Just before midnight on 7 December 1941, Flying Officer Peter Gibbes stepped off the train at Kota Bharu on the coast of northeast Malaya after a long, tiring journey up the peninsula from Singapore. Gibbes, an airline pilot in peacetime, had been newly posted to the Royal Australian Air Force’s 1 Squadron, which in the ensuing hours would become the first Australian military unit to see action in the Pacific War.
This video vividly tells the story of Australia’s first action of the Pacific war.
This excellent video was created by the Australian Military Aviation History Association. See more of their great videos and information here.
When did Homo erectus die out? A fresh look at the demise of an ancient human species over 100,000 years ago
Reading time: 11 minutes
A key site in our understanding of Homo erectus, at Ngandong, in Java, Indonesia, has until now defeated all attempts at reliable dating since it was first excavated more than 90 years ago. With the aid of new techniques, we have now found that the Ngandong Homo erectus fossils are the most recent known specimens, dating from between 117,000 and 108,000 years ago.
General History Quiz 121
1. When did France last execute a prisoner by guillotine?
Try the full 10 question quiz.
Deceptive Ineptitude: German Spies in WW2 Britain
DECEPTIVE INEPTITUDE: GERMAN SPIES IN WW2 BRITAIN Operation Lena, the German espionage operation in Britain, turned out to be one of the least successful spy missions of World War 2. By Madison Moulton Plotting an invasion of the United Kingdom in 1940 – codenamed Operation Sea Lion – the Nazis sent spies to gather intelligence […]
