This painting, titled The Homecoming from Gallipoli, 15 July 1915, is by New Zealand artist Walter Armiger Bowring (1874 – 1931). It depicts soldiers returning home from the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War.
2779 New Zealanders – one-sixth of those who fought – died in the campaign.
28th December 1940: Members of the Australian 2/15th Infantry Battalion wait to board the troop transport the Queen Mary at Pyrmont in Sydney. They were about to leave to fight in the Middle East.
Second World War.
From the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
Christmas Day in the London Bridge Canteen depicts HRH Princess Helena Victoria, creator and Chairman of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Committee of the YMCA paying a visit to workers during the First World War.
The princess, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was one of a number of royals to drop German names from her title at the outbreak of the war. She never married, but went on to live through both World Wars.
The image was created by war artist Clare Atwood in 1920. Atwood, an unusual woman for her time, was a known lesbian who lived in a ménage à trois relationship with two other women until their deaths.
Nearly one in ten of the personnel serving under Britain’s Royal Air Force command in the Second World War were from the Royal Australian Air Force.
US Marines are seen here taking up positions near the unfinished swimming pool during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the 7th of December, 1941.
The attack finally succeeded in drawing the United States into the Second World War.
5th December 1944: Named by the Imperial War Museum the face of battle, this photograph is of a British infantry sergeant advancing into Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany – on the border with the Netherlands.
The month before, this was the site of Operation Clipper, which saw an Allied victory over the Nazis.
Soldiers of the East Surrey Regiment pose with fixed bayonets on the 25th of November, 1940. Chatham, Kent, England. Second World War.
As today is Remembrance Day, here’s an image of British Army Sherwood Foresters keeping warm while waiting for lunch during the Battle of the Somme (First World War). The battle claimed over a million casualties over the 140 days it was fought.
The RAF Balloon Command was formed in Britain on the 1st of November, 1938. The organisation was formed in anticipation of German air raids if war broke out.
The Command operated over the skies of the United Kingdom until February of 1945.
Balloons over London during the war.
Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial can be seen.
From the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
22nd September 1943: Australian soldiers hold up Japanese flags captured in the Battle of Kaiapit in New Guinea that ended two days earlier.
The battle, which resulted in an Australian victory over Japan, was fought from the 19th to the 20th.
In Times Gone By... 
