Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask leave of the House to inform Members about Australia's part in the Korean War and about the last veterans' mission to South Korea that I had the privilege of accompanying in October 2016.

Leave granted.

The Korean War has long been overshadowed by the world wars–it came just five years after the Second World War–and by the long war in Vietnam that followed a decade later.

Because of this it has been called 'the forgotten war'. But for those who fought there, for their families, and for the families of those who did not return, Korea has never been forgotten.

Nor should it be forgotten by Australians today.

Fighting in the Korean War ended more than six decades ago. The wartime generation has grown old, but the war remains within living memory.

Last October, I had the privilege of accompanying eight Korean War veterans back to South Korea on a commemorative mission organised by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Those eight veterans are joining us in the House today. Can I, on behalf of all members of this place, give you the very, very warmest of welcomes and say what a great honour and privilege it is to have you here in the House with us.

Mr Speaker, I am again privileged to welcome them to the chamber today for this statement and I acknowledge their presence on the chamber floor and the presence of their friends and family in the gallery.

These men represent each of the three Australian services who fought in the Korean War. Gordon 'Taffy' Hughes was a naval aviator, flying operations from the deck of HMAS Sydney. Spencer 'Ray' Seaver was a pilot in No. 77 Squadron. Graham Connor and Les Hall served in 1RAR. John 'Jack' Lang, Les Powell, John Murphy and Peter Scott all served in 3RAR. Peter was mentioned in dispatches for his work as an intelligence officer during the battle of Maryang San.

It was a singular honour to accompany these men—the 'magnificent eight'—on their return to the country that as young men they knew only as a theatre of war, a place where they once risked their lives in Australia's service. It was my particular privilege to see these Korean War veterans meeting a new generation of service men and women—the members of today's 3RAR and a contingent of the Federation Guard, who supported the mission. When they meet, veterans of past wars and the men and women of today's Defence Force share a bond that transcends the decades. The veterans' service in Korea added another chapter to Australia's proud military heritage. They are part of a proud tradition that our Australian Defence Force personnel continue to uphold.

For four of the veterans, this mission was their first visit to Korea since the war. Jack Lang mentioned that he wanted to see how Korea had developed over the decades since he had served there. The transformation in South Korea has been remarkable. In the six decades since the war, the country has developed into one of the most prosperous, advanced and successful nations in the world. They have done so on a chance given to them by men and women who did not share their future but shared their values. To the veterans here today, you and every Australian who served in Korea helped make this transformation possible.

In South Korea, the war is not a historical episode, but an ever-present reality. The warmth of the veterans' reception was an eloquent testimony to the gratitude felt by South Koreans towards those who served in their country's defence. Shortly after he arrived in Korea, Ray Seaver recognised the airfield from which he had flown combat operations during the war, at Gimpo outside Seoul. The mountain looming behind was a familiar, evocative landmark, even at night. But many of the familiar landmarks of the war that these veterans knew lie in North Korea, still in a state of war against South Korea. They remain in forbidden territory.

In Korea, the veterans took part in moving commemorative ceremonies to honour those who did not return. Some of these ceremonies—at Kapyong and Maryang San—took place within view of former battlefields. We also travelled to the far south of South Korea, to Busan, home to the world's only United Nations war cemetery and a place where more than 280 Australians lie buried.

The Korean War was the first war between major powers in the Cold War nuclear age and was the first war fought by the United Nations. Twenty-one countries committed personnel to repel the North Korean invasion of the south, among them South Korea, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and the United States. The Korean War was a major conflict with far-reaching implications for Australia, for our region and for the world.

Australia was involved in Korea from the beginning. Two Australian military observers inspected South Korean forces along the border in the days before the war began. Their report that the South Koreans were deployed for defence helped convince the United Nations that North Korea was the aggressor and was an important factor in the decision to go to war.

When the war began on 25 June 1950, elements of each of Australia's three services, the Army, Navy and Air Force, were nearby, in Japan on post-Second World War occupation duties. By the beginning of July, airmen of the RAAF's No. 77 Squadron were operating in the skies over Korea and the Navy's HMAS Shoalhaven and HMAS Bataan were engaged in operations in the waters offshore.

