Sir Carl Herman Jess CB,
CMG,
CBE,
DSO (
16 February 1884 –
16 June 1948) was an
Australian Army Lieutenant General who served in
WWI and
WWII. Jess was born in
Bendigo and started his military career in 1899 when he joined the First Victorian Volunteer Cadets. During WWI he served at
Gallipoli and on the
Western Front, reaching the rank of brigadier. Jess saw no action in WWII, he commanded the
6th Division for a short period but was replaced by general
Blamey. He became Director of Women's National Services in 1943 and organised the
Women's Land Army. He died at the
Heidelburg Repatriation Hospital in
Melbourne on
16 June 1948 and was cremated with full military honours.
Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean was a
sailor in the
Royal Australian Navy during
World War II. Teddy Sheean was posted on the
Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale in
1942 when it was given the task of landing commandos at Betano. On
December 1 during the second attempt to reach Betano,
Armidale came under attack. Teddy Sheean manned an
Oerlikon Anti-aircraft gun and was wounded by strafing
Japanese planes, he went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and still shooting at the attacking aircraft. For his actions during the war the
Collins Class submarine
HMAS Sheean was named after him, with the motto "Fight On".
Vice-Admiral
Sir John Augustine Collins,
KBE,
CB (1899–1989) was an Australian naval officer who served in
World War I and
World War II, and who eventually rose to become the First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board and Chief of Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the
Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During World War II, he commanded the
cruiser HMAS Sydney in the
Mediterranean. The latest class of Australian
submarine, the
Collins class bears his name. The first of these,
HMAS Collins, was launched by his widow in 1993.
General
Sir John Monash,
GCMG,
KCB,
VD (
27 June 1865 –
8 October 1931), Australian military commander of the
First World War, was born in
Melbourne,
Victoria, to parents of
Prussian-
Jewish origin. Monash began attended the
University of Melbourne in 1893 and studied engineering and later law. He joined a militia unit, becoming a colonel in 1913. He joined the
AIF at the outbreak off
World War I and steadily rose through the ranks. In May 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant-general and made commander of the
Australian Corps. He held several high public office position after the war, he also has a
University,
City and
Freeway named after him. Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery later wrote: "I would name Sir John Monash as the best general on the western front in Europe."
Field Marshal
Lord William Riddell Birdwood (
13 September 1865 –
17 May 1951) was a First World War general who is best known as the commander of the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. From 1899 to 1902 during the
Boer War Birdwood served as a military secretary on the staff of
Lord Kitchener an association that continued in India until the outbreak of World War I. In November 1914 Birdwood was instructed to form an army
corps of Australian and New Zealand troops training in Egypt, Birdwood lead these men during the
landing at Anzac Cove on
April 25, 1915. After the evacuation from
Gallipoli Birdwood took command of the newly formed
II Anzac Corps. When the
I Anzac Corps become the first corp to departed for France as senior commander Birdwood swapped with General
Alexander Godley. On the
May 31,
1918 Birdwood attained command of the
British Fifth Army, with command of the Australian Corps passing to General
John Monash.
Alfred John Shout VC MC born in
Trentham, New Zealand, (
7 August 1881 –
11 August 1915). Shout emigrated to Australia in 1907 and joined the 29th Infantry Regiment and commissioned as
second lieutenant on 16 June 1914. Shout was the most highly decorated
Australian during the
Battle of Gallipoli, 1915, being awarded the
Military Cross during the
landing at Anzac Cove in April and winning the
Victoria Cross posthumously during the
Battle of Lone Pine in August. He was also
Mentioned in Despatches twice.
Ernest Albert Corey MM and 3 Bars (
20 December 1891 -
25 August 1972) was a highly decorated
Australian soldier who fought in the
First World War. Corey was born in Numeralla,
New South Wales and enlisted in the
Australian Army on
13 January 1916 as a stretcher bearer in the 55th Battalion. Corey is believed to be the only soldier to be awarded the
Military Medal on 4 occasions; twice in 1917, and twice in 1918. Corey died in August 1972 and is buried in the Queanbeyan Cemetery. His medals are displayed in the Hall of Valour at the
Australian War Memorial. In 1979 a memorial was erected in Centennial Park,
Cooma in honour of Corey.
Sir
Iven Giffard Mackay KBE,
CMG,
DSO,
VD (
7 April 1882 -
30 September 1966) was a prominent
Australian soldier who served in both
World War I and
World War II, he achieved the rank of
Lieutenant General. Mackay was born at
Grafton, New South Wales and is best known for his action as the commander of the
6th Division during the
Western Desert Campaign and
Greek Campaign of World War II and later as the commander of the
Second Army. Later in life Mackay took up the post of Australia's first
High Commissioner to
India, serving until May 1948.
