For Evermore - Stories of the Fallen

For Evermore - Stories of the Fallen is a new site to honour those from the Commonwealth forces who lost their lives in the world wars.

 
Part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the site allows members of the public to submit stories about those who gave their lives during the world wars, and link the story to the individual's casualty page within the CWGC database.

As you submit your story, you can identify the conflict in which the person lost their life, their role (Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy, Civilian Casualty), Nationality, and even a theme (Women at War,  Post Office, Art and Literature, and more).  You can add images and even video to enhance your story if you wish.

The site even has a tutorial with an instructional video and step-by-step manual to help you post your story.

You can browse submitted stories by conflict, role, nationality or theme, or you can use the search box to search by name, role, conflict etc.

WW2 Medal Recipients Online

The details of thousands of civilians who were recommended for and awarded medals for bravery in the Second World War including George Cross recipients, are now available to search for free online.

The names are taken from the records of the Treasury Committee which decided on the recipients of honours including the George Cross, the George Medal, the OBE and the MBE. The records are now held at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. 

Adding the complete collection of about 6,500 individuals from 166 files to TNA’s online catalogue Discovery took a team of staff and volunteers two years.

Searching for each name brings up a short description of why the person was commended, what their action was, and what medal they received, if any.

Awards for agents in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organisation that carried out espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe during the Second World War, are also included in the newly digitised collection.  

Military Diaries go online at Ancestry

Ancestry has just released the first section of their new collection of World War II War Diaries.

This initial collection covers the period covering The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942).  Further collection will be released in the future.

Remember Campaspe Library offers access to Ancestry Library Edition free in any of our library branches via our public computers or on your own device via our public wifi.

Ancestry's website offers the following information about this collection :

General collection information

This collection includes military diaries kept during the Second World War. The diaries were produced for units of the British Army, the Indian Army, dominion forces under British command from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India, and allied and colonial troops under British command.

Diaries were kept by units at all levels, from battalions to entire military branches. The format of the diaries vary, but generally include regular entries that provide information about the activities of a unit. Some diaries offer more narrative detail than others. Notes about new instructions and troop movements, assessments of troop strength, and requests for reinforcements are common diary entry topics.

Using this collection

Records in this collection may include the following information:

Commanding officer's name and rank

Regiment or unit

Division

Diary entry date

Diary entry location

This collection can be used to learn about the activities of the military unit your ancestor served in during the Second World War.

Collection in context

The diaries were created by unit commanders and military staff. The original diaries are housed at the National Archives.

Millions of men and women from across the British Empire served in the armed forces during World War II. Almost 384,000 soldiers from the United Kingdom were killed in battle, while combat deaths for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa totaled 196,000.

National Archives of Australia Digitisation

The National Archives of Australia has over 1 million records documenting the service of Australian men and women during World War II. These include service records for the Army, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.

Over the past 15 years the NAA has digitised more than 200,000 WWII records and made them available to view online through RecordSearch, and in 2019 the Australian Government announced funding of $10 million to help digitise the remaining 850,000 records.

This project was planned to take place over 4 years, with work starting in July 2019.  Since is commenced the NAA has digitised 200,000 additional records, with over 3 million pages made available online.

Large-scale digitisation of the remaining WWII service records began in October 2020.

Army records

Records are being digitised by place of enlistment.

• Citizen Military Forces personnel service records (Series B884) – digitisation began in October 2020
• Second Australian Imperial Force personnel dossiers (Series B883) – digitisation due to begin mid-2022

Air Force records

Records are being digitised alphabetically by surname (Series A9300) and by service number (Series A9301).

• Royal Australian Air Force Non-Commissioned Officers and other ranks personnel files (Series A9301) – digitisation began in July 2019
• Royal Australian Air Force Officers personnel files (Series A9300) – digitisation began July 2021

Batches of records in these series will be temporarily unavailable to the public while they are being digitised. As records are digitised, the digital copies will be added to RecordSearch and made available free of charge.

The table below provides specific updates on the progress of records being digitised. The NAA updates this table regularly as work progresses.

Series	Batch	Progress
B884	Northern Territory     Tasmania     Western Australia	Completed
B884	South Australia     Queensland     New South Wales     Victoria	In progress
B884	Papua New Guinea	Early 2022
A9300	AARONS to PEAD	In progress
A9300	ABBOTT to ZUCKER	In progress
A9301	Service number 1183 to 1495     Service number 14448 to 21142	Completed
A9301	Service number 21889 to 37057     Service number 21090 to 27054     Service number 60141 to 90337	In progress
B883	All states	Mid-2022

So take a look at the National Archives of Australia and see if there is new information available for you about your WW2 Australian ancestors.

Voices of Liberation

Voices of Liberation is a new online sound archive sharing reflections of the Second World War and Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) sites of remembrance.

The CWGC is seeking more stories from Second World War veterans as well as people who have a relationship with a former soldier or have visited a CWGC Second World War cemetery or memorial.

Andrew Fetherston, the CWGC’s chief archivist, said: “We believe that by capturing these stories from the public we are creating an archive of international importance and a lasting legacy for those who died for our today.  We want people to share their connections to the war and our cemeteries to ensure that as Commonwealth nations we have not forgotten their sacrifice.”

Voices of Liberation was launched to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, which began on 6 June 1944 and led to the liberation of Europe.  It will continue in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the end of the war next year. 

To take part, simply record yourself talking about your memories using prompt questions from the CWGC and upload the audio, along with a photograph.  To record your contribution to the sound archive, all you need is a smartphone and a quiet space for the recording.  The photograph you contribute could be a photo of you recording for the archive, a photo of a relative who served in the Second World War, or perhaps it could be a photo of a CWGC site or memorial you have visited.

Arolsen Archives

The Arolsen Archives, formerly known as the International Tracing Service, has announced a name change and the online release of over 13 million records of victims of Nazi persecution.

The free database consists of records from Second World War concentration camps, including prisoner cards and death notices.  In total, they contain the names of over 2.2 million victims from across Europe.

The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The collection has information on about 17.5 million people and belongs to the UNESCO’s Memory of the World. It contains documents on the various victim groups targeted by the Nazi regime and is an important source of knowledge, especially for younger generations.

To this day, the Arolsen Archives answer inquiries about some 20,000 victims of Nazi persecution every year. For decades, clarifying fates and searching for missing persons were the central tasks of the institution, which was founded by the Allies in 1948 as the “International Tracing Service”.
Research and education are more important than ever to inform today’s society about the Holocaust, concentration camps, forced labor and the consequences of Nazi crimes. The Arolsen Archives are building up a comprehensive online archive so that people all over the world can access the documents and obtain information.