Australia day. (1 Viewer)

[waynepoo]

Gday Gents,
With Australia day coming up on the 26th (thursday) I thought I would start a thread in celebration of our national day by asking my fellow Aussies (and all others) who they think is a Great Australian military figure of the past or present (and not just military, any great Australian) . I would like to hear your views and opinions on this topic, it is also I think a good way to allow our friends from overseas to get an insight to our history.
I like to start with :
CAPTAIN ALBERT JACKA, VC , MC and bar, 14th Battalion , 4th Infantry Brigade , 4th Division , Australian Imperial Force , Born 10th January 1893 Caulfield, Victoria.
Jacka's Victoria Cross was the first of the 63 VC's awarded to members of A.I.F during the Great War.
Citation reads:-
''FOR MOST CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY ON THE NIGHT OF THE 19 - 20TH MAY, 1915, AT COURTNEY'S POST, GALLIPOLI PENINSULA. LANCE CORPORAL JACKA, WHILE HOLDING A PORTION OF TRENCH WITH FOUR MEN, WAS HEAVILY ATTACKED. WHEN ALL EXCEPT HIMSELF WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED, THE TRENCH WAS RUSHED AND OCCUPIED BY SEVEN TURKS. LANCE CORPRAL JACKA AT ONCE MOST GALLANTLY ATTACKED THEM SINGLE-HANDED AND KILLED THE WHOLE PARTY, FIVE BY RIFLE FIRE AND TWO WITH THE BAYONET."

Jacka and the A.I.F moved on to the Western Front , he was already a legend among the Australians, he was promoted , finally becoming a Captain March 1917 with his Battalion becoming know as '' JACKAS MOB''. At Pozieres in August 1916 and at Bullecourt in 1917 he won the Military Cross and bar, many who were there say he should have been awarded another VC maybe two.
Badly wounded twice he returned to Australia in September 1918. In 1930 he became Mayor of St Kilda, he died in January 1932. More than 6,000 people filed past his coffin as it lay in state and his funeral procession, flanked by thousands of onlookers, was led by over 1,000 returned soldiers-the coffin was carried eight Victoria Cross winners.
'' THE SYMBOL OF THE SPIRIT OF THE ANZACS"
One of my Great Australians , I hope you will contribute.
Thanks Waynepoo.

 

[The Military Workshop]

Good thread Wayne,
As a Brit coming here and setting up my business I spent a lot of time looking at Australian history and famous people and read lots of books and visited many museums etc.
I noted how a particular cricketer seemed to get a lot of attention for scoring runs in a game. There are many military people I can think of but for me the one that stands out is an all rounder. I don't recall my kids learning about him in school but the one I think all Australians should know about is :

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE (12 July 1907 – 2 July 1993) was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.

While at university Dunlop took up rugby union commencing as a fourth grade player with the Melbourne University Rugby Club in 1931. He made a lightning-fast progression through the grades, to state and then to the national representative level becoming the first Victorian-born player to represent the Wallabies. He made his national representative debut against the All Blacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 23 July 1932 as a number 8.
In the first Test of 1934 he again appeared for Australia, this time as a lock. Australia won the match 25-11, and two weeks later the second and final match of that year's Bledisloe Cup series finished in a draw. Although Dunlop missed that match due to injury he stands as a member of the first Wallaby squad to have won the Bledisloe Cup away from New Zealand. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame. To date, he is the only Victorian so honoured.

