Ivo "Mick" Lanham 7 Nov 1919 Launceston Tasmania Australia– 26 dec 1976 Launceston Tasmania Australia
2nd son of Thomas Stephen Lanham and Isabella Lanham
married Shirley Milbourne in 1951
They had Four children, two son and two daughters ( names withheld to protect privacy)
There are 12 grandchildren
Service: Australian Army. enlisted 10 apr 1940
Service Number: TX1232. in 6th Division POW in Germany
Mick and his sister Betty returned from Adamsfield in 1930, to attend Charles St. Primary School school, living with their grandmother, Elizabeth Lanham. Mick won a scholarship to High School. He became
involved with the school in his adlut years and was for many years secretary of Churinga, Past Pupils
Association for Launceston High School..
After his repatriation from Army Service he undertook to return to study under the Australian
Government's Retraining programme. He went to University in Hobart, becoming an Accountant
The pyschological damage from his years as a POW continued to plague him until his death in 1976
World War Two and the Australian 6th Division Petrol Coy
Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that as a result, Australia is also at war.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies spoke these words in his address to the nation on 3 September 1939. World War Two had broken out two days earlier when Germany invaded Poland. After Britain and France declared war on Germany, Australia, part of the British Empire, promptly followed suit. It would be six years before Australia, and the world, was at peace again. War service would take Australians to virtually every corner of the world. Nearly one million served in the armed services (Navy, Army and Air Force) or Merchant Marine, otherwise known as the Merchant Navy.
excerpt from article at: http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/doc/overview.asp
The 6th Division Service Corps contained the following companies Supply, Petrol and Ammunition.
North Africa
The 6th Division first saw action in late 1940, against Italian forces in North Africa, in the advance to Benghazi
In June 1940, Italy declared war on the Allies and began to build up forces in Libya. In September 1940, the Italian Tenth Army invaded Egypt, a British colony, threatening Alllied control of the Middle East and most particularly, the Suez Canal and international supply routes. British forces under General Sir Archibald Wavell expelled the Italians from Sidi Barrani and pursued them back towards the Libyan border. In December 1940, the 6th Division was moved forward from training camps around Alexandria to relieve British troops around Bardia and at the end of December they were ordered to prepare to attack.
On 3 January 1941, the first major Australian action of World War II took place, the Battle of Bardia. The 6th Division penetrated the defences of the Italian stronghold. Despite some heavy resistance the town fell to the Australians just two days later. The Australians captured Italian war material as well as thousands of Italian prisoners of war (POWs), many of whom were shipped to prison camps in Australia.
The fighting continued until 5 January when the Italian position had been cut almost into two. The allies took nearly 40,000 Italian prisoners and considerable amounts of enemy weapons, supplies and equipment. The battle for Bardia cost 130 Australian lives with 320 men wounded.
On 22 January 1941, the Italian Tobruk fell to the AIF and 25,000 Italians became prisoners. During January and February 1941, the 6th Division, together with British units, pushed the Italian army back across Libya. The Italian Tenth Army was destroyed.
In early April 1941, the 6th Division was withdrawn from North Africa to defend Greece and replaced by the Australian 9th Division , which took part in the epic Siege of Tobruk between April and November 1941 against Italian and German forces.
Greece and Crete
In March 1941, Prime Minister Robert Menzies, of Australia, with the concurrence of his Cabinet, agreed to the sending of Australian troops to Greece. Both Menzies and the I Corps commander, Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey, felt that the operation was risky and might end in disaster. But Menzies felt that Greece should be supported against German aggression and that the defence of Greece was a "great risk in a good cause".
In Greece, the Australians joined with a New Zealand and British force to defend the country against a threatened German invasion. Hitler was concerned that if Greece became a British ally then oilfields in Romania, on which Germany relied for her fuel, might be open to air attack from Greece. As the Germans were planning an invasion of Russia for June 1941, they could not allow such a threat to their essential oil supplies.
The 6th Division arrived in Greece in early April 1941 and on 6 April the Germans began their invasion of Greece. Despite their efforts, the Allied force, together with Greek units, was unable to halt the rapid German advance down central Greece towards Athens. During the campaign, Brig. George Vasey's 19th Brigade (minus the 2/11th Battalion) was defeated by the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler brigade, at the Battle of Vevi. The 2/4th and 2/8th Battalions became the only Australian Army units to face elite Waffen SS soldiers in combat.The Allies were outflanked by the Germans, and were driven off the Greek mainland. The 19th Brigade Group then took part in the Battle of Crete. More than 3,000 members of the division could not be evacuated, and were taken prisoner in the Greek campaign, including Crete. A great deal of equipment was also lost. Almost immediately, however, the 17th Brigade was detached to take part in the bloody but successful attack on Vichy French forces in the Syria-Lebanon campaign.
Greece and Crete were costly operations for Australia. About 39 per cent of the Australia troops in Greece on 6 April 1941 were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war. More than 450,000 Greeks died during the next four years of German occupation, nearly 25,000 of them executed for assisting the allies.
Mick in late 1945, pictured here with his niece Gaele
on his return from Germany as a POW
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