World War 1 German Gun Restoration
| General - Site related |
A brief history of WW1 German war trophies
(Ref: “War Trophies from the First World War 1914 – 1918”
by Maj Bill Billett Kangaroo Press 1999
After World War 1 the War Trophies committee, a sub committee of a British War Office committee was established “to control the distribution of all the trophies captured by the Imperial Armies.” There were many disagreements and negotiations about who should have claim to these trophies but in July 1918 it was decided that AIF units who claimed their trophies could have them “if they could substantiate their claim and if they were not serviceable or required for conversion”. Subsequently it was reported in the newspapers of the day that 300 Artillery pieces, 3000 machine guns, trench mortars, many horse drawn vehicles and motor vehicles would be bought from England to Australia where distribution would be made to the many claimants in the cities and townships around the country.
Buried beyond history
COURTESY THE AUSTRALIAN IT was the Australian Army's worst accident, a tragedy so grim and gruesome it tore open the heart of a country town. When 26 army recruits died in a 1945 accident, they disappeared from the Anzac story In a single blinding flash of gelignite, 26 young lives were snuffed out in an underground bunker at an army training camp at Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga in NSW. When they buried the victims three days later, half of the population of Wagga - 7000 men, women and children - lined the streets to bow their heads at the passing parade of coffins. It remains to this day the nation's largest military funeral. |