During World War II, Dunlop was appointed to medical headquarters in the Middle East, where he developed the mobile surgical unit. In Greece he liaised with forward medical units and Allied headquarters, and at Tobruk he was a surgeon until the Australian Divisions were withdrawn for home defence. His troopship was diverted to Java in an ill-planned attempt to bolster the defences there. On 26 February 1942, he was promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel. Dunlop became a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942 when he was captured in Bandung, Java, together with the hospital he was commanding.[5]
Because of his leadership skills, he was placed in charge of prisoner-of-war camps in Java, was later transferred briefly to Changi, and in January 1943 commanded the first Australians sent to work on the Thai segment of the Burma-Thailand railway.
After being held in a number of camps in Java, he was eventually moved to the Thai-Burma railway, where prisoners of the Japanese were being used as forced labourers to construct a strategically important supply route between Bangkok and Rangoon. Conditions in the railway camps were primitive and horrific — food was totally inadequate, beatings were frequent and severe, there were no medical supplies, tropical disease was rampant, and the Japanese required a level of productivity that would have been difficult for fully fit and properly equipped men to achieve.

Along with a number of other Commonwealth Medical Officers, Dunlop's dedication and heroism became a legend among prisoners. A courageous leader and compassionate doctor, he restored morale in those terrible prison camps and jungle hospitals. Dunlop defied his captors, gave hope to the sick and eased the anguish of the dying. He became, in the words of one of his men, "a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering". His example was one of the reasons why Australian survival rates were the highest.

After 1945, with the darkness of the war years behind him, Dunlop forgave his captors and turned his energies to the task of healing and building. He was to state later that " in suffering we are all equal". He devoted himself to the health and welfare of former prisoners-of-war and their families, and worked to promote better relations between Australia and Asia.

He was active in many spheres of endeavour. In his own field of surgery, he pioneered new techniques against cancer. He became closely involved with a wide range of health and educational organisations, and served on the board of Cancer Council Victoria. His tireless community work had a profound influence on Australians and on the peoples of Asia. As well as numerous tributes and distinctions bestowed upon him in his own country, he received honours from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

'Weary' Dunlop received many honours and awards throughout his life, including:

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1947)
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (1965)
Knight Bachelor (1969)
named Australian of the Year 1976
Companion of the Order of Australia (1987)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem
Knight Grand Cross (1st Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Royal Crown of Thailand
Honorary Fellow of the Imperial College London
Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Honorary Life Member of the Returned and Services League of Australia
Life Governor of the Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
In 1988 'Weary' Dunlop was named one of '200 Great Australians'. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

He received the posthumous honour of having the Canberra suburb of Dunlop named after him shortly after his death in 1993.His image is on the 1995 issue Australian fifty cent piece with the words "They Served Their Country in World War II, 1939 - 1945". The fifty cent piece is part of a set including the one dollar coin and the twenty cent piece.He has a platoon named after him in the Army Recruit Training Centre, Blamey Barracks, Kapooka. Weary Dunlop Platoon is a holding platoon to recruits that want to leave recruit training.

Beats the cricketer's acheivements by a long way.

Regards
Brett
PS Wayne, please could you provide suitable images.

 

[marco55]

How about AC/DC in the non military section.Angus Rocks!{bravo}}On a serious note I don't that much about individual military men from Australia but as a whole the Australian military has the highest respect from many Americans. Happy Holiday.:salute::
Mark

 

[waynepoo]

How about AC/DC in the non military section.Angus Rocks!{bravo}}On a serious note I don't that much about individual military men from Australia but as a whole the Australian military has the highest respect from many Americans. Happy Holiday.:salute::
Mark

That respect is returned my friend, thank you. If you are interested just google the Australian War Memorial.
Waynepoo.

 

[waynepoo]

Good thread Wayne,
As a Brit coming here and setting up my business I spent a lot of time looking at Australian history and famous people and read lots of books and visited many museums etc.
I noted how a particular cricketer seemed to get a lot of attention for scoring runs in a game. There are many military people I can think of but for me the one that stands out is an all rounder. I don't recall my kids learning about him in school but the one I think all Australians should know about is :

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE (12 July 1907 – 2 July 1993) was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.

