Roberts-Smith, Leonard William 2
Robinvale 112
robotic bomb disposal units 12
Rogers, Trooper James 42
Rommel, Lieutenant General Erwin 133, 137, 140, 172, 173, 174
Rommel Panzer Corps 178
Ross, Alexander Gordon 96
Ross, Lance Corporal Noel 60–1
Ross, Lieutenant Colonel 104
Ross, Major 32
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 125, 128, 132, 230–1, 285, 296
3 Squadron 116
10 Squadron 131
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) 128, 158, 230–1, 296, 297
Royal Flying Corps 112
Royal Navy 48, 54
RSL 122
Rudd, Kevin 34
Russell, Sergeant Andrew 302
Russell’s Top 75
Russia 66, 87, 128, 230, 243
Ruthven, Sergeant William 106
Sabben, Lieutenant David 266
Sadlier, Lieutenant 110
Saigon 242
Sailly-Laurette 115
St Quentin 110
Salisbury Plain 120–1
Samchok 231
Sanananda 157, 160, 163, 167, 215
Sandakan 17
Sanderson, Lieutenant General John 298
Sari Bair 55
SAS xii, xiii, 2, 13, 294, 297, 299–301, 303
Task Force Group in Afghanistan 303–5
Trooper X 300–1
Saunders, Captain Reg 232–3
Saunders, Harry 232–3
Schwarzkopf, General Norman 297
‘scorched earth’ approach 42
Sea of Marmara 47, 48, 50
2nd AIF 129, 133, 142, 172
1st Australian Corps 129
Seddulbahir 67
Selerang Barracks 185, 186
selflessness 17, 62, 154
Seoul 232
September 11 2001 attacks 298
Serong, Brigadier Ted 264
Seton, Carden 210
Shaggy Ridge 220–2, 226
‘shaped charges’ (IEDs) 11
Sharp, Lieutenant Gordon 265
shell shock 103, 104
Shephard, Ben
A War of Nerves 103
Sher, Private Greg 304
Shout, Captain Alfred 74
Shrapnel Gully 84
Silas, Ellis 53, 68
Silver, Corporal E.P. ‘Hi Ho’ 224
Silvester, Reverend 211
Simberi Island 207, 208
Simpson, Private John 17, 68
Simpson, Warrant Officer Ray 246, 248
Sinai Peninsula 109
Singapore 126, 130, 145, 183–4, 185, 205
Singleton’s School of Infantry 2
16th NZ Field Regiment 233
Skyros 54
Slingersfontein 40–1
Smith, Major Harry 265, 268
Smith, Ross 269
Smith, Sapper Darren 6, 304
sniffer dogs 9, 10
Solomon Islands 209
Somalia 297, 298
Somme, Battle of 88–90, 93, 101, 154
Songkitti, General 289
South-East Asia 2
1965 240
South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) 243
South Korea 230, 232
South Vietnam 243–5
Spanish flu 120
Sparrow Force 274, 276–7
Sphinx, The 83
Spragg, Private Griffith 166–7
Stalin, Joseph 229
Stanley, Captain Maury 267, 268
Statue of St Colette 113
Steward, Captain H.D. ‘Blue’ 147
Stopford, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick 70, 72
Stormy Trench 104, 105–6
Strange, Lieutenant Colonel L.A.
Recollections of an Airman 117
Strout, Squadron Leader Graham 231
Sudan, the 39
Sugar Loaf 91–5
suicide bombers 9
Sukarno, President 283, 295
Suvla Bay 70, 72, 75, 81
Swanton, Warrant Officer R.J. 246
Swiss Alps 88
Symons, Lieutenant William 74
Syria 109, 152
Tabar Island 208
Tactical Coordination Line 273, 280
Taliban xi, 4, 9, 10, 13–14
‘rolling ambush’ 14
Talmage, Jack 208
Talon, the 12
Tan Son Nhut Airport 242, 269
Tarrant, Lieutenant Richard Thomas 63–4
Te Ranga 38
Templeton, Captain Sam 144
terrorist attacks 298
Teshima, Lieutenant General 202
Tet offensive 269
Thailand 140, 189
Thompson, Sergeant Bob 152
Thompson, Sergeant Major Wally 18–19, 20, 22–3, 24, 25, 26–7, 30–1, 261–3
Thomson, Private Brent ‘Thommo’ 278
Till, Sergeant Brett 304
Timor 274–6
Australian involvement 276
Fretelin 284
Tobruk 131, 133, 134–9
Tokyo 144
Townsend, Colonel Colin 266
Treacy, Lieutenant ‘Mocca’ 170
Treaty of Lisbon 276
trench warfare 88, 91
psychological effect of bombardment 102, 103
Truman, President Harry 230, 232
Tubb, Lieutenant Frederick 74
Turkish Army 50–1, 57–8, 65, 68, 74, 80, 87
United Nations 230, 273, 284, 286, 290, 295, 296, 299
Assistance Mission East Timor (UNAMET) 285, 290
Australia and peacekeeping missions 295
University of Istanbul 45
unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) 12
US Army
33rd Division 116
72nd Tank Battalion 233
126th Regiment 162, 163
173rd Airborne Brigade 248, 257
503rd Paratroop Regiment 215
US Congress 11
US Department of Defense 11
