Remembering the ANZAC spirit

The WIA ANZAC 100 program continues with a host of events. If you would like to activate an ANZAC callsign, then please make contact with Fred Swainston VK3DAC via email to trainsafe@silvertrain.com.au

The callsign VK100ANZAC will do a great job on the HF bands in the hands of DXer Tommy Horozakis VK2IR and others who will be on air from June 4-10.

From June 5, and for nine days, the Yarra Valley Amateur Radio Group commemorates a major event in WWII that we call D-Day, by using VI3ANZAC. Landing at Normandy was the largest seaborne invasion in history, regained occupied Western Europe, led to the liberation of France and contributed to an Allied war victory.

For a more recent involvement in a theatre of conflict, on Saturday June 6, VI5ANZAC at the Elizabeth RSL will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Australian Forces at Vung Tau, Vietnam, landed by the Royal Australian Navy. The Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club will be on both the 40m and 80m bands for this occasion for Vietnam War Veterans and the service community.

A bit later, the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society led by Paul Simmonds VK5PAS activates VK100WIA for 48 hours on June 17-18. This event commemorates the ‘75th Anniversary of RAAF Secret Mission’ - when an amphibious Walrus aircraft took off from near Plymouth in England. It had an Australian pilot and navigator, and the other two British crew members, one on the wireless and the other an intelligence officer. Their mission was to rescue Madam Yvonne de Gaulle and her three children; the family of General Charles de Gaulle the leader of the Free French forces. On reaching London he asked that his family be rescued from advancing troops. However, Madam de Gaulle had fled on board the last boat to England. The secret mission came to an abrupt end with a crash and fire that took all four crew, two from the 10 Squadron RAAF, the first RAAF members to die in action. The locals buried them in the town cemetery. The War Graves Commission later put headstones on the graves. Townspeople continue to remember them on All Souls' Day and other times of remembrance.

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