Anniversary: ANZAC Day

Today marks ANZAC Day among the Commonwealth countries around the world.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn, and Tonga.

The Australian War Memorial website answers many questions, including...

Why is this day special to Australians?
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

By: Brant

Anniversary: ANZAC Day

Today marks ANZAC Day among the Commonwealth countries around the world.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn, and Tonga.

The Australian War Memorial website answers many questions, including...

Why is this day special to Australians?
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

By: Brant

Anniversary: ANZAC Day

Today marks ANZAC Day among the Commonwealth countries around the world.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn, and Tonga.

The Australian War Memorial website answers many questions, including...

Why is this day special to Australians?
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

By: Brant

USMC Garrison Arrives in Australia

The first group of 200 Marines arrive in Australia on a hardship tour training mission.

The first contingent of 200 United States Marines has arrived in Darwin.

The troops are there on a six-month rotational basis and will take part in training exercises with the Australian Defence Force.

The two countries are boosting defence ties, with the US eventually deploying a 2,500-strong force in northern Australia by 2017.

The move has irked Beijing but US and Australian leaders have stressed it is not an attempt to contain China.

Welcoming the troops, Australia's Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the decision to host them was a response to a changing global balance.

"The world needs to essentially come to grips with the rise of China, the rise of India, the move of strategic and political and economic influence to our part of the world," he said.

By: Brant

Aussies Looking for Recruits

The Australian Defence Force is looking overseas for new troops, and hoping to target some of the recently-released US, UK, and Canadian forces just back from overseas.

The Australian Defence force is trying to recruit laid-off soldiers, sailors and air crew from Britain, the US and other western countries in order to fill quotas.

The Australian reports the navy has sent a delegation to Britain to discover how many retrenched sailors, particularly engineers, are available.

A report on maintenance in Australia's navy suggested that as many as 200 engineers are needed to rebuild lost expertise.

The paper reports the department also is looking for defence specialists, such as fighter pilots, submarine crews and officers and are offering fast-tracked Australian citizenship as an incentive.

By: Brant

The Great Encirclement of China

It's not enough to station a bunch of Marines in Australia.

America's strengthened military pact with Australia is a figment of "Cold War thinking" that will destabilize the Asia-Pacific region, China's Defense Ministry said Wednesday, in Beijing's strongest criticism yet of a move widely seen as intended to counter China's rising assertiveness.
Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng's comments at a monthly news conference came short of the scathing attacks on the agreement from China's nationalist press and outspoken academics.
However, they appeared to reflect a harder tone from the armed forces, whose expanding budget and reach have rattled many of China's neighbors and prompted them to seek strengthened alliances with the region's dominant military power, America.
"Military alliances were created by history. We think that all moves to strengthen and expand military alliances are a product of Cold War thinking that run counter to the era's trend of peace, development and cooperation," Geng said.
The agreement, announced during a November visit by President Barack Obama to Australia, will send military aircraft and up to 2,500 Marines to northern Australia for a training hub to help allies and protect American interests across Asia.

Now the US is looking to station Navy ships in Singapore and the Philippines.

The U.S. Navy said it would station several new coastal combat ships in Singapore and perhaps in the Philippines in coming years, moves likely to fuel China's fears of being encircled and pressured in the South China Sea dispute.
Regional defense analysts said the ships were small, but agreed the symbolism of the moves, which come after Washington announced it was increasing its engagement in Asia, would upset Beijing.
Last month the United States and Australia announced plans to deepen the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, with 2,500 U.S. Marines operating out of a de facto base in Darwin in northern Australia.
In coming years, the U.S. Navy will increasingly focus on the strategic "maritime crossroads" of the Asia-Pacific region, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert wrote in the December issue of Proceedings, published by the U.S. Naval Institute.
He said the navy planned to "station several of our newest littoral combat ships at Singapore's naval facility," in addition to the plans announced by President Barack Obama for marines to be based in Darwin from next year.

All this as the Philippine military is focusing on the Spratlys and moving away from COIN missions, with a little help from old US Coast Guard cutters.


