The son of a Royal Navy officer who was imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp has described a flag signed by his father as a "piece of history".

Richard Wood from Fordingbridge, Hampshire, spotted his father's name, also Richard, on the union flag when it was featured in a recent BBC TV news report.

He had served on HMS Exeter, which was sunk in the Java Sea, before being imprisoned by the Japanese in Indonesia.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth allowed Mr Wood access to see the flag and is looking to trace family members of other men who signed it.

You can find more on this story in the link below...

Burma Railway in 1943 and across the Pacific during World War II, charts the cruelty of war, the tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love, as seen through the eyes of an Australian doctor and prisoner of war.

A British SAS officer during World War II is captured and forced to fight in a Japanese internment camp.

One of the most extraordinary groups of medals in British history has sold for £350,000 at a London auction today, July 24. 

The “Operation Vulcan posthumous Victoria Cross group of five awarded to Lieutenant W. A. Sandys-Clarke, 1st Battalion, The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)” was sold by Spink in a live and online auction. 

The set surpassed their low estimate of £300,000. 

Discover more in the link below...

news.justcollecting.com

Unbelievable courage of Lieut Sandys-Clarke cost him his life. The medals he won have just sold for a huge amount. Find out here.

The Sharp Blade-2025 International Sniper Competition concluded on Saturday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, after four days of intense shooting contests among top snipers from around the world.

A closing ceremony and an award ceremony were held at 09:30 at a training base in the city.

From Tuesday to Friday, some 50 sniper teams from more than 20 countries competed across 12 events covering four categories, namely, basic precision sniping, typical scenario sniping, comprehensive combat sniping, and extreme scenario sniping.

The first tranche of a fleet of Aussie tanks, worth some $245m, have been delivered to Ukraine to help bolster the war-torn nation in its war against Russia.

Australia is providing 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks – valued at $245m – to Ukraine to help bolster its war against Russia’s illegal invasion.

The first tranche of the retired tanks are now in the possession of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after they were shipped from the Port of Geelong.

Australia first purchased the fleet of 59 Abrams tanks – which were never deployed into a combat zone – in 2007.

The Australian Army has since replaced the fleet with newer M1A2 tanks.

On a lush north Queensland cattle property in April 1942, a strange shape emerging from the clouds caught a woman's eye as she hung up the washing.

A mushroom-shaped cloth attached to a glittering figure was descending from the low-lying cloud cover, the parachutist's feet furiously steering away from the farmhouse. 

Eyewitnesses quickly mounted their horses and rode to the landing site, but the shadowy figure had vanished.

It is a tale that seems almost fictional, one bound to happen far from Australia's shores.

But Australian historian Ray Holyoak from James Cook University has uncovered radar records, police reports and eyewitness accounts revealing evidence of a concerted foreign espionage effort in wartime northern Australia.

Three-hundred-and-thirty-five US paratroopers dropped into Charters Towers under the cover of night, exploiting allied night vision capabilities to launch a surprise operation designed to overwhelm any adversary. 

They were not alone, German and French paratroopers jumped alongside them, taking part in one of the first major actions of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. 

Discover more in the link here... https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2025-07-17/allied-paratroopers-own-night

Mowing your own lawn and volunteering regularly aren't things that most 96-year-olds can do, but Joseph Katancik isn't like most people. Katancik served in Vietnam, the Korean War and in WWII.

Discover his amazing service story in the link below...

idahonews.com

Mowing your own lawn and volunteering regularly aren't things that most 96-year-olds can do, but Joseph Katancik isn't like most people. Katancik served in Viet