I Was Only Doing My Job: Australia's Military History

29-SEPTEMBER-1946, This is part two of the life service and Legacy of Professional Soldier Major General Robert Harold Nimmo CBE, who at the commencement of the Second World War was a Staff Officer of the 1st Cavalry Division. An officer tasked with introducing armoured warfare into the Australian Army, Nimmo would continue to serve in staff positions at Brigade, Division, Corps and Army Levels to whom the end of the war in command of the first unit of the Australian Regular Army the 38th Infantry Brigade and command Australia's contingent to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force on a career that would span 52 years.

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For Show Notes, transcripts and photos check out the I Was Only Doing My Job Website at www.thedocnetwork.net. Access to the Discord Server Visit here Find the Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

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Tanks in the PacificYouTube link

21-DECEMBER-1914, This is part one of the life service and Legacy of Professional Soldier Major Robert Harold Nimmo, who at the commencement of the First World War was an Officer Cadet at the Royal Military College Duntroon. Enlisting upon accelerated graduation he was posted to the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment at the rank of Lieutenant and would sail to Egypt, eventually reaching Gallipoli on May 16. Possessing both front-line combat experience and administrative organisational skills, Nimmo would quickly progress through the ranks of the ANZAC Mounted Division, finishing the war as a Brigade Major in the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade to whom the end of the war would only mean a continuation of a career that would span 52 years.

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7-JANUARY-1945 While Serving with No 619 Squadron Royal Air Force, Flying Officer Colin Kelvin Flockhart, was the pilot of a four-engine Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber tasked with a raid over Munich Germany when for unknown reasons his plane disintegrated over the French countryside during poor weather.

The I Was Only Doing My Job Podcast now has a Discord Server, the link to it is in the linktree.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

to follow me for more Australian Military History Content you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

27-AUGUST-1942 While Serving with No. 3 (Army Cooperation) Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer Peter St George Bruce Turnbull, in North Africa became one of the first Australian Fighter Aces of the Second World War, with downing eight enemy aircraft, an act that would award him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

to follow me for more Australian Military History Content you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

14-JULY-1918. The 30-ton German Heavy Tank was set to participate in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonnaeux until it drove into a shell crater outside Monument Wood, becoming stranded, three months later it would be captured by the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion in the Allied counter-attack, in an action that has captured the imaginations of the Internet Age as one of those actions where the fiction is better known than the facts.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

to follow me for more Australian Military History Content you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

19-OCTOBER-1917. While serving within the Australian Remount Depot, Australian Imperial Force as a Squadron Commander, Major Andrew Barton "The Banjo" Paterson served with distinction as part of the Desert Mounted Corps during the First World War. He is also widely known as the most famous Bush Balladist of the 20th Century, having penned the iconic Waltzing Matilda. Prior to his service in the First World War, he was an official Correspondent in the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Spanish-American War and the Boxer Rebellion. While he served the duration of the war, this is one aspect of the Banjo's life that is not known.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

to follow me for more Australian Military History Content you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

My Silent Hero is a project to honour and preserve the memory of those who have served Australia during times of war. Each of these servicemen and women had lives before they enlisted and, if they survived, after the war. They were, or are, humble human beings who, for a great many current Australians, are family. Yet now for many, their memory is just a name on a plaque, an initial or two and a surname.  My Silent Hero will help you remember them as people and as family.

For more information check out https://mysilenthero.blogspot.com

1-MARCH-1942. While serving within the Royal Australian Navy as a Signals Officer, Captain Hector MacDonald Laws Waller served with distinction aboard several warships of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy during both the First World War and the Second World War. 

Having graduated from the fledgling Royal Australian Naval College during the First World War, his posting would be to the Royal Navy Battleship HMS Agincourt, and would predominately perform escort duties for the duration of the war. 

As a career sailor, he would progress through the ranks until he was in command of the 19th Destroyer Division at the start of the Second World War. He would be in direct command of two vessels during the Second World War, the Destroyer HMAS Stuart I where he led the ‘Scrap Iron Flotilla’ and the Cruiser HMAS Perth I. He would go down with the HMAS Perth when it was sunk during the one-sided Battle of Sunda Strait alongside 356 fellow personnel of Perth.

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For Show Notes, transcripts and photos check out the I Was Only Doing My Job Website at www.thedocnetwork.net. Access to the Discord Server Visit here Find the Podcast on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

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24-MAY-1966. While serving with B Company 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, Australian Regular Army, National Serviceman Private Errol Wayne Noack served as a section machine gunner during the Vietnam War. He was killed during his first military operation two weeks after arriving in-country and would go into the history books as the first Australian National Serviceman killed in Vietnam.

His death would polarise Australian society about a war that was increasingly becoming unpopular, and his position as the first conscript killed in that war would serve as a rallying cry for those against mandatory military service.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

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24-OCTOBER-1943, while serving with M Special Unit, Special Operations Australia, 2nd Australian Imperial Force, Sergeant Leonard George Siffleet was on a covert mission in Japanese-occupied New Guinea. His team was tasked with setting up a Coastwatch position over the newly captured town of Hollandia. During their operation, they were ambushed and captured by Japanese troops and local New Guineans allied with the Japanese. Despite intense interrogation, Sergeant Siffleet faced execution—a rare instance of a Western soldier’s execution being photographed by the Japanese. Although the war crimes investigations held the surviving Japanese troops accountable, the individual who delivered the fatal blow to Sergeant Siffleet was killed during the latter stages of the New Guinea Campaign. Tragically, Leonard's body was never recovered.

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and visit our linktree for our socials https://linktr.ee/iwodmj

to follow me for more Australian Military History Content you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.