While at university Dunlop took up rugby union commencing as a fourth grade player with the Melbourne University Rugby Club in 1931. He made a lightning-fast progression through the grades, to state and then to the national representative level becoming the first Victorian-born player to represent the Wallabies. He made his national representative debut against the All Blacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 23 July 1932 as a number 8.
In the first Test of 1934 he again appeared for Australia, this time as a lock. Australia won the match 25-11, and two weeks later the second and final match of that year's Bledisloe Cup series finished in a draw. Although Dunlop missed that match due to injury he stands as a member of the first Wallaby squad to have won the Bledisloe Cup away from New Zealand. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame. To date, he is the only Victorian so honoured.

During World War II, Dunlop was appointed to medical headquarters in the Middle East, where he developed the mobile surgical unit. In Greece he liaised with forward medical units and Allied headquarters, and at Tobruk he was a surgeon until the Australian Divisions were withdrawn for home defence. His troopship was diverted to Java in an ill-planned attempt to bolster the defences there. On 26 February 1942, he was promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel. Dunlop became a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942 when he was captured in Bandung, Java, together with the hospital he was commanding.[5]
Because of his leadership skills, he was placed in charge of prisoner-of-war camps in Java, was later transferred briefly to Changi, and in January 1943 commanded the first Australians sent to work on the Thai segment of the Burma-Thailand railway.
After being held in a number of camps in Java, he was eventually moved to the Thai-Burma railway, where prisoners of the Japanese were being used as forced labourers to construct a strategically important supply route between Bangkok and Rangoon. Conditions in the railway camps were primitive and horrific — food was totally inadequate, beatings were frequent and severe, there were no medical supplies, tropical disease was rampant, and the Japanese required a level of productivity that would have been difficult for fully fit and properly equipped men to achieve.

Along with a number of other Commonwealth Medical Officers, Dunlop's dedication and heroism became a legend among prisoners. A courageous leader and compassionate doctor, he restored morale in those terrible prison camps and jungle hospitals. Dunlop defied his captors, gave hope to the sick and eased the anguish of the dying. He became, in the words of one of his men, "a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering". His example was one of the reasons why Australian survival rates were the highest.

After 1945, with the darkness of the war years behind him, Dunlop forgave his captors and turned his energies to the task of healing and building. He was to state later that " in suffering we are all equal". He devoted himself to the health and welfare of former prisoners-of-war and their families, and worked to promote better relations between Australia and Asia.

He was active in many spheres of endeavour. In his own field of surgery, he pioneered new techniques against cancer. He became closely involved with a wide range of health and educational organisations, and served on the board of Cancer Council Victoria. His tireless community work had a profound influence on Australians and on the peoples of Asia. As well as numerous tributes and distinctions bestowed upon him in his own country, he received honours from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

'Weary' Dunlop received many honours and awards throughout his life, including:

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1947)
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (1965)
Knight Bachelor (1969)
named Australian of the Year 1976
Companion of the Order of Australia (1987)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem
Knight Grand Cross (1st Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Royal Crown of Thailand
Honorary Fellow of the Imperial College London
Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Honorary Life Member of the Returned and Services League of Australia
Life Governor of the Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
In 1988 'Weary' Dunlop was named one of '200 Great Australians'. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

He received the posthumous honour of having the Canberra suburb of Dunlop named after him shortly after his death in 1993.His image is on the 1995 issue Australian fifty cent piece with the words "They Served Their Country in World War II, 1939 - 1945". The fifty cent piece is part of a set including the one dollar coin and the twenty cent piece.He has a platoon named after him in the Army Recruit Training Centre, Blamey Barracks, Kapooka. Weary Dunlop Platoon is a holding platoon to recruits that want to leave recruit training.

Beats the cricketer's acheivements by a long way.

Regards
Brett
PS Wayne, please could you provide suitable images.

Brett,
Thank you , Weary is one of this nations Greatest , my Uncle Bob died on the Burma Railway in 1943 and I don't know for sure but I would like to think that Weary helped and aided him during his last hours. As you asked I have attached some images.
Waynepoo.

 

[marco55]

That respect is returned my friend, thank you. If you are interested just google the Australian War Memorial.
Waynepoo.

