Ex-Birchip resident, Dennis Smith, served in the Vietnam war as a private soldier 12 Platoon D Company 4th Battalion for 10 months, between April 1968 and April 1969.
He provided the large crowd gathered at the Birchip Cenotaph with a moving firsthand encounter of war and a history lesson of our country at war and what it means to our way of life.
The following is the text of Dennis’s address at Birchip on ANZAC Day:
ANZAC Day was first recognised on 25th April, 1916, to commemorate the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, Turkey, in 1915 and it was the first major campaign that Australia and New Zealand forces took part in during World War 1.
Federation of the Australian states only took place on 1st January 1901, and the country became one. We were part of the British empire with the King of England as the Head. England goes to war, and we go to fight for our King. This was about the ambitions and jealousies between Queen Victoria’s grandkids, Germany’s desire to acquire an empire like England, France and Russia. The Russian Czar, the German Kaisar and the English King were first cousins, and at that time royalty treated its citizens as expendable commodities.
Loss of life
Before WW1 we had a population of 4.5 million people. In WW1 360,000 joined up and 60,000 were killed, and many of the rest were either wounded or mentally disturbed. Over the journey in all wars, 1.5 million people have gone to war for our country and 105,000 have died.
My father was in the first landing at ANZAC Cove Gallipoli. I have been to Gallipoli and seen the horrendous conditions our ancestors fought and died in. Atta Turk was the commander of the Turkish troops and later became President of Turkey when the Ottoman empire collapsed. In the early 1920s he erected a monument to pay respects to all who died there, incredibly poignant.
Google can provide more information on this story and there are many good books.
Today we pay our respects to those that died in all wars Australia has taken part in, including WW1, WW2, Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We should also not forget those who were wounded physically and mentally, and the families who suffered loss and hardship.
Vietnam
My generation’s war was Vietnam, and this year is the 51st Anniversary of the end of Australia’s commitment. It is 54 years since I was there!
The best thing a Labor government has done for our country was getting us out of that unwinnable war, saving many young lives.
I served as a Vietnam Veteran in infantry with 4 Battalion in 1968/69 and there are only two other veterans left in this area, I know of, who also carried a rifle and went into the jungle to confront the enemy. They are “Tiger” Allan and Allan Floyd (last year’s speaker).
Treaty
In the middle ’60s the government decided under the ANZUS treaty we would join the USA in defending South Vietnam against the Communists to the North. I was conscripted into the army based on my date of birth (the birthday ballot).
I was 20 years old and all I knew about fighting was on the footy field. The army decided, given I was a farm boy, that I would make a good forward scout, and stupidly I did not object. Check with Tiger Allan for authenticity, he was also one!
Back in the ’60s those of us who went to war were all patriots and generally patriotism was not a dirty word – as it seems to be today.
During the entire Vietnam War 60,000 Aussies served, with approximately 6,000 serving in infantry. My mates and I reckon we spent 80 per cent of our time in the jungle on search and destroy mission. We all reckoned, unbiasedly, that we were the best in the business of jungle warfare.
Of the 523 soldiers who died, the vast majority were infantry. Around 300 were also wounded. Four in my platoon died in contacts and another six were injured, out of 33. They were only 20-21 years old! Two died by suicide since the war, and many more died of cancer caused by agent orange, a chemical used to spray base camps and the jungle.
Consequences
War is hell. Beyond your worst nightmare and the effects have profound consequences over the years on those who participated.
All veterans fought for freedom, democracy, our justice system and our way of life, in the best country in the world.
I am biased, but I firmly believe that Australia produces some of the finest fighting soldiers on earth because of our belief that this is the greatest country on Earth and worth preserving for future generations.
As an old man, my hope in a world currently full of dangerous situations is that the youth of today never have to experience what our veterans did.
Before Covid 19, my wife Rhonda and I went to Europe with a purpose to pay our respects to our forefathers who fought in France on the Western Front and the Somme in WW1. Rhonda’s grandfather and uncle and my grandfather were all participants.
We employed a Belgian couple to show us all the major battlefields and memorials that Australia was part of.
Fromelles
One particular battlefield was at Fromelles in the Western Front area of France.
The purpose was to convince the Germans that this was the main offensive in July 1916 and draw troops away from the real main French offensive in the Somme to the east; 5500 Australians took part, with approximately 2000 killed and many more wounded.
The Belgian and I walked through the field towards a fortified German position, reinforced concrete bunkers full of machine guns. I wept as I walked.
The Australian Generals did not want to take part but were ordered to by the British High Command. The French have a phrase, C’est La Guerre, Such is War!
This is an example of how decisions are made without respect for ordinary citizens. The Generals knew the casualties that would eventuate!
General Haig was the commander chief of the Empire forces at that time. I was recently at St Andrew’s Golf Course in Scotland and he is still their Patron. I could have spat on that portrait.
More Australians died that day at Fromelle in four hours than died in all our wars, apart from WW1 and 2.
Military Medal
Rhonda’s great uncle, Harry Gibson from Manangatang, was wounded in August 1918, two months before the hostilities on the 11th of the 11th. He subsequently died from wounds and was awarded a Military Medal. The family never knew what he did precisely to be awarded the medal and where he was buried.
Our Belgian guide sourced what he did. He destroyed three machine gun nests and captured 25 Germans. He was wounded in the process and died a week later. We also found where he was buried, and we paid our respects to him. It was very emotional.
My father Jack flew in Catalina Aircraft in WW2 over the Pacific for three years. He never once talked about the war with me, but I know he was scarred by it mentally.
Democracy
Birchip and the Wimmera Mallee Region is currently the land of milk and honey, with most of our farmers having wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Your ancestors who fought for their country during all our wars had a big part in creating this current situation, maintaining democracy, free enterprise, and our way of life.
So today we pay our respects, remember our ancestors and appreciate what we have inherited. And although war is hell, our way of life is worth defending within Australia and externally.
I personally have many memories of my time at war, good and bad, but I find them too raw to talk about in public.
If anyone wishes to expand on my address today there are many books written and movies made. A few I value are “All quiet on the Western Front”, Hemingway’s “A farewell to Arms”, Mel Gibson’s movie “We were soldiers and young” and “Danger Close” on the Long Tan Vietnam war battle.
I personally shot a deer resting on the edge of the rubber plantation and the jungle plantation with 30 rounds from a M16. What a hero! Very unfortunate deer.
I know today has been a bit of a history lesson, but it is a rich history on how our way of life has evolved and been defended; however, not taught at school in an unbiased way.
Our armed services have been allowed to be run down, and real warriors charged with war crimes by public servants with no ideas of the horrors of war and how you are dehumanised when you are part of it.
Birchip boys
Also, I would like us to remember Perrin Goodwin, a Birchip boy who served in Vietnam and died of cancer much too young, and Frank Hunt, who was badly wounded. Many of my platoon also died of cancer – and they say Agent Orange had no effect.
“Goody” and I did not get much respect when we returned from Vietnam from a certain segment. I was told on my return by someone in the Birchip Hotel that more people died on the roads than in Vietnam. I will leave you to figure that out.
Firstly and most importantly, Lest we forget.
See all the ANZAC Day coverage in the issue.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 30 April 2024.
