Shrine Monthly Memorial Service - May 2012 04 May 2012, 11:00AM

In May we commemorate one of the most important dates of the Second World War – VE Day – and one of its most infamous episodes – the construction of the Thai Burma Railway through the slave labour of Allied POWs and local peoples.

3 May 1917: Second Bullecourt

Australian forces launch a successful attack at Bullecourt, France, as part of the Arras Campaign. Allied casualties for the battle totalled 7,000.

14 May 1943: Sinking of hospital ship Centaur

The hospital ship Centaur was sunk off the Queensland coast in one of the most controversial incidents of the war. Clearly marked and lit as a hospital ship with the Red Cross a Japanese submarine nevertheless sank her in May 1943. Only 64 of the 332 souls onboard survived, including just one of 12 nurses and images of the sinking Centaur would become part of Australian propaganda for the rest of the war.

30 May 1942: The ‘1000 Bomber Raid’

Numerous RAAF crews of Bomber Command took part in the first of the ‘1000 Bomber’ raids on Nazi Germany. Bomber Command suffered the highest casualty rates of any Allied service during the war, more than 3,500 Australians alone would lose their lives on bomber operations.

29 May 1945: Second Sandakan Death March

Australian and British POWs in Japanese hands, already abused and malnourished, are forced to carry Japanese supplies from Sandakan to Ranau. Hundreds die along the way, perishing of disease, starvation and or at the hands of their Japanese guards. The survivors face further abuse at the hands of the Japanese and by the end of the war only six men of the approximately 1000 to take part in the Death marches were alive.
 

Wreath Laying in the Sanctuary
Shrine Representative: Shrine Life Governor Lieutenant Colonel David Ford CVO AM GM