|
Ralph Churches
Ralph Churches BEM (22 November 1917 – 18 October 2014) was an Australian army private who planned and carried out the biggest and most successful POW escape of World War II. One of eight children, Ralph was a 22-year-old bank teller when he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force's 2/48th Battalion on 14 June 1940. The Escape Whilst fighting in Greece in May 1941, Ralph was captured and sent to Stalag 306 POW camp in Maribor, Slovenia with 100 other POWs. Determined to escape, he began mastering the German language. Each day prisoners were taken to a work site, assigned to the job of re-laying train tracks destroyed by Allied bombers. Watching his fellow soldiers die of starvation and disease, in unconscionably grim conditions, hardened Ralph's resolve to devise of a large-scale escape plan. He soon became the camp interpreter to the Kommandant, and was also elected camp leader where he communicated prisoners' grievances to the Kommandant. Whilst out on a work de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adelaide, South Australia
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre; the demonym ''Adelaidean'' is used to denote the city and the residents of Adelaide. The Native title in Australia#Traditional owner, traditional owners of the Adelaide region are the Kaurna, with the name referring to the area of the city centre and surrounding Adelaide Park Lands, Park Lands, in the Kaurna language. Adelaide is situated on the Adelaide Plains north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St Vincent in the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges in the east. Its metropolitan area extends from the coast to the Adelaide Hills, foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and stretches from Gawler in the north to Sellicks Beach in the south. Named in ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Secret Intelligence Service
The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS ) is the foreign intelligence agency of the Commonwealth of Australia, responsible for gathering, processing, and analysing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence. The service was formed in 1952, however its existence remained secret within much of the government and to the public until 1972. ASIS is a primary entity of the Australian Intelligence Community. ASIS is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) portfolio and has its headquarters in Canberra. Its director-general, currently Kerri Hartland, reports to the minister for foreign affairs. The service is comparable to the CIA ( US) and MI6 ( UK). History On 13 May 1952, in a meeting of the Executive Council, Prime Minister Robert Menzies established ASIS by executive order under s. 61 of the Australian constitution, appointing Alfred Deakin Brookes as the first director-general of ASIS ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maribor
Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the Urban Municipality of Maribor and the Drava Statistical Region, Drava statistical region. Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural centre of eastern Slovenia. Maribor was first mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209, and as a city in 1254. Like most Slovene Lands, Slovene ethnic territory, Maribor was under Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured the city for the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which then joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1991 Maribor became part of independent Slovenia. Maribor, along with the Portuguese city of Guimarães, was selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2012. Name Maribo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Recipients Of The British Empire Medal
Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Australians, indigenous peoples of Australia as identified and defined within Australian law * Australia (continent) ** Indigenous Australians * Australian English, the dialect of the English language spoken in Australia * Australian Aboriginal languages * ''The Australian'', a newspaper * Australiana, things of Australian origins Other uses * Australian (horse), a racehorse * Australian, British Columbia, an unincorporated community in Canada See also * The Australian (other) * Australia (other) * * * Austrian (other) Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the coun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II Prisoner-of-war Camps In Germany
The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object, while others analyze the world as a complex made up of parts. In scientific cosmology, the world or universe is commonly defined as "the totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon, or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Prisoners Of War
Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Australians, indigenous peoples of Australia as identified and defined within Australian law * Australia (continent) ** Indigenous Australians * Australian English, the dialect of the English language spoken in Australia * Australian Aboriginal languages * ''The Australian'', a newspaper * Australiana, things of Australian origins Other uses * Australian (horse), a racehorse * Australian, British Columbia, an unincorporated community in Canada See also * The Australian (other) * Australia (other) * * * Austrian (other) Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the countr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014 Deaths
This is a list of lists of deaths of notable people, organized by year. New deaths articles are added to their respective month (e.g., Deaths in ) and then linked below. 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 Earlier years ''Deaths in years earlier than this can usually be found in the main articles of the years.'' See also * Lists of deaths by day * Deaths by year (category) {{DEFAULTSORT:deaths by year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1917 Births
Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column. * January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party are rescued after being stranded for several months. * January 11 – Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland (modern-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey), one of the events leading to United States involvement in WWI. * January 16 – The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million (equivalent to $ million in ). * January 22 – WWI: United States President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Germany. * January 25 – WWI: British armed merchantman is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly (Ireland), with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard. * January 26 – The se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Halls
Monty Halls (born 5 November 1966) is a British TV broadcaster and marine biologist best known for his BBC Great Escape series ''Monty Halls' Great Escape'', ''Monty Halls' Great Hebridean Escape'' and ''Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape'', during which he lived and worked in remote parts of the UK and Ireland with his dog Reuben. Halls' other TV programmes include ''WWII's Great Escapes'', ''Great Barrier Reef'' and ''Lost Worlds'' with Leo Houlding for Discovery Channel. Halls is the founder and managing director of Seadog TV and Film Productions Ltd and Leaderbox. Background and career Born in Wakefield, Halls attended Bedstone College, where he was head boy, after which he was commissioned as a Royal Marines officer. His time in the Marines included a period in the British Military Assistance and Training Team in South Africa, where he assisted with the integration of former ANC guerrillas into the South African Army. At 29, having left the Royal Marines, Halls studie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag XVIIID
Stalag XVIII D (306) (''Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager'' or '' Stammlager''; abbreviated Stalag) was a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp complex for the detainment of captured Western Allied and Soviet soldiers, officers, and non-commissioned officers by the German Wehrmacht. It was established on 1 June 1941, in what was then Yugoslavia (later the Republic of Slovenia), which was under German occupation at the time. Stalag XVIII D took up buildings that had previously been used for army barracks and customs warehouses for grain, in Melje, a quarter of the city of Maribor, which in German was known as ''Marburg an der Drau''. Stalag XVIII D formally operated until the beginning of October 1942. Initially, it was established for the captivity of captured Western Allied soldiers, mainly French, British, Greeks, Australians, New Zealanders and Yugoslavs. They were under the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929) and thus registered as prisoners of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
