Lest We Forget Traditional Cache

Corporal Alexander Thomas Porker

Aircraftwoman Helen Watt Lawrance

Sergeant Alexander Ward Porker

More than 60 million people lost their lives on land, at sea and in the air during World War 2.

Life all around the world is still living with the consequences of World War II

August 1939

• August 23rd Hitler stuns the world with the announcement that he has signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union

September 1939

• September 1st Germany invades Poland without warning
• September 3rd Britain and France are at war with Germany
• September 3rd Australian Prime Minister, R.G. Menzies broadcasts that Australia is now at war with Germany. “Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war. No harder task can fall to the lot of a democratic leader than to make such an announcement.”
• September 3rd New Zealand joins the war
• September 4th South Africa joins the war
• September 9th The National Security Act becomes law
• September 10th Canada joins the war

October 1939

• October 6th Proclamation by Hitler on the isolation of Jews
• October, Height requirements for the AIF in 1939 was a minimum of 5 feet 6 inches (167.6 cm); a year later 5 feet (152 cm) was enough

November 1939

• November, Rivett wins the Melbourne Cup
• November 15th Menzies announces the reintroduction of conscription for home defence service effective 1 January 1940
• November 28th The Australian Cabinet agrees to the sending of Australian troops overseas

December 1939

• December 1st Australia agrees to take 15,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, following the German occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia

March 1940

• March 11th A coal strike in New South Wales begins

May 1940

• April 11th Allied troops land in Dutch West Indies

June 1940

• June 11th Australia and New Zealand declare war on Italy
• June 13th The German raider Orion lays mines off Auckland, New Zealand
• June 15th Menzies tries to ban the Communist Party of Australia but it is not dissolved until 1991
• June 19th Sergeant Alexander Ward Porker enlists in the Australian Army

July 1940

• July 19th The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sinks the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
• July 24th Red Cross estimates 5.5 million refugees in Vichy France

August 1940

• August 13th An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff

September 1940

• September 3rd The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia takes part in Operation Menace off Dakar
• September 3rd Japan signs the tripartite pact with Germany and Italy
• September 24th Britain plans to evacuate mothers and children from Blitz areas announced; 444,000 children already evacuated from London area

October 1940

• October 1st Petrol rationing is introduced in Australia
• October 26th Double-decker buses replace the last cable trams in Melbourne
• October 28th British Ministry of Health announces evacuation of 489,000 more children from London area

November 1940

• November, Old Rowley wins the Melbourne Cup

March 1941

• March 15th The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) is formed. Approximately 27,000 women enlisted in the WAAAF between 15 March 1941 and 24 August 1945. Women joined the services and worked as telegraphists, signallers, decoders, drivers, mechanics, and clerks. Women in WAAAF were not paid as much as men

April 1941

• April 7th The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) is formed

May 1941

• May 5th approximately 40,000 British, New Zealand, Australian and Greek troops are stationed on Crete
• May 24th The Australian Prime Minister, R.G. Menzies arrives back in Australia after his trip to Britain

June 1941

• June 1st The evacuation of Crete is completed, with 17,000 British, Commonwealth and Greek troops being rescued, although the Australians lose more than half their contingent
• June 30th HMAS Waterhen sinks off Libya – the first Australian naval vessel lost in the war. There was no loss of crew

August 1941

• August 13th The Australian Women's Army Service or "AWAS" a (non medical) women's service is established. During the war a total of 24,026 women enlisted (with a maximum strength of 20,051 in January 1944). The AWAS had 71 barracks around the country
• August 28th Menzies resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is replaced McFadden, who demands from the British, the relief of the 9th Australian Division from Tobruk in Libya

September 1941

• September 3rd Gas chambers at Auschwitz in Poland are used for first time, using Zyklon B, which was basically Hydrogen Cyanide

October 1941

• October 7th Curtin becomes the Prime Minister of Australia

November 1941

• November, Skipton wins the Melbourne Cup
• November 11th The Australian War Memorial is opened in Canberra
• November 19th The light cruiser HMAS Sydney engages the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran in an hour-long battle off the coast of Western Australia. Both ships are sunk, the Sydney going down with 645 crew
• November 27th HMAS Parramatta is sunk off Tobruk, there are only 23 survivors from the crew of 160 officers and men
• November 25th Hitler takes time out from monitoring the assault on Moscow to meet with Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin. While the Fuhrer refrains from giving an unqualified endorsement of Arab nationalist aims in the Middle East (he did not wish to upset Vichy France), the two agree on the need for the "destruction" of the "Jewish element."