The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), arrived at an important moment in the war. The North Korean invasion had made rapid progress. Communist forces had captured Seoul and advanced down the Korean Peninsula towards the southern port city of Busan. But two weeks before Australian ground troops arrived, United Nations forces landed far behind the front line at Inchon near Seoul on South Korea's west coast. The HMAS Bataan and the HMAS Warramunga assisted the landing as part of the screen for the British aircraft carrier, HMS Triumph. The Inchon landing was fraught with risk. But it succeeded in forcing the North Koreans into retreat. After Inchon, United Nations forces liberated Seoul and crossed the frontier into North Korea.

Through October and November 1950, Australian troops fought a series of tough actions against North Korean troops. The names Sariwon, Yongju, Chongju and Pakchon are little remembered today but they rank proudly on the list of battle honours earned by 3RAR in Korea during the war's opening phase. In October 1950, Chinese troops that had begun mobilizing crossed the Yalu River. They struck in early November, when many on the United Nations side believed the war against North Korea would soon be won. Stunned United Nations troops withdrew down the peninsula into South Korea through the bitter winter weather while under relentless attack. In January 1951, Seoul fell to communist forces for the second time in six months.

China's intervention changed the war's character, pitting the two great communist powers, China and Russia—whose pilots flew against United Nations airmen and which provided material support to the communist cause—against the combined forces of the United Nations, including the United States. With vast reserves of manpower and more powerful weaponry than the North Koreans, China was a formidable adversary.

In the air, Chinese MiG-15 jet fighters outmatched the propeller-driven Australian Mustangs in every respect. Their arrival signaled the end for the RAAF's Mustang operations. In April 1951, 77 Squadron began converting to Meteors—a British jet aircraft—and the Royal Australian Air Force entered the age of jet combat. The squadron returned to a ground attack role, a dangerous occupation the Australians carried out with great courage and dedication until the end of the war.

On land, the Chinese advance lost momentum. In April 1951, 3RAR went into reserve near the ruins of Kapyong village after a period of hard fighting. But the battalion's rest was short-lived. Within days a Chinese attack directed at Seoul swept into the Kapyong Valley. After a difficult fight, 3RAR, with other British Commonwealth and United States troops, stopped the communist advance. The Battle of Kapyong proved one of the war's most significant actions. The South Korean capital was not threatened again.

The front was beginning to stabilise along a line that corresponded closely to the pre-war border between North Korea and South Korea. Senior United Nations military and political figures agreed that the war in Korea could only be settled by negotiation. The communists had to be convinced that neither side could triumph on the battlefield.

To gain the advantage in a war that was bound for stalemate, United Nations forces determined to occupy a strong defensive line. In October 1951, 3RAR took part in a series of assaults on Chinese positions in the Maryang San range. The Battle of Maryang San ended in a communist withdrawal and with United Nations troops occupying this important high ground. The victory at Maryang San was, said the official historian, 'the greatest single feat of the Australian Army during the Korean War'.

For the Army, the war's most dramatic phase was over. From then, until the end of the war in July 1953, the three Australian infantry battalions—1RAR, 2RAR and 3RAR—fought a defensive war, no less fraught than the war of movement but very different in character. This was a war of artillery and mortar barrages, the endless labour of maintaining trenches and defences, dangerous night-time patrols into no-man's-land, probing enemy positions and gathering intelligence.

At sea, the Royal Australian Navy's operations off Korea's coast were equally full of hazard and discomfort. The navy sent an aircraft carrier, five destroyers, four frigates and three naval air squadrons to Korea. Australian sailors weathered heavy seas, freezing cold, snowstorms and were at considerable risk from mines during their time in the waters off the Korean Peninsula. Some Australian ships came under fire from shore based batteries. HMAS Murchison, in perhaps the most well-known example, was fired on regularly during her 60 days in the Han River estuary in late 1951.

Korea's estuaries proved particularly testing for Australian sailors. Strong currents and tides, ice floes 'as big as trucks', as recalled by one sailor, shoals, mud flats, narrow waterways and the close proximity of shore based enemy guns threatened every operation that required naval vessels to navigate tight coastal channels.

Farther out to sea, in October 1951, HMAS Sydney lost an aircraft, a truck and other equipment overboard in a typhoon. But, with her complement of naval aircraft flying operations over North Korea, Sydney's seven-month presence in Korean waters from August 1951 until February 1952 added an important dimension to the Royal Australian Navy's war effort.

Three hundred and forty Australians lost their lives during the combat phase of the Korean War and sixteen more in the post-Armistice period to 1957. For every man killed in the fighting, many more were wounded.

More than 100 Australian military nurses cared for casualties in the British Commonwealth hospital in Kure, Japan. Royal Australian Air Force nurses also served on the Korean Peninsula, preparing casualties for evacuation to Japan and tending to them on the flight from Korea, giving specialist and often lifesaving care to Australians and soldiers of other nationalities.

