1 April 1942 – While serving as a pilot with No. 405 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, Flight Sergeant Moheddeen Abdull Ghias Howsan and his crew took part in a daring night raid over Nazi-occupied France. A skilled and determined aviator, Howsan was a proud Australian descended from Afghan and Indian immigrants—one of many Muslim ANZACs who answ…

14-MAY-1943: While serving as a Nurse aboard the 2/3rd Australian Hospital Ship Centaur as part of the Australian Army Nursing Service, Sister Ellen Savage survived the sinking of the Hospital ship at the hands of the Japanese submarine I-177 and in doing so became a symbol of resilience and compassion as she was the sole nursing survivor. In this …

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of war, suffering, and the experiences of prisoners of war, which may be distressing for some listeners. 20-MARCH-1945. While serving as a Gunner in the 2/15 Field Regiment, Gunner Albert Niel Cleary became a tragic symbol of the suffering endured by Australian prisoners of war during the Second Wo…

15-JULY-1944. While serving as a pilot in the Royal Air Force's Path Finder Force. Acting Squadron Leader Herbert Frank Slade, Commander of Lancaster Bomber N Nuts, en route to a raid on Hamburg, was struck by anti-aircraft fire, was able to recover the aircraft sufficiently to continue the attack, drop his bombs and return home with 48 square foot…

30-AUGUST-1942. While serving as a soldier in the 2/14th Australian Imperial Force as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force, Private Claude Herbert Roberts served from the sands of Egypt and Palestine to the mountainous slopes of Kokoda. This episode was requested by his great-niece Christine and was made possible thanks to recently discover…

7-SEPTEMBER-1901. While serving with the Bushveldt Carbineers, a British Irregular Mounted Unit, during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lt Harry Harbord Morant, better known as "Breaker Morant" allegedly ordered the execution of eight Boer Prisoners of War, along with several Dutch civilians, and a German Missionary. For this act, Breaker Morant is one …

16-DECEMBER-1943. While serving as part of the 2nd Mountain Battery of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, Lance Bombardier Leslie James Greenwood, a professional soldier within the Permanent Military Force, served from before the Second World War in Garrison Artillery postings before serving as part of Wren Force in Nauru. His first offensive deplo…

6-JUNE-1944. While serving as part of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve assigned to the Royal Navy, Sub Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Michael Pirrie, gave up a promising VFL career with the Hawthorn VFL Team. to serve in the Second World War attached to the Royal Navy. Initially serving on escort duty on Destroyers escorting convoys to Russi…

15-JUNE-1942. While serving as a Fighter Pilot in 126 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Pilot Officer Adrian Phillip Goldsmith received the Distinguished Flying Medal for shooting down six Axis planes over Malta, this was followed up with the Distinguished Flying Cross a month later and in doing so became the second highest figh…

20-JUNE-1940. While serving as an Orderly in the 17th Australian Infantry Brigade during the Second World War. Sergeant Henry Armstrong Lacey Snr received the British Empire Medal for exemplary service and dedication to his duties, which is understandable, as he wasn't a 35-year-old fresh soldier, but a 53-year-old veteran of both the Second Anglo-…

23-April-1941. While serving as Matron of the 2/5th Australian General Hospital during the Second World War. Matron Kathleen Annie Louise Best was the youngest Matron in the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the disastrous campaign in Greece and her decision to stay behind when the chance of capture was great. In this …

30-April-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/1st Australian Infantry Battalion, Captain William Holmes Travers participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before becoming a Prisoner of War fo…

3-JANUARY-1941. While serving as a Platoon Lieutenant within the 2/1st Australian Infantry Battalion, Captain William Holmes Travers participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before becoming a Prisoner of War …

In this episode of "From Duty to Dishonour," we delve into the compelling story of Private Percy George Stafford, an Australian soldier who served in the First World War. As we explore Stafford's life, we confront the challenging question: what happens when someone falls short of society's expectations of a soldier? Join us as we look into the serv…

4-AUGUST-1914/4-SEPTEMBER-1939. While serving as a Naval Reservist, Midshipman Richard Stanley Veale ordered the first shot fired by British Forces in the First World War. Twenty years later while in command of the same shore battery that fired the first shot in the First World War, Commander Richard Stanley Veale would order the first Australian s…

19-MAY-1915. While serving as a soldier of the 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, Sergeant William Charles Bullock Beech, horrified by the tragic loss of life of his comrades on Gallipoli, took a biscuit box, signal wire and a broken mirror to invent one of the most iconic weapons of trench warf…

8-AUGUST-1918. While serving as Engineers of the 8th Field Company, Australian Imperial Force, Lieutenant George Burrows, Sapper John Henry Palmer and Leslie James Strahan were attached to the 31st Australian Infantry Battalion when the Australian Corps participated in the Battle of Amiens, the start of the 100 Days Offensive. As they were deconstr…

27/28-JANUARY-1916, While serving as a soldier of the 5th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, Private Edward Attfield did not let his diminutive stature prevent him from volunteering for overseas service. He landed at Gallipoli and despite wounds and illness served until the evacuation in December 1915. When he returned to Ale…

11-NOVEMBER-1993. To mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the unidentified remains of an unknown Australian soldier, exhumed from the Adelaide Cemetery in Villers Bretonneux in France was interred within the Hall of Memory of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia. Today marks the 30th Anniversary of that interme…

In this episode, I sat down over two separate sessions with Melissa Ratliff of God's Favorites: A History Podcast and Ryan Day of the History Daddy YouTube channelI talk about the service and fate of Australia's first (and only) Battlecruiser HMAS Australia, Ryan talks about the feared German Battlecruiser Bismarck, and Melissa surprised everyone b…

25-APRIL-1915, While serving as Commanding Officer of the Royal Australian Navy's second Submarine HMAS AE2, Royal Navy Officer Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker was faced with the challenge, to traverse the Dardanelles when the last two submarines to do so were sunk. The Stage is set, the curtain is drawn, allow I Was Only Doing …

14-SEPTEMBER-1914, While serving as Commanding Officer of the Royal Australian Navy's first Submarine HMAS AE1, Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Thomas Fleming Besant was killed in action when AE1 disappeared during a patrol following the Australian Capture of German New Guinea. The mysterious disappearance of AE1 became a haunting chapter i…

9-AUGUST-1942. While serving as a Surgical Officer aboard the Royal Australian Navy Heavy Cruiser HMAS Canberra, Surgeon Lieutenant Kenneth Newman Morris MID participated in the first American counter-attack during the Pacific Campaign, the Battle of Guadalcanal and the disastrous Battle of Savo Island. In the Second World War chaos, one man apart …

This Episode marks Two years since the launch of the podcast. 1-JULY-1942. While serving as Chief Yeoman of Signals as part of the Royal Australian Navy, Chief Yeoman of Signals Stephen Lamont was selected as part of the network of observers stationed across strategic locations in Northern Australia and neighbouring territories known as the Coastwa…

10-December-1941. While serving as a midshipman aboard the Royal Navy Battlecruiser HMS Repulse, Midshipman Robert Ian Davies MID participated in the first major naval engagement of the Pacific Campaign. We delve into the remarkable story of Midshipman Robert Ian Davies and his role in the sinking of the British battleships HMS Prince of Wales and …

This is the fifth and final instalment in the life service and legacy of Ralph Honner. 20-MAY-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of B…

We ARE BACK!!!!!!

16-FEBRUARY-1942. Serving as a Staff Nurse in the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Second Australian Imperial Force, Sister Florence Casson was one of the 21 nurses executed as part of the Bangka Island Massacre at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army. This Episode coincides with International Nurses Day 2023. To Donate to the Vivian Bullwink…

20-MAY-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before making a name of himself dur…

20-MAY-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before making a name of himself dur…

3-JANUARY-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before making a name of himself …

3-JANUARY-1941. While serving as a Company Commander within the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, participated in the first major engagements of the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War including the capture of Bardia, Tobruk and the disastrous campaign in Greece before making a name of himself …

Earlier this month I sat down with Melissa Ratliff from God's Favorites: A History Podcast to discuss her current project, saving the Sundowner a motor yacht formerly owned by Charles Lightoller, who was Second Officer aboard the RMS Titanic for her ill-fated maiden voyage in April, 1912. She participated in the Dunkirk evacuation as one of the Lit…

9-JUNE-1928. While serving as a despatch rider as part of the 4th Division Signals Company during the First World War, Sergeant Charles Edward Kingsford Smith sought a greater adrenaline rush and joined the Australian Flying Corps. Later serving in the Royal Flying Corps; British Expeditionary Force, he shot down four German aircraft before he was …

31-JULY-1969. While serving as a Door Gunner on an American Crewed UH-1C Iroquois Helicopter Gunship as part of the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam, attached to the 135th Assault Helicopter Company, US Army, as part of the Experimental Military Unit (EMU), Leading Aircraftman Noel Ervin Shipp was killed in action while providing gun…