I will Wayne.Thanks.
Mark

 

[Hazebrouck]

Wayne,

I will throw in a wildcard and suggest that Charles Bean might be my vote for as a very important figure in Australian military history. I started out reading Carlyon, Pedersen, Stanley and others and it took me a while before it dawned upon me that they almost always start with Bean.

Bean certainly left a great gift to the nation!

Jack,

Would be interested in hearing about your thesis on Phillip Gibbs? (hope I'm not crossing threads here). I have a 1916 copy of "Soul of the War" I have been contemplating reading for a while. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gibb's writings?

Scott

 

[waynepoo]

Wayne,

I will throw in a wildcard and suggest that Charles Bean might be my vote for as a very important figure in Australian military history. I started out reading Carlyon, Pedersen, Stanley and others and it took me a while before it dawned upon me that they almost always start with Bean.

Bean certainly left a great gift to the nation!

Jack,

Would be interested in hearing about your thesis on Phillip Gibbs? (hope I'm not crossing threads here). I have a 1916 copy of "Soul of the War" I have been contemplating reading for a while. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gibb's writings?

Scott

Indeed, Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean a Great Australian and not a wildcard , the digger armed with a pen not a rifle , who saw more action then most men of the A.I.F as he was at nearly every action involving the A.I.F.
Thanks,
Waynepoo.

 

[uksubs]

Gday Gents,
With Australia day coming up on the 26th (thursday) I thought I would start a thread in celebration of our national day by asking my fellow Aussies (and all others) who they think is a Great Australian military figure of the past or present (and not just military, any great Australian) . I would like to hear your views and opinions on this topic, it is also I think a good way to allow our friends from overseas to get an insight to our history.
I like to start with :
CAPTAIN ALBERT JACKA, VC , MC and bar, 14th Battalion , 4th Infantry Brigade , 4th Division , Australian Imperial Force , Born 10th January 1893 Caulfield, Victoria.
Jacka's Victoria Cross was the first of the 63 VC's awarded to members of A.I.F during the Great War.
Citation reads:-
''FOR MOST CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY ON THE NIGHT OF THE 19 - 20TH MAY, 1915, AT COURTNEY'S POST, GALLIPOLI PENINSULA. LANCE CORPORAL JACKA, WHILE HOLDING A PORTION OF TRENCH WITH FOUR MEN, WAS HEAVILY ATTACKED. WHEN ALL EXCEPT HIMSELF WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED, THE TRENCH WAS RUSHED AND OCCUPIED BY SEVEN TURKS. LANCE CORPRAL JACKA AT ONCE MOST GALLANTLY ATTACKED THEM SINGLE-HANDED AND KILLED THE WHOLE PARTY, FIVE BY RIFLE FIRE AND TWO WITH THE BAYONET."

Jacka and the A.I.F moved on to the Western Front , he was already a legend among the Australians, he was promoted , finally becoming a Captain March 1917 with his Battalion becoming know as '' JACKAS MOB''. At Pozieres in August 1916 and at Bullecourt in 1917 he won the Military Cross and bar, many who were there say he should have been awarded another VC maybe two.
Badly wounded twice he returned to Australia in September 1918. In 1930 he became Mayor of St Kilda, he died in January 1932. More than 6,000 people filed past his coffin as it lay in state and his funeral procession, flanked by thousands of onlookers, was led by over 1,000 returned soldiers-the coffin was carried eight Victoria Cross winners.
'' THE SYMBOL OF THE SPIRIT OF THE ANZACS"
One of my Great Australians , I hope you will contribute.
Thanks Waynepoo.

Very interesting and thank for posting

 

[uksubs]

Good thread Wayne,
As a Brit coming here and setting up my business I spent a lot of time looking at Australian history and famous people and read lots of books and visited many museums etc.
I noted how a particular cricketer seemed to get a lot of attention for scoring runs in a game. There are many military people I can think of but for me the one that stands out is an all rounder. I don't recall my kids learning about him in school but the one I think all Australians should know about is :

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, AC, CMG, OBE (12 July 1907 – 2 July 1993) was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II.

