© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Militaria

Read more about the article A Newcastle girl’s letters from the WW 1 home front

A Newcastle girl’s letters from the WW 1 home front

Doris Schuck was 16 years old and living in Newcastle East when "The Great War" broke out. Like most youngsters in the community at the time she was intensely patriotic and she paid particular attention to the fortunes of "Newcastle's Own" 35th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, so often in the thick of fierce fighting on the Western Front in Europe. Living very close to Newcastle's Fort Scratchley - a relic of the Russian scare of the early 20th Century - she got to know quite a few young soldiers and she wrote to some…

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Read more about the article The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915

At the time of The Great War, the modern conception of Australia Day did not exist. Australia as a nation had only been born in 1901, and even after that a very large proportion of the people who lived in Australia considered themselves to be British, first and foremost. January 26 was celebrated in NSW as "Foundation Day", and the other former colonies had days of commemoration for their own colonial beginnings. During the war, the idea of a national “Australia Day” was introduced as part of a wider fundraising effort where money was raised by…

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Read more about the article The wartime US invasion of Port Stephens
US troops practice landing at Port Stephens, NSW, during World War 2.

The wartime US invasion of Port Stephens

At the peak of the Allied Pacific campaign in World War 2, more than 14,000 American and British troops were based in the Shoal Bay area of Port Stephens. Shoal Bay's famous country club was requisitioned to become a headquarters for part of the amphibious warfare training area known as JOOTS (Joint Overseas Operations Training Services). The Royal Australian Navy called its training establishment HMAS Assault, and the ships HMAS Westralia, HMAS Manoora, HMAS Kanimbla and USS Henry T. Allen were frequently in the port, along with more than 130 other vessels of varying sizes. The…

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