My Silent Hero is a project to honour and preserve the memory of those who have served Australia during times of war. Each of these servicemen and women had lives before they enlisted and, if they survived, after the war. They were, or are, humble human beings who, for a great many current Australians, are family. Yet now for many, their memory is …

8-February-1917. While serving as a Stretcher Bearer as part of 55th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. Corporal Ernest Albert "Ernie" Corey, was awarded an unprecdendent four Military Medals, the third highest award for gallantry in the British System of Awards for his tireless and continual devoti…

28-OCTOBER-1950, This is the conclusion of the life service and Legacy of Professional Soldier Lieutenant GeneralRobert Harold Nimmo, who served in both the First and Second World Wars in Brigade and General Staff Roles before his retirement in 1950. He would then go on to serve as the longest continuously serving Chief Military Observer in United …

29-SEPTEMBER-1946, This is part two of the life service and Legacy of Professional Soldier Major General Robert Harold Nimmo CBE, who at the commencement of the Second World War was a Staff Officer of the 1st Cavalry Division. An officer tasked with introducing armoured warfare into the Australian Army, Nimmo would continue to serve in staff positi…

21-DECEMBER-1914, This is part one of the life service and Legacy of Professional Soldier Major Robert Harold Nimmo, who at the commencement of the First World War was an Officer Cadet at the Royal Military College Duntroon. Enlisting upon accelerated graduation he was posted to the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment at the rank of Lieutenant and …

7-JANUARY-1945 While Serving with No 619 Squadron Royal Air Force, Flying Officer Colin Kelvin Flockhart, was the pilot of a four-engine Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber tasked with a raid over Munich Germany when for unknown reasons his plane disintegrated over the French countryside during poor weather. This episode is dedicated to Alison Aitken, the …

27-AUGUST-1942 While Serving with No. 3 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer Peter St George Bruce Turnbull, in North Africa became one of the first Australian Fighter Aces of the Second World War, with downing eight enemy aircraft, an act that would award him the Distinguished Flying Cross. He would go on to serv…

14-JULY-1918. The 30-ton German Heavy Tank was set to participate in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonnaeux until it drove into a shell crater outside Monument Wood, becoming stranded, three months later it would be captured by the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion in the Allied counter-attack, in an action that has captured the imaginations of …

19-OCTOBER-1917. While serving within the Australian Remount Depot, Australian Imperial Force as a Squadron Commander, Major Andrew Barton "The Banjo" Paterson served with distinction as part of the Desert Mounted Corps during the First World War. He is also widely known as the most famous Bush Balladist of the 20th Century, having penned the iconi…

My Silent Hero is a project to honour and preserve the memory of those who have served Australia during times of war. Each of these servicemen and women had lives before they enlisted and, if they survived, after the war. They were, or are, humble human beings who, for a great many current Australians, are family. Yet now for many, their memory is …

1-MARCH-1942. While serving within the Royal Australian Navy as a Signals Officer, Captain Hector MacDonald Laws Waller served with distinction aboard several warships of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy during both the First World War and the Second World War. Having graduated from the fledgling Royal Australian Naval College during the Fi…

24-MAY-1966. While serving with B Company 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, Australian Regular Army, National Serviceman Private Errol Wayne Noack served as a section machine gunner during the Vietnam War. He was killed during his first military operation two weeks after arriving in-country and would go into the history books as the first Au…

24-OCTOBER-1943, while serving with M Special Unit, Special Operations Australia, 2nd Australian Imperial Force, Sergeant Leonard George Siffleet was on a covert mission in Japanese-occupied New Guinea. His team was tasked with setting up a Coastwatch position over the newly captured town of Hollandia. During their operation, they were ambushed and…

1-JANUARY 1916 While Serving with 3 Australian General Hospital Squadron Principal Matron Grace Margaret Wilson in Lemnos, Greece would coordinate the nursing care of wounded Australian Soldiers from the Gallipoli Campaign and in doing so would also fight for recognition and proper treatment of the nurses under her charge. a Professional Nurse befo…

During the First World War, 27 men of the Australian Customs Service answered the call of King and Country. Since the early 2000s, I Was Only Doing My Job background researcher Laurie Favelle has been obsessed with finding and preserving the life service and legacies of each of these 27 men.They were, or are, humble human beings who, for a great ma…