Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War. Many of those who came home chose not to talk about their experiences.

The Great Search uncovered a previously unknown story about Australian airmen who, when they ran out of bombs, decided to drop bottles on the enemy. To the distracted foe, the bottles sounded just like shells.

Another story begins with a photo of an Aussie Beaufort Bomber, minutes after being shot down over the Pacific and turns into one of the most remarkable stories of survival behind enemy lines you are ever likely to read.

THE GREAT ESCAPE CAUSED MAXIMUM DISRUPTION

NAME: Lionel Jeffries

DATE: 1943 - 1944

UNIT: RAAF, POW Stalag Luft III

LOCATION: Stalag Luft III prison camp near Sagan

In March 1944, a mass break out from Stalag Luft III prison camp near Sagan, in Silesia, by Allied air force officers, caused huge disruption to the German war effort.
 

SHOT DOWN OVER GERMANY

NAME: Lionel Jeffries

DATE: 1943

UNIT: RAAF

LOCATION: Shot down and wounded over Nuremberg

On the night of the 27th/28th August 1943, Fl Lt Lionel Jeffries RAAF, was the pilot of a four-engined Stirling bomber aircraft on a raid to the railway marshalling yards of the city of Nuremburg, Germany.
 

SINGAPORE AGAIN

NAME: T.A. Jones, Through Magazine

DATE: 1941

UNIT: Signals 8th Australian Division

LOCATION: Singapore

Through magazine was the official journal of Signals 8th Australian Division. The first edition was produced in Singapore in December 1941, shortly before Singapore fell.
 

SAMUEL KELLY WROTE FOR HIS MATES

NAME: Samuel Kelly

DATE: 2000

UNIT: Civilian

LOCATION: WWII

After leaving school at the age of fourteen, because of his dislike for English grammar, Samuel Kelly began work at the Chillagoe Copper Smelters in North Queensland. This was considered an essential industry at the time, so he was encouraged not to enlist in the Army when World War II broke out. His brother, Donald, and his mate Danny Hughes enlisted together in 1941 with three other school friends from Chillagoe.
 

CORVETTES WERE MINESWEEPERS AT SICILY LANDINGS

NAME: Kevin Kimball

DATE: 1943

UNIT: HMAS Maryborough

LOCATION: Mediterranean

When the Allies invaded Sicily early in 1943, a number of Australian corvettes were used as mine sweepers to enable the landing craft to reach the shore safely. Among them were HMAS Maryborough and her sister ships Ipswich and Lismore.
 

A LARK ON THE WING

NAME: Charles Lark

DATE: 1942

UNIT: 460 Squadron

LOCATION: Europe

Fl Lt Charles Lark applied to join the RAAF in December 1939 but it was more than a year later when he was finally signed up. While waiting, he received lessons in trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra, mechanics, physics and the Morse code.
 

NO WALTZING AFTER MATILDA HIT MINE

NAME: Des Lloyd

DATE: 1943

UNIT: 1st Australian Army Tank Battalion

LOCATION: New Guinea

Fighting in New Guinea produced all sorts of problems, not the least being the terrain over which the troops had to travel. Heavy rain often turned tracks into quagmires and made progress hazardous to say the least.
 

'BOMBS' WELCOMED BY TROOPS IN JUNGLE

NAME: Ken Lockyer

DATE: 1945

UNIT: 322 Carrier Wing USAAF

LOCATION: New Guinea

It's not often that the troops want to thank the airmen who are dropping bombs on them but this certainly happened in New Guinea during World War II. It helped that the 'bombs' were actually parcels of newspapers and ice cream destined to cheer up the men fighting in the steaming jungles below.
 

A SOLDIER AND A POET

NAME: Francis Lundie

DATE: 1917-1919, 1939 -1944

UNIT: 9th Light Horse, 2/27th Battalion 7th Division

LOCATION: Middle East, Papua New Guinea, Borneo

Frank Lundie was born in Alberton, South Australia on 21 August 1899, although he didn't think that the authorities needed to know that.
 

MIXED FEELINGS AS POWS WAITED TO BE RELEASED

NAME: Reg Mahoney

DATE: 1945

UNIT: POW

LOCATION: Changi

Every day that Australians spent as prisoners of war they longed for freedom. They thought about family and friends at home and just hoped to survive for the end of the war.