Cretan Resistance During WW2
Reading time: 8 minutes
One of the more impressive feats of arms during the second World War was the way in which the people of Crete fought a guerrilla campaign against the German occupation force. With help from the allies, the Cretans — men, women and even children — fought a brutal and bloody campaign against the invader. In this article, we look at what happened through the eyes of some of the people who participated, Cretan, British and Australian.
Project ‘44: Australia and future of Project ‘44
This project will map where Australian forces served during WW2, allowing you to follow individual units and their experience of war.
The Story of the M1 Garand: The Iconic and Influential World War 2 Weapon
Reading time: 7 minutes
Called the “greatest battle implement ever devised”, the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle served the USA well during WW2 and beyond.
The Scrap Iron Flotilla – Australian Destroyers in the Mediterranean – Video
Anyone looking at the old, small and slow destroyer group would think the same. Soon, however, the Axis and the rest of the world would learn just how formidable it was. The ‘Scrap Iron Flotilla’ and those who manned it proved just how much grit, determination and valour can achieve.
AUSTRALIAN VC’S IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, WW2 – VIDEO
There were six Australian VC recipients during the Mediterranean and North African Campaigns of the second world war. From the heroics of Lt. Roden Cutler in Damour, Corporal Edmondson of the Desert Rats defending Tobruk in 1941 to Sgt. Kibby with his tommy-gun in El Alamein. Learn more about Australian gallantry in the Deserts of North Africa.
When Australia Fought France, WW2 – Video
Operation Exporter was a little known, but very important campaign for the Australian military. It involved Australian’s fighting a strange war against confused Frenchmen who were not supposed to be our enemy. France had been defeated and subjugated by the Germans. The new French government, installed at Vichy, was answerable to the Führer. With France vanquished, the fate of their territories in Syria and Lebanon became uncertain.
3 Squadron RAAF – Podcast
As the Allied armies fought across North Africa, first against the Italians and then the Vichy French and Rommel’s Afrika Korps, one squadron of the RAAF was there from the beginning. No. 3 Squadron was the first RAAF squadron to leave Australia and played an important part in many of the important battles from 1940 to 1943 across North Africa, Tunisia and Sicily.
Tobruk – Podcast
Tobruk was one of the greatest Allied victories – and one of the worst Allied defeats – of the Second World War.
The Battle for Crete: Hard Fought
Reading time: 8 minutes
Wherever they fought in the Second World War, Australian troops acquitted themselves well. They escaped the clutches of the Afrika Korps in the Benghazi handicap and soon after helped hold back Rommel at the second battle of El Alamein. Even certain defeat couldn’t stop Australian troops, like in Crete, where they and their New Zealand counterparts fought a rearguard action that delayed the German war effort considerably.
How George Orwell justified killing German civilians in the second world war
Reading time: 5 minutes
During the second world war, Britain’s national daily newspapers usually supported the government’s portrayal of the national war effort as flawlessly heroic. This was a just war – and supported as such even by many Britons who, until 1940, had supported pacifist organisations such as the Peace Pledge Union.
What happened to the French army after Dunkirk
Reading time: 5 minutes
The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in May 1940 from Dunkirk by a flotilla of small ships has entered British folklore. Dunkirk, a new action film by director Christopher Nolan, depicts the events from land, sea and air and has revived awe for the plucky courage of those involved.
Second Battle of El Alamein: Australia Forces a Breach
Reading time: 8 minutes
The battle of El Alamein in late 1942 was the turning point for the North African campaign, which saw the fighting rage back and forth between Libya and Egypt. As with most of the battles in the region, Australians played a vital role in the eventual Allied victory. In this article, we go over their experiences during this pivotal battle.
North Africa in WW2: Total War with Honour?
Reading time: 7 minutes
The North African campaigns during the Second World War have a reputation for being “clean” wars, free from the atrocities we see when studying the Eastern front or the Pacific theatre. However, when we look a little more closely, we can see this romanticized image is a little tarnished in places; we’ll take a look at what the historical record can tell us, as well as some details shared by Australian veterans of the conflict.
US prep schools held student exchanges with elite Nazi academies
Reading time: 7 minutes
In the summer of 1935, the Nazi government hijacked a student exchange program between leading American and German schools.
The International Schoolboy Fellowship, as it was known, was first set up by Walter Huston Lillard, the headmaster of Tabor Academy in Massachusetts, in 1927 to foster better relations between all nations through schoolboy exchange. Participating countries included the U.S., Germany, France and Great Britain.
The War in the Skies: How The First World War Changed Aviation
Reading time: 6 minutes
When the first world war broke out in 1914, flying was still in its infancy. It had been eleven years since the Wright brothers had taken to the skies in the first motorised flight. Very little had been done in advancing aviation since then. In the four years of war, however, the world saw aviation take major leaps forward, so much so that these advancements are still at the core of flying today.
That time private US media companies stepped in to silence the falsehoods and incitements of a major public figure … in 1938
Reading time: 6 minutes
In speeches filled with hatred and falsehoods, a public figure attacks his enemies and calls for marches on Washington. Then, after one particularly virulent address, private media companies close down his channels of communication, prompting consternation from his supporters and calls for a code of conduct to filter out violent rhetoric.
Hard Fought: Australia In The Mediterranean Theatre 1940-1945 Conference
Reading time: 3 minutes
History Guild is supporting a conference examining the part played by Australian’s in the Mediterranean theatre of WW2. This conference is presented by Military History & Heritage Victoria in Melbourne, Australia on the 9th and 10th of April 2022. It will be held in person and features a conference dinner on the 9th of April. History Guild is subsidising conference registration fees for students and early career researchers. This will allow more history students to study and research this important part of Australian history.
Britain’s obsession with the second world war and the debates that fuel it
Reading time: 5 minutes
The COVID-19 pandemic has elicited endless comparison to the second world war. Private labs have been likened to “Dunkirk little ships”; food bank support to “blitz spirit”, and even the queen equated the pain of self-isolation with wartime evacuation.
In Appreciation of Schindler’s List
Reading time: 7 minutes
Films are often created with the aim of providing escapism and fun for audiences; sometimes they are sad too, and many times they are also thought-provoking, tragic and uplifting. And then there are films that exist as the total opposite of escapism and fun, and that go way beyond just being “sad” or “tragic”.
Escape from Greece
Reading time: 19 minutes
It began, as it sometimes does, with an old photograph.
Three men dressed in khaki uniforms standing in front of an exotic facade in some distant land. The man in the middle – hands in pockets, slouch hat tilted at a jaunty 45 degree angle – is my uncle.
PEARL HARBOR AND AMERICA’s ENTRY TO WAR
Reading time: 6 minutes
The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor also marks the United States’ entrance into the Second World War, forever changing the course of the ultimate conflict.
First Battle of El Alamein: Australia Holds the Line
Reading time: 9 minutes
The North African campaigns of WW2 were two years of back and forth action across Libya and Egypt, with offensives, counteroffensives and sieges throughout and Australians in the thick of it. When the end eventually came to this seesaw action at El Alamein in 1942, again it was Australians who held the day; in this article we’ll see this pivotal battle through their eyes.
Dunkirk: how British newspapers helped to turn defeat into a miracle
Reading time: 6 minutes.
with the 1963 film of that name starring Steve McQueen, reffering to, of course, a mass escape by Allied prisoners during the second world war. But this title might more appropriately be applied to the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk between May 27 and June 4 1940.
The Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa
The Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa By Joseph H. Alexander (1938 – 2014) The three-month-long battle of Okinawa covered a 700-mile arc from Formosa to Kyushu and […]