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#OnThisDay - 14 October 1940, during #WW2, "a large body of #Australians" arrived in #Colchester. It is said 10,000 troops marched along the High Street, laughing and shouting, their band playing Watzing Matilda while enemy planes flew overhead.
More:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Australian_Imperial_Force_in_the_United_Kingdom
More:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Australian_Imperial_Force_in_the_United_Kingdom
In his journal Eric Rudsdale from #Colchester noted:
"They marched oddly, carrying their rifles as they pleased, looking like some strange Army of bygone ages as they straggled along the street, laughing and shouting, their great cowboy hats looking strange in the moonlight..."
"They marched oddly, carrying their rifles as they pleased, looking like some strange Army of bygone ages as they straggled along the street, laughing and shouting, their great cowboy hats looking strange in the moonlight..."
We looked (only online and only pretty superficially to be fair) for a photo of this event but no joy. Indeed we couldn't really find any images of the #WW2 #AustralianImperialForce in #Colchester. If anyone has any to hand, do please feel free to post them in this thread...