While at university Dunlop took up rugby union commencing as a fourth grade player with the Melbourne University Rugby Club in 1931. He made a lightning-fast progression through the grades, to state and then to the national representative level becoming the first Victorian-born player to represent the Wallabies. He made his national representative debut against the All Blacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 23 July 1932 as a number 8.
In the first Test of 1934 he again appeared for Australia, this time as a lock. Australia won the match 25-11, and two weeks later the second and final match of that year's Bledisloe Cup series finished in a draw. Although Dunlop missed that match due to injury he stands as a member of the first Wallaby squad to have won the Bledisloe Cup away from New Zealand. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame. To date, he is the only Victorian so honoured.

During World War II, Dunlop was appointed to medical headquarters in the Middle East, where he developed the mobile surgical unit. In Greece he liaised with forward medical units and Allied headquarters, and at Tobruk he was a surgeon until the Australian Divisions were withdrawn for home defence. His troopship was diverted to Java in an ill-planned attempt to bolster the defences there. On 26 February 1942, he was promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel. Dunlop became a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942 when he was captured in Bandung, Java, together with the hospital he was commanding.[5]
Because of his leadership skills, he was placed in charge of prisoner-of-war camps in Java, was later transferred briefly to Changi, and in January 1943 commanded the first Australians sent to work on the Thai segment of the Burma-Thailand railway.
After being held in a number of camps in Java, he was eventually moved to the Thai-Burma railway, where prisoners of the Japanese were being used as forced labourers to construct a strategically important supply route between Bangkok and Rangoon. Conditions in the railway camps were primitive and horrific — food was totally inadequate, beatings were frequent and severe, there were no medical supplies, tropical disease was rampant, and the Japanese required a level of productivity that would have been difficult for fully fit and properly equipped men to achieve.

Along with a number of other Commonwealth Medical Officers, Dunlop's dedication and heroism became a legend among prisoners. A courageous leader and compassionate doctor, he restored morale in those terrible prison camps and jungle hospitals. Dunlop defied his captors, gave hope to the sick and eased the anguish of the dying. He became, in the words of one of his men, "a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering". His example was one of the reasons why Australian survival rates were the highest.

After 1945, with the darkness of the war years behind him, Dunlop forgave his captors and turned his energies to the task of healing and building. He was to state later that " in suffering we are all equal". He devoted himself to the health and welfare of former prisoners-of-war and their families, and worked to promote better relations between Australia and Asia.

He was active in many spheres of endeavour. In his own field of surgery, he pioneered new techniques against cancer. He became closely involved with a wide range of health and educational organisations, and served on the board of Cancer Council Victoria. His tireless community work had a profound influence on Australians and on the peoples of Asia. As well as numerous tributes and distinctions bestowed upon him in his own country, he received honours from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

'Weary' Dunlop received many honours and awards throughout his life, including:

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1947)
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (1965)
Knight Bachelor (1969)
named Australian of the Year 1976
Companion of the Order of Australia (1987)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St John of Jerusalem
Knight Grand Cross (1st Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Royal Crown of Thailand
Honorary Fellow of the Imperial College London
Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Honorary Life Member of the Returned and Services League of Australia
Life Governor of the Royal Women's Hospital and the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.
In 1988 'Weary' Dunlop was named one of '200 Great Australians'. In June 2008, he was he was honoured in the third set of inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.

He received the posthumous honour of having the Canberra suburb of Dunlop named after him shortly after his death in 1993.His image is on the 1995 issue Australian fifty cent piece with the words "They Served Their Country in World War II, 1939 - 1945". The fifty cent piece is part of a set including the one dollar coin and the twenty cent piece.He has a platoon named after him in the Army Recruit Training Centre, Blamey Barracks, Kapooka. Weary Dunlop Platoon is a holding platoon to recruits that want to leave recruit training.

Beats the cricketer's acheivements by a long way.

