Gallipoli and dysentery

[Surpmil]

As for why the Gallipoli campaign failed, I've long believed it had too many enemies in the UK to prosper; mostly all those whose first priority was keeping Russia out of the Bosphorus and the Med. It would be a miracle if there was no "leakage" of information from the outset.

[Surpmil]

If you follow our efforts in the first world war it really hit home as in those years Australia's population was around 5-6 million people so WWI touched allot of the families a bit like the Pal's Battalions the British came up with to replace the carnage on the Western Front.

And your purely voluntary enlistment was as much a disaster for Australia as it was for Britain and Canada and other Commonwealth countries. When the public-spirited and the willing are gone the refuse[niks] left is the future of a country.

[CINDERS]

True but they tried conscription twice in the first world war and it failed miserably the troops at the Western Front summed it up very well;
"We would rather fight beside someone who wanted to be there, than stuck with someone who did not want to be there".

In WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaya our forces were voluntary when VN came along so did the marble my B/inlaw got his marble and went on as he called it Asian Holiday strange really as he was a farmer but went leaving his parents to run the farm. They were from a little place called Pithara. (Pronounced Pith-ar-a)

[smerdon42]

Hey cinders , My dad was a regular in VN he was taken from 1 RAR to be a foundation member of 5RAR , the first battalion to have national service soldiers .he was in operation hardihood which was the op that Errol Nouakchott was killed ( australias first national service casulty)

True but they tried conscription twice in the first world war and it failed miserably the troops at the Western Front summed it up very well;
"We would rather fight beside someone who wanted to be there, than stuck with someone who did not want to be there".

In WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaya our forces were voluntary when VN came along so did the marble my B/inlaw got his marble and went on as he called it Asian Holiday strange really as he was a farmer but went leaving his parents to run the farm. They were from a little place called Pithara. (Pronounced Pith-ar-a)

[Surpmil]

True but they tried conscription twice in the first world war and it failed miserably the troops at the Western Front summed it up very well;
"We would rather fight beside someone who wanted to be there, than stuck with someone who did not want to be there".

In WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaya our forces were voluntary when VN came along so did the marble my B/inlaw got his marble and went on as he called it Asian Holiday strange really as he was a farmer but went leaving his parents to run the farm. They were from a little place called Pithara. (Pronounced Pith-ar-a)

An aspect I'm not familiar with Cinders, but sounds like I should be. Why would it fail in a much more popular war and yet apparently succeed in Vietnam? Or did it?

[smerdon42]

Surpmil , the Vietnam conscription was not really popular here. My dads battalion was the first one to be a mix of Regulars soldiers and conscripted soldiers , he was a regular . Dad always said once the bodies started coming home and it was on the news then the protests started about conscription and australias involvement with America in SVN . He then went on to be a instructor at 1 RTB Kapooka.i was born in 68 almost 12 months after his return .he then went back to 1 RAR then back to Kapooka again as a RI in 1971 . When the war was very unpopular . I do remember us sitting there watching TV live as the fall of Saigon happened and him being ****ed off that the work they had done in SVN was ending not the way the governments planned .

[CINDERS]

ending not the way the governments planned .

Does that ever happen smerdon! with our Govt at any time why do you think our Aussie and N Zed brethren are so good at pilfering equipment from the US armed forces because our useless behind the door Govt's have bled our forces to ruin apparently the Kiwis were better scroungers than our troops. Now that is sayin' something.

[fjruple]

Sanitation is as important as beans and bullets in war. In the last Gulf War I had a Captain who insisted in eating the local foods. Not that the food could be poisoned, but he came down with dysentery very quickly. Last I saw him he was lying in his own watery "poop" unable to get up out of his cot. We had to MEDVAC him out with an IV in his arm to maintain his fluid levels.
n
Reminds me of an old John Wayne movie, "Horse Soldiers" where William Holden, who plays an Army Doctor is arguing with a Colonel that the coffee would taste better if the latrines where down stream from the water source.

[smerdon42]

Cinders , y the old man was the go to scrounge for his battalion and was well known for getting the impossible .

Does that ever happen smerdon! with our Govt at any time why do you think our Aussie and N Zed brethren are so good at pilfering equipment from the US armed forces because our useless behind the door Govt's have bled our forces to ruin apparently the Kiwis were better scroungers than our troops. Now that is sayin' something.

[OxfordAndy61]

Very interesting read, thanks fpr posting RobD - my great uncle was a casualty on the "forgotten front" in East Africa, also from dysentry.......as others have said, infections and poor hygeine a major factoruntil the development of suitabel medicines.

All too often it seems that such the casualties overlooked or perhaps deemed somehow less "glorious dead" by some - especailly in the more obscure campaigns?