McArthur was one of only five US Army Generals to attain 5 Star Rank. He served as the Supreme Allied Commander for the South Pacific during the Second World War from May 1942 until the surrender of Japan in September 1945.

He was then appointed Commander of Occupation Forces following the war until the Korean War began where again he served as Supreme Allied Commander until he was relieved.

Of McArthur, it is said “The Generals gifts were those of a strategist and brilliant architect of warfare. Quite simply, he had no peer in WW 2, in any theatre in any Army”

The Royal Navy actively employed minors within their ranks and indeed joining the Royal Navy as a boy was often an unwritten prerequisite for a path towards an Officer Commission.

Similarly, from January 1913 to the very late 1950’s the same applied to the Royal Australian Navy when boys as old as 13 were eligible to join the NAVY as Cadet Midshipmen for a path to Officer Commission

At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November, Germany called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted allied terms that amounted to unconditional surrender.
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the Great War. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave. The allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of their war dead.