By: Brant

Women in Combat for Australia

The Australian military is opening frontline combat roles to women

Australia opened frontline combat roles to women for the first time in its history under a new policy allowing all military positions to be filled on merit rather than gender.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith on Tuesday said the changes, approved by the cabinet on Monday night, would give women access to the seven percent of military roles currently restricted to men.
Only three of Australia's military partners allow women on the frontlines -- New Zealand, Canada and Israel, Smith said.
The new policy will be phased in over five years to ensure that female combatants had the necessary training and preparation, he added, describing it as a major cultural and operational shift.
"From this day forward... no combat roles, no frontline role will be excluded from an Australian on the basis of his or her sex, it will be open to anyone to apply on the basis of merit," Smith told reporters.
"This is a significant and major cultural change."
But opponents of the move condemned it as a "political gimmick and a distraction".
Women currently account for about 10,000 of the 81,000 full- and part-time positions in Australia's armed forces, with the newly open roles mainly as frontline infantry and artillery soldiers, naval clearance divers and airfield guards.
Widely supported by military chiefs, Smith said the changes would not prescribe female ratios for frontline positions and it was "entirely a matter for the men and women of the defence force to put their names forward for a particular role".

Here's the kicker that'll make it work:

New guidelines will be developed outlining the physical and mental requirements for elite jobs and both men and women would have to satisfy them.

By: Brant

Stealth Sea Fighter Under Development

High speed attack craft like The Ghost could pose a real threat to larger ships in littoral waters.

A US company has built a high-speed stealth "attack helicopter on the water" that could revolutionise navies and the shipping industry.
The ship, called The Ghost, can glide on water using a layer of gas that is generated around its submerged areas at high speeds - a technology called "supercavitation", designer Juliet Marine Systems said.

The Ghost can reach speeds of up to 97km/h, would be undetectable by radar and could be used by the US Navy to carry torpedoes, the company said.

By: Shelldrake

War Heroes: The "White Mouse"

WWII heroine Nancy Wake was a badass.

Working as a journalist in Europe, she interviewed Adolf Hitler in Vienna in 1933 and then vowed to fight against his persecution of Jews.

After the fall of France in 1940, Mrs Wake became a French Resistance courier and later a saboteur and spy - setting up escape routes and sabotaging German installations, saving hundreds of Allied lives.

She worked for British Special Operations and was parachuted into France in April 1944 before D-Day to deliver weapons to French Resistance fighters.

At one point, she was top of the Gestapo's most wanted list.

"Freedom is the only thing worth living for. While I was doing that work, I used to think it didn't matter if I died, because without freedom there was no point in living," Wake once said of her wartime exploits.

It was only after the liberation of France that she learned her husband, French businessman Henri Fiocca, had been tortured and killed by the Gestapo for refusing to give her up.

"I have only one thing to say: I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more," she once said.

She was Australia's most decorated servicewoman, and one of the most decorated Allied servicewomen of World War II.

By: Brant

Final WWI Combat Veteran Passes On

There's only a handful of WWI veterans left, and the last one who saw combat has passed.

The last known combat veteran of World War I was defiant of the tolls of time, a centenarian who swam in the sea, twirled across dance floors, and published his first book at 108. He also refused to submit to his place in history, becoming a pacifist who wouldn't march in parades commemorating wars like the one that made him famous.
Claude Stanley Choules, a man of contradictions, humble spirit and wry humor, died in a Western Australia nursing home on Thursday at the age of 110. And though his accomplishments were many — including a a 41-year military career that spanned two world wars — the man known as "Chuckles" to his comrades in the Australian Navy was happiest being known as a dedicated family man.
"We all loved him," his 84-year-old daughter Daphne Edinger told The Associated Press. "It's going to be sad to think of him not being here any longer, but that's the way things go."
Choules was born March 3, 1901, in the small British town of Pershore, Worcestershire, one of seven children. As a child, he was told his mother had died — a lie meant to cover a more painful truth: She left when he was 5 to pursue an acting career. The abandonment affected him profoundly, said his other daughter, Anne Pow, and he grew up determined to create a happy home for his own children.
In his autobiography, "The Last of the Last" published just two years ago, he remembered the day the first motor car drove through town, an event that brought all the villagers outside to watch. He remembered when a packet of cigarettes cost a penny. He remembered learning to surf off the coast of South Africa, and how strange he found it that black locals were forced to use a separate beach from whites.
He was drawn to the water at an early age, fishing and swimming at the local brook. Later in life, he would regularly swim in the warm waters off the Western Australia state coast, only stopping when he turned 100.
World War I was raging when Choules began training with the British Royal Navy, just one month after he turned 14. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS Revenge, from which he watched the 1918 surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, the main battle fleet of the German Navy during the war.
"There was no sign of fight left in the Germans as they came out of the mist at about 10 a.m.," Choules wrote in his autobiography. The German flag, he recalled, was hauled down at sunset.
"So ended the most momentous day in the annals of naval warfare," he wrote. "A fleet of ships surrendered without firing a shot."
Choules and another Briton, Florence Green, became the war's last known surviving service members after the death of American Frank Buckles in February, according to the Order of the First World War, a U.S.-based group that tracks veterans. Choules was the last known surviving combatant of the war. Green, who turned 110 in February, served as a waitress in the Women's Royal Air Force.

