Lieutenant Bradley Freeman (rear right) a Platoon Commander with Combat Team Tusk, refers to his map and radios instructions as his soldiers go firm to support other members of his platoon, Operation Shak Haliwel in the Kakarak region of Oruzgan Province Afghanistan, April 2009.
Dawn on the Gallipoli Peninsula Turkey, today ANZAC Day 2009, where 94 years ago today, ANZAC forces landed to take on Johnny Turk. Nine months later they would leave under the cover of darkness the way they came, only this time silently. Behind them, on the beaches, in the ground, in the mud would be 98,000 dead, 237,000 wounded. Not one inch of ground had been held.
Our nation of three million people in 1915, just 15 years as a United Country, had come of age. In the thinking of the time, in the mud and the blood left behind was proof that Australia was up to it. That it could stand and fight for the Mother Country. Such a waste, a dreadful waste. They all wanted to go you know. To be with their mates, to "not miss out" on this grand adventure.
Such a strange friendship and respect was born between the Aussies and the Turks. Both sides respected each other. In what now must seem like a fairytale. Both sides would stop to bury the dead, share a smoke, a drink. Look at each others photos of family, pat each other on the back, agree war is hell, then go back to killing each other five minutes later.
Today, the Turks welcome us with open arms. We are Brothers. They have looked after so many of our boys for so long, in such a fine manner. We Aussies who have been there leave wondering how we would have treated the Turks, the Japs or Gerry if the shoe had been on the other foot.
They say only 7,500 Aussies travelled to Turkey for the service this year, down on last years 10,000. Not bad for a world with no money. It costs about 3 grand for a short trip to Gallipoli.
There are no finer people or hosts than the Turks and I really mean that. To take a stranger into your house whos great grandfather killed many of your relatives and their friends on YOUR SOIL and to be able to say "Well it was a long time ago, they were good soldiers, not like the English or the French, they fought well, we respected them" all is forgiven." is a remarkable attitude and one I would not be able to have.
A fine young Aussie already a veteran of 3 wars, most likely from a RAR Battalion, wearing U.N., East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan Campaign Medals shares a beer with a WW2 Digger in a local R.S.L. Club after todays dawn Service. The old Digger is 25 again, you can see it in his eyes. The young Digger is 30 going on 70, you can see it in his eyes.
Aussies on Active Service in Afghanistan playing "Two Up' a traditional ANZAC day gambling game earlier this morning.
My local Dawn Service where 38,000 people formed up at 5.30am this morning to honour our War dead.
The march to the Shrine, my old mate Lt. Cdr. Ian Wailes R.a.N.. He used to help me run the footy club. I was about 25 and he was about 70 and he was helping me???
My other old mate Ted Kelly, awarding the medal given in his name to a young footballer. Old Teddles joined the a.I.F. when he was 15, not the usual and legal age of 21. He looked young when he was in his 60s, helping me run the footy club. How he passed for older in 1939 I will never know. He eludes to "mates and things" working in his favour. He told me his Mother had a fit when he joined up. Left home to sell papers in Elsternwick, came home 6 years later a Sgt. veteran of North Africa, the Middle East, New Guinea, Finchaven, you name it. He spent a lot of time dodging questions about his age, dodging the MPs, drinking beer, running riot in Cairo. The stories he can tell. Its an Honour to just know this type on Man. Jeeze we gave him some stick back then, but he could take it. Such a funny bastard, could drink men 40 years his junior under the table. Boy did we have some rows. But we took the Club to three flags in 5 years! Ted was TPI and half dead then. 20 years later hes still marching. You cant kill these blokes. I swear I gave him the last rites three times in the 80s.
From the Big ANZAC DAY footy game at the MCG where Diggers were honoured pre game. Here is three generations of Diggers.
Korea
Vietnam
The War on Terror
Today above all other days, we stop to remember all of those who fought and died in our name.
Blokes like Mathew Hopkins 21, who had 4 days with his baby son before heading back to Afghanistan to be killed by the Taliban in an ambush.