The Korean War veterans who I have had the pleasure to meet and know were young men at a significant moment in Australia's and the world's history. They served in an era when traditional ties to Britain and empire were fading while growing bonds with the United States were reshaping the way Australia considered its place in this region and the world.

For the world, the Korean War was seminal. Alliances were cemented, critical territory was held, communism was tackled fiercely and front on and the resolve to take up arms for the values we hold so dear was clearly reinforced.

The people of the Republic of Korea understand this. They remember and honour those who left their loved ones, their children and their country to fight and to die for someone else's loved ones, someone else's children and someone else's country.

As was demonstrated so many times during this visit, the Korean War will always be remembered by the people of Korea. For them the service and sacrifice of our men and women in Korea shall never be forgotten.

Equally, it will always be remembered and never forgotten by our grateful nation.

For those of us who accompanied the veterans and tried to imagine something of their experiences in Korea, these were solemn occasions of respectful reflection. But for the eight gentlemen who remember the war and who knew the cost at firsthand, this was a time of recalling friends and comrades, men they knew and with whom they shared the profound experience of wartime service, some of whom never came home.

At Busan the veterans placed poppies on the graves of fallen friends in a moving and deeply personal gesture of remembrance. They made sure their sacrifice shall not be forgotten. In this House today and every day, we should make a commitment to do the same.

Lest we forget.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to welcome the 'Magnificent Eight' to Canberra, my electorate, my home and our nation's beautiful Parliament House and wonderful capital. I would like to thank and commend the minister for this ministerial statement and for the opportunity to speak as well. The minister made this commitment when we were in Korea during the delegation in October last year. I commend you for allowing this opportunity to take place and for getting the Magnificent Eight over here to Canberra. It is just wonderful to see you again. I would also like to acknowledge the fact that our shadow defence team are here. We have our shadow minister for veterans' affairs and defence personnel, as well as the shadow assistant minister for the Anzac Centenary, who is someone you probably know from his former life as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Science and Personnel.

It was a privilege to join the 65th anniversary visit to Korea last October to commemorate the battles of Maryang San and Kapyong and the contribution made by Australia all those years ago. But it was an even greater privilege to meet and be in the company of the Magnificent Eight: Gordon 'Taffy' Hughes who served on HMAS Sydney; Graham Connor who served with1 RAR; Les Hall who served with l RAR; Jack Lang who served with 3 RAR; John Murphy, also 3 RAR; Lieutenant Commander Les Powell (retired), also 3 RAR; and from the ACT, Colonel Peter Scott, DSO (retired) from 3 RAR and Ray Seaver from 77 Squadron. There they all are with their medals, looking glorious up there in the chamber.

Apart from episodes of M*A*S*H, Australians have very little knowledge of the Korean War. They do not know why it began. They do not know what happened there. They do not know who was involved or about the fact that there was an enormous international effort of 21 countries. They do not know why we were there—why Australia was there. They do not know about the unique framework under which we were there—a framework that influences the strategic environment today, and we are seeing that play out more and more each day. And they do not know how many Australians served and how many Australians made the ultimate sacrifice.

It is, as the minister said, the 'forgotten war,' which is incredibly unfortunate, given Australia became the second nation behind the United States to commit personnel from all three armed services to the war. It is unfortunate—it is tragic, actually—because 17,000 Australians served in that war, with many of them coming straight off the reconstruction efforts in Japan after the Second World War. It is unfortunate—tragic—because four million people in the region died through the course of that war. It is unfortunate and tragic because 1,216 Australians were injured and a further 29 taken as prisoners of war. It is incredibly unfortunate and tragic because 340 Australians died, 43 went missing in action and, as we heard from the minister today, 16 also were killed in the post-armistice period.

Our lack of understanding of Australia's contribution to the Korean War is unfortunate and tragic because there were so many firsts in this war. As the minister said, it was the first war in the Cold War period. It saw the first combat action fought by the battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, 3 RAR, in an apple orchard in Yeongju. It was the first and only United Nations-initiated war. It was the first time the red kangaroo appeared on the funnel of a Royal Australian Navy ship. It was the first war that raised the question about the need for an Australian ensign, not a British ensign, on Australian Navy ships. And it was the war that earned the 3 RAR the title 'Old Faithful.'

