Monday 15 June 2020
Meeting cancelled
Presented by Stephen Larkins OAM
Australia trained around 27,000 air crew during WW2 under the Empire Air Training Scheme for service, with the RAAF under the command of the RAF in Europe and the Mediterranean. Most of the men who went to the United Kingdom flew with Bomber Command. They suffered the highest losses in action of any Australian service cohort in WW2. This is the story of 33 of them, lost on one night raid over the French city of Lille. They fell across the battlefields of WW1 which their fathers had fought on just 26 years earlier. Two Burnside boys were among their number.
Steven Larkins was born and raised in Sydney, but has lived in Tusmore for the past 16 years. He has had an extensive career in the Army, 20 years full time and 18 years in the Reserve at either end of his regular Army career, from Private to Colonel. He is a self-confessed history tragic and regularly conducts small-group battlefield tours to France and Belgium. In 2012 he founded the Virtual War Memorial because of his concern that much of our knowledge of the people involved was passing beyond living memory. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2019 for service to the community and veterans.
Record of Meeting
View the record of all past meetings which details all talks given at meetings by guest speakers since our foundation in 1980. Most meetings since 1985 have been recorded.
| No. | * | B | T | d | doc | Date | Topic, Speaker, Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 437 | B | 15/6/2020 | Meeting cancelledPresented by Stephen Larkins OAM Australia trained around 27,000 air crew during WW2 under the Empire Air Training Scheme for service, with the RAAF under… |
Legend
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doc: pdf document
*: on location
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