War films show soldiers constantly locked in battle and participating in non-stop action – but the reality of war is actually much different. “No Dramas”, a film by Robert Nugent commissioned by the Australian War Memorial, shows what life is really like for our troops deployed to combat zones.

Shot in Iraq in April 2006, the film explores the isolation and routines of Australian soliders, and the long periods of waiting they endure before the inevitable moments of extreme action.

“No Dramas” will screen as part of the Canberra International Film Festival on the evening of Saturday 7 November.

For further details see the CIFF website  http://www.canberrafilmfestival.com.au/2009/10/05/no-dramas

 

The Australian War Memorial faces unique challenges presented by the modern age to its collection development for recent conflicts, including Iraq and Afghanistan. With email, phones and internet communicative tools largely replacing traditional keepsakes such as diaries and letters, this has made identifying and retaining objects of the ADF experience in modern conflict rather difficult. Furthermore, given that the number of ADF personnel serving overseas is far less than those who saw service in such conflicts as the World Wars, this also limits the amount of material representing recent conflicts and therefore what will shape the Memorial’s collections in the future.

One attempt to address this issue involved a representative from the Memorial being sent, in late 2008 to accompany Australian forces in Iraq. Mal Booth, former Head of the Memorial’s Research Centre, was fortunate enough spend time with Australian forces in Iraq and was able to identify and target items which would be of interest to the Memorial. Some of this material was identified on the industrious HMAS Parramatta, which was at that time conducting its second tour of the Gulf as part of Operation CATALYST. Mal travelled with the ship on his journey and found that the vessel and its crew provided extensive opportunities for proactive collecting.

In September 2009, the Memorial returned to HMAS Parramatta in order to gather further material…

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Here is the first of several blog posts about the wedding dreses being considered and conserved for our upcoming Of love and war exhibition.

Recently the Textile Conservation Laboratory retrieved from storage four wedding dresses that are proposed for the up and coming exhibition Of love and war.  Three of the dresses – originally owned Mrs Isabel Bell, Mrs Audrey Norton  and Mrs Norma. Bissaker – are relatively new to the Memorial’s collection and have not undergone any detailed conservation treatment. The fourth dress – owned by Mrs Violet Glover – has been fully conserved as it was used in an earlier exhibition . The pictures attached show what the dresses look like in their storage boxes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once curators select these items as potential objects for display in the exhibition, textile conservators have to carefully document the condition of the wedding dresses. Part of this process is to determine if they are stable and strong enough for display on mannequins for this exhibition. Special consideration is given to the materials when assessing if they are able to be displayed not only at the Memorial, but also at the venues around Australia they will travel to in 2010 and 2011.

 

It has been 75 years since the Duke of Gloucester planted a tree in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial , in memory of all those who fought and died at the Battle of Lone Pine on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 6 August, 1915.

Men dressed in top hats and Boy Scouts from Braidwood, NSW, were among the crowd that attended the planting that warm Spring day on 24 October, 1934. The formal proceedings began at Parliament House, where a ceremony was held to mark the solemn occasion. The crowd then marched slowly through the valley and across the Molonglo River – there was no lake back then – to the site where the War Memorial was to be built, and watched on quiet and dignified as the Duke planted the tree.     

Ray Hasler, a 13-year-old Scout, was part of that historic day. He returned to the Australian War Memorial last Friday to commemorate the anniversary of the tree planting and reflect on the many history-making events that have happened since that day.

Mr Hasler, now of Queanbeyan NSW, served in the RAAF during the Second World War. He was part of the aircraft ground crew stationed in the South Pacific.

He remembers well the day the tree was planted: “[There were] lots of people about, thousands actually. And not a tree in sight, bare as a paddock.”

“It was rather dignified, everybody stood to attention when the Duke moved and when he finished   [planting the tree] they all doffed their hats.”

The tree itself was “about as thick as your thumb, and up to about knee height”. Today, the Lone Pine stands at more than 20metres.  

The tree was propagated from a pine cone that was sent to Australia by Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith, whose brother was killed in the battle for Lone Pine Ridge. Smith’s mother grew two seedlings, one of which was planted at the Australian War Memorial in honour of her own and others’ sons who fell at Lone Pine.

Cuttings from the Lone Pine are now propagated and available from Yarralumla Nursery in Canberra.