Regards
Brett
PInteresting read Brett

 

[Jack]

Wayne,

I will throw in a wildcard and suggest that Charles Bean might be my vote for as a very important figure in Australian military history. I started out reading Carlyon, Pedersen, Stanley and others and it took me a while before it dawned upon me that they almost always start with Bean.

Bean certainly left a great gift to the nation!

Jack,

Would be interested in hearing about your thesis on Phillip Gibbs? (hope I'm not crossing threads here). I have a 1916 copy of "Soul of the War" I have been contemplating reading for a while. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gibb's writings?

Scott

Happy to lend you a copy if you return it to me when you are done. I will try to get a publisher interested as all the centenary events start to roll around. The Soul of the War is the first of almost 60 books by Gibbs that I read - beautifully and emotively written during a period in which Gibbs was effectively an outlaw. When you get to the end it is a bit of a shock to realise that he never actually witnessed fighting first hand other than a week spent as a stretcher bearer. It was a pattern repeated throughout the war even he was an official correspondent. He was, nevertheless, a good man!

This is the thesis abstract:


This thesis is a biographical study of Sir Philip Gibbs (1877-1962), one of the most famous and widely read English journalists of the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to the outbreak of World War One he reported on the great crises facing Britain domestically and the technological advances which came to symbolise the age. Industrial unrest, Ireland, the suffragette movement, royal births, deaths and coronations, and the sinking of the Titanic were all topics which Gibbs reported on and interpreted for his countrymen. Advances in technology such as the advent of automobiles and the nascent years of aviation in Britain took their place in his articles alongside broader European events such as revolution in Portugal in 1910 and the Balkan War in 1912. Though well regarded prior to 1914, it was his work on the Western Front which was to win him fame and, to a lesser extent, fortune. As one of five official correspondents accredited to the British Army on the Western Front, his articles, which appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, did much to shape civilian attitudes during World War I and its immediate aftermath. Many critics, however, have dismissed Gibbs’ work as propaganda and his acceptance of a knighthood in 1920 as little more than a reward for his participation in a conspiracy of silence. His articles, books and correspondence will be used to examine his life, subsequently contributing to an understanding of the role of the war correspondent during the tumultuous war years from 1914 to 1918.

Jack

 

[waynepoo]

Wayne,

I will throw in a wildcard and suggest that Charles Bean might be my vote for as a very important figure in Australian military history. I started out reading Carlyon, Pedersen, Stanley and others and it took me a while before it dawned upon me that they almost always start with Bean.

Bean certainly left a great gift to the nation!

Jack,

Would be interested in hearing about your thesis on Phillip Gibbs? (hope I'm not crossing threads here). I have a 1916 copy of "Soul of the War" I have been contemplating reading for a while. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gibb's writings?

Scott

Happy to lend you a copy if you return it to me when you are done. I will try to get a publisher interested as all the centenary events start to roll around. The Soul of the War is the first of almost 60 books by Gibbs that I read - beautifully and emotively written during a period in which Gibbs was effectively an outlaw. When you get to the end it is a bit of a shock to realise that he never actually witnessed fighting first hand other than a week spent as a stretcher bearer. It was a pattern repeated throughout the war even he was an official correspondent. He was, nevertheless, a good man!

This is the thesis abstract:


This thesis is a biographical study of Sir Philip Gibbs (1877-1962), one of the most famous and widely read English journalists of the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to the outbreak of World War One he reported on the great crises facing Britain domestically and the technological advances which came to symbolise the age. Industrial unrest, Ireland, the suffragette movement, royal births, deaths and coronations, and the sinking of the Titanic were all topics which Gibbs reported on and interpreted for his countrymen. Advances in technology such as the advent of automobiles and the nascent years of aviation in Britain took their place in his articles alongside broader European events such as revolution in Portugal in 1910 and the Balkan War in 1912. Though well regarded prior to 1914, it was his work on the Western Front which was to win him fame and, to a lesser extent, fortune. As one of five official correspondents accredited to the British Army on the Western Front, his articles, which appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, did much to shape civilian attitudes during World War I and its immediate aftermath. Many critics, however, have dismissed Gibbs’ work as propaganda and his acceptance of a knighthood in 1920 as little more than a reward for his participation in a conspiracy of silence. His articles, books and correspondence will be used to examine his life, subsequently contributing to an understanding of the role of the war correspondent during the tumultuous war years from 1914 to 1918.