By: Brant

Australia In Action: SOTG in Afghanistan

Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) members enter the training compound at Multi National Base Tarin Kowt (MNBTK).

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: F/A-18 Refueling

FA-18 Hornets during a refuelling mission with an Omega 707 Tanker.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

First Fight Between Tanks

A nice computer-based animation of the WWI engagement between the Brits and Germans.



For a boardgame of the fight, check out the upcoming issue of Battles Magazine, which includes a free game of the engagement.

By: Brant

Australia In Action: Dive Team Training

Navy Clearance Divers employed in the Maritime Tactical Operations (MTO) element are required to provide Shallow Water Mine Counter Measures (VSWMCM) detection and disposal. This involves reconnaissance of the seabed and areas to the back of the beach.

Clearance Divers in the MTO element are trained in subsurface insertion and extraction, with the ability to use small arms and tactics when required. They work in small teams and are versatile in how and where they can be employed at short notice. This includes counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) through to counter-piracy boarding operations.

High levels of mental and physical toughness are intrinsic qualities of a Clearance Diver, as is team work.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: Joint Patrols in the 'Stan

An Afghan National Army soldier covers the patrol as they patrol through the Mirabad Valley region in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Adam McNamee covers the open ground as soldiers patrol back into the patrol base in the Mirabad Valley region in Afghanistan.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: SOTG on Patrol

Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: Invasion of Townsfield II

Lance Corporal Reynaldo Croon (front) and soldiers from Battle Group Samichon (Second Battalion Royal Australian Regiment) after the final live-fire assault during Exercise Hamel at the Townsville Field Training Area.

Pte Darren Sharp, Battle Group Samichon (Second Battalion Royal Australian Regiment), moving to the final objective during for the live-fire during Exercise Hamel at the Townsville Field Training Area.

A sniper from the 2nd Battalion of The Royal Australian Regiment, fires the 50 Cal Anti Material Gun - part of a live fire demonstration to visiting military personnel and Civilian VIPs during Exercise Hamel.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: ANA Joint Actions

Afghan National Army soldiers and Australian Capt. Jason Mildone, 2nd in command Engineer Squadron, Mentoring Task Force 2, work together at the construction site of a new ANA patrol base inn the Uruzgan Province of Afghanistan Nov. 13.

Some of the weapons, explosives and other materials used to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices that were uncoverd by Afghan National Army soldiers during Operation Sur Gurabe (Operation Boston).

An illumination round, provided by Afghan Artillery, illuminates the ground in front an Australian position they provide overwatch the Afghan National Army engineers building a new patrol base in the West Dorafshan region of Uruzgan province in Afghanistan during Operation Sur Gurabe (operation Boston).

Soldiers warm themselves by a fire as they provide overwatch the Afghan National Army engineers building a new patrol base in the West Dorafshan region of Uruzgan province in Afghanistan during Operation Sur Gurabe (Operation Boston).

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: Invasion of Townsfield

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV) from Darwin based 1st Brigade during Exercise Hamel at the Townsville Field Training Area.

The Main Battle Tank, the M1 Abrahms, from the 1st Armoured Regiment kicks up dust during Exercise Hamel at the Townsville Field Training Area.

Army Black Hawks provide air mobility for Battle Group Kapyong (Third Battalion Royal Australian Regiment) during Exercise Hamel at the Townsville Field Training Area.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7

Australia In Action: Sea Kings

Sikorsky S70B-2 Seahawk helicopters flying in formation after conducting a weapons firing serial off of the coast of Western Australia.

image from Australian MoD

By: Widow 6-7