Remnants of 6 Pltn B Coy 3 RAR
After raid on Chinese position "Hill 75", Aug 13/14th 1952.
All but the fellow standing at the rear are the survivors of 6 platoon's raid on Charlie's Hill 75, code named Operation Buffalo. We had our collective bums spanked doing this one, taking 26 casualties. Following the expensive raid the Australian brigade commander, Brigadier General Tom Daley, took it upon himself to journey across to Japan and visit the casualties who had been evacuated to the BCOF hospital there. The general sought out and spoke to each and every soldier from that raid. His first concern was how they were going in health and spirit, then he sought to find out from the lads who fought the fight, just what they thought of the tactics used, and was open to suggestions. Not too many generals ever did that. Tom Daley was knighted and became Lieut.Gen. Sir Thomas Daley, Chief of the Australian army, a much admired warrior. He passed away age 90 early January 2004, he was given a magnificent State Funeral in Sydney on the 14th January which brought the city to a halt. Now this looks like a squad of US Marines, sitting about playing with their guns. (Just joking, we have to slip one in on our old buddies now and then. Besides we are too well dressed to be mistaken for Marines.) That is a wiring piquet driven into the ground on the left side of photo, being used to hang gear on at the time. Countless millions of these were spread across Korea, supporting our barbed wire defense systems. Every position during the static war phase was surrounded by very deep layers of wiring, to help stop mass attacks. There were narrow zig zag pathways for our troops to enter and exit, both to front and rear. Outposts were manned at the outer limit of these paths, and they were well covered by fixed firing light machine guns. Minefields were often interspersed with the wire as an extra deterrent for Charlie. More often than not though, if he planned an assault the wire would be badly cut up by artillery barrages. Ron |