DVA 78 Monday 28 May 2001

This Week in History - Our Wartime Heritage

Issued by the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Scott, to foster awareness of Australia’s wartime history and heritage during the Centenary of Federation.

June 1-7

3-7 June 1942: Japanese submarines made a series of attacks against Australian vessels and coastal areas, aimed at isolating Australia and hindering its war effort.  On 3 June the Japanese submarine 1.21 sank the freighter Iron Chieftain south-east of Newcastle and on 4 June the freighter Iron Crown was sunk by the submarine 1.24 south-east of Gabo Island.  The 1.24 then attacked the merchant vessel Echunga on 6 June, 17 miles off Port Kembla.  That attack was successfully repelled when HMAS Kalgoorlie arrived on the scene, but the submarine escaped.  On 7 June the 1.24 reappeared and shelled

the eastern suburbs of Sydney.  On the same night, the 1.21 shelled Newcastle.  Little damage was caused by both attacks.

6 June 1944: D Day, the Allied invasion of occupied Europe in which a combined naval and army force, backed by superior air power, attacked German positions in Normandy, France.  Although Australia’s contribution was relatively small it was significant.  On D Day Australian fighter pilots flew more than 50 sorties and at sea some 500 Australians of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Naval volunteer Reserve were serving with the Royal Navy.  On land, Major Henry Gullet and 12 other Australian officers were on attachment to the British Army.

6 June 1969: The Battle of Binh Ba began in central Phuoc Tuy Province of the Republic of Vietnam.  The village of Binh Ba, just seven kilometres north of the Australian base at Nui Dat, was occupied by troops from the 333 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Regiment.  Two companies from the 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, supported by armoured personnel carrier and tank troops and Australian helicopter gunships, engaged in house-to-house fighting to clear the town.  The communist forces were surrounded and the fighting destroyed much of the town.  More than 60 NVA were killed.  Australian casualties included one killed and eight wounded.

7 -10 June 1917: Captain Robert Grieve, born in Brighton, Victoria, and Private John Carroll, born in Brisbane, were awarded the Victoria Cross for their courage during the battle at Messines, Belgium.  Captain Grieve, 37th Battalion, 10th Brigade, 3rd Division, spotted a hostile pillbox that had struck down half the men and all the other officers of his company.  He took a bag of Mills bombs and, throwing as he advanced, rushed from shell hole to shell hole.  He threw one bomb close to the pillbox, stopping the gunners’ fire, then rolled two more bombs through the firing slit, killing all of the occupants.

Private Carroll, 33rd Battalion, 9th Brigade, 3rd Division, rushed an enemy trench and bayoneted four

men, then rescued a comrade who was in difficulties.  Later in the advance he attacked a machine-gun crew, capturing the gun and, despite heavy shelling and machine-gun fire, dug out two members of his battalion who had been buried by a shell explosion. The successful operation to capture Messines Ridge, an essential point in plans to occupy the Belgian coast, came at a heavy toll for the Australians, with some 6800 casualties, almost two-thirds of these in the 3rd Division.

Media Contact: Mark Croxford   (02) 6277 7820   or  0408 645 787



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