Brisbane Is Home

 

The Anzac Day march in Brisbane started at 10am, and the van of the march arrived at my vantage point at about 10.10am.

The first 15 minutes or so of the march are shown in this video:

And then the marchers just kept on coming.

HMAS Brisbane. (HMAS = Her Majesty’s Australian Ship (His Majesty’s during WW 2))

I have no idea what this cryptic banner means.

The Submarines Association.   

The Australian Red Ensign being dipped in salute to the Shrine of Remembrance, about 100 m away from the marchers to their left.

Click here to see a Google Map showing the route of the march, and just where the Shrine of Remembrance is.

 

South Brisbane Federal Band.

460 Squadron RAAF,  which was one of the Australian bomber squadrons that served under the UK’s Bomber Command (Wikipedia) during WW2

The RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) Police Association

 

The Redland Shire Ladies Drum Corps

The Merchant Navy.  (Sailors in cargo ships during wartime)

“Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics“ 

One of the most important struggles of WWII was the ‘Battle of the Atlantic‘, where German submarines tried to destroy cargo ships making their way across the Atlantic Ocean to and from the UK.

If the Germans had succeeded, the British would have had no choice but to come to terms with Germany. You can’t fight while you’re starving.

The Sunderland Squadrons (RAAF Squadrons 10 and 461) were equipped with the Short Sunderland flying boat, which was an important submarine hunter. Australian Sunderlands sunk 12 German subs during the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force, which gave women the chance to work in jobs previously closed to them - there was no choice but to use the available people, despite prejudices against it.

RAAF veteran salutes the Shrine of Remembrance, with the Royal Australian Air Force Ensign borne behind him

35 Squadron RAAF

The 2/11 Forward Regiment

Non-marching Australian commando veterans in their green berets.

101 Tank Attack Regiment of the Australian Imperial Force (WW 2).

The Courier-Mail has a story about Roland Gillam, the only World War 2 veteran alive from the regiment.

Marchers in WWII Australian uniforms, wearing the colour patch of the 2/8th Infantry Battalion.

The 2/25th Infantry Battalion.

2/14th Infantry Battalion

The Australian Red Cross (there is more info here at Digger History)

2/15th Australian Infantry Battalion

  

The battalion diaries of the 2/24th Australian Infantry Battalion are available to read online if you click here.

Tambourine player with the Salvation Army Band

The Australian contingent of the British Occupation Forces - Japan   - there is a brief history of the Occupation if you click here.

The Atomic Ex-Servicemen’s Association - the interests of these veterans was shamefully ignored for many decades.

The Australian Women’s Land Army - you can click here for the Wikipedia entry    

A M199 Howitzer, which fires a shell 155 millimetres across (that’s a touch over six inches in old money).

Members of the Australian Special Air Services Association - there’s another page here for ASAS members.

 

The 3rd Cavalry Regiment - the Association’s website is here

Air Defence Queensland, Royal Australian Artillery, Post WWII veterans, and anti-aircraft gun

The Sapper Association Queensland.

Sappers are combat engineers - which means they build things or demolish them on the battlefield, under fire.

Soldier marches with the silver shovel that symbolises the work of the sappers.

You can click on any of the pictures here to get taken to where it is stored on flickr, the photo sharing website. If you do that, you can see much larger versions by clicking the ‘all sizes’ button at the top of the photo - some of the photos really need to be seen in big sizes to get the most out of them.

You can also see all the Anzac Day photos as a slideshow, and download them for your own use.   

Stay watching Brisbane Is Home in the next couple of days, when there will be photos from the Dawn Service.