Memorial Articles
The Memorial boasts a staff of subject specialists in all aspects of military history and museum practice.
Our articles and our Encyclopedia allow subject specialists to share their knowledge on Australian military history.
They also provide a way for us to take a closer look at the people and the stories behind the history and our museum collection.
Digging For Victory For Floriade
Floriade (17 September – 16 October) is Australia’s celebration of Spring and Australia’s biggest flower show. This year the Australian War Memorial is creating a Second World War Victory Garden, reminiscent of those grown by Australian families in the Second World War.
The bomb: what it meant to Australians
Read about the effect the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on moral
Outside the Wire - Photographs from Afghanistan
The AWM has recently acquired a significant set of photographs taken by photographer Gary Ramage in Afghanistan in 2010.
Don't forget me, cobber: the battle of Fromelles
Read about the heroic efforts of 2nd Lieutenant (2nd Lt) Simon Fraser, rescuing wounded on the Western Front
An ancient Babylonian souvenir?
Read about souvenirs and fakes sold to soldiers passing through Mesopotamia in WWI
25 000 images online - AWM78 Reports of Proceedings, HMA Ships and Establishments
On Saturday 10 July 1911, King George V gave his approval for the Commonwealth Naval Forces to become known as the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One hundred years have now passed since this event. To celebrate the centenary of the Royal Australian Navy, the reports of proceedings for fifty RAN ships and establishments are being made available online via the Australian War Memorial's website.
Beryl Maddock 'Flying Sister'
While searching through the Memorial’s Research Centre collection looking for stories relating to the upcoming exhibition on nurses I came across the collection of Sister Beryl Maddock (nee Chandler), containing a typed memoir, newspaper clippings, letters and a scattering of photographs. Beryl’s story stood out to me as she was one of a small number of nurses selected to join the RAAF's newly formed Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit in 1944. As a nurse in the air rather than on the ground, Beryl’s wartime experience combined regular nursing duties with airsickness, altitudes of up to 18,000 feet, anoxia and medic pilots who wished they had been fighter pilots (and flew as such).
Talmadge Johnson and USS Mugford
The Australian War Memorial recently received a significant donation associated with an American sailor, Gunner's Mate Talmadge Johnson, who served aboard USS Mugford, when she rescued the survivors from the sinking of AHS Centaur on 15 May 1943.
Four weeks, two hospitals and one hair-raising adventure!
Read about the amazing Australian service nurses in 1941