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

1-JANUARY 1916 While Serving with 3 Australian General Hospital Squadron Principal Matron Grace Margaret Wilson in Lemnos, Greece would coordinate the nursing care of wounded Australian Soldiers from the Gallipoli Campaign and in doing so would also fight for recognition and proper treatment of the nurses under her charge. a Professional Nurse before the Great War, she would go on to be Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Imperial Force in both the First and Second World Wars, These acts would result in him being awarded the Royal Red Cross First class and the Nightingale Medal, four Mentions in Dispatches and her appointment to the Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

She would go on to pioneer Nursing Education in civilian life, particularly around Victoria.

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16-OCTOBER-1942 While Serving with No. 452 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Squadron Leader Keith William "Bluey" Truscott in Europe would lead an attack on an evacuating Kreigsmarine Fleet and successfully damaged a German Destroyer. A famous athlete, before the war he played VFL for the Melbourne Demons, and deciding to forgo a successful sporting career decided to fly for King and Country, and in doing so became one of Australia's highest ranked Fighter Aces with 15/16 confirmed enemy aircraft shot down. These acts would result in him being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice.

He would go on to serve in No 76 Squadron RAAF in the Pacific, serving in the defence of Milne Bay from Japanese invasion, where he would replace Squadron Leader Peter Turnbull as Commanding Officer after his death. Peter Turnbull's life service and sacrifice was episode 12 of season one

Sadly like his predecessor, he would also be killed in a flying accident while in training with the US Navy.

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.

23-OCTOBER-1915. While serving as a trooper in the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Australian Imperial Force, Chinese-Australian Trooper William Edward "Billy" Sing DCM has been picked to take the solitary role as being a sniper on Gallipoli where he has a unique record of between 150 and 300 confirmed Ottoman kills during the eight-month campaign. Even with that legacy he also grew up in a time where his heritage was met with prejudice and racism. 

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.

17-AUGUST-1917. While serving as one of the Australian Official War Photographers, Honorary Captain James Francis "Frank" Hurley OBE was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in several expeditions to Antarctica, under Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars. His artistic style produced many memorable images, but his propensity to use composite imagery in a time before Photoshop gained him several detractors, in particular Charles Bean, Australia's First World War Official Historian, and the Department of Information that he worked for in the Second World War. But even with that, he is still Australia's most famous photographer

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.

I sat down with Preston Stewart and Seyer Payne of War Stories to talk about Australia's involvement in the Pacific Campaign of the Second World War. This was recorded over Zoom, and the video version of this episode is available on the I Was Only Doing My Job Youtube Channel. 

The conversation starts with the Fall of Singapore and ends with the Japanese surrender and even the start of the Korean Campaign. 

To find more content from Preston and Seyer click on the below links 

Website   War Stories on Spotify   War Stories on Apple Podcasts   TikTok   Instagram   Discord Server 

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.

7-MAY-1915. While serving as an engineer with the 3rd Field Company Engineers, Australian Imperial Force, Captain Edward Bage was instructed to map out new trench locations on Gallipoli, and as a result would be killed 14 days after landing on the Pennisula, but his legacy is not one of the battlefield, but of Antarctic Exploration, when he spent two years mapping Antarctica alongside Sir Douglas Mawson

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at @IWODMJ and like us on Facebook at I Was Only Doing My Job and to follow me for more history hijinks you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

CW: Sexual Assault- This episode contains a discussion of the murder of women and allegations of sexual assault in war. The sexual assault is isolated to the end of the episode, with a warning just prior. the discussion of the Bangka Island Massacre will begin at 5:16 to 8:06

This is a Special reupload to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Bangka Island Massacre

16-FEBRUARY-1942. Serving as a Staff Nurse in the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, Second Australian Imperial Force, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel would be the sole survivor of the Bangka Island Massacre at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army. She would go on to be a Prisoner of War for three and a half years, but would never abandon her courage or resolve.  Her career didn't end in captivity, and she would go on to serve until 1947 when she would resume her nursing duties, up until the Vietnam War, when she would once again enter the battlespace to help the disadvantaged.  She would receive honours and decorations for her service to the cause of nursing and would uphold those tenents until her death in 2000. She did more than just her job, and for that, we are immensely proud of her. 

To Donate to the Vivian Bullwinkel Project or the Bangka Island Scholarship Fund go here https://foundation.acn.edu.au/Foundation/Donate/The_Vivian_Bullwinkel_Project_2021.aspx

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at @IWODMJ and like us on Facebook at I Was Only Doing My Job and to follow me for more history hijinks you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

17-AUGUST-1915. While serving as a soldier with the 17th Australian Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, Lieutenant Leslie George Fussell, unimpressed with the quality of the bomb-throwing of the men under his command, took a tin of Bully Beef and threw it into the Turkish Trenches. This act resulted in a temporary cease-fire on Gallipoli. He would go on to serve on the Western Front and serve again in the Second World War.

Episodes that discussed the Battle of Pozieres Episode 2: Private John Hines, Episode 4: Captain David Twining, Forged in Combat: American and Australian Troops at the Battle of Hamel. Episode 14 Reverend Walter Ernest Dexter

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at @IWODMJ and like us on  Facebook at I Was Only Doing My Job and to follow me for more history hijinks you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.

2-NOVEMBER-1932.  While serving as a professional soldier in the post-war Permanent  Military Force of the Commonwealth Military Forces Honourary Brigadier  General Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith served for 47 years  continuously, and in doing so served in the Permanent Military Force,  the First World War, the Second War and the Korean War, but he is most  known as Major G P W Meredith, the Officer Commanding of the 7th Heavy  Artillery Battery who oversaw an ill-advised nuisance wildlife  management military operation that has become more a meme than a  historical event, known comically as the Great Emu War

For show notes, photos and transcripts visit www.thedocnetwork.net and follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at @IWODMJ and like us on  Facebook at I Was Only Doing My Job and to follow me for more history hijinks you can follow me on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter @docwinters.