As a nation, we need to better understand and appreciate the contribution that so many Australians made to the Korean War. We need to continue the conversation about the unique nature of the Korean War, particularly coming so quickly on the back of the horror of the Second World War. We need to appreciate that the Korean War still lingers today in the demilitarised zone, where North Korean troops, with bloodied, skinned and scarred hands—remember those hands—from martial arts training, stare it out with troops from all over the world on the other side of the DMZ. And we need to keep alive the memory of those who served, who were captured, who were injured, who were missing in action and who made the ultimate sacrifice.

I have many wonderful and powerful memories of my time in Korea on this 65th anniversary tour, but the most powerful, and the ones that have stayed and will remain, are the personal, told in the words of those who served—told in the words of the Magnificent Eight. I heard the Magnificent Eight remembering their fallen mates. Colonel Peter Scott DSO said:

I felt very emotion about the MIA memorial. Looking at the graves from my two classmates at Duntroon—Eric Larson and Joe Luscombe. And other graves I wanted to see—Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Green and Slim Madden.

For those who are not familiar with the 'Slim' Madden story, it is a very powerful story. This was an extraordinary Australian. Private Horace William Madden—Slim Madden—was one of the 29 Australians taken prisoner in the Korean War. He was the recipient of a posthumous George Cross, the highest decoration of an Australian in the Korean War. Slim Madden was a signaller with 3 RAR and was captured at Kapyong on 24 April 1951. He was forced to march 300 kilometres in freezing conditions to Yalu River. Despite poor health and being deprived of food, he defied his captors and gave the little he had to those more needy. He died of malnutrition just months later. As Colonel Scott told me very proudly:

When I assumed the command at Woodside, I arranged to have the soldiers' canteen named in his honour, and I believe it is still being referred to as the Slim Madden Soldier's Club, and I'm very proud of that.

And rightly so.

I listened to those stories and heard the Magnificent Eight relive the hardship of war. Jack Lang said:

You had to keep your eyes open for snipers all the time. They were like flies. But we got rid of many of them. We took it in our stride.

I heard the Magnificent Eight relive the famous battles of Maryang San or point 317. Colonel Peter Scott also told me:

We were up top, the battalion was around us, we were mortared, shelled continuously for the whole day. We were very, very fortunate to get off it. I never thought I would ever see it again.

I heard about the suffering of the Korean people. Four million were dead. The country was decimated by the ravages of war. There was poverty. There were people who had lost loved ones. There were people whose villages and houses had been blown apart, whose lives had been shattered.

Then the Magnificent Eight returned to South Korea and saw what it is today. Jack Lang said, 'They are just such a wonderful people considering how they were 65 years ago and the way that they have built the place up because it was a hell of a mess 65 years ago.' He said, 'There were bodies lying around. It was like walking into a rubbish dump. There was nothing. People could hardly stand. Their houses were burned. They were streaming out of the city. They had nothing. What they had, they carried on their back.'

And I heard from the Magnificent Eight of the overwhelming respect from the Korean people today. Graham Connor spoke of the gratitude. He said: 'In Busan we were getting lunch in a restaurant when this well dressed young woman spoke to me, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you have done for us." I was walking near the market and this elderly gentleman was eyeballing me and he came over and said to me, "Are you a Korean War veteran?" I said yes, and he threw his arms around me and burst out crying and said "thank you, thank you".'

As an aside, I asked the young members of 3RAR who accompanied the Magnificent Eight on the tour why they were chosen for the anniversary visit—a natural question—and they told me it was because of their good looks! Those young members of 3RAR spoke about their pride in the contribution made by the battalion and in the provenance of Old Faithful. I was told by one of those young members, 'It was a name given to us because we were there for the entirety of the war and one of the main contributors to the war.' According to him, 'Old Faithful means 3RAR can be trusted, and it has been trusted for many years, and we are always there on the frontline.' And in a display of their pride, each current member of 3RAR at Busan cemetery were formally honoured by those young, good looking men.

Colonel Peter Scott, spoke about how Old Faithful emerged because the battalion was the first into Korea and was there at the end and through the armistice. He said: '3RAR was there at the beginning, middle and end. 3RAR was always reliable to do the job.' They are the stories from the veterans who were with us, the Magnificent Eight, who we spoke to during that visit.

