Australian World War Stories

Under cover of darkness, German aircraft bombed No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station on 22 July 1917. Alice Ross-King ran straight toward the shattered tents. She and three fellow nurses carried wounded soldiers to safety, placing tables over beds to shield patients from further blasts. Four nurses received the Military Medal for their actions that night. Alice had already survived Egypt, the Suez, and France. She would go on to serve again in World War Two, rising to the rank of Major.

FIRST VC INVESTED BY QUEEN ELIZABETH II. Korea, 4 November 1951. Private Bill Speakman stuffed his pockets with grenades and charged alone into wave after wave of Chinese troops. When grenades ran out, he returned for more. Six men followed him. When ammunition failed, they hurled stones, ration tins, and beer bottles. Wounded in the leg and shoulder, he kept charging until his company withdrew safely. The Black Watch soldier stood six feet six inches tall and earned a Victoria Cross.

A generation traumatized. 26 May 1968: Australian troops inflicted heavy casualties on an estimated force of two North Vietnamese battalions early this week when the enemy tried to overrun Australian Fire Support Base Balmoral in Bien Hoa Province, north of Saigon. In this attack, the second on Balmoral, Australian soldiers of 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment also suffered heavy casualties; some of the heaviest since the Battle of Long Tan, in August, 1966. Evacuation helicopters were hovering over the battle scene soon after the action took place, and the Australian troops, some of them wounded, were flown out. The action began when a shower of rockets and mortar shells crashed into the wooded area. Although the Australians had less time to take cover, they suffered less casualties than they had on the previous attack, two days before. A large number of enemy weapons were captured in the engagement - many left behind as the North Vietnamese retreated shortly before dawn. Among the weapons were automatic rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, torpedoes and mortars. Six enemy soldiers were captured after the battle. All had been wounded in the fighting...some of them seriously. They were given medical treatment. Then they, too were passengers in the medical evacuation airlift from the area. AWM: 3 RAR action in Vietnam DPR/TV/853 & 855