Apowerful new audio podcast detailing a significant Limestone Coast war story will go live today.
When the War Comes Home will go live online today and be launched in South Australian Navy heartland, Port Adelaide, tomorrow.
It tells the extraordinary story of the Beachport mine tragedy, one of Australia’s least-known yet most significant stories of World War II.
On July 14, 1941, a German GY sea mine exploded on a quiet stretch of beach near Beachport.
The accident took the lives of two young Royal Australian Navy sailors Able Seaman Thomas Todd, 30, and Able Seaman William Danswan, 23.
Each was married with a small child at home.
Able Seamen Todd and Danswan were the first two casualties killed on Australian soil due to enemy action in World War II.
This was seven months before the bombing of Darwin and 10 months before the Japanese mini-submarine attack on Sydney Harbour.
But unlike those well-known attacks, this was at the hands of the German war machine.
The tragic accident disrupted the lives of many, the effects of which are still being felt today.
So how did a German mine come to be in Australia – let alone Beachport – in 1941? And how did this accident happen?
From family members, descendants and veterans to Navy personnel, historians and local townsfolk, 18 people come together to tell this incredible true story of World War II.
Extraordinarily, this is one of Australian military history’s most unheard stories, but this new six-part, cinematic audio podcast aims to change all that.
When The War Comes Home will be launched at 2pm tomorrow on the 82nd anniversary of this historic event.
Fittingly, it will be held at the historic Naval Association of Australia Port Adelaide Sub-Section Club Rooms, just metres from where the sailors once lived.
A story of national significance, When the War Comes Home is a new free educational resource commissioned by the Virtual War Memorial Australia for its schools program, as well as being an immersive commemorative podcast for the general public.
It was made possible with a grant from the South Australian Department for Education and produced by award-winning podcast maker, Megan Spencer.
