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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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

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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 Common Ground is a global meet up celebrating the Commons on Flickr.  Many of the organisations which have images in the Commons will be participating in the meet-up, which will take place on the weekend of 2 and 3 October.

The meet-up will be in the form of a projection onto – or within – the participating institution’s building at night (or suitable day-time location) using a slideshow of content from the Commons on Flickr accounts curated by the community.

There are over 400 images in the set, and they are an amazing selection.  There are sad photos, funny ones, cute ones, one that make you think, ones that you will not expect.  Some are in colour, many are black and white.  Some show ordinary people doing ordinary things, some will make you gasp.  They demonstrate not only the differences between the collections from which they are drawn, but also the things that are the same, the common ground. 

Here at the Australian War Memorial, the images will projected on the large screen in our orientation gallery over the weekend.  The Powerhouse Museum and the State Library of New South Wales are joining forces in Sydney, and the State Libraryof Queensland is also taking part. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, the meet-up is on at George Eastman House, State Library and Archives of Florida, the Oregon State University Archives ,  Brooklyn Museum and the New York Public Library and the Swedish National Heritage Board

Read more about the Commons on Flickr, see the Memorial’s images on the Commons, or read more about the Common Ground event in the Collections Australia Network blog.

Update:  If you missed the event, you can still see the images in this slide show on Flickr Commons and read the Common Ground wrap-up on the indicommons blog.

Those who regularly read the AWM blog might remember the Valentine’s Day blog post about a mysterious love letter from a young French woman to her soldier sweetheart.

This letter, and the mystery that surrounds it, created lots of interest. With the help of an enthusiastic member of the public, and her wonderfully helpful relative in France, we have since found a few more details about Marthe and her letter.

Marthe and her family were evacuated from Armentières, on the French/Belgian border, to Saint-Sulpice-Les-Feuilles during the First World War. Armentières was destroyed during the war and rebuilt afterwards.

It was in Saint-Sulpice-Les-Feuilles that Marthe met her sweetheart. However, the identity of Marthe’s sweetheart and his fate remain a mystery. The two never married as he rejoined his battalion and never came back to her. Marthe’s nephew heard the story from his father but the family cannot recall his name after all these years. However, enquires continue and I’ll do another blog post if any more information turns up.

Marthe’s letter will be on public display as part of the Memorial’s Of Love and War exhibition opening in December.

Today I was out at our Conservation and Storage Annex showing journalists through Big Things In Store to get the word out about the event this Sunday.

The team has done a great job moving objects and creating walkways ready for Sunday so visitors can get a closer look at our Big Things. This year, will be a special chance to see the Dingo Scout Car’s components, because the different parts are spread out in the workshop ready for the conservators to start their work.

 

My personal favourite this time would have to be our robot. Known as “Jeffery the Robot” after its inventor, this small remote-controlled robot is a protoype that never made it to production. It was designed to deliver small charges to destroy the enemy’s barbed wire and bunkers without endangering troops.

The team has been busy preparing, so if you’re still unsure of what to do with Dad on Sunday, head out to Big Things In Store.

Big Things In Store
Australian War Memorial Conservation and Storage Annex
Callan Street, Mitchell ACT

12pm – 4pm.
Entry by donation.

Closed flat footwear is required for entry. No large bags, tripods, monopods.

P.s. Did you know the Australian War Memorial is on facebook, flickr and twitter! Don’t forget to share your photos from Big Things In Store with us.

The Western Front was epitomised by the brute force of men against machine and each other. Tens of thousands were lost in the maelstrom of war. In the horror, friendships were forged that endured even through death. This is the story of one such friendship…

Wally Brown was a grocer. He did not necessarily want to be a grocer but neither did he want to follow in the footsteps of his father as a miller. The small Tasmanian community of New Norfolk, into which he was born in 1885, was a progressive ‘postal, telegraphic and money order township’. The town boasted the New Norfolk Literary Institution complete with a library of some 1200 volumes and a ‘very fine and well built lunatic asylum’. Progressive it might have been, but at 26 years of age Brown had itchy feet. In 1911 he left New Norfolk for the bustling lifestyle of Petersham in Sydney.

 

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On the 19^th November 1941, Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney II was lost, with all hands, off the coast of Western Australia after engaging with the German raider HSK Kormoran. The discovery in March 2008 of the final resting place of the Sydney and the Kormoran attracted much attention. Understandably, there has been much discussion over the circumstances surrounding the loss of the Sydney; however the story of the Kormoran’s Commander, Theodor Anton Detmers, and that of his crew, continued long after the battle. Almost a week after the sinking of the Kormoran, Detmers was picked up in a lifeboat along with other crewmen. Brought to Australia as a prisoner of war, he and several of his countrymen were detained in Dhurringile Prison Camp, Victoria. It was not long before the Commander and his countrymen had formulated a plan to escape their fortress using a hand-drawn map of Australia’s east coast, now held by the Australian War Memorial.

 

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The 31^st of July 2009 will mark the end of Operation CATALYST. CATALYST began on the 20^th of March 2003 and defined the role of the Australian Defence Force in assisting multinational forces in the stabilization and security of Iraq. It also involved ADF support in the implementation of the country’s recovery programs.

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This 8 cm piece of shrapnel is a souvenir from the liberation of the infamous prisoner of war camp, Oflag IVC - Colditz Castle. It was collected by an Australian soldier, Lieutenant Jack Millett. Millett was an ‘incorrigible’, one of the prisoners held by the Germans at Colditz for making repeated escape attempts from other camps. In 1942, Millett was caught trying to dig a tunnel out of Oflag VIB at Warburg with another prisoner. In 1943, he took part in a mass escape from Oflag VIIB at Eichstatt. Millett was on the run for five days before he was finally captured by two Hitler Youths with large dogs. After his recapture, he served 14 days detention as punishment and was then sent to Colditz Castle, where he remained until April 1945.

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