US Division of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade 11
USS Wasp 210
van der Post, Colonel Laurens 200, 204
War Diaries of Weary Dunlop 183
Vasey, General 163
VBIEDs (vehicle-borne IEDs) 9
Vella Lavella Island 211
Verdun 87–8
Victoria Cross (VC) 1, 4, 13–15, 17, 42, 53, 67, 74, 96, 103, 104, 106, 110, 137, 153, 156, 175, 226, 246, 247
Australian and Imperial, distinguished 13
Viet Cong 245, 246, 253, 258–9, 264
Viet Minh 229, 243
Vietnam 243
Vietnam Veterans’ Association 270
Vietnam War 9, 16, 30, 240, 241–71, 287
anti-war movement 242, 269
casualties 261
conscription 261–2
tunnel rats 254–9
Welcome Home March 271
‘Vietnamisation’ policy 269
Ville-sur-Ancre 106
Villers-Bretonneux 29, 102, 110–12
Adelaide Cemetery 112
Australian National Memorial 112–13
von Richthofen, Baron Manfred (the Red Baron) 113
von Sanders, General Otto Liman 54–5, 65, 68, 70
Vouza, Jacob Charles 210–11
Vredefort 42
WA Mounted Infantry 42
Wackett, Captain L.J. 116
Waddell, Nick 210
Wagstaff, Major C.M. 53
Wake Island 140
Wampum 218
War Services Homes Act 122
Warlock 12
Warm Bad, Battle of 42
Watson, Lieutenant 83
Watson’s Pier 83
Waugh, Steve 79
Weir, Peter
Gallipoli 72
West Timor 273, 276, 283
Western Front 17, 86, 87–108, 110–19
map 93
Westmoreland, General 2
45, 257, 264, 267–8
Wheatley, Doc 277
Wheatley, Warrant Officer Kevin ‘Dasher’ 16, 246
Whelan, Private Kevin ‘Spud’ 148
White, Lieutenant A.T. 52
White, Lieutenant Colonel A.H. 76
White, Reverend Arthur Ernest 125
Whitechurch, Corporal J.H. ‘Bluey’ 224, 227
Whiteside, Sergeant Clair 92
Whitlam government 269
Wilmansrust 43
Wilmot, Chester 138, 139
Tobruk 1941 137
Wilson, Clay 11
Wilson, Eric 100
Wilson, Samuel 100
Wilson, ‘Snowy’ 28
Wilson, Woodrow 122
Witton, Lieutenant George 43–4
Wolf Valley 55
Woodward, Corporal Brett ‘Woody’ 273–4, 277–9
Wootten, Brigadier George 166
World War I 17, 19, 22, 38, 41, 42, 174–227
Armistice 118
Australian casualties 121
Gallipoli see Gallipoli
Middle East see Middle East
Western Front see Western Front
World War II 30, 128–40, 296
Japanese threat to Australia 145, 276
radio telecommunications 206–7, 209–10
Worsley, Private Luke 303
Wright, Malcolm 214
Wyllie, Lieutenant Guy 42
Yongju 231
Young, Captain 110
Young, Mark 236
Yudhoyono, President Susilo Bambang 285
Photographic Insert
As the weeks grew into months on Gallipoli, the Anzacs’ toehold turned into a shanty town nestled in the nooks and crannies of the rugged shoreline around their landing place.
(State Library of New South Wales 0298)
For eight months the Anzacs and the Turks fought a relentless war of attrition from trenches like these, often only metres apart. One exasperated Digger said, ‘Of all the bastards of places this is the greatest bastard in the world.’
(State Library of New South Wales 0306)
A Digger carries a wounded mate to safety. This is a powerful image of the mateship that flourished on Gallipoli and that will forever symbolise the spirit of the Anzacs. In the background is North Beach, looking to Suvla Bay. The photo was possibly a re-enactment, but one of an event frequently seen during the conflict.
(Australian War Memorial G00599)
Australian sculptor Peter Corlett’s evocative Cobbers statue, in the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles, depicts Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Simon Fraser of the 57th Battalion as he carries one of a score of wounded Diggers he rescued from no-man’s land after the battle on 19 July 1916. Fraser survived Fromelles but, sadly, fell at the Battle of Bullecourt and his body was never recovered.
(Patrick Lindsay)
A remarkable aerial photo taken by the Royal Flying Corps showing almost the entire Fromelles battlefield on 19 July 1916. It shows (from the bottom of the frame) the Australian line, then no-man’s land and the German front line. The destroyed Fromelles township is centre-frame, about one-third down from the top. Pheasant Wood stands just to the left of the town.
