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Anzac Day 2008
Section 6: Anniversaries
World War I—1918
Middle East
During the Gallipoli campaign Australian Light Horse regiments had fought
as infantry. While some light horsemen then went to the Western Front,
12 regiments of the Australian Light Horse spent the war in the Middle
East fighting Turkish and German forces. On 31
October 1918 the 4th and 12th LH Regiments
had carried out what was to be the last great cavalry charge, to capture
the water wells at Beersheba
as part of the Third Battle of Gaza. The light horsemen swept across open
ground, too fast for enemy machine-gunners to continue lowering their
sights, and captured the wells intact. British and Anzac troops went on
to take Gaza. This was the
start of a great offensive, as Anzac, British, Indian and Arab forces
pushed the Ottoman army out of the desert into Palestine.
The year ended on a high note, with the Australians capturing Jerusalem
in the last days of 1917.
Following on from their 1917 successes, during 1918 the Australian Light
Horse fought the first of two battles around the town of Amman in March
1918; engaged in the heavy fighting at Es Salt in late April and early
May; and participated in the actions at Megiddo (Sharon), Nablus and a
second action at Amman in September. On 1
October 1918, shortly before the enemy surrendered, Australian
Light Horsemen were the first Allied troops to enter Damascus.
On 30 October 1918 Turkey
sued for peace.
1918 battles
In ‘The
first Es Salt raid’ and ‘The
second Es Salt raid’, Major J.M. Clerke
of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment describes his experience of
fighting in difficult terrain in April and May 1918. Clerke describes
leading horses up a 4000 ft mountainside on bare slippery rock paths so
narrow that the horses’ ammunition panniers scrapped the rock on
one side while overhanging a sheer drop of hundreds of feet on the other.
During the withdrawal from the second raid, or ‘stunt’, Clerke
describes riding through a wheat crop with ‘sprays of [enemy] machine-gun
fire cutting the grain’. Clerke considered the second Es Salt raid
to be a greater failure then the first (Reveille, 1 April 1937
and 1 December 1939). The second
raid cost 50 killed, 278 wounded and 37 missing from the mounted brigades,
while the infantry suffered another 1116 casualties.
Following the successful taking of the town of Amman in late September
1918, elements of the Anzac Mounted Division, under the command of Brigadier
Granville Ryrie MP of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, found
themselves in the extraordinary position of having to protect 5000–6000
enemy Turkish troops from an army of 10 000 Arabs, as described by
Damien Fenton in ‘Stand-off
at Ziza’ (Wartime, No. 24, October 2003).
In ‘Megiddo
and after: the annihilation of the Turkish armies in Palestine’,
John Price describes how Australian Light
Horsemen under General Allenby, surprised
the enemy by launching an attack on the coastal plain of Sharon (Sabretache,
July 1970).
Victoria Crosses
The Victoria Cross
is the highest award for acts of bravery in wartime. Twenty nine Victoria
Crosses were awarded to members of the Australian Imperial Force in 1918—all
for actions on the Western Front—eleven in the month of September
alone, mostly for actions around the Peronne and Mont St
Quentin areas. Lieutenant Dominic ‘Fats’
McCarthy was awarded a Victoria Cross on 23 August 1918. His actions are regarded by some to be ‘the
most effective piece of individual fighting in the history of the AIF
next to Albert Jacka's Military Cross winning feat at Pozières’—which
led to his VC being referred to as ‘the super-VC’.
World War II—1943
65th anniversary of the battles and operations of 1943
New Guinea offensives
On 2 January 1943 Australian
and American forces took the village of Buna
on the north coast of New Guinea from determined Japanese defenders after
two weeks of savage fighting at a cost of 2870 Allied battle casualties,
including 913 Australians. In ‘New Guinea Offensive’
Peter Stanley explains how in September 1943 in and around the New Guinea
area, Australian forces began a series of offensives which over the following
six months overwhelmed the Japanese Eighteenth Army and give General Douglas
MacArthur’s forces ‘a firm base’ from which to launch
an offensive against Japanese occupation of the Philippines (Wartime,
No. 23, 2003).