Or Vivian Bullwinkel. In 1941, wanting to enlist, Bullwinkel volunteered as a nurse with the RAAF but was rejected for having flat feet. She was, however, able to join the Australian Army Nursing Service; assigned to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital (2/13th AGH), in September 1941 she sailed for Singapore. After a few weeks with the 2/10th AGH, Bullwinkel rejoined the 13th AGH in Johor Baharu.
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Japanese troops invaded Malaya in December 1941 and began to advance southwards, winning a series of victories and, in late January 1942, forcing the 13th AGH to evacuate to Singapore. But the short-lived defence of the island ended in defeat, and, on 12 February, Bullwinkel and 65 other nurses boarded the SS Vyner Brooke to escape the island.
Two days later, the ship was sunk by Japanese aircraft. Bullwinkel, 21 other nurses and a large group of men, women, and children made it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island; they were joined the next day by about 100 British soldiers. The group elected to surrender to the Japanese, and while the civilian women and children left in search of someone to whom they might surrender, the nurses, soldiers, and wounded waited.
Some Japanese soldiers came and killed the men, then motioned the nurses to wade into the sea. They then machine-gunned the nurses from behind. Bullwinkel was struck by a bullet and pretended to be dead until the Japanese left. She hid with a wounded British private for 12 days before deciding once again to surrender. They were taken into captivity, but the private died soon after. Bullwinkel was reunited with survivors of the Vyner Brooke. She told them of the massacre, but none spoke of it again until after the war lest it put Bullwinkel, as witness to the massacre, in danger. Bullwinkel spent three and half years in captivity; she was one of just 24 of the 65 nurses who had been on the Vyner Brooke to survive the war.
Bullwinkel retired from the army in 1947 and became Director of Nursing at Melbourne's Fairfield Hospital. She devoted herself to the nursing profession and to honouring those killed on Banka Island, raising funds for a nurses' memorial and serving on numerous committees, including a period as a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, and later president of the Australian College of Nursing.
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Blokes like Keith Payne who was born at Ingham in Queensland, Australia, on 30 August 1933. After leaving school he worked as an apprentice cabinetmaker and spent a short period in the Citizen Military Forces as a reserve soldier. He enlisted in the regular army on 13 August 1951. He served in Korea with 1 RAR from April 1952 and was posted as an infantryman to the 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) in September 1952, his service in Korea ended in March 1953, followed by service with the 28th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade before returning to Queensland in September 1953. He married Florence Plaw, a female soldier, on 5 December 1954.
After a period of service training cadets and national servicemen, he was posted to the 3rd Battalion (3 RAR) in February 1960. He saw further overseas service with that Battalion in Malaya, and was promoted to sergeant on 1 June 1961. He joined the 5th Battalion (5 RAR) in February 1965 and was promoted to Warrant Officer in June of that year. This was followed by postings to the Officer Training Unit and with the 2nd Pacific Islands Regiment in Papua New Guinea. He was appointed to the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam on 24 February 1969.
Keith's initial duties in Vietnam were with a mobile strike force that was reconnoitering enemy infiltration routes from Laos into Vietnam. These routes were being used to surround the newly established Ben Hut Special Forces camp. On 24 May Keith was commanding the 212th Company of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion when the unit's hilltop position was attacked by a large North Vietnamese force.
Then a barrage of rockets, mortars and machine gun fire hit the two forward companies from three directions simultaneously. The indigenous soldiers under Keith's command faltered, forcing Keith to mount a vigorous single-handed defense, firing his rifle and throwing grenades to keep the enemy from over-running his panicked soldiers. In the process, he was wounded in the hands, upper arm and hip by shrapnel from rockets and mortar rounds.
The US officer commanding the battalion decided to make a fighting withdrawal back to base. With a small number of soldiers from his company, which had suffered heavy casualties, Keith covered the withdrawal of the rest of the force, again relying heavily on gunfire and grenades to hold off the enemy. By nightfall Keith had gathered a composite party of survivors from his own and another company into a small defensive perimeter about 350 meters from the hill they had previously occupied, and which was now in the hands of the North Vietnamese enemy.
