Anzac Day Stories

Honouring the brave men & women who represented their country during war.

LEST WE FORGET - ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL

The Take Off

Yes Sir, That is exactly what happened, but that event happened sixty years ago and as I recall, it was on the Island of Tarakan in the South West Pacific area during world war 2. I was serving in the RAAF as an aircraft flight line inspector and was responsible for allocating aircraft to the pilots who were listed for flight combat command...

By Arthur Watson
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Sergeant Thomas Arthur Dykes

My father Sgt. Thomas Arthur DYKES Reg number 334 23rd battalion B company joined the Australian forces on 22.02.1915. He was issued DCM medal for distinguished conduct and bravery. In his diaries he also wrote...

By Elva Cunningham
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Arthur William Thorn, 39th Battalion Australian Infantry

My story is about my husbands uncle, Arthur William Thorn, N227929, 39th Battalion Australian Infantry whom I found on tracing my family tree. He was very difficult to trace as he was born of a first marriage then emigrated from England to New South Wales in 1937. In 1942 he was sent to Papua New Guinea and fought on the Sanananda road at Gona and was killed there on 6th December 1942...

By Mrs Valerie Ong
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Frederick Joseph de La Rey

The story of my grandfather, Frederick Joseph de La Rey. Originally from South Africa (I can't definitely link him to the famous Boer, General Jacobus Herculaas (Koos) De La Rey, he was a green grocer in Hurstville Sydney, with a 3 month old daughter when he sailed on the HMAT Benalla on 9/11/1916 as a Lance Corporsl stretcher bearer....

By Peter Leonard
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