Other battles fought between Japanese and Australian forces in 1943
included:
-
Sandananda
(12–18 January): 2100 Allied casualties, including 1400 Australians,
600 of whom were killed or missing;
-
Wau
(28 January–1 February): approximately 300 Australian casualties;
-
Lae
and Salamaua (4–11 September): on 4 September elements of
the Australian 9th division began an amphibious landing
on beaches to the east of
Lae which was the focus of a major land, sea, and air operation
by Australian and American forces. This occurred in conjunction with
operations against another major Japanese base on the Huon
Gulf at Salamaua
which was captured five days before the successful capture of Lae.
-
Finschhafen
(22 September–2 October): after the capture of Lae, the next
goal for Australian forces was the capture of Finschhafen which it
was hoped would provide a base for future air and naval operations
by the US Sixth Army against Japanese forces on New
Britain. Finschhafen was captured after eleven
days at a cost to the 9th
Divisions’ 20th Brigade of 358 casualties, 73
of whom were killed.
-
Sattelberg
(3 October–25 November): after the fall of Finschhafen the Australian
9th Division turned its focus to the mountain mission station
at Sattelberg, 9000 metres above sea level. Lieutenant
Thomas Currie ‘Diver’ Derrick won a Victoria Cross
for his actions at Sattelberg.
In ‘The Naval campaigns
of New Guinea’ David Stevens ‘briefly examines some of
the major issues surrounding the operations of Allied and Japanese naval
forces during the war in New Guinea from 1942 to 1944’ (Journal
of the Australian War Memorial, No. 34, June 2001).
The Battle
of the Bismarck Sea was a naval action in which a Japanese convoy
of sixteen ships bound for New Guinea,
consisting of eight transports carrying up to 7000 Japanese army and marine
reinforcements and eight escorting destroyers, were virtually annihilated
by allied air attacks. Nearly half of the Japanese troops on the convoy
ships were believed to have been killed.
Japanese bombers attacked the West Australian coast around Exmouth
Gulf in May and September 1943, but with no damage or casualties.
Operation Jaywick
September 2008 is the 65th anniversary of Operation Jaywick,
a daring special operations raid carried out against Japanese ships in
Singapore harbour by Australian and British army and navy personnel, led
by a British officer, Major Ivan Lyon. The Allied party used a former
Japanese fishing vessel, renamed the Krait, for
their perilous voyage from Exmouth in Western Australia. Seven enemy ships
were sunk by mines which the raiders had attached to the ships before
they made their escape. The Krait is part of the
collection of the Australian War Memorial, on loan to and moored at the
Australian National Maritime Museum. In
‘Operation
Jaywick’, Brad Manera outlines the fate of Lyon's subsequent
doomed mission, Operation Rimau (Wartime, No. 23, 2003).
Loss of the Centaur
The 14 May 2008 marks
the 65th anniversary of the loss of the Australian hospital
ship the
Centaur which was sunk off the Queensland
coast by a Japanese submarine, despite the Centaur’s Red
Cross markings. The successful search for the wreck of HMAS Sydney
has prompted calls for a
similar search for the Centaur.
Victoria Crosses
Three Australians won Victoria Crosses
in 1943:
-
Flight Lieutenant William Ellis Newton,
No. 22 Squadron, RAAF, 16
March 1943, for actions on Salamaua
Isthmus, New Guinea;
-
· Private
Richard Kelliher, 2/25th Battalion, 13
September 1943, for actions near Nadzab,
New Guinea (Wartime
No. 25, January 2004);
- Sergeant Thomas Currie (‘Diver’)
Derrick, 2/48th Battalion, 24
November 1943, for actions at Sattelberg, New
Guinea.
55th anniversary of the Korean armistice
This year marks the 55th anniversary of the
1953 Korean War armistice, which brought an end to hostilities on the
Korean peninsula. From 29 June 1950 to July 1953, some 17 000 Australian service
personnel served in the Korean War. Although the armistice negotiations
began in July 1951. they were not completed until two years later. In
all, 339 Australians lost their lives and 1216 were wounded in the Korean
War.
Australians fought in difficult conditions,
as described by Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, the first Australian
commander of the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade—‘the
dust, the heat, the enervating humidity, the bitter cold of winter when
the men slept with their boots on and weapons cradled lest they should
be found frozen in an emergency…’ (cited in Ben
Evans et. al., "Out in the Cold", Department
of Veterans Affairs, Canberra,
2000).