(Australian War Memorial E05990)
A studio portrait of Henry Victor (Harry) Willis of 31st Battalion, from Alberton, Victoria, who was killed at Fromelles and was one of the missing Diggers of the battle. The first identifiable relic found during the search for the missing Diggers was Harry Willis’s medallion from the Shire of Alberton.
(Australian War Memorial DA11327)
The fate that awaited more than 30 Australian Coastwatchers should they be captured by the Japanese during the Pacific War. This chilling photo was found on a dead Japanese soldier’s body and is believed to show the execution of Sergeant Len Siffleet, a radio operator and Coastwatcher at Aitape, New Guinea on 24 October 1943.
(Australian War Memorial 101099)
Two Coastwatchers in northern New Guinea in mid-1943 with their absurdly cumbersome ‘portable’ AWA 3BZ teleradio. The equipment included separate transmitter, receiver, speaker, amplifier, petrol-driven charger, batteries and massive aerial. It weighed around 150kg and required 12 to 15 strong men to carry it through the jungle.
(Australian War Memorial 015364)
Many Coastwatchers’ health suffered as a result of the combination of operating under constant stress and contracting the virulent tropical illnesses they were exposed to, like malaria. Here an unnamed Coastwatcher cleans his weapon as he watches over his malaria-stricken mate.
(McPhee family)
The grisly aftermath of the infamous Tol Massacre on New Britain Island on 3 February 1942, following the Japanese invasion of Rabaul on 23 January 1942. Japanese soldiers turned on Australian POWs, who had just surrendered, tied them together in small groups and systematically murdered them by bayoneting and shooting.
(Australian War Memorial P09455.001)
The boys of Kokoda. A snapshot by Kokoda hero Captain Stan Bisset MC of some of the men in his brother Butch’s B Company of the 2/14th Battalion as they prepared to head up the Kokoda Track. Lieutenant Harold ‘Butch’ Bisset would die in his brother’s arms at the Battle of Isurava on 30 August 1942.
(Stan Bisset)
Captain Stan Bisset MC at Gona in January 1943. Stan had narrowly escaped death a few hours earlier when a sniper neatly removed a chunk of his right eyebrow during the fighting along the beach only 50 metres behind him.
(Stan Bisset)
An iconic image capturing the unique comradeship between the Kokoda Diggers and their beloved Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels (the Papuan villagers who evacuated the wounded by carrying them tenderly down the treacherous Kokoda Track terrain and brought supplies and ammunition to the front line).
(Stan Bisset)
The spirit of Kokoda reflected in the warm embrace of two veterans of the campaign, Stan Bisset and Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Ovuru Ndiki, of Nauro village. The photo was taken at the Sydney Cenotaph in 2002 as the two old comrades reminisced.
(Patrick Lindsay)
The terrible suffering of those who fell into the hands of the Japanese in Changi and the Thai-Burma Railway during WWII. Their devotion to each other took mateship to a spiritual level and enabled many to survive their unspeakable treatment.
(Australian War Memorial 019199)
A group of the men from 4 Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, who distinguished themselves at the Battle of Kapyong in the Korean War in 1951.
(Australian War Memorial 147350)
Private Ben Chuck, 27, pictured on active duty in the Afghanistan hills, was one of three Diggers killed in a helicopter crash during an operation in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on 21 June 2010.
(Chuck family)
Ben’s death left his family devastated.
(Chuck family)
Ben’s father received a memorial flag after his funeral.
(Chuck family)
Private Ben Chuck
(Chuck family)
Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith won his Victoria Cross for an action in Afghanistan in June 2010. He had earlier won the Medal for Gallantry in Afghanistan in 2006.
(Department of Defence)
Keith Payne was the fourth Australian winner of the Victoria Cross in the Vietnam War, for ‘repeated acts of exceptional personal bravery’ in Kontum Province in May 1969.
(Australian War Memorial ART27773)
Trooper Mark Donaldson became the first winner of the Victoria Cross for Australia for his remarkable bravery in Afghanistan in September 2008.
(Australian War Memorial P09587.001)
The Ataturk memorial at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, immortalises the magnanimous words of Turkey’s Gallipoli hero, Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s first president. Written in 1934, the words are addressed to the mothers of the fallen and concludes: ‘… having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.’
(
Patrick Lindsay)
The hauntingly beautiful Ari Burnu cemetery at Bee Point was created in 1915 and stands near the cape at the north end of Anzac Cove. It contains some of the first Anzac casualties of the campaign among the remains of 252 Commonwealth servicemen, 42 of which are unidentified.
(Patrick Lindsay)
Lone Pine, Gallipoli, not much bigger in area than two tennis courts, is where 4000 Turkish soldiers and 2200 Anzacs died for their countries. Many of them lie entangled in a vast mass grave under the stone memorial, which stands over the Turkish trenches. The Australian trenches were where the gravestones in the foreground now lie.
(Patrick Lindsay)
In a little over six weeks between July and September 1916, the AIF suffered more than 23,000 casualties near Pozières in the Somme. Of these nearly almost 7000 were killed in action, died of wounds or were missing.
The Spirit of the Digger Page 39