We also heard stories about the women, the children, the wives, the mothers who were all left behind. We heard the story about Thelma Healy's passage to Busan to visit the grave of her son Vince Healy. Vince volunteered and, once he had signed up, his letters to the family trickled to very little contact. His sudden death in uncertain circumstances on a frozen battlefield in 1951 plunged his mother into a deep depression. But Thelma Healy was determined to say farewell to her son. She vowed that, before she died, she would find her son's grave and say goodbye. This began a 10-year odyssey that eventually took Thelma, on her own, on a 15,000-kilometre journey halfway around the world to war-torn Busan in Korea in 1961. Being a woman of no means, and with nine children to feed and clothe, Thelma had to scrimp and save, sew and slave, to raise the money needed for her epic voyage. But she got there in the end to bid farewell to her much loved son.

Another story was told to me by Dr Rebecca Fleming, the historian who travelled with us on the mission. When she told me this story, standing in the Busan cemetery, I immediately burst into tears; it is that powerful—so if anyone is listening to this speech, do not say you were not warned! Sixty-five years ago, Sister Nancy Hummerston married her beloved Captain Ken Hummerston in Tokyo. Six weeks later, Captain Hummerston was in Korea when the jeep he was driving was blown up by a landmine. He and his driver were killed in the explosion and were the first Australians to die in the Korean War. Captain Hummerston had been in Korea just six days and had been married for a very short time. Nancy was heartbroken but threw herself into her work and returned to Japan to continue nursing. She never remarried and devoted her entire life to helping veterans. Her one wish was that when she died her ashes would be buried with her husband. And so it was, her ashes were returned to his grave in Busan cemetery and she was finally returned to the love of her life, Captain Kenneth Hummerston, decades after they last parted ways.

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for asking me to represent him for this 65th anniversary tour—as you can see, it had a very powerful effect on me. I understand the Leader of the Opposition worked with a Korean War veteran in his teens so there was a very special connection for him and he was very sad that he could not go on this visit.

I also thank the outstanding nurses, Jane Gallagher and Julie Howard, who were who were up at 4 am and in bed at midnight. They were amazing women—tireless, calm and patient absolutes angels. And I want to thank Squadron Leader Chris Gilbert, the mission doctor.

I thank our embassy in Korea for the 24/7 support. As an ex-DFATer, as is the minister, we know the work that goes into these visits—they are tireless, around the clock, 24/7. I particularly want to thank the charge, Ravi Kewalran, and the team at the mission, who had a tough year last year and were still in mourning following the sudden and tragic loss of my former DFAT colleague and friend Richard Fogarty.

I thank the straight-out-of-central-casting Navy officer, Defence Attache, Captain Vaughn Rixon CSC and his wife, Felicity. I want to thank the Assistant Defence Attache, Major Simon Hawkins and First Secretary, Ben Fallet, Defence Office Manager, Kyung-Hee Her, Defence Administration and Research Officer, Inji Seo and Administrative Assistant, Hyunbae Jean.

Thank you to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Many of them are here today—Simon Lewis PSM, Major General Mark Kelly AO DSC, Tim Evans, Robert Harmon, Mathew Hardy, Major General David Chalmers, Susie Dunn, Stacey Anderson and my old communication mate Dale Starr. And thank you to the Federation Guard, who, as always, put on sterling performances at the many commemorative events that we had at the Busan cemetery, Kapyong and Maryang San.

I finish with the words of one of the Magnificent Eight, John Murphy, just before the Kapyong ceremony. He said:

I don't think any Australian kids know anything about the Korean War. But certainly the schoolkids in this country do.

The cemetery in Pusan. Seeing how the Australian braves are looked after, respected. It gladdens the heart of an old veteran. To know that his old comrades, or some of his mates, are buried here and they are not forgotten.

The Koreans know what the Australians have done in this country. They know they made a large sacrifice. 340 of them died here. Most of them are buried here. They will always remember the Australian contribution to the Korean people.

We are happy to know that we helped a little the South Koreans to get started, and build their country and make it into one of the most powerful nations in the Asian sector now.

We can always sit back and say we done a bit. We done our bit.

John and the others of the Magnificent Eight, you did more than a bit. We salute you. In the words of the Korean people: thank you, thank you, thank you. We will remember them. Lest we forget.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, I commend the shadow minister for her speech and the two other representatives of the shadow ministry who are here. Thank you for sharing with me the journey that we went on in October last year. It was a true show of bipartisanship. I think it clearly demonstrates the better part of this place, and long may it be that we continue to do these types of commemorations. We got a little bit out of it, but for the Magnificent Eight it was a truly remarkable experience. Well done in thanking and recognising everyone else who played such a significant part in it.

Debate adjourned.