The Australian Army distinguished itself
in the 'stepping stone' phase of the war at Sariwon, Yongu, Pakchon and
Chonhju; in major battles, such as Kapyong (April 1951) and Maryang San
(October 1951); and in the 'static' phase of the war at Hill 227 and the
Hook. The RAN and RAAF played roles supporting Australian and United Nations
forces, with naval and air dominance a critical factor in the outcome
of the war.
Australian service personnel did not return
to the rapture that had welcomed Australians after World War II. As in
the United States,
the Korean War in Australia
became known as 'the forgotten war'. It was not until April 2000 that
a
memorial to the Australians who served in the Korean War was unveiled
on ANZAC Parade in Canberra.
However, the importance of that sacrifice is today evidenced by a much
more powerful dedication. South Korea,
the country that young Australians went to defend, is today a vibrant,
free and prosperous state. It is Australia's
third largest export partner and a beacon of democracy in Asia.
It is in the context of the poverty, hunger and oppression that those
in North Korea
still live, that the Australian sacrifice to defend freedom and liberty
in South Korea
should be remembered.
Malayan Emergency
50 years since the Malayan Emergency actions of 1958
There are several small wars some veterans of which claim to be ‘forgotten’.
One is the Malayan Emergency. This conflict started in June 1948 and officially
ended in July 1960. During this period, about 7000 Australians served
alongside British, New Zealand,
Ghurka and Malayan forces against Communist insurgents.
The Malayan Emergency started after the murder, on 16
June 1948, of three European plantation managers by guerrillas
of the Malayan Communist Party. This followed a period of increasing unrest.
A State of Emergency was
declared in several districts, and then on 18 June it was extended to
the whole of Malaya. British, Ghurka and Malayan
military personnel and police then began operations against Communist
insurgents.
The first direct approach for Australian assistance in the Malayan Emergency
was made in April 1950, when the British Government asked for reinforcements
for Royal Air Force squadrons operating in Malaya.
It was politically expedient for Australia
to demonstrate commitment to the defence of Malaya,
which was ‘an active front in the “cold war” of Communism’.
The British asked for a squadron of Dakota transport aircraft for dropping
supplies to troops operating in the Malayan jungles and for general transport
duties; a squadron or flight of Lincoln
bombers to assist the RAF Lincolns bombing insurgent camps and supply
lines; and additional ground staff to assist in maintaining RAF aircraft.
Australia
agreed to send the Dakotas and Lincolns,
with air and ground staff, but instead of sending additional ground staff,
the government instead authorised RAF Lincoln bombers to undergo maintenance
in Australia.
Dakotas from No. 38 Squadron RAAF and Lincolns
from No. 1 Squadron RAAF were deployed during 1950, and proved effective
in their respective roles. Australia’s
commitment was increased in 1955 with the deployment of ground forces.
By then, the Communist insurgency had largely been checked with military,
political and ‘hearts and minds’ actions. The challenge was
to track down and combat the increasingly small groups of insurgents operating
in jungle areas.
Vietnam War
40 years since the Vietnam War actions of 1968
In ‘Tet
turning point’, Chris Coulthardt-Clark describes the activities
of Australian forces during the Tet Offensive in early 1968 and argues
that ‘if there was any one point when the Vietnam War was lost for
the allies, the Tet Offensive of 1968 was probably it’ with Tet
being a case ‘where defeat came wrapped up in apparent victory’
(Wartime No. 20, 2002).
Fire Support Bases ‘Coral’ and ‘Balmoral’
May 2008 will mark the 40th anniversary of the battles between
Australians and attacking communist forces at Fire
Support Bases ‘Coral’ and ‘Balmoral’, which
became known as the ‘Mini-Tet’
offensive. In ‘Fire
support Bases Coral and Balmoral—May 1968: 1st Australian
Task force in defence of Saigon’, Lex McAulay explains that
Australian forces had to very quickly adapt from patrolling and searching
for the enemy to defending themselves against attacks from enemy forces
of battalion and regiment size (paper presented to the Australian War
Memorial History Conference, 6–10 July 1987).The Department of Veterans’
Affairs Coral
and Balmoral website has information on commemorative events planned
for the 40th anniversary, historical background and a list
of units involved in the battles which cost 25 lives and more than 100
casualties.