December 1941

• December 4th Temperature falls to -31°F (-37°C) on Russian Front
• December 8th The Japanese bomb Philippine islands of Luzon and Mindanao. Britain, Australia and the USA declare war on Japan
• December 9th Australia declares war on Japan, and the Axis powers of Finland, Hungary and Romania
• December 14th The Japanese begin their invasion of the Philippines by landing 43,000 troops throughout the Philippines

January 1942

• January 3rd Churchill and Roosevelt announce the unified ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) Command in the Southwest Pacific
• January 12th Japan formally declares war on the Dutch East Indies

February 1942

• February 3rd Japan air raids on Port Moresby
• January 10th First meeting of Pacific War Council in London with Australian, New Zealand, Dutch and UK representatives
• February 15th Singapore falls to the Japanese, with approximately 15,000 Australian troops taken prisoner
• February 19th The first Japanese attack on Australian mainland. Darwin is attacked twice in one day by Japanese aircraft when they launched a devastating air raid on Darwin in the Northern Territory; at least 243 persons are killed. Two weeks later, more aircraft attacked Broome in Western Australia killing about 70 people

March 1942

• March 1st The cruiser HMAS Perth is torpedoed by Japanese destroyers in the Battle of Sunda Strait, sinking with the loss of 350 crew and three civilians
• March 2nd The Dutch take supreme command of all allied forces in Southwest Pacific
• March 22nd Japanese aircraft attack Darwin
• March 27th The Australian War Cabinet implements a 'Total Denial' policy in northern Australia should the Japanese invade

April 1942

• April 1st All Australians over the age of nine are required to register with a tea supplier, such as a corner store, and receive one ounce of tea per week, which is to be purchased fortnightly or monthly. Concessions are made for the aged and outback populations for whom tea is safer to drink than water
• April 3rd The Australian government requisitions a number of VFL grounds, including the MCG to be used as a base for quartering RAAF and USA personnel. The MCG was finally relinquished by the government in August 1946
• April 15th During its darkest hours, the Malta is awarded the George Cross for "heroism and devotion" by King George VI. This is in recognition of the way in which the Maltese people have stood up to more than 2,000 bombing raids and constant shortages over the past twelve month

May 1942

• May 2nd The Australian garrison on Tulagi is evacuated
• May 4th The Battle of the Coral Sea begins
• May 14th The Australian hospital ship AHS Centaur is sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland. Only 64 of the 332 crew on board survive
• May 19th The prototype CAC Boomerang, an Australian designed and built fighter aircraft, takes to the air for the first time
• May 27th All 152 members of a student group that had displayed anti-Nazi posters on May 18 in Berlin, are shot
• May 31st Three Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney Harbour. The depot ship HMAS Kuttabul is sunk in Sydney Harbour by one of the Japanese midget submarines

June 1942

• June 8th Japanese midget submarines lightly shell eastern suburbs in Sydney and Newcastle
• and coastal shipping, causing the loss of some 60 lives and 29,000 tons of shipping during the two months after the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour
• June 16th Australian destroyer HMAS Nestor is scuttled by her crew in the Mediterranean, the day after she had been bombed

July 1942

• July 6th Elements of the Australian 9th Division arrive in El Alamein
• July 23rd About thirty Australian troops armed with rifles, revolvers and a Lewis machine-gun with a drum of ammunition-made the first stand of the Kokoda campaign against the advance guard of the Japanese invaders-armed with heavy machine-guns, mortars and a mountain gun
• July 27th The Australian Women's Land Army is formed. The AWLA was an organisation created in World War II in Australia to combat rising labour shortages in the farming sector. People in Australia are told to: 1-Smoke less - burn less money. 2-Drink less - satisfy a need not a habit. 3-Plan meals for their food value. 4-Give up cosmetics - it's smart to be natural. 5-The message is 'Save and Save Australia'. The Austerity Campaign was launched alongside the Austerity Loan plans. The government planned to save 100 million pounds. In reality the war cost Australia up to 50 000 pounds an hour.

August 1942

• August 7th Sugar is added to the ration list. Every Australian civilian is to be allocated half a kilogram of sugar per week
• August 7th US land on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands

September 1942

• September 6th Australians force total Japanese evacuation of Milne Bay

October 1942

• October 1st The

  WRANS

  are sworn in as enlisted personnel in the Royal Australian Navy
• October 30th Construction begins on the Burma Railway, by 15,000 Australian prisoners-of-war captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore

November 1942

• November, Colonus wins the Melbourne Cup
• November 2nd The Australians recapture Kokoda in New Guinea
• November 19th The Allies battle against the Japanese for the beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda in northern Papua. The battle opened with attacks against Buna by the Americans, against Gona by the Australians, and against Sanananda by Australians and Americans. Tropical diseases, rain, mud and supply difficulties impaired both sides and the battle dragged on. By the time the last Japanese positions fell on 22 January 1943, about 1300 Australians and 1000 Americans lay dead, with thousands more evacuated wounded or sick. More than 6000 Japanese had fought to the death. It was the single most costly battle for Australians in 'the islands'
• November 26th A violent brawl breaks out in Brisbane between United States military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians, in what becomes known as the "Battle of Brisbane". One Australian soldier is shot dead