Mr Hasler had planned to visit the tree on its anniversary with a mate, Jack Whitfield, who was also a Scout present at the time of the planting. Sadly Mr Whitfield died just weeks before the anniversary.

Australian War Memorial senior historian Peter Burness presented Mr Hasler with a seedling from the Lone Pine, which he accepted on Mr Whitfield’s behalf, and said that he would likely plant it in Braidwood.

“I hope one day, when it’s gone, like we all will be gone, they cut a section out of the butt of this tree and nominate what happened on each ring, each ring suggests a year of growth,” he said.

“There’s 75 rings therein and they all tell a story, and it would be nice to read them.”

Around Australia racing excitement is reaching fever pitch in anticipation of next week’s Melbourne Cup. That day full of champagne, sunlight glinting or raindrops sploshing on the jockeys’ colours, the smell of clods of turf being turned up as the horses pound along …

Back in 1945 a “Pony Race Meeting” to be held on June 16 in Dutch New Guinea was similarly anticipated. It was scheduled to begin at 1330 hours, with eight races followed by a screening of “The Man Who Came To Dinner” starring Bette Davis and Monty Woolley.

Corporal Errol Coates, 82 Wireless Section, had started preparations weeks before. He had trained a Timor pony for the event. These were small ponies about 12 hands high (just over 48 inches or 122 cm). Coates fed his pony on crushed army biscuits for protein. Coates was to ride on the day and like the other jockeys he pulled together his “colours” from borrowed uniform items. An air force or army shirt overlain with someone else’s singlet, with another person’s hat constituted a jockey’s “colours”.

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Yesterday, 27th October was UNESCO’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

In 2005 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indentified the archiving and preservation of audiovisual documents as an outstanding issue needing addressing, stating that:

Much of the world’s audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind. Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.  

The Australian War Memorial’s Film and Sound section work to document and preserve audiovisual items relating to Australia’s Military History, and to make these accessible to the public.

The sound collection comprises approximately 7,000 hours (over 4000 titles) of sound recordings, held mainly on disc, magnetic tape and increasingly as digital files. 

90% of the collection consists of oral history interviews covering the First World War, Second World War, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, and peacekeeping operations. The rest comprises actuality recordings – radio transmissions, operational sounds of weapons and equipment; letters/messages recorded from servicemen overseas to their families in Australia; radio variety programs and documentaries; radio broadcasts, consisting of recruiting announcements, commercials, jingles, speeches and addresses; songs and military band music including marches. 

The film and video collection is currently comprised of over 7,000 titles (approx 3.25 million feet of cine film). Films in the collection includes footage of Gallipoli and the Western Front in the First World War, Official films and Newsreels sourced from the Department of Information in the Second World War and amateur footage from Korea and Vietnam. This collection also includes approximately 1000 hours of video encompassing video oral histories, as well as interviews and footage filmed in Iraq and East Timor on current operations.

Film donations are received from a range of donors from amateur film makers to documentary companies. Much material has been acquired from Department of Defence or via fee waiver agreements.  Material commissioned by the Memorial has recently increased the amount of contemporary, quality material to the National Collection

Below are some examples of audiovisual collection items held by the Australian War Memorial:

Listen to an extract from an Oral History interview S00422.

S00422: Harold Arthur Freeman, as a crew member of HMAS Sydney during the First World War. Harold began his Naval Career as a 14 year old on the training ship HMAS Tingira. He then transferred to HMAS Sydney and was on board during the Sydney’s battle and victory over SMS Emden in November 1914.  

http://cas.awm.gov.au/sound/S00422

Some examples of film extracts

F00069: With the Dardanelles Expedition: heroes of Gallipoli. Filmed by British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead Bartlett in 1915 (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F00069)

F03455: 21st Light Horse Regiment  scene showing  a parade of the 4th Cavalry Brigade at Parramatta, 6 March 1940 filmed by Harold Conway (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F03455)

F03456: Dallas Cressey of the 2/3 Motor Transport Company, footage filmed as a  prisoner of the Japanese during the Second World War (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F03456)

F04775: The bombing of Darwin, 19 February 1942 filmed by Francis Sheldon-Collins (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F04775)

F01866: Assault on Salamaua filmed by Damien Parer, 1943 complete scene showing Private William Johnson being helped by Sergeant Gordon Ayre across a stream and along a muddy track. (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F01866)

F07532: 3 RAR in Korea filmed by the Military History Section – cameraman unknown. (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F07532)

F11557: Super8mm footage filmed by Michael Chapman, 3 RAR  on 12 February 1968 in Baria during the Viet Cong Tet offensive

F04691: Christmas message from Tim Fischer, Vietnam, 1968 filmed by Defence Public Relations (http://cas.awm.gov.au/film/F04691)

F08390: No Dramas: A documentary film made by Robert Nugent using footage taken in Iraq 2006 as the Australian War Memorial’s Official Cinematographer

On December 3, 2009, the Australian War Memorial will be opening its exhibition “Of love and war”.  