Australian peacekeeping
More than 10 000 Australians have served as peacekeepers, and 12
have died while on peacekeeping operations.
Australia’s
first operation was in 1947, when military observers were sent to Indonesia
under the banner of the United Nations (UN) to monitor the ceasefire between
Dutch colonial and Indonesian independence forces. Since then, Australian
military, police and some civilians have served on more than 50 peacekeeping
missions.
Australian activities have included:
-
observing truces (and fighting) in locations such as Korea,
the Sinai, Lebanon,
the Balkans, Kashmir and Bougainville;
-
providing humanitarian aid in remote areas such as the Congo
and in West New Guinea;
-
establishing law and order in trouble-spots such as Cyprus
and the Thai-Cambodian border;
-
observing elections and referendums in places such as West
Sahara and East Timor; and
-
de-mining in countries like Afghanistan
and Cambodia.
The first multinational peacekeeping mission commanded by an Australian
was the UN Military Observer Group in India
and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). Robert Nimmo,
a former army officer who was appointed as an Honorary Lieutenant-General
in 1954, was ‘a model of firmness, tact, and silence’ who
led UNMOGIP from 1950 until his death in 1966. His is the longest ever
command of a UN operation. Australians have since commanded several other
peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, Asia
and Pacific regions.
The first operation with more than 500 Australians was the Australian-commanded
UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia
during 1992–93. The first with more than 1000 Australians was the
Unified Task Force in Somalia
during 1993. By far the largest commitment for Australia
to date was the Australian-commanded International Force East Timor in
1999–2000, with more than 5000 personnel deployed.
‘Peacekeeping’ can be a misnomer, as operations may be in
war zones or areas of recent violence. There may be cultural difficulties
to deal with between peacekeepers and locals, and between different nationalities
of peacekeepers. There has been frustration, even within the ranks of
peacekeepers, at the perceived impotence of some operations. The failure
or inability to protect civilians in a number of locations, such as Rwanda,
has been condemned. On the other hand, there have been some very successful
peace operations as well.
Cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been reported among
former peacekeepers. Even some ‘non-warlike’ operations have
imposed uncommon strains on personnel. Indeed, two of the deployments
to the UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), including the period
spanning the Kibeho massacre on 22 April 1995, have since been reclassified ‘warlike’.
Members of these deployments have been issued with the Australian Active
Service Medal, and are eligible for veterans’ entitlements.
In recognition of the importance and increasing complexity of peacekeeping,
in 1993 the Australian Defence Force Peacekeeping Centre was opened at
Williamtown, NSW to guide doctrine and training. In 2002, the Australian
Federal Police (AFP) opened the Wanggirrali
Ngurrumbai Centre at Majura, ACT for police peacekeeping training.
The Official History
of Australian Peacekeeping and Post-Cold War Operations is currently
being written, jointly supported by the Australian War Memorial, the Australian
National University
and the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The first of five volumes will
be published in 2008. The Australian Peacekeeping Memorial
Project aims to build a memorial on Anzac Parade in Canberra.
It has received backing from the ADF, AFP,
RSL, and the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association.
ADF and AFP peacekeepers are currently
serving in Timor-Leste, Cyprus,
Sudan,
Solomon Islands,
Sinai and the Middle East.
Australian peacekeeping honour roll
According to the Australian War Memorial’s peacekeeping
operations website, twelve Australians have died in peacekeeping operations.
