Firsts in WW2 - What is Your Contribution?

This could be quite a large and interesting thread and provide much debate. Virtually all members will be able to participate.

May even require different threads of Land, Sea, Air etc.

First Australian to be killed in action in WW2

28 September 1939

The first Australian to be killed in action was probably Wing Commander Ivan McLeod Cameron, who was serving with Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of war. Wing Commander Cameron, 110 Squadron RAF, was on a reconnaissance flight over Germany on 28 September 1939 when his Bristol Blenheim bomber, serial N6212, was intercepted and shot down by a German pilot, Feldwebel Klaus Faber, of l/JG I, Luftwaffe. The Blenheim crashed near Kiel, Germany. Wing Commander Cameron is buried at Reichswald Forest Cemetery, Kleve in Germany.

 

56 Recce being the first Recce Corps to be employed in a true Recce role.

Tunisia was the Corps' next area of operations and the first recce regiment to serve there was 56th Reconnaissance Regiment, to which fell also the distinction of being the first regiment of the Corps to serve in a true recce role. From Only the Enemy in Front by Richard Docherty.

Cheers
Paul

 

First Australian (s) killed after declaration of war in ww2

5 September 1939

Probably the first Australian casualties after the declaration of war on 3 September 1939 were serving members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A pilot and his observer were killed in a flying accident while ferrying a Wirraway to Darwin, where 12 Squadron RAAF was based for coastal patrol missions.

The Anson and five Wirraways arrived at DARWIN at 10.30 hours from Daly Waters. Unfortunately the arrival of the Wirraways was marred by a fatal accident. Flying Officer AV Dolphin of Recruit Training Depot, Laverton who was ferrying Wirraway A20-5, stalled and crashed onto the aerodrome and both the pilot and observer, No. 1 Corporal JOHNSON, H W - Air Observer, No. 12 Squadron were killed.

 

Spidge, my grandfather insists he was the last person onto the beach in France and the first off coming home........

Tis true he used to laugh his head off when he told us that...


He never really talked about it much only the funny stuff...

"O and we have another first in the family....

The mrs has just discovered we have and Aussie flyboy in her family tree...and he's a big knob........dont be smutty:p as in high up!

I think your going to be impressed I certainly was...

Lee

 

20th November 1940

HMAS Goorangai chopped in two by Troopship M.V. Duntroon. Small Mine Sweeper first RAN ship lost in WW2

7/8th November 1940

City of Rayville, an American freighter off Cape Otway (Victoria), the first US ship to be sunk in WW2.

Great website by the way.
Ahoy - Mac's Web Log - HMAS Goorangia chopped in two by M.V. Duntroon. Small Mine Sweeper first RAN ship lost in WW2

 

Spidge, my grandfather insists he was the last person onto the beach in France and the first off coming home........

Tis true he used to laugh his head off when he told us that...


He never really talked about it much only the funny stuff...

"O and we have another first in the family....

The mrs has just discovered we have and Aussie flyboy in her family tree...and he's a big knob........dont be smutty:p as in high up!

I think your going to be impressed I certainly was...

Lee

Come on Lee - Spill the beans!

 

First shot fired in WW2?

Same gun as in WW1.

A Coastal gun sited at Pt Nepean at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay at Melbourne. Both shots fired at a german freighter trying to leave port soon after the Declaration(s) of War.


John.

 

First Clinical trials of Penicillin conducted by Australian Howard Florey and British/German Ernst Chain.


Saturday 25th May 1940



In May, 1940 they performed one of the most important medical experiments in history. The work was so urgent that they came in to begin the experiment on the weekend, and on Saturday 25 May, Florey's team tested penicillin on eight mice injected with a lethal dose of streptococci bacteria. Four of the mice were treated with penicillin, while four were used as controls. By the next day, the treated mice had recovered and the untreated mice were dead. In the early days of World War II, the lives of eight mice may seem insignificant. But their rescue by penicillin led to the treatment of Allied soldiers as early as D-Day, in June 1944, and probably influenced the outcome of the war.



The First Patient
The results were so exciting Florey knew that it was time to test the drug on humans. The first patient in 1941 had been scratched by a rose thorn. Albert Alexander's whole face, eyes and scalp had swollen. He had already had an eye removed and abscesses drained; even his remaining eye had to be lanced to relieve the pain of the swelling. He was given penicillin, and within a day he began to recover. But Florey's team didn't have enough of the drug to see the patient through to a full recovery. Their efforts to recycle the penicillin by extracting it from his urine failed, and he unfortunately had a re-lapse and died. Because of the awful experience, the team then concentrated their efforts on sick children, who did not require such large quantities.