In darkness, Keith, on his own initiative, set off to find other survivors who had been cut off during the confused withdrawal. At around 9 p.m. he found one such group, having followed the fluorescence created by their movement through the rotting vegetable matter on the ground. This was followed by similar searches over hundreds of meters of dark jungle over the next three hours. Throughout, enemy soldiers were also searching the area and occasionally firing, but Keith was able to locate 40 men, several of whom were wounded, some of whom Payne personally dragged to safety. He organised for others who were not wounded to crawl out taking the wounded with them.
He led his group of rescued soldiers back to the temporary perimeter only to find that it had been abandoned when the remaining troops withdrew back to the battalion base. Undeterred, he led his party, along with another group of wounded he encountered on the way, back to the battalion base, arriving at around 3 a.m.
Keith was evacuated from Vietnam in September 1969 and received a warm public welcome back in Australia. He was presented with his Victoria Cross by the Queen aboard the royal yacht Britannia at Brisbane on 13 April 1970. He was also awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star, while the Republic of Vietnam honored him with its Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star. He served as an instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and as a cadre staff with a reserve infantry battalion before his retirement from the army in 1975. Keith is alive and well and going strong today. I think he is our highest decorated living Digger. The U.S. gave him some serious medals. He saved a U.S. advisor in the action above. In late 1975 Keith went to Oman and had a run with the Sultans Rifles in the Dhofar War.
# Victoria Cross
# Australian Active Service Medal 1945-1975
* Korea clasp
* Malaysia clasp
* Vietnam clasp
* Thai-Malay clasp
# Korea Service Medal
# United Nations Medal Korea
# General Service Medal 1962
* Malay Peninsular clasp
# Vietnam Service Medal
# Australian Service Medal 1945-1975
* Korea clasp
* SE Asia clasp
* PNG clasp
# E II R Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
# The Centenary Medal
# The Defence Force Service Medal
# The National Medal
# The Meritorious Service Medal
# The Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal
# The Distinguished Service Cross (USA )
# The Silver Star (USA )
# The (Vietnamese ) Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star
# The Vietnam Campaign Medal
* 1960 bar
# The Dhofar Campaign Medal
# The Dhofar Victory Medal
# E II R Golden Jubilee Medal 2002
LEST WE FORGET
Overpaid, oversexed and over here! That was the saying in Australia in the 1940s as we took tens of thousands of U.S. Servicemen into our homes on Billet. Barely a house had not adopted at least one of the young GIs as their son whilst they were in town. Over 3000 Aussie Women would be kidnapped and taken home to the States to make new lives. More than at any other time in our lives.
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United States Ex Servicemen living in Melbourne Australia Marching on ANZAC DAY 2009. Led by a U.S. Officer in Red Beret (Airborne Unit) on an active duty exchange program with Australia. (taken from TV). hes a big boy! apologies Sir, for not recalling your name. Regards to your wife Trish! Airborne, Ole Glory and a Bro`, we got it all here for ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL 2009.
Strike me lucky! Speak of the Devil. Keith Payne V.C. has just popped up on the news in Afghanistan revving up the boys! Thats Kieth, looking like he just stepped off the farm, quite a character and a National Living Treasure.
Thats him second from the left in checked shirt and jeans giving the Troops instructions on how to play Two Up! Thats a Bushmaster in the background, and the Aussie Defense Minister on the far left. The Man is a WARRIOR!
EDIT: The DoD has just released a few pics of Keith with the Diggers. Keith is wearing Mk1 Body Armour befitting a V.C. recipioent as you can see! having served in the Desert, Keith knows Sunnies are handy, so is a pen. I bet theres a radio and a form guide in there as well.. Just like Basil Plumley, Keith knows by the time he needs to shoot, theres gunna be plenty of weapons lying on the ground!!!
My old Regiment, 4th /19th P.W.L.H. Rgt preparing for exercise, 1980s. They told me we ran around in these things, no walking. Sounded great! Little did I know that these things dont go over hills unless the blokes in the back had crested the hill first.
It has been a great day for remembering those who died so WE could live the lives we choose. You yanks, the Pommies, the French, Italians (sometimes), the Poles, the Russians (sometimes) all our great allies of past, present and future.
We who live in freedom and democracy will never forget you. Your duty was to serve, ours is to remember. That is our promise to you.
Lest We Forget.
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