In the early hours of Tuesday, 6 June 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in the history of warfare began. The noise of war reverberated along 50 miles of the Normandy coast. Whilst the crackle of gunfire and rumble of explosions filled the ears of those landing on French soil that day, those on Sword Beach…
If your family pulls out a board game this winter, there’s a good chance that it’s the world’s most popular board game, Monopoly. The game has sold more than a quarter of a billion sets, and half a billion people have played it. If Monopoly makes your blood boil, then you’ll know how its designer…
In 1937, Professor von Brauchitsch delivered a lecture at Munich to German officer-cadets on escapology. It was the sort of lecture which did not arouse much interest except for one man, an ex-British Officer who made copious notes. At the time he did not know that what he had heard would afterwards be discussed at…
Bluey and Curley is an Australian newspaper comic strip written by the Australian artist, caricaturist, and cartoonist Alex Gurney. ln 1926 Gurney came to the mainland from Tasmania to try his luck as a full-time black and white artist. He did numerous cartoons including ‘Stiffy & Mo’. ‘Daggs’. ‘Ben Bowyang’ and daily political cartoons. By…
When news reached Australia in August 1914 that Britain and Germany were at war, more than 50,000 men enlisted within a week, while Prime Minister Andrew Fisher promised that Australia would defend the mother country, “to the last man and the last shilling”. The immediate priority was to remove the threat posed by the German…
At the time of the First World War there was little understanding of what today is termed post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD). Returned soldiers often suffered lingering psychological damage which, although largely unrecognised, was at least as debilitating as physical injuries. Doctors were generally reluctant to diagnose a patient with shell shock, attributing their condition to…
Leslie Kenneth Garfield Browning, MC and Bar When war broke out in August 1914 the Australian Naval and Military Expedition Force was hurriedly assembled and dispatched to New Guinea to seize control of the German colony. After limited resistance, the German forces surrendered and the expeditionary force returned to Australia leaving a small detachment to…