Do you know who Port Moresby airport is named after?
Everyone knows Port Moresby’s international airport is called Jackson. But why?
The Futility of Fromelles
Going through some old family records and was reminded that my dad's stepfather was severely wounded at The Battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916. A day described by Charles Bean as "the worst day in Australia's history". Almost 90 per cent of Fred's battalion (the 32nd) was wiped out in just 24 hours.
Heroes of the Solomons: The Coastwatchers
The role played by Australian Coastwatchers and their Melanesian scouts during the Pacific War
“The Coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the Pacific.”
- Admiral William F. Halsey USN
Words: Roderick Eime
When the conversation turns to Australia's actions in WWII’s Pacific Theatre, it invariably starts with tales of the Kokoda Track and how our brave and underresourced lads turned back a Japanese invasion. Well, all that is true of course, but it’s part of a much bigger picture.
Mosquito Squadron Attacks
I'd like to pay tribute to a much-loved family friend and my mother's last companion. Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Jackson served with the RAAF, attached to RAF 235 Squadron as part of Banff Strike Wing.
With pilot Harry Parkinson, flying the excellent DH Mosquito, the pair took part in numerous perilous raids against shipping, U-Boats and ground targets flying at tree-top level to avoid German radar, often returning to base with tree branches and telegraph wire caught in the undercarriage.
He was reluctant to talk about his experiences and never marched in ANZAC parades. It took all my life to get him to reveal some of the hairy moments, but clearly one stuck in his mind.
A Real Black Sheep: Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington
From the series: Heroes of the Solomons
If ever there was a larger-than-life, comic book-worthy action hero, it was US Marine Corps fighter ace, ‘Pappy’ Boyington, writes Roderick Eime
Boyington was born in Idaho on 4 December 1912 and took his first flight at the tender age of six. Not with some rogue barnstormer, mind you, but with Clyde Pangborn, a man who would later perform numerous daring feats including a trans-Pacific flight in 1931.
Sattelberg: A VC for Australia’s toughest soldier
One of Australia’s true war heroes was a poet and butterfly collector.
The annals of Australian military history are chock full of tales of heroism and derring-do and every so often a new hero arises from these vast volumes. Words: Roderick Eime
Thomas Currie ‘Diver’ Derrick was one such soldier who rose to ‘rock star’ status among the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in WWII but has since faded from our memories.
The True Story behind JFK’s PT-109
Former U.S. President and then U.S. Navy Lt. John F. Kennedy is seen aboard the Patrol Torpedo boat PT-109 boat during World War II in the Pacific theatre, in this handout photograph taken on March 4, 1942. (REUTERS/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library/Handout)
David Ellis and Roderick Eime
Only the more adventurous travellers make it to remote Gizo in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It's a magical place with some of the world's best fishing as well as wreck and reef diving.
From Gizo you can venture a further 10 kilometres to a minuscule dot shown on most charts as either Kasolo Atoll or Plum Pudding Island. This sandy speck is better known in popular mythology as Kennedy Island – the place where a then 26 year old US Navy Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, commander of the motor torpedo boat PT109 and future President of the United States, together with ten of his crew, waded ashore in pitch-blackness after their boat was rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri on the night of 2 August 1943.