Sabretache articles from September 2003

Sabretache archives from September 2003

Editorial.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... This is my first year as Editor of Sabretache but my 15th year of involvement with the journal if you count Federal Council involvement or my 24th year if you count my first published article in 1980. That article was on Dr Mary Walker an...

MHSA Biennial Conference 2004.
September 1, 2003... NSW Labour Day Long Weekend 2 to 4 October 2004 Albury-Wodonga The next Society Biennial Conference will be hosted by the Albury-Wodonga Branch and will have a theme of variety and recognition of significant events whose anniversary will...

Burying the 1st AIF *.
September 1, 2003... The typical diary or autobiography of a 1st AIF soldier starts with the enthusiasm and naivety of youth, the great adventure sailing from Australia and seeing exotic lands, the training in Egypt or Etaples, the brash confidence that one would...

Error of judgement or outright bigotry? The colours controversy of the 1950's.
September 1, 2003... As Australians, we are extremely fortunate to live in one of the most tolerant societies in the world (far more tolerant then many commentators would have us believe). This has not, of course, always been the case. One group in Australian...

The swastika of Bali.
September 1, 2003... "Om Swasti Astu". With this mystical greeting, guests are welcomed to the island of Bali, a Hindu enclave in the Indonesian archipelago, home to volcanoes, reefs and pristine beaches, gamelan orchestras and temples protected by troops of...

Home at last: 1410 Pte Robert Patrick James Lomasney: 29th Battalion, 1st AIF.
September 1, 2003... Although I had in my possession the page from the family bible listing all my father's uncles, aunties and his siblings, it was only my immediate uncles and aunties that held any interest for me. My father never spoke about his uncles and...

Wilmansrust: the battlefield trials of the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.
September 1, 2003... The action at Wilmansrust, Transvaal on 12 June 1901 led to accusations of cowardly and mutinous conduct by the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles. They were said to have damaged the reputation of the Australian soldier, but evidence at the Court of...

British Army fatal casualties--Ulster troubles, 1969-1998.
September 1, 2003... Introduction With the easing of tensions in Northern Ireland in recent years, it is timely to examine the cost borne by the British Army during the Ulster troubles from 1969-1998. The Troubles in Northern Ireland can be traced back to...

Military Supervision of Convict Work Gangs. Part III: the British Garrison in Australia 1788-1841: the Great Roads.
September 1, 2003... The Great Western Road Of Governor Darling's three 'Great Roads' only the Great Western Road has retained its character, albeit that in 1927 it became the Great Western Highway. Minor deviations from its start at the obelisk in Macquarie...

63rd Regiment West Suffolk Regiment 1829-1834: the Bloodsuckers.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
September 1, 2003... Background 21 April 1758 63rd raised from 2nd Battalion 8th Regiment. 1759-1764 W Indies. 1764-1775 Ireland. 1775-1784 N America. 1783 Designated West...

Obituary--Ian Wilkie.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... Ian Wilkie, a long-standing collector of medals, passed away in Melbourne on Tuesday 5 August 2003. Many Australian collectors would have had dealings with him over the years. Up until about 5 years ago he often had a table at the Melbourne Gun...

Len Johnson. Love Letters from a War.: the letters of Corporal John Leslie Johnson and his family June 1940-May 1941.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... ABC Books, pbk, $32.95 This book allows us to share the life of a large rural family at Walwa in the Upper Murray Valley whose breadwinner, John Johnson, the author's father, had volunteered to join the Second Australian Imperial Force and...

Anthony Swofford. Jarhead: a Marine's Commentary of the Gulf War.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Simon and Schuster, London, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-4820-1. pbk, 260 pages, 13 x 21 cm. $26.95. War indeed is a terrible business. Sometimes necessary, but always damaging--damaging to the conquered, the innocent civilians caught up in something...

W W Greener. The Gun and its Development (Ninth Edition).(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Greenhill Books, London, ISBN 1-85367-548-2, pbk, 804 pages, hundreds of b & w drawings and photos, 15x23 cm. UK16.99 [pounds sterling]. This faithful recreation of Greener's 1910 major opus is another reason for thinking highly of...

T J Mullin. Special Operations: Weapons and Tactics.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Greenhill Books, London and Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania, February 2003. ISBN 1-85367-527-X. Hard cover with dust jacket, 175 pages, approx 160 b & w photos, 21 x 26 cm. UK19.95 [pounds sterling]. The interesting product range from...

Pat Beale. Operation Orders: the experiences of an infantry officer.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... 142 pp, hardback, Army History Unit and Australian Military History Publications, 2003, $45. This book gives a valuable insight into Australia's military involvement in South-East Asia and Papua New Guinea as experienced by an infantry...

D Butler, A Argent & J Shelton. The Fight Leaders: Australian Battlefield Leadership--3RAR.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Korea, Hardback, 190 pages, Army History Unit and Australian Military History Publications, 2002, $45. The Fight Leaders tells the story of the three men who commanded the Australian Battalion in the first year of the Korean War. Eminently...

Gillian Heming Shadbolt and Les Bell. New Guinea Engineer: the memoirs of Les Bell MBE.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, Box 6125 Rural Delivery Centre 2158, $29.95. Les Bell recounts his memoirs to Gillian Shadbolt, a life including settlement in Northern Queensland, equatorial coconut and gold empires of German and Australian...

Stature of Sir Hugh Edwards VC.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Governor of Western Australia in Fremantle's Kings Square dedicated a life-sized stature of Sir Hughie Edwards VC KCMG CB DSO OBE DFC on 26 November 2002. Sir Hughie was born in Fremantle in 1909 and joined the RAAF in 1935. He accepted a...

Obituary--Captain 'Pip' Gardner VC MC.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... Captain Pip Gardner VC MC, Royal Tank Regiment, died Thursday 13 February 2003 aged 88. On 23 November 1941, Gardner won the Victoria Cross for saving the life of a badly wounded officer of the King's Dragoon Guards whose armoured car was out...

VC presented to the Australian War Memorial.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The VC and medals of Lieutenant Joseph Maxwell, 18th Battalion AIF were presented to the Australian War Memorial on Wednesday, 2 April 2003 on loan from the Museum at Victoria Barracks in Sydney. The award was for most conspicuous bravery and...

VC presented to the Sherwood Foresters museum.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... On 28 May 2003 the Victoria Cross and medals awarded to Lt-Col (later Major-General) Charles Hudson commanding 11th Bn Sherwood Foresters for gallantry on the San Sisto Ridge in Italy in June 1918 were presented to his old regiment. Hudson died...

Percival Gratwick VC.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The name and deeds of Private Percival Gratwick VC (2/48th Bn 2nd AIF) is commemorated in Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth which has named a ward after the Victoria Cross recipient. In July and August 2003 his nephew John created a display...

Shrine of Remembrance--Melbourne.(VC Noticeboard)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The centrepiece of the new $M7.5 visitor centre at the Shrine of Remembrance--Melbourne is the Victoria Cross awarded to Captain Robert Grieve, 37th Battalion AIF, for Messines Belgium in June 1917. Captain Grieve who died in 1957 bequeathed...