 

May '41: Meteor, first British jet airplane test flown.

10 Feb '42: First Tech Bulletin on how to Refuel at Sea. Had been doing it and learning.


... oh, the a-bomb, cant forget that one!

16 July '45. Trinity, first atomic explosion generates a force of 21,000 tons of TNT

Not Until: Firsts in WW2.

 

7th May 1942.

Quite a significant first!

The Battle of the Coral Sea is the first engagement in modern naval history in which opposing warships do not exchange a shot; all damage is inflicted by carrier aircraft. First Zero shot down by an F4F.

Not Until: Firsts in WW2.

 

3rd September 1939

The first Air Raid warning in the UK as I remember it:

3rd September 1939

On Saturday the 2nd of September, my dad had sent the younger ones in the family down to my sister's flat in Hove.

The next day I started exploring the novelty of living by the sea and was actually swimming in the sea when the first warning siren sounded, (a false alarm as it happened).
I hurriedly dried myself and hastened back to the flat, passing on the way two women standing in the doorway of their house. The pair, probably mother and daughter, were both crying and embracing.

With the sublime arrogance of a sixteen year old I called out to them "Don't worry ..... everything's gonna be all right!"

They paused in their grief and turned to give me a withering look that left me in no doubt that I knew nothing of the sort of troubles that the world could offer on that day and so I shamefacedly continued homeward where I arrived just in time to listen to the radio and the recorded voice of Chamberlain telling us that war had been declared.

 

Two firsts


First sinking of a U-Boot in WW2



First sinking of a U Boot by ASDIC I believe



In September of 1939, Robert Charles Larner, was serving on H.M.S. Foxhound doing anti U-boat sweeps giving protection to H.M.S. Ark Royal, along with five other destroyers.
On 14th September, off the Rockall Bank, U39 fired two torpedoes at the Ark Royal. Luckily both missed. Larner the ASDIC operator on watch at that time and he immediately picked up contact and position of the U-39.
H.M.S. Foxhound went into attack, followed by the Faulknor and Firedrake. All three destroyers dropped depth charges and seconds later the U-boat came to the surface. This was the first U-boat to be destroyed in WW2. All of the U39 crew were picked up, with only one of them having a slight injury. These men were at a later date sent to Canada to spend the rest of the war working as lumberjacks.
Larner was awarded the DSM for his actions that day.

 

The B-24 Liberator served in all the major theaters of WW2 but it was the RAF that first flew the American built aircraft operationally......

No.120 Squadron RAF Coastal Command officially started operations on 20 September 1941 when F/L. S J. Harrison and crew in Liberator I AM924 D/120 flew from RAF Nutts Corner on an anti-submarine patrol. (The first operational flight of the B-24)

Later the same day F/L. T M. Bulloch flew a similar sortie in Liberator I AM928 A/120

 

17 July 1940.

A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Sunderland performed the type's first unassisted kill of a U-boat on 17 July 1940.

 

First D-Day Casualty, 6 June 1944?

Was he the first allied or British soldier killed on D-Day. Surely, that must be one of the hardest to verify. Or Not?

Lieut Herbert Denham Brotheridge ( - 1944) - Find A Grave Memorial

I am posting this as a question and not a statement of fact in case I am wrong. Logging off now in case of incoming.

 

First D-Day Casualty, 6 June 1944?

Was he the first allied or British soldier killed on D-Day. Surely, that must be one of the hardest to verify. Or Not?

Lieut Herbert Denham Brotheridge ( - 1944) - Find A Grave Memorial

I am posting this as a question and not a statement of fact in case I am wrong. Logging off now in case of incoming.

This is confirmed/related by Richard Todd himself who was 6th Airborne and is known to have been the first out of his plane.

BBC Inside Out - Richard Todd returns to the D-Day battlefields

 

26th February ww2 - 70th Anniversary
The first R.A.A.F. officer to lead a British squadron in World War II

In Memory of
Wing Commander RAYMOND ARTHUR HOLMWOOD

1086, Royal Australian Air Force
who died age 29
on 26 February 1941
Son of Arthur Percy and Mabel Alice Holmwood; husband of Margaret Alice Holmwood, of Point Piper, New South Wales, Australia.
Remembered with honour
WHYTELEAFE (ST. LUKE) CHURCHYARD

