[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] 29 AUG 1919: World War I and Sergeant Samuel George Pearse, MM, 45th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (ex-AIF), originally from Glamorganshire, United Kingdom, earns the Victoria Cross north of Emsta, North Russia. It was a posthumous award. Sam Pearse (1897-1919) came to Victoria from Wales when only young. He enlisted in the AIF before he […]
WW1
Mouquet Farm Attack
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] 26 AUG 1916: World War I and the 6th Australian Brigade attacks Mouquet Farm on the Somme. Mouquet Farm, near Pozières, was the focus of nine separate attacks by Australian troops between 8 August and 3 September 1916. Some 11,000 Australians were killed or wounded in the fighting around Mouquet Farm. The Somme offensive, […]
The Siege of Kut
3 DEC 1915: World War I and the Siege of Kut begins in Mesopotamia. Nine members of the Australian Flying Corps serving with 30 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, became trapped in Kut with the forces of Major General Charles Townsend when the town was besieged by the Turks. The Kut garrison surrendered in April 1916. […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
The Armistice of Compiègne
11 NOV 1918: World War I and Germany signs an armistice also known as the Armistice of Compiègne after the location in which it was signed – and the agreement that ended the fighting on the Western Front. The First World War ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. […]
Battle of Cocos
9 NOV 1914: World War I and HMAS Sydney [I] destroys SMS Emden at the Battle of Cocos, a single-ship action that occurred after the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney (under the command of John Glossop) responded to an attack on a communications station at Direction Island by the German light cruiser SMS Emden (commanded […]
Third Battle of Gaza
7 NOV 1917: World War I and the Third battle of Gaza. After the outflanking advance at Beersheba, British empire forces, including the Australian Light Horse, rapidly advanced northwards toward Jerusalem. The coastal city of Gaza was the heart of the main Turkish defensive position in southern Palestine. Three major battles were launched in 1917 […]
AIF Sails for Egypt
1 NOV 1914: World War I and the First AIF sails. The first Australian and New Zealand contingent sails from Albany, Western Australia, bound for Egypt. Only one in three of those who sailed in the first convoy would return physically unscathed at the end of the First World War. “The arrival of the Australian […]