Honorary Lieutenant-General Robert Nimmo, civilian–UN
Military Observer Group in India
and Pakistan,
natural causes, Kashmir, 4 January 1966;
Sergeant Llewellyn
(Lew) Thomas, SA Police, seconded to Commonwealth
Police (CP)–UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), vehicle
accident, 26 July 1969;
Inspector Patrick Hackett, NSW Police, seconded to
CP–UNFICYP, vehicle accident, 29 August 1971;
Sergeant Ian
Ward, NSW Police, seconded
to CP-UNFICYP, landmine explosion, 12
November 1974;
Captain Peter McCarthy, Australian Army–UN Truce
Supervision Organisation, Lebanon,
landmine explosion, 14 January 1988;
Lance Corporal Shannon McAliney, Australian Army–Unified
Task Force, Somalia,
accidentally shot, 2 April 1993;
Major Susan Felsche, Australian Army–UN Mission
for the Referendum in Western Sahara, plane crash,
21 June 1993;
Lance Corporal Russell Eisenhuth, Australian Army–International
Force East Timor, illness, 17
January 2000;
Lance Corporal Shawn Lewis, Australian Army–Peace
Monitoring Group, Bougainville, drowned, 20 May 2000;
Corporal Stuart Jones, Australian Army–UN Transitional
Administration in East Timor, accidentally shot,
9 August 2000;
AFP Protective
Service Officer Adam Dunning, AFP
Protective Service–Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon
Islands (RAMSI), Honiara, ambushed and shot, 22 December 2004;
Private Jamie Clark, Australian Army–RAMSI,
Guadalcanal Island,
fell down a mineshaft while on patrol, 10 March 2005.
Australian peacekeeping operations 1947–2007
• UN Consular Commission [Indonesia] 1947
• UN Good Offices Commission (UNGOC) [Indonesia] 1947–49
• UN Commission for Indonesia (UNCI) 1949–51
• UN Commission for Korea (UNCOK) 1950
• UN Military Observer Group in Indian and Pakistan (UNMOGIP)
[Kashmir] 1950–85
• UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea
(UNCURK) 1951
• UN Command Military Assistance Commission (UNCMAC) [Korea] 1953–present
• UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) [Israel, Lebanon and
neighbours] 1956–present
• UN Operation in the Congo (UNOC) 1960–61
• UN Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) [West New Guinea] 1962–63
• UN Yemen Observation Mission (UNYOM) 1963
• UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) 1964–present
• UN India-Pakistan Observation Mission (UNIPOM) 1965–66
• UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) [Israel/Syria] 1974
• UN Emergency Force II (UNEF II) [Sinai] 1976–79
• UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) 1978
• Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF) [Zimbabwe] 1979–80
• Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) [Sinai] 1982–present
• Commonwealth Military Training Team–Uganda (CMTTU) 1982–84
• UN Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNMIIMOG) [only in Iran]
1988–90
• UN Border Relief Operation (UNBRO) [Thailand/Cambodia] 1989–93
• UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) [Namibia] 1989–90
• UN Mine Clearance Training Team (UNMCTT) [Afghanistan/Pakistan]
1989–93
• Maritime Interception Force (MIF) [Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman,
Red Sea] 1990–present
• Operation Habitat [Kurdistan (northern Iraq)] 1991
• UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) [Iraq] 1991–99
• UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) 1991–94
• UN Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) 1992–93
• UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) 1992–93
• UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) 1992–93
• Unified Task Force (UNITAF) [Somalia] 1992–93
• UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) [Balkans (former Yugoslavia)]
1992
• Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) 1993–99
• UN Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) 1993–95
• UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) 1994–95
• UN Operation in Mozambique (UNOMOZ) 1994–2002
• South Pacific Peace-Keeping Force (SPPKF) [Bougainville] 1994
• Multinational Force (MNF) [Haiti] 1994–95
• UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINIGUA) 1997
• Stabilisation Force (SFOR) [Balkans (former Yugoslavia)] 1997–2006
• Truce Monitoring Group (TMG)
[Bougainville] 1997–98
• Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) [Bougainville] 1998–2003
• Kosovo Force (KFOR) 1999–2006
• UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) 1999
• International Force East Timor (INTERFET) 1999–2000
• UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) 2000–02
• International Peace Monitoring Team (IPMT) [Solomon Islands]
2000–02
• United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), 2000-present
• International Military Advisory and Training Team (IMATT) [Sierra
Leone] 2000–03
• UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) 2002–05
• UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq
(UNMOVIC) 2002–03
• UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 2003–present
• Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) 2003–present
• UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) 2004–present
• UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) 2005–present
• UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) 2006–present
[includes UN Office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL)]
Note: Date ranges are for the operation itself. Australian participation
may not have been for the whole of the stated period.
Other resources
End of section 6
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