The impact of war on romantic relationships and the ways in which Australians incorporated affairs of the heart into their wartime lives  is a powerful subject and we would like the public to contribute their stories via our Flickr group.
This group is running in conjunction with the exhibition and we are excited to have this opportunity to allow people to tell their stories of love and war. The images can be photos or scans (there are already a number of wonderful letters in the group) and we would love you to tell us as much as possible about the subjects in the images as you can – you can do this through the comments area. 

You have to be a member of the group to add images and remember that you need at least 4 images in your Flickr account for them to become visible. If you have any questions, please contact me (I am the group administrator) via email emma.jones@awm.gov.au or leave a comment on this blog post and I’ll get back to you.

The Memorial’s Research Centre holds over 900 First World War German Official and Regimental Histories in its Published Collection. These extensive holdings of rare German language histories are mainly due to the foresight and enthusiasm of Capt. J. J. Herbertson who was instrumental in the collection of these titles over the period 1922-1937.

Official record series AWM47 provides the best context for Herbertson’s work in its series description. AWM47, 1914-18 war information obtained from Germany for the Australian Official War Historian is a small series of mostly German records, which Herbertson was employed to locate and translate:

“At the suggestion of the Director of the War Memorial (Major J L Treloar) and the Official Historian (C E W Bean) arrangements were made in January 1923, by the Prime Minister’s Department through the High Commissioner’s Office in London, to engage Captain J J W Herbertson to collect certain information from German sources. This was required to complete the war records in the Australian War Memorial Library.

In 1916-17, Herbertson had been an intelligence officer attached to 1st Anzac Corps. In the 1920’s he was Political Officer for the British Department of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission at Coblenz. Herbertson acknowledges the willing assistance of the German authorities, especially Herr Archivrat Stenger of the Reichsarchives in Potsdam”.

Official Record AWM47 Series Description

Herbertson took his task of collecting so seriously that in addition to collecting the records which later became Official Records Series AWM47 he was:

“also responsible for arranging the acquisition of a number of German publications for the War Memorial Library”.

This is why the Research Centre is lucky enough to hold such a large and almost complete collection of First World War German language Official and Regimental Histories.

The histories which include German official histories and German, Bavarian, Prussian and Saxon unit histories can be located on our books database using the following subject searches:

World War, 1914-1918 – Regimental histories – Germany.; (870 books)
Unit histories, German.; (957 books)
Official histories, German.; (43 books)

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The Australia-Japan Research Project website has been updated with new contents. 

1. Japanese Midget Submarine attack on Sydney Harbour and its aftermath
The AJRP has conducted a study on the aftermath of the Japanese midget submarine attack in Sydney Harbour in 1942 and the research outcome has been added to our website. Dr Tamura, the AJRP project manager, carried out archival and field research in Australia and Japan to collect material and interview some family members of the submariners. The result is an extensive coverage of the series of incidents in Australia and Japan since the submarine attack up to present. We hope you enjoy exploring this issue on our website, which is primarily in English, but there are some bilingual pages in English and Japanese.

The site has sound and moving image files related to the submarine attack as follows: read on

In January 1919 tattered pieces of uniform were found lying among the bones of the men of the 16th Battalion, who were killed trying to advance at the Bloody Angle on 2 May 1915. These items were recovered by Lieutenant William Hopkins James, who headed a small party to Gallipoli for the Australian War Records Section (the precursor to the Australian War Memorial). They arrived at Gallipoli in mid December 1918, and remained there until late March 1919. With the assistance of members of the 7th Light Horse Regiment, who were stationed in the area at the time, they collected items, and photographed the area. In February 1919 they were joined by the Australian Historical Mission, lead by Official Historian C E W Bean.

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