23 NOV 1944: World War II and Australian troops relieve the Americans at Torokina, Bougainville. The Australian arrival opened the campaign on Bougainville that cost over 500 Australian lives by the war’s end. During 1942, Torokin was occupied by the Japanese. On November 1, 1943 the United States Marine Corps (USMC), 3rd Marine Division landed […]
Military History
Leslie Cecil Maygar, VC, DSO, VD
23 NOV 1901: The Boer War and Lieutenant Edgar Leslie Cecil Willis Walker Maygar, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles, originally from Kilmore, Victoria, is awarded the Victoria Cross at Geelhoutboom, Natal. Maygar was born on 27 May 1868, at Dean Station, near Kilmore, Victoria. The seventh child of Edwin Willis and Helen Maygar (née Grimshaw). Both […]
Scarlet Beach Raid
21 NOV 1943: World War II and the Japanese counter-attack at Scarlet Beach on the Huon Peninsula. The Japanese surprise raid at Scarlet Beach, near Lae, Papua New Guinea, was narrowly held by Australian and American defenders. The Huon Peninsula campaign was a series of battles fought in north-eastern Papua New Guinea in 1943–44 during […]
HMAS Sydney Sunk
19 NOV 1941: HMAS Sydney is sunk. Sydney was lost with its entire crew of 645 men in a sudden and disastrous encounter with the German raider, Kormoran, off the Western Australian coast. The circumstances surrounding its loss remain controversial to this day. HMAS Sydney, a light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy with an […]
Popondetta Captured
18 NOV 1942: World War II and Popondetta, captured by the Australians, on the steamy kunai plains north of the Owen Stanley Range, became a major Allied base for the attack on the Japanese-held beachheads in Papua. Popondetta is the capital of Oro (Northern) Province near to Buna on the Northern Papua coast and is […]
Somme Campaign Ends
18 NOV 1918: Today, as World War 1 victory seems in sight, and after four months and more than 1,200,000 casualties on both sides, Douglas Haig calls off the Somme offensive. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig refused demands from Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch to continue the Amiens offensive during World War 1, as […]
Battle of Sattelberg
17 NOV 1943: Today in the Pacific Campaign, Australia’s 9th Division begins its attack on Sattelberg (also spelt Satelberg, translation ‘Saddle Mountain’), a village on the Huon Peninsula, in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea). The Battle of Sattelberg took place between 17 and 25 November 1943, during the Huon Peninsula campaign of the Second World […]
AWAS to Deploy
15 NOV 1944: World War II and Australian government approves sending Australian Women’s Army Service members overseas. Australian Women’s Army Service went to Lae, New Guinea, and served in the forward area for the first time. Members of the Australian Army Nursing Service and the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service were already serving in New Guinea. […]
Battle of Ypres Ends
14 NOV 1917: World War I and today sees the end of the third battle of Ypres, on the Western Front. Australian troops had been involved in the third battle of Ypres for three and a half months and suffered heavy losses at such places as Menin Road, Glencorse Wood, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde Ridge and […]
WO2 Kevin ‘Dasher’ Wheatley, VC
13 NOV 1965: Viet Nam and WO2 Kevin ‘Dasher’ Wheatley, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, is awarded the first Victoria Cross of the Vietnam War posthumously in the Tra Bong Valley, Quang Ngai province; Warrant Officer Class 2 Wheatley was awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously for remaining with a mortally wounded comrade while his position was […]