Jack

Jack.
Now you've got me googling Sir Philip Gibbs, I'd never heard of him.
Waynepoo.

 

[Jack]

Jack.
Now you've got me googling Sir Philip Gibbs, I'd never heard of him.
Waynepoo.

Great - if I ever get it published I'll flog you a copy - that's one for you, one for Larso, one for my mother...and, well, ...you see my problem!

 

[Hazebrouck]

Jack,

Would be interested in hearing about your thesis on Phillip Gibbs? (hope I'm not crossing threads here). I have a 1916 copy of "Soul of the War" I have been contemplating reading for a while. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Gibb's writings?

Scott

Happy to lend you a copy if you return it to me when you are done. I will try to get a publisher interested as all the centenary events start to roll around. The Soul of the War is the first of almost 60 books by Gibbs that I read - beautifully and emotively written during a period in which Gibbs was effectively an outlaw. When you get to the end it is a bit of a shock to realise that he never actually witnessed fighting first hand other than a week spent as a stretcher bearer. It was a pattern repeated throughout the war even he was an official correspondent. He was, nevertheless, a good man!

Jack- I'll send you a PM later about that thesis. It sounds very interesting.

His writing style was quite distinctive and I have found it difficult to get into but will give "The Soul of the War" a try. Surely his success with these books during the war was partly because a lot of written matter was not available?

Scott

 

[waynepoo]

[B][/B]Air Marshal Sir Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin, KCB, DSO & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC.Born 27/2/1918. Edgecliff, N.S.W Australia. Died 3/12/1988. London, U.K

Was an Australian pilot in R.A.F. He rose to become a senior officer in the R.A.F commanding R.A.F Germany, then appointed as Air Member for Personnel, a member of the Air Council the managing council of the R.A.F.

He took part in Operation Chastise, the R.A.F's famous ''Dambusters'' mission in 1943. He has been described as ''One of the three great bomber pilots of the war''.

Martin commenced his operational career with No. 455 Squadron R.A.A.F in October 1941, flying the Handley Page Hampden. In February 1942, he captained the first all-Australian crewed bombing sortie against Germany. Martin soon acquired a reputation for low-level flying in order to avoid anti-aircraft fire and fighters. After 13 operations, he and his crew joined No. 50 Squadron. Flying Hampdens, the Avro Manchester and finally Avro Lancasters, they completed their tour in October 1942, Martin being awarded the DFC.

Martin's penchant for low flying contributed to his selection in March 1943 for assignment to the newly formed No.617 Squadron under Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

Martin took part in the famous ''Dambusters'' raid on 17 May 1943. He piloted the Lancaster bomber AJ-P ''Popsie'( P for Peter ) in the first formation, which was assigned the Mohne Dam.
Martin's plane was hit by AA, but completed the attack. He was awarded a DSO for the mission.

Following Gibson's retirement from Op's and the death of W/C Holden, Martin assumed temporary command of 617 Sq. Later under the command of W/C L.Cheshire, he participated in various pin-point attacks on targets using the 12,000 lb Tallboy bomb.

Later in the war he flew Mosquito's with No. 515 Sq. After the war he broke the speed record for flying from the U.K to Cape Town S.A in a Mosquito , for which he won the Oswald Watt Gold Medal. In 1947 flew the Met' Mosquito for the first transatlantic jet crossing in support of No. 54 Sq Vampires.

Retiring from the R.A.F in 1974 he worked for Hawker Siddely as an advisor. He died at his home in London 3/11/88, and is buried at Gunnersbury Cemetery.

A Great Australian.
Waynepoo.