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachments/all-anniversaries/46401d1298630712t-memoriam-those-air-force-pilots-crews-who-died-day-ww2-whyteleafe-st-luke-churchyard-1086-holmwood_ra-jpghttp://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachments/all-anniversaries/46402d1298630712t-memoriam-those-air-force-pilots-crews-who-died-day-ww2-whyteleafe-st-luke-churchyard-2-jpghttp://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachments/all-anniversaries/46403d1298630712t-memoriam-those-air-force-pilots-crews-who-died-day-ww2-whyteleafe-st-luke-churchyard-jpg


HOLMWOOD, RAYMOND ARTHUR (1911-1941), air force officer, was born on 7 December 1911 at Newcastle, New South Wales, second child of native-born parents Arthur Percy Holmwood, public schoolteacher, and his wife Mabel Alice, née Burgmann. After gaining his Intermediate certificate, on 15 February 1928 Raymond entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Federal Capital Territory, as a staff cadet nominated by the Royal Australian Air Force. He undertook the 'A' course at No.1 Flying Training School, Point Cook, Victoria, graduated with his 'wings' in December 1931 and was commissioned in the following month.

Having been posted to No.1 Squadron, Laverton, in February 1932 Holmwood joined No.3 Squadron at Richmond, New South Wales, where he quickly demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities. He earned respect for his professional competence, possessed a highly developed sense of duty and was a first-class athlete. These attributes were complemented by his fine appearance: he was 5 ft 10 ins (178 cm) tall, weighed 10 st. 11 lb (68.5 kg), and had straw-coloured hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. With his 'aquiline features [and] strong chin . . . he made a most romantic figure'. On 21 September 1934 at St Mark's Anglican Church, Darling Point, Sydney, he married Margaret Alice, daughter of (Sir) Thomas Gordon.

Holmwood's appointments began to reflect his potential for high command. From December 1935 to February 1936 he was adjutant of No.3 Squadron; in 1936-37 he commanded the Cadet Squadron at No.1 F.T.S.; and he performed staff duties at Air Force Headquarters, Melbourne, in 1937-39. Promoted acting squadron leader, he took over the Intermediate Training Squadron at No.1 F.T.S. in July 1939 and became the squadron's chief flying instructor in April next year when it was expanded and transferred to No.1 Service Flying Training School.

In July 1940 Holmwood was sent to England to serve on exchange with the Royal Air Force. Disembarking in October, he completed an operational conversion course on fighter aircraft, then flew with No.64 Squadron, R.A.F. On 18 December he was appointed commanding officer of No.615 Squadron, based at Kenley, Surrey, and was thus the first R.A.A.F. officer to lead a British squadron in World War II. His appointment was the more meritorious because No.615 had distinguished itself in earlier fighting and its honorary air commodore was Prime Minister (Sir) Winston Churchill. Holmwood was promoted temporary wing commander in January 1941.

On 26 February 1941, during an engagement with enemy aircraft over Waddenhall, a rural district near Petham, Kent, Holmwood's Hurricane was shot down; he baled out of his aircraft but his parachute caught fire. The members of his unit regarded him as 'the very finest type' and his death cast a gloom over Kenley. Survived by his wife and four-year-old son, he was buried in Whyteleafe (St Luke's) churchyard, near Caterham, Surrey.
1086 Wing Commander HOLMWOOD, Raymond Arthur
Source:
AWM 237 (65) NAA : A9300 Barcode 5246866 Commonwealth War Graves records
Aircraft Type: Hurricane
Serial number:
Radio call sign:
Unit: 615 Sqn RAF
Summary:
On the 26th February 1941, a Hurricane aircraft flown by Wg Cdr Holmwood, a flying
Instructor, was shot down by an enemy fighter, and was killed.
Crew:
RAAF 1086 Wg Cdr Holmwood, R A (Pilot)
Wg Cdr Holmwod is buried in the Whyteleafe (St Luke) Churchyard, UK. An airmen’s
corner is set aside in the cemetery, for the burial of airmen from RAF Kenley,
Whyteleafe Station at Croydon.

 

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/31569-captain-h-b-osullivan-3-royal-tank-regiment-first-tank.html

 

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/25248-first-military-cross-military-medal-world-war-two.html

 

3 September 1939


A Bristol Blenheim IV (N6215) of No.139 Squadron is the first Royal Air Force aircraft to cross the German frontier after war is declared.

Between 1200hrs and 1650hrs the Blenheim, flown by Flying Officer A. McPherson, carries out a photographic and visual reconnaissance of German naval ports. Although the crew, which includes a naval observer, Commander Thompson, sight a number of warships in the Schillig Roads off Wilhelmshaven, their radio is unserviceable and they are unable to report until they return to Wyton. Flying Officer McPherson is subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.