The Military History Society of NSW

Editor's Comment from the Summer 2018 edition of the Society's quarterly magazine, Reconnaissance . Welcome to the Summer 2018 edition of Reconnaissance . One of the more colourful events of the Society’s year was Dennis Weatherall’s entertaining lecture on the enigmatic U-2 Spy Plane Incident. In this edition we present the text of Dennis’s talk. When it comes to shadowy Cold War intrigue, this incident had it all ─ technical virtuosity, paranoia, deceit and vindictiveness. How could the American military-intelligence establishment combine the U-2’s technological brilliance with such basic operational incompetence? Was it hubris or something else that led the CIA to pick a faulty aircraft for their most audacious overflight of Soviet territory? Did the CIA seriously expect pilot Gary Powers to commit suicide if he fell into Soviet hands? And after it was all over, how could such an exceptionally talented pilot die because the television helicopter he was flying r...

The Military History Society of NSW Presents: Militaria from the Gallipoli Campaign Presented by Gary Traynor, Saturday 2 February 2019 As Australian Diggers clung desperately to the Gallipoli Peninsula between April and December 1915, necessity became the mother of invention. When they finally evacuated, a lot of battlefield refuse, relics and devices were naturally left behind While the ‘Gallipoli inventions’ are famous, less is known about their ‘back story’, the human context and living conditions that gave rise to them. Life on ANZAC will be examined through a number of fascinating objects including firearms gathered during multiple visits to Gallipoli. Gary is a part time soldier, trained investigator and Assistant Curator in Military Heraldry and Technology at the Australian War Memorial. Time and Venue: Saturday, 2 February 2019, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, Goulburn Room, Level 4, City ...