December 1942

• December 1st The Australians take Gona in New Guinea
• December 1st HMAS Armidale, a corvette of the Royal Australian Navy, is sunk with the loss of 100 men
• December 17th The Final US-Australian assault on Buna begins
• December 22nd Chifley is appointed as Minister of Post-War Reconstruction in Australia
• December 28th The Japanese withdrawal from Buna ordered
• December 30th The allies cut Japanese forces in two at Buna
• December 31st The Red Cross are now spending £375,000 per month on food parcels for allied POWs

January 1943

• January18th Australian troops capture Cape Killerton and Wye Point in Papua, New Guinea
• January 24th Fighting in Papua is officially reported as over

February 1943

• February 6th The Americans outflank the retreating Japanese on Guadalcanal
• February 8th The Japanese complete their evacuation of Guadalcanal

March 1943

• March 4th Australia wins its first Oscar, with cinematographer Damien Parer being honoured for his coverage of the war
• March 11th Corporal Alexander Thomas Porker enlists in the Australian Army
• March, RAAF crews are involved in the destruction of a Japanese convoy heading for Lae through the Bismarck Sea
• March 31st The Australian 9th Division march's through Melbourne watched by more than half a million people

April 1943

• April, In Papua New Guinea wounded Australian soldiers were carried out by Papuan porters, who were nicknamed fuzzy-wuzzy angels by the Australian soldiers

May 1943

• May 14th The hospital ship AHS Centaur is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off North Stradbroke Island in Queensland, killing 268 persons

June 1943

• June, In Australia, milk and eggs are in short supply and butter is rationed to eight ounces a week. In 1944, it fell to a meagre six ounces
• June 25th Newly built gas chamber/crematory III opens at Auschwitz. With its completion, the four new crematories at Auschwitz have a daily capacity of 4,756 bodies

August 1943

• August 21st The Labour Party wins the Australian elections. John Curtin is returned to power
• August 25th Japanese fall back to Francisco River on New Guinea while being pursued by Australian and American troops

September 1943

• September 1943, Australian and British commandos (soldiers and sailors) in the Special Reconnaissance Department sailed on 'Operation Jaywick' from Exmouth in Western Australia and successfully destroyed a number of Japanese ships in Singapore Harbour
• September 23rd Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney become the first women to win seats in the Parliament of Australia
• September 1943, By the end of September Japanese pilots had flown 97 air raids against towns and bases in northern Australia

October 1943

• October 1st The Australian Government releases men from the army and munitions industry for reallocation within the Australian war effort
• October 2nd The Australians 9th Division captures Finschhafen on New Guinea

November 1943

• November, Dark Felt wins the Melbourne Cup
• November 29th The Australians chase the retreating Japanese towards Wareo in New Guinea

December 1943

• December 8th Australians troops capture Wareo in New Guinea
• December, During 1942-1943, Japanese planes make almost 100 attacks against sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland
• December, 3 million people in India died during 1943 due to famine

January 1944

• January 1st The Australian government introduces meat rationing. It was decided that Australian adults could live on 2.2 pounds of meet a week. The ration of meat included beef, lamb, veal and mutton
• January 4th The Germans announce the mobilisation of school children for war work
• January 20th Seventeen people are killed at Brooklyn, New South Wales when a mail train and a bus collide at a level crossing. There is only one survivor, Gloria Iren Silvia

February 1944

• February 11th The Australians take Rooke Island between Huon and New Britain
• February 15th Bushfires in the Western District, Gippsland and Yallourn regions of Victoria kill 51 people

March 1944

• March 17th New Zealand troops take Cassino railway station

April 1944

• April 15th Fred Paterson is elected to the Parliament of Queensland, representing the seat of Bowen. He remains the only member of the Communist Party of Australia to ever be elected to an Australian Parliament
• April 25th Allied control of the skies over Germany is now virtually complete

May 1944

• May, The Australian government also introduces rationing of margarine, coffee, rice, prunes, potatoes, and many fresh fruits and vegetables

June 1944

• June 18th In Britian, The Guards Chapel, across the street from Buckingham Palace, is struck by a V-1 "buzz bomb" in the midst of Sunday morning services. One hundred and nineteen soldiers and civilians are killed

July 1944

• July 3rd Prime Minister Curtin returns to Australia after the Commonwealth conference in Britain
• July 20th Heavy rain for next two days ends operation 'Goodwood' after 413 British tanks are lost

August 1944

• August 5th The prisoner of war (POW) camp near the town of Cowra in New South Wales, Australia was the site of one of the largest prison escapes of the war. At least 545 Japanese POWs were involved in the breakout. By the end of the month, there were 2,223 Japanese POWs in Australia, including 544 merchant seamen. There were also 14,720 Italian prisoners, who had been captured mostly in the North African Campaign, and 1,585 Germans, mostly naval or merchant seamen
• August 15th The allies launch Operation 'Dragoon', a combined assault on the South coast of France from Toulon to Nice. 9,000 airborne troops are landed, along with 90,000 by sea. Six towns and 2,000 prisoners are taken. About 200,000 Germans (23 divisions) are in the 40-mile long, 11-mile wide (at narrowest point) Argentan-Falaise gap, but start to pull out as Anglo-Canadian troops resume the attack to the North. Adolf Hitler describes this as ‘The worst day of my life’

October 1944

• October 16th The Liberal Party of Australia is formed, replacing the United Australia Party
• October 21st The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, operating in the Philippines, is hit by a kamikaze aircraft, killing 20 and wounding 54, in what is believed to be the first attack of its kind
• October 24th Australian ships participate in the Battle of Surigao Strait during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Phillipines

November 1944

• November, Sirius wins the Melbourne Cup
• November 19th The RAF's destruction of Drina bridge at Visegrad, causes an 85-mile German traffic jam in Yugoslavia
• 20 November Aircraftwoman Helen Watt Lawrance enlists in the Royal Australian Air Force
• November 25th Reg Saunders becomes the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in the Australian Army

January 1945

• January 5th Australian troops land at Saposa to engage Japanese forces at Waitavolo
• January 9th U.S. troops land at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. 100,000 men are ashore in a single day, which is the largest Pacific operation so far
• January 27th Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there

February 1945

• February 5th The Australians land on the Japanese stronghold of New Britain, East of New Guinea

March 1945

• March, By March, 4000 women are working in signals and communications, 3000 as cooks and domestic servants, and 1500 women worked as mechanics on aircraft in other technical support jobs and as aircraft ground staff

April 1945

• April10th Churchill reveals British Empire casualty figures up to this point as 306,984 killed. Total casualties are 1,126,802, merchant navy losing 34,161 dead or captured. Civilians casualties are 59,793 killed and 84,749 injured
• April 30th Hitler commits suicide in the Reich Chancellery bunker after marrying his mistress

May 1945

• May 1st The Australians land on Tarakan Island off Borneo
• May 9th Germany surrenders to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe
• May 11th Wewak is captured by the 6th Australian Division
• May 13th The Australians clear the Wewak peninsula in New Guinea
• May 30th A White Paper on full employment is tabled to the Australian Parliament

June 1945

• June 19th The Australians are now in control of both sides of the Brunei Bay entrance
• June 20th Australians troops land at Lutong on Sarawak and gain 25 miles to the Seria oilfields

July 1945

• July 5th The Australian Prime Minister John Curtin dies in office from heart problems at The Lodge in Canberra
• July 6th Frank Forde is sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia. He will serve Australia's shortest term as Prime Minister, being replaced by Ben Chifley a week later
• July 13th Ben Chifley is elected leader of the Australian Labor Party, and becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Australia
• July 15th The Australians take Prince Alexander Range in Borneo after an eight-week struggle

August 1945

• August 6th U.S. B-29 "Enola Gay" drops a 3 metre long atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare and wiping out 10 square kms
• August 9th U.S. B-29 "Bocks Car" drops atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan. Two-thirds of the city of 250,000 inhabitants is destroyed and 113,000 people die
• August 15th Japan surrenders to the Allies, ending World War II. The day is known as V-P Day (Victory in the Pacific)
• August 23rd The Japanese official casualty figures from air raids including A-bombs are 260,000 killed, 412,000 injured, 9.2 million homeless, along with 44 cities being completely wiped out

September 1945

• September 2nd The formal Japanese surrender takes place aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
• September 6th Japanese forces in Southwest Pacific surrender aboard HMS Glory
• September 7th Japanese surrender Shanghai
• September 13th Japanese surrender in Burma
• September 16th Japanese surrender in Hong Kong
• September 25th The Nazi party is officially declared illegal in Germany

November 1945

• November, Rainbird wins the Melbourne Cup

Corporal Alexander Thomas Porker - Australian Army VX121101

Aircraftwoman Helen Watt Lawrance - Royal Australian Air Force 174615

Sergeant Alexander Ward Porker - Australian Army VX110206

And To Others Who Served Our Country, We Thank You.