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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recommended the Queen posthumously award World War II hero Edward 'Teddy' Sheean a Victoria Cross. Tasmanian Sheean, an 18-year-old with less than two years at sea, was an Ordinary Seaman on the minesweeper HMAS Armidale when it came under heavy attack from Japanese aircraft off the coast of what is now Timor-Leste in 1942. Mr Morrison ordered an expert panel re-examine the case for Sheean receiving Australia's highest military honour after earlier attempts had failed to recommend he receive a Victoria Cross. Sheean is recorded as helping launch life rafts before returning to his anti-aircraft...

A search has been launched to find relatives of a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery during the Battle of Passchendaele in the First World War. Officials hope to have family members present at a ceremony to honour the bravery of Robert Shankland, which will take place in Ayr on October 26, 100 years since the heroic acts took place. Mr Shankland was born on October 10, 1887 at 6 Gordon Terrace in the South Ayrshire town and emigrated to Canada in 1911. At the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted and returned to Europe as part...

He was a boy hero who epitomised true British grit during the largest naval battle of the First World War. Now the grave of John 'Jack' Travers Cornwell has received protected status to mark the centenary of the Battle of Jutland, in which he was fatally injured after coming under fire from German ships.

A paratrooper who showed "complete disregard" for his own safety during a Taliban attack in Afghanistan has been awarded the Victoria Cross - the highest British military honour.

Wales Online Campaign to improve Rorke's Drift hero's grave Pte James Owen, played by Ivor Emmanuel in Zulu was laid to rest in Swansea, now plans are underway to re-dedicate his grave Image is from clip of the 1964 movie Zulu Private Owen, Ivor Emmanuel (left) with Lieutenant John Chard, Stanley Baker in the classic film Zulu June 29, 2014 06:00 By Robin Turner His role in the battle of Rorke’s Drift was immortalised in the 1964 movie Zulu, yet James Owen’s grave is marked with just a few rotten pieces of wood bearing his name. Now a campaign...

A British soldier awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross died in vain because of an order to prevent damage to Taliban mud huts, an inquest will be told this summer. Colleagues of Lance Corporal James Ashworth – who won the UK’s highest gallantry medal – are expected to tell a coroner they were denied powerful weapons to take on the Taliban due to fears mortars and rockets could damage buildings. Soldiers from the Grenadier Guards will claim James died because he was forced to crawl to within a few feet of an enemy sniper in a mud hut while clutching a...

This week, January 22-23 marks the 134th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in Natal Province, South Africa. Everyone knows the story of the small company of Welsh troops from the 24th Regiment of Foot who held off a force of up to 4,000 Zulu warriors who outnumbered them twenty to one. I plan to celebrate the occasion tomorrow by viewing the classic movie of the siege starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine, made fifty years ago. It looks like there won't be anything else worth watching on TV that day anyway.

Sergeant-Major Stan Hollis, of Middlesbrough was the only soldier awarded a VC at D-Day and is believed to have gunned down 100 German soldiersDuring the early hours of June 6, 1944 - D-Day - lines of scared young soldiers waited in the dark for the order to board the landing craft that would take them into battle on the beaches of northern France. At the last minute they were issued with an unexpected piece of equipment — a condom each! ‘What are these for?’ boomed out the voice of Sergeant-Major Stan Hollis, a hulking power-house of a man from...

ARMS and explosives search dog Treo has saved countless lives in Afghanistan. His handler David Heyhoe tells his story. SETTING off into the dawn sunlight, Treo and I are out front doing the lonely walk. We dog handlers say that emotions run up leash and down again. We had just lost our first soldier - killed by a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) - and Treo could sense that I wanted payback. Treo was hyper-alert and raring to go. It was a good thing. We'd been out for several days now and the Taliban would know the paths we'd use...

EVEN heroes have their heroes. For Victoria Cross holder Ben Roberts-Smith, the benchmark for valour was set by his mate Sergeant Locke. The Special Air Service Regiment corporal says Locke's courage probably saved his life and stopped a heavily outnumbered Australian patrol being overrun on a mountain top in Afghanistan late one afternoon in 2006. "He was a very, very brave person, Matt, in every sense of the word," Roberts-Smith says. When Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross of Australia for his extraordinary charge into a Taliban machine-gun position in June last year, it brought an unexpected burden: the weight...

SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith is Australia’s 98th Victoria Cross holder after the bronze cross with crimson ribbon was pinned to his chest by Governor General Quentin Bryce in Perth today. During a formal investiture ceremony at the picturesque beachside headquarters of the SAS at Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, Corporal Roberts-Smith became only the second Australian soldier to wear the Victoria Cross of Australia after Corporal Mark Donaldson who received the honour in 2009. Before 1991 it was an Imperial Honour that was won by 96 Australians from the Boer War to Vietnam. He is only the second Western Australian born holder...

An SAS digger who single-handedly took out three Taliban machine gunners will today receive Australia's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross. The soldier, known only as Corporal Ben, will receive his medal from Governor-General Quentin Bryce at Perth's Campbell Barracks. Also attending will be Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, Defence Minister Stephen Smith, Defence Force Chief Angus Houston and Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett. Corporal Ben is reported to have earned the VC by his actions during the intense gun battle in Afghanistan's Shah Wali Kot region last October. In the fight, Corporal Ben charged the enemy...

THE second SAS soldier in two years will be awarded the nation's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross for Australia. Governor-General Quentin Bryce and senior political leaders including Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will travel to Perth this Sunday for the investiture ceremony at Campbell Barracks... Rumours have been circulating for some time that an un-named SAS corporal engaged in an intense battle in the Shah Wali Kot region of Northern Kandahar last October could be nominated. A special forces group came under withering fire and four Commandos were wounded, including one...

Indian and British war veterans came together in scores to pay homage to the Indian soldiers who gave up their lives in World War I, fighting on the side of the Allies, at a touching memorial service in Brighton. At a solemn ceremony last evening, Nalin Surie, the Indian High Commissioner to UK, saluted the supreme sacrifices made by Indian soldiers. "Over one million Indian Army soldiers saw active service alongside British troops during the First World War," he said at the Chattri memorial. Surie said Brighton has a special place in the hearts of the people as 12,000 Indian...

AUSTRALIA'S first Victoria Cross winner in almost 40 years has had a private meeting with The Queen. As Australian soldier Mark Donaldson walked calmly out the gates of Windsor Castle yesterday, he looked like any one of a number of the uniformed troops on duty protecting the Queen's official residence. But an observant British local among a small throng outside the gates noticed the distinctive Victoria Cross among other medals pinned to his chest and exclaimed loudly in a Cockney accent, "'e's got-a full deck 'e 'as", and warm applause instantly broke out for the unassuming 30-year-old Digger known to...

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd, federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, Victorian Premier John Brumby and senior defence chiefs are among hundreds of people who have turned out for the funeral of Ted Kenna, who was Australia's last surviving World War II Victoria Cross recipient. One of Australia's two living Victoria Cross recipients, Vietnam veteran Keith Payne, was also at the service. ..... Nepalese Victoria Cross recipient Limbu Rimbahadur was also among the mourners at St Patrick's Cathedral in East Melbourne. Mr Kenna will be buried with full military honours.

It’s hard for anyone under the age of at least 50 to say they truly understood Ted Kenna, except for his family and perhaps anyone who’s almost died in combat. And Ted was probably easier to understand than others famed or prominent among his World War II generation, a laconic, uncomplicated country guy who happened to have been given a medal called the Victoria Cross. Ted Kenna and his wife Marjorie For valour. It’s the highest honour you can get. But judging by the muted reaction to Ted’s death, at 90, a lot of people didn’t really get what he...

HIS wife once compared him to a Datsun Sunny, suggesting he would "go forever". But on Wednesday night, following surgery in Geelong Hospital, Ted Kenna died a few days after his 90th birthday. There was little about Mr Kenna to distinguish him from the rest of his generation - except for a single moment in 1945, when he made a choice he was compelled to explain over and over for the rest of his life. Winning the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery, was both a privilege and burden. He had met the Queen 13 times and appeared on...

WAR veteran Ted Kenna made an outstanding contribution to the nation and will be remembered for his courage, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said. Mr Kenna, Australia's last surviving Victoria Cross winner from World War II, died yesterday, aged 90. His death was a sad day for the nation, Ms Gillard said in a joint statement with Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin. "Ted Kenna was a great Australian," they said, adding his story of bravery in New Guinea in 1945 was "extraordinary". "Private Kenna made an outstanding contribution to the nation and he will be remembered for his courage."...

This page is devoted to the pre-eminent heroes of the War on Terror. The men who have been awarded their nations very highest decorations for bravery in service in this war. This page will be updated to include all people who receive those decorations. The decorations are: