Anzac Day Remembrance 2022 Lest We Forget

They Went With Songs To The Battle....
        They Fell With Their Faces To The Foe...

Many of my family on both my maternal and paternal sides made the decision to serve their country in times of war. It is difficult to know what it was that spurred each of them to serve- whether it was from a sense of duty, a desire to see the world, a fear of the threat of the enemy toward their families and way of life or simply that they were not given a choice but were of a certain age and so were drafted into battles unknown.

Whatever the reason, there is little doubt that the experience of war would have changed the lives of each of these men and women in ways they may never have expected. For some, they paid the ultimate sacrifice and gave their life so others may have freedom. For many who returned, their lives were likely to be changed forever- for some it was from physical injuries received; for others it was from those injuries that remained invisible, and those that remained below the surface in horrific memories that could not be erased.

These men and women all deserve to be remembered.

On Anzac Day 2022 I will especially be remembering the following members of my family:

My Great Uncle:
Sapper Gordon William MILNE (1903-1945), WX8461, AIF 2/6 Field Park Co

Sapper Gordon William MILNE 

• Enlisted Claremont, Western Australia October 1940.
• Taken Prisoner of War by Japanese in  Singapore 15 February 1942 in Changi Prison.
• Sandakan Death March 7 July 1942- 18 July 1942.
• Died from unnamed illness in Sandakan 14 February 1945 age 42.
• Memorial Plaque in Labuan Cemetery, Labuan Malaysia. 

Sandakan Death March undertaken by many Australian POWs
including my great uncle Sapper Gordon MILNE

My 2nd Cousin Once Removed: 
Private Henry Bernard MCALARY (1898-1917), 1978, AIF 3^rd Reinforcements 21^st Battalion, later 67^th Battalion.         

• Enlisted Melbourne Victoria, 21 June 1915
• Served in Gallipoli, Alexandria, Cairo, France, Belgium
• Killed in Action Passchendaele Ridge, Belgium, 4 October 1917
• Memorial on Menin Gate Ypres, Belgium

Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium

My Great Uncle:
2/Lieut David MCALARY (1888-1960), 1496, 11^th Reinforcements 6^th Australian Light Horse and Royal Flying Corps Special Reserves

David MCALARY

• Enlisted Holsworthy NSW, 19 August 1915.
• Served in Egypt in 6^th Australian Light Horse.
• Requested a transfer to Royal Flying Corps which was granted in 1917
• During WW2 David again returned to service at the 8^th Garrison Battalion in a training role.

 

                                                         

My 1st Cousin twice removed:  
Corporal Doreen Grace CHATEL (1916-2011), WFX17007

  

Doreen Grace CHATEL

• Enlisted Hollywood Western Australia. 
• Served as a nursing sister in the Middle East and New Guinea in 1941 - 1946.

Article from: WA Girls Go Abroad (1941, October 16), The Daily News, (Perth WA:1882-1955), p.24. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78806091.

My 1st Cousin 3 times removed:
Captain Edgar Musgrave HOOD (1883-1959), 0-192555, US Army 804^th Pioneer Infantry, Company K Commander

Edgar Musgrave HOOD

•  Served in France during 1918-1919
•  Arrived home to New York 8 August 1919

 

804th Pioneer Infantry Company in France

My 2nd Cousin twice removed:
2^nd Lieutenant Joseph Nelson HOOD II  (1916-1944), 0-742161, Pilot of 48 Bomber Squadron, US Air Force 41^st Bomber GP (M)

Purple Heart
Medal of Honor

• Enlisted in Company H 107^th National Guard February 1937- 1940
• Re-enlisted in 1941 as Sergeant in Coast Artillery Corps or Mine Planter service of National Guard
• Joseph was pilot of a plane that was shot down and lost at sea in the Pacific with 6 men on board on 27 January 1944
• Memorial tablet for the missing at the Honolulu Hawaii National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
• He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal of Honor

Honolulu Hawaii National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
where Joseph Nelson Hood is remembered.

My 1st Cousin once removed:
W/O Neville David MCALARY (1917-1960), 404588, RAAF World War 2

• Enlisted in Brisbane Queensland in 1939
• Left Sydney for Flight Training School in Canada in 1939
• Served in England, Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Fayed, Crete, Rhodes, Benghazi.
• Crashed in Benghazi in June 1942 and was taken prisoner of war – to Prison Camp 57 Udine- Gruppignano, Italy for 15 months.
• From the Italian POW Camp he was moved to Stalag 4B Muhlberg Camp, Germany for a further 18 months until the end of the war in May 1945.

Neville David MCALARY

Neville David MCALARY as POW
 in Stalag 4B Muhlberg, Germany

                                                                

Anzac Day in Stalag 4B POW Camp, Muhlberg, Germany

My 1st Cousin once removed: 
Mary Kathleen 'Mem' MCROHAN (b1927), W45813,  9^th Aust Cipher Sect AWAS

Mary Kathleen MCROHAN

• Enlisted Claremont Western Australia August 1942
• Trained in NSW, Qld and Western Australia until 1945
• July 1945 – 1946  joined the 9^th Australian Cipher Section in New Guinea

My 1st Cousin twice removed:
T/ CSM Hugh Joseph MCALARY MM (1893-1918), 2035B, AIF 35^th Battalion

Hugh Joseph MCALARY                          

• Enlisted Sydney New South Wales, 19 June 1916.
• Trained in Dubbo and Liverpool NSW and England, UK.
• Served in France, Belgium, including Somme and Passchendaele.
• Awarded the Military Medal for Bravery on  9 April 1918.
• Killed in Action on 11 May 1918.
• Buried Mericourt L’Abbe Communal Cemetery Extension (3 ¾ mile  NNE of Corbie).

Grave of Hugh Joseph MCALARY at
Mericourt L'Abbe Communal Cemetery, France

At The Going Down Of The Sun and In The Morning
    We Will Remember Them