This amazing instrument has accompanied man on many of his most arduous journeys. From the lows of the battlefields of WWI and WWII, to the highs of outer space.
1914 saw it march off to war in the pockets and knapsacks of soldiers from all sides and all walks of life. Giving comfort to the lonely and wounded of the Somme and Fromelles; Accompanying weary soldiers on long marches through the horror of the battlefields of the Western Front; In 1915 with the Australian Light Horse Brigade, dismounted and marching through Heliopolis on their way to Gallipoli, and entertaining the wounded while being sent home on the hospital trains.
Whoever it was with or wherever it was, it helped to dispel the nightmare of war.
In one of its most inspiring moments, it is said to have accompanied the famous Silent Night truce of Christmas 1914.
Leap forward 100 years to 2015 and we will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Gemini 6 flight into space on 16th December, 1965, when Command Pilot Wally Schirra reported a UFO sighting that turned out to be Santa Claus, heading south on his Christmas round.
Wally then burst into a rendition of Jingle Bells on his Little Lady 4 hole HOHNER harmonica with the accompaniment of Tom Stafford, Pilot, on sleigh bells!
Both instruments are now on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, USA.
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