Photos WW2 British & Commonwealth Forces

A little girl sits in the ruins of her bombed home during the Battle of Britain- August 24, 1940.

No 1 gun, (75mm howitzer) of 'D' Troop, 2nd Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, 1st Airborne Division in the Oosterbeek perimeter, 20 September 1944 during Operation Market Garden.

Troops of 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Brigade, 6th Airborne Division, aboard a jeep and trailer, driving off Landing Zone 'N' past a crashed Airspeed Horsa glider on the evening of 6 June-1944

New Guinea Campaign. 25 March 1945. Private A. Webb (left) and Private J. R. Rowsell of 2/2nd Battalion, 6th Division (Australia), compare Japanese swords captured at the airstrip at Dagua

11 July 1943, Lt. Chetwyn photographed this Sherman III ‘CHU’ of 2 Troop, C Squadron, 3rd County of London Yeomanry, moving inland from ‘George’ Beach, Sicily.

‘The milk problem is solved’ Sgt Laing photographed the scene with help from the Westminster Dragoons 11 July 1944

OTD in 1940, East Beach, Selsey. A Heinkel 111H, shot down by Pilot Officers Wakeham and Lord Shuttleworth from 145 Squadron. During this action, S/Ldr Peel’s Hurricane was shot down by return fire and he was rescued from the Channel. All of the 5 Heinkel crew were wounded, 2 dying the same day. This was the first Luftwaffe aircraft to land in the UK during the ‘official’ period of the Battle of Britain

OTD in 1944, Hottot-les-Bagues area, France. 4.2-inch mortar and Vickers machine-guns from support battalion 2 Cheshire

In September 1943, 617 Squadron mounted a raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal using 12,000lb blast bombs at low level. 5 of the 8 Lancasters involved were lost along with Les Knight, David Maltby and W/Cdr Holden, whose aircraft was carrying four crewmen who had flown with Guy Gibson.

Avro Lancaster of No. 57 Squadron RAF being loaded with ‘Usual’ bomb load, consisting of a 4,000 lb bomb and 12 Small Bomb Containers each loaded with incendiaries, in this case, 236 x 4-lb incendiary sticks.

Canadian infantry and their Shermans in Ortona, Italy, January 1st, 1944

Bishop 25-pdr SPGs of 8th Armoured Division disembarking 'Z' Port Tewfik, Egypt, 10 July 1942.

The cockpit of a Royal Air Force Avro Manchester bomber, from 1941.

Private L C Mahon, a commando from the 2/3 Independent Company on Timbered Knoll during the Battle of Bobdui, Salamaua, New Guinea. July 29th 1943. (Filmed by AIF cameraman Damien Parer. Frame enlargement taken from film number F01866.)

Private L C Mahon survived the war and was discharged 1946 as an "Illegal absentee" i.e. AWOL

New Guinea Campaign. Battle of Mount Tambu. 23 July 1943. Australian soldiers of D Company, 2/5th Battalion, 6th Division, cover a track from a captured Japanese weapons pit, 50 yards from enemy lines. Robert John Buchanan, photographer, Australian War Memorial Photograph Collection, Item Number 056767,

Recently liberated Australian POWs from Changi Prison display artificial limbs made in the camp by a fellow captive Warrant Officer Arthur Purdon. Changi, Singapore, 1945.

All these men are wearing artificial limbs made in the camp by Warrant Officer Arthur Henry Mason Purdon, 2/30th Battalion of East Maitland, NSW. The men are in good spirits and are glad that they will soon be on their way home.

Left to right: Private Max Bradford of Sydney, NSW, a member of the 2/20th Battalion; Lance Corporal Jack Campbell of Apollo Bay, Vic; Private Steve Gleeson of Mundijong, WA, a member of the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion; Alex McKenzie, of Boggabri, NSW, a member of the 2/30th Battalion.


NX67447 Warrant Officer Purdon was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal - discharged in February 1947

Sir Pita Simogun KBE BEM, a New Guinean policeman who served as a coastwatcher. On New Britain island between Oct 43-Apr 44 he lead a guerrilla campaign, only losing two of his men while killing around 260 Japanese soldiers.

Simogun was born at Bargedem in East Sepik and had connections to Salamaua. He’d joined the mandated Territory of New Guinea police force and was a sergeant at Nakania in New Britain at the outbreak of the war.

In December 1942 in Australia Simogun joined a coast watching patrol destined for West New Britain and led by the naval officer Malcolm Wright. After preparations near Brisbane, on 30 April 1943 the patrol was landed from the submarine USS Greenling at Baien village, near Cape Orford. An observation post was established, from which Japanese aircraft and shipping movements were reported. In October 1943 the party crossed the rugged interior of New Britain to Nakanai, where they operated as a guerrilla force. Simogun led local men in attacks on Japanese troops. About 260 were killed for the loss of only two men. The party was withdrawn in April 1944. Simogun is credited with having maintained the morale of the group under often very difficult circumstances. Warned that the operation would be dangerous, he had replied: ‘If I die, I die. I have a son to carry my name’. He was awarded the BEM for his war service. Later he entered politics.

Simogun was the only Papua New Guinean to serve on all four Legislative Councils, from 1951 to 1963. Elected to the first House of Assembly (1964-68) for the Wewak-Aitape electorate, he was an active and influential member and under-secretary for police. Dame Rachel Cleland observed that he was a natural orator, whom no one could equal in style.

Appointed MBE in 1971, Simogun was knighted, recommended by the government of Papua New Guinea in 1985. He had married three women: Wurmagien from Alamasek village, Wiagua (Maria) from Boiken, and Barai (Bertha) from Kubren village at Dagua. Wurmagien had two children, Wiagua one, and Barai eight. Sir Pita Simogun returned to Urip in the 1980s and died on 11 April 1987 at Wewak. He was buried with full military honours at Moem Barracks army cemetery.

Source

The guerrilla force as a whole killed ~260 Japanese soldiers. Sergeant-Major Simogun's personal score was 31.

Indian soldiers training with a .303 inch Vickers machine gun on the Northwest Frontier 1940.

Note the rope in place of the water pipe

"Canadian Sergeant F.H.J. Ricketts examining railway ties which were cut by the last German train through Carovilli, Italy, 26 November 1943.

The German contraption that did the damage was a railroad plough Schienenwolf ("rail wolf") or Schwellenpflug ("sleepers plough")

Contributed by: Courtesy of Lieut. F. G. Whitcome/ Canada. Dept. of National Defence/ Library and Archives Canada/ PA-206523
(Colour by RJM)

British paratroopers enter an ELAS outpost through a window, Athens, 1944.