26 June 1918

• Orange-born James Edward Bishop Johns confesses to his parents in Bondi that he is “sick up to the neck of the job“ and could do with a swim

I very much envy you all having such a good time in the surf. I wish I could get mixed up in the breakers for a while; a good wash wouldn’t do me any harm just now. It is ages since any of us saw even the track of a bath house, and it is weeks since we have had our clothes off. We just remove our hats and boots at night when turning in, and at many a time we don’t even do that.

• At 5.15am the trans-Tasman liner Wimmera strikes a German-laid mine and sinks off Cape Maria Van Diemen in New Zealand. 26 of the 151 passengers and crew are killed. Wimmera Sunk By German Mine

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