John Simpson Kirkpatrick (
July 6,
1892 –
May 19,
1915), also known as
Jack Simpson, was a stretcher bearer with the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at
Gallipoli during
World War I. He
landed at Anzac Cove on
April 25,
1915 and, on that first night, took a
donkey and began carrying wounded from the battle line to the beach for evacuation. He continued this work for three and a half weeks many times under direct fire until he was killed. Today Simpson and his Donkey is an
Anzac legend. Kirkpatrick is probably the best known soldier of the
First Australian Imperial Force.
Henry Gordon Bennett,
CB,
CMG,
DSO (
April 16,
1887 –
August 1,
1962) was an
Australian soldier who served in both
World War I and
World War II he achieved the rank of
Lieutenant-General. Bennett (who was always known as Gordon) was born in
Melbourne and at 29 became at the time the youngest
Australian general. Despite his highly decorated achievements during World War I, including at
Gallipoli, Bennett is best remembered for his role in the
Fall of Singapore in the
Pacific War when, as commander of the
8th Division, he escaped while his men became prisoners of the
Japanese.
Clive Robertson Caldwell,
DSO,
DFC and bar,
KW,
July 28,
1910-
August 5,
1994 was the leading
Australian fighter ace of
World War II. Caldwell was born in
Lewisham, Sydney and joined the
RAAF at the outbreak of war. Caldwell is officially credited with at least 26 aircraft claimed shot down, 4 shared destroyed, 11 probables and 25 damaged in over 300 operational sorties. His nickname was
Killer because of his habit of shooting up any enemy vehicles spotted when returning from a sortie. In 1945 he led the
Morotai Mutiny in which several senior flyers resigned in protest following the relegation of RAAF fighter squadrons to dangerous and strategically worthless ground attack missions. Caldwell retired in 1946.
Major-General Philip Michael Jeffery,
AC,
CVO,
MC,
GCL (born
12 December 1937) is the 24th
Governor-General of Australia. Jeffery was born in
Wiluna, Western Australia and was educated at state schools in
Perth. Jeffery military service started by attending
Royal Military College, Duntroon where he graduated in 1958. During a tour of duty in
Vietnam he was awarded the
Military Cross. He retired from the
Royal Australian Army in 1993 to become
Governor of Western Australia. On
11 August 2003, Jeffery became the first Australian soldier to appointed Governor-General.
Eric Dumesny, Bomaderry, New South Wales, RAN 1942-46
Eric Dumesny was 17 years old when he put his age up and joined the Army but his father found out and Eric was quickly discharged. His father told him “you can join the Navy, they will take you at 17”, so in August 1942, Eric joined the Royal Australian Navy. Eric trained as a stoker before being posted to the stores ship HMAS Ping Wo, based at Port Stephens in NSW.
Eric was at the naval base at Port Stephens, HMAS Assault, when he volunteered for the Services Reconnaissance Department – a covername for Special Operations Australia, commonly referred to as Z Special Unit.
After intensive training, Eric was drafted to HMAS Tiger Snake, a specially built trawler disguised as a Chinese or Malayan fishing vessel. Tiger Snake was armed with concealed machine-guns and carried a special radio set for contact with base and with parties operating behind enemy lines.
On 6 September 1944, Tiger Snake set sail from Melbourne, stopping in Western Australia before setting sail for Morotai. The crew was told Tiger Snake was the first Allied surface vessel to pass through the waters off the west coast of New Guinea since 1942.
After spending some time on Morotai, Tiger Snake sailed for Borneo. One operation, starting on 14 July 1945, was in a river convoy taking troops up the Baram River in Dutch Borneo. The troops, of the 2/17th Battalion, had advanced across Brunei, and the river was not far across the border. The voyage was hazardous, with jungle closing in on both sides and the waters tricky to navigate. Tiger Snake also took part in an operation ahead of the main Australian landings at Labuan.
Eric was in Borneo on VP Day and remembers celebrating with the crew of a British submarine. Later, Eric witnessed the surrender of the Japanese forces from the Sibu region, while aboard Tiger Snake. Eric was discharged from the RAN in March 1946.
For 50 years after the war Eric was not allowed to talk about his service. Today, Eric is proud to be able to march with other members of Z Special Unit Association behind their own banner in the Sydney Anzac Day march each year.
Eric is active in the Bomaderry RSL and is a committee member of the Z Special Unit Association.
http://www.dva.gov.au/commem/2005/borneo/bio1.htm
http://www.dva.gov.au/legals.htm#copyright
Portal:Military of Australia/Selected biography/14
Portal:Military of Australia/Selected biography/15
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