See this post for details - ANZAC Day Initiative - The Last Post Award - Inviting Your Contributions
Here are some contributions so far -
From Alastair Bridges of Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The Volunteer Guides at AWM are using this story for a special Anzac Day edition of Guide Post.
"25 April 1944 my dad was flying Wellington X HE489 O for Oboe (Oscar today). Their target tonight was the San Stephano Docks in Italy with six 500 pound bombs for 4.5 hours flight all at night. (Our Lancaster, G for George, flew with 460 Squadron which was originally a Wellington squadron.)
Four months later he was shot down by a German ME 110 while
bombing Ploesti oil fields near Bucharest in Romania. His aircraft, Q for
Queanie, lost an engine (twin engine) and he jettisoned his bombs near the
Danube River and diverted into Yesilkoy aerodrome (now Istanbul). He destroyed
his aircraft by firing into it with his very pistol (which I still have - don't
tell the rozzers). He was interned with his crew (records have them as POWs).
This was a few weeks after I was born in Scotland and not long after my mum was
badly hurt by a V1 while she was doing volunteer work in London. Can you imagine
what my poor mother was going through.
From Editor Greg Smith - This photo is one of my ANZAC Day favourites not only because it features long time contributor to Odd Bods, Jan Dimmick, but because it illustrates the generational interest in the ANZAC story.
From FOTOBAI member Geoff Clark:
"I consider it a privilege to be member
of the Friends of the Odd Bods Association and take great pleasure having lunch
with the Odd Bods particularly on ANZAC Day, but alas not this year.
My memory is not of ANZAC Day but of
just a month ago when I drove to Canberra for the Dedication Ceremony for the
Commemorative Plaque to the Odd Bods at the Australian War Memorial.
As a lad growing up in England during
the war, when my parents belonged to the Lady Francis Scheme hosting servicemen
on leave, I knew New Zealanders, Canadians, three Poles and a Czech soldier and
24 Australians.
Of the Aussies three were in Fighter
Command flying Hawker Typhoon ground attack fighters and all returned safely
home. Flt. Sgt. Don Walker was lost over the North Sea flying a Beaufighter in
Coastal Command.
The other 20 flew as crew members in
Bomber Command, ten of whom paid the
ultimate price.
During that Ceremony on Saturday March
14th as I remembered what my parents had done for those young airmen and even
more what they had done for Britain and the World I cried.
It was without doubt the most moving
event I have ever attended.
Geoff Clark"
From FOTOBAI member John Eacott a photo giving us a rare close-up of marchers preparing for ANZAC Day featuring Walter Eacott, Frank Sims, Doug Parry, Weston Bate, Jack Elliot, and others. We think it might be 2014 or 15?
From FOTOBAI Member Paul Kerrins - a lengthy documentary that covers six years of wartime operations, and reviews the obstacles and challenges that the RAF (Royal Air Force) faced as they developed Bomber Command. Plenty of Lancaster content.
From FOTOBAI Member June Smith whose Father was an RAAF Mosquito Pilot in WW2 -
"So many
ANZAC days stand out in my memory.
Watching my father, a returned WW11 pilot , march with his local RSL ; watching our children in St Kilda Road being awed by the long parade of veterans; watching thousands of people emerge from the gloom outside the Shrine to
celebrate the Dawn Service; and so many
more.
But the one
I’ve chosen to write about was at Sorrento in Victoria. My husband and I had attended the Dawn
service by the water’s edge , and waited there again for the
11 a.m. parade to arrive. The
main street was closed for veterans to march
through the town and down the steep hill
to the cenotaph on the foreshore
for the memorial service. There were
fewer veterans every year, going ever more
slowly down the hill ; some clinging to
a supporter’s arm and some travelling
slowly in a ride-on machine. But
as they came , a great crowd came behind
them. Not only the sporting groups, the scouts, the schools, the
clubs, but a great assortment of people
who had been in the town for their
coffee or their shopping or their games and who had stopped what they were doing to
follow these old heroes. From the bottom
of the hill it looked like the Pied Piper being followed.
And I
realised yet again how the idea of ANZAC inspires us as a nation. How it makes us value the contribution of
ordinary people who became extraordinary, how it creates a bond between us, how
it reminds us of our common allegiance to this wonderful country.
This year
there will be no treasured veterans marching down the hill at Sorrento or
elsewhere, but they will be remembered as always. "
