backyard battlefields – Backyard Battlefields

WORLD WAR 2

US NAVY SWAN RIVER CRASH, 1943

October 7, 2026

Source: The West Australian 14 September 1943

On the 12th of September 1943 a US Navy Vought Kingfisher (NO.2283) of Navy Scouting Squadron 61 (VS-61) crashed into Perth’s Swan River close to the Sandringham Hotel in Belmont.

The role of VS-61 was to provide reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols in the Indian ocean and the South West Pacific theatre of operations. The Vought Kingfisher was widely used as a catapult-launched scout plane on US Navy warships and played a major role in artillery spotting and air-sea rescue. Aircraft 2283 was on a training flight from Maylands airfield and nose-dived into the river and exploded underwater. Two crew members were killed, Pilot William Burt Beck and radio operator Robert Le Roy Carrier. William had married a local Perth girl and both he and Robert are buried in the USAF cemetery at Rookwood near Sydney. Maylands was a hub of military activity during the war being requisitioned by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and extensively used by the US military from February 1942 onwards.

WORLD WAR 2

HARVEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, CIRCA 1942

October 7, 2026

The town of Harvey in Western Australia was the wartime location of Internment Camp Number 11. It was established in 1940 and was the first purpose built camp of this kind in WA. Its purpose was for the detention of ‘enemy aliens’ and Prisoners of War (POWs) The camp held approximately 900 Italian men, some of whom were naturalised Australian citizens and about one hundred German internees. The camp was closed in 1942 when all prisoners were transferred to the Eastern states.

3RD AUSTRALIAN CORPS TRAINING SCHOOL

After 1942 the location was repurposed as the 3rd Australian Corps Training School. The curriculum there focused on leadership, weapons handling, field works and tactics for soldiers and members of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). The images here show the ‘Blitz Course’ around October 1942. This was an obstacle and simulation intended to mimic the conditions of combat.

VIETNAM

SAS AMBUSH: THE TRACTOR JOB, VIETNAM 1968

July 27, 2026

In Phuoc Tuy province South Vietnam, a Fordson Major tractor was stolen from the French Courtenay rubber plantation. Intelligence reported that it was being used by Viet Cong guerillas to transport weapons and ammunition across the Australian area of operations (AO). A patrol from 2 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) led by Sergeant Frank Cashmore was tasked with its destruction. This episode of Backyard Battlefields features excerpts from an interview with SAS veteran Anthony Bowden, recorded by the Australians At War Film Archive.

Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify.

The Courtenay rubber plantation circa 1971 (Image: AWM PO5389.011)

PRE-FEDERATION

‘NORDENFELT’ AT THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH

June 10, 2026

I came to Greenwich to see the magnificent National Maritime Museum. In their collection is a five barrelled Nordenfelt gun. This is a hand-cranked ‘machine gun’ designed by Helge Palmcrantz and named for Swedish steel magnate Thorsten Nordenfelt who funded its development. It was produced in several different calibres with up to twelve barrels. The version pictured here could fire up to 600 rounds per minute and was chambered in .45 calibre (11mm).

Patented in 1873 it was adopted by the British Navy in 1881 as a close range defence against fast (for the time) torpedo boats. They were used to arm Australian colonial warships and you can see an example (Image 6) one of four carried aboard HMVS Cerebus, built in the Chatham dockyards for the Victorian government in 1870.

Nordenfelt guns were superseded in the late 1880’s by the introduction of the superior fully automatic, Maxim gun.

Greenwich is an excellent place to visit, great museums (including the Cutty Sark) beautiful ye olde pubs and if you’re game, pies and stewed eels.

PRE-FEDERATION

‘EMILY TAYLOR & THE FOUNDING OF AUGUSTA, 1830’ (EPISODE 56)

July 7, 2025

The ‘Emily Taylor’ was a 200 tonne Brig built in the Bombay shipyards for the commercial and military powerhouse the ‘British East India Company’. Launched as the ‘Antelope’ it carried 12 guns and in addition to being a troop transport, carried trade goods such as spices, Opium, textiles and silks.

It was later sold off and acquired by a private company Robert Taylor and Co. and renamed ‘Emily Taylor’ after the proprietors wife. It sailed to Western Australia and in 1830 was chartered by the colonial governement to transport settlers, including members of the Bussell and Molloy families, to Cape Leeuwin to establish WA’s third settlement, Augusta.

On the return journey to Fremantle ‘Emily Taylor’ was blown ashore in a gale and wrecked. It is considered it carried the first Chinese ‘migrant’ to Western Australia, a (likely) Cantonese man called ‘Moon Chow’ (also known as Chow Moon) He was the ships carpenter and found himself stranded when ‘Emily Taylor’ was wrecked. He was a skilled tradesman, joiner and boat builder and his talents were highly prized in the young colony. There is romantic speculation that Moon Chow, was the first to manufacture and sell dumplings in WA. This theory was fueled by a court case where a leg of pork was stolen from his home. Tragically in 1877, Moon Chow was killed when he was struck by a horse drawn mail cart on Fremantles High Street, close to where the Orient Hotel stands today. His death led to the first road rules in Western Australia including speed limits and the requirement to carry lights at night.

Listen to this episode of Backyard Battlefields at Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify…..

Uncategorized, WORLD WAR 2

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BROOME: 3rd March 1942

June 18, 2024

On the 3rd of March 1942 Japanese Mitsubishi Zero Fighters operating out of Kopang Indonesia attacked the Western Australian Pearling port of Broome. It was a target rich environment packed with refugees from the Japanese assault on the Dutch East Indies. Often described as ‘Western Australia’s Pearl Harbour’ it was the first of several attacks on Broome during the duration of the war.