanche Bay, Rabaul,
on patrol. AE1 and its crew of 35 men disappeared without trace.
There have been many theories surrounding its loss, with most believing
it probably struck a submerged reef, took in water and sank to the sea
floor.
A private search narrowed down a possible location. The RAN survey
vessel HMAS Benalla assisted in sweeping the area, and located
what appeared to be a large metallic object off the Duke of York Islands.
However, further
investigations by the minehunter HMAS Yarra, in May 2007,
proved that the shape found by Benalla was a submarine-shaped
rock formation.
HMAS AE2—in Turkey
On 25 April 1915, as the landing at Gallipoli was starting, AE2
slipped past the Turkish defences of the Dardanelles, the first submarine
to achieve this feat. Its orders were to ‘run amok’ in the Sea of Marmara.
After five days, AE2 was attacked by a Turkish gunboat. The 35
Australian and British crew made it out of the stricken vessel and became
prisoners of war. The submarine sank to the sea floor.
AE2’s whereabouts remained unknown until 1998 when a Turkish
researcher found the submarine resting upright in 73 metres of water.
The AE2 Commemorative Foundation Ltd was formed, receiving support
from the Australian Government, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation,
and other sponsors, to determine a preservation strategy. In September
2007 Australian and Turkish divers surveyed and filmed the wreck.
Victor Rudenno, the
author of the book Gallipoli:
Attack from the sea, has said that recovery of the wreck would
be difficult and expensive.
Veterans
Australia's last surviving
World War I veteran
John (Jack) Campbell Ross— born 1899
Jack Ross enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1918
as a wireless operator, but the war ended before he saw active service.
On 11 March 2008 he celebrated his 109th birthday in Bendigo,
Victoria.
‘Cricket
beckons at 109 not out’ The Mercury, 12 March 2008.
Veterans farewelled in recent years
World War I
William Evan Crawford Allan—1899 to 2005
'Last
of our Great War fighters fades away' by Stuart
Rintoul (Australian, 19 October 2005).
Peter Casserly—1898 to 2005
'Last
survivor of western front carnage dies at 107'—obituary for Peter
Casserly (Sunday Canberra Times, 26 June 2005).
Gilbert Edward Bennion—1898 to 2005
'Veteran
of two wars did not fire a shot in anger' by Greg Stolz (Courier
Mail, 1 February 2005).
Marcel Caux—1899 to 2004
'Au
revoir, Marcel, we hardly knew you' by Tony Stephens (Sydney
Morning Herald, 28 August 2004).
Edward (Ted) David Smout—1898 to 2004
'Last
hurrah for people's hero'—obituary for Edward
(Ted) David
Smout by Emma
Chalmers and Brian
Williams (Courier Mail, 1 July 2004).
End of Section 5
