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Foot soldiers behind victory in the 'forgotten war'

08.10.11

Korea, Australia's forgotten war, was largely fought and won by the rifle platoons that engaged the enemy face to face, one of Australia's most respected combat leaders said yesterday.

Brigadier Colin Kahn was sent straight to Korea after being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant from Duntroon in December, 1951.

He was to serve as a platoon commander until taking three Chinese machine gun bullets through the chest in the early hours of Remembrance Day, 1952.

The brigadier, who was mentioned in dispatches for his service in Korea, was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions as the commanding officer of 5RAR in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.

Brigadier Kahn, who spoke at the two-day Korea - In From The Cold conference at the War Memorial that finished yesterday, has a special place in his heart for foot soldiers in general and the Australian digger in particular. ''I had fabulous soldiers,'' he said. ''They were well trained and adapted to what we wanted to do.''

The longtime Canberra resident agreed Korea, and its veterans, had been largely forgotten and overlooked.

''The Korean war came too close on the heels of WWII; people didn't want to think about war.

''Then there was Vietnam, which was a very controversial war,'' he said.

Brigadier Kahn, then a lieutenant, was leading a fighting patrol when he was shot. ''I was with B Company, 1RAR,'' he said.

''I was struck by three penetrating rounds from a Chinese light machine gun. I was wearing an American armoured vest but they went through the zipper.''

Seriously wounded, he was evacuated to an American M.A.S.H. unit before being invalided to Japan. One of his next duties was to lead the Australian Coronation Guard at Buckingham Palace in 1953.

Brigadier Kahn plans to be there when the Queen presents Duntroon with its fourth set of colours from her hands later this month.

He said the quality of Australian troops and their leaders in Korea had been very high but the war's high tempo strained junior commanders.

''Of the 30 members of my Duntroon class that went to Korea, more than half were either killed, captured or seriously wounded,'' he said.

After 40 years in the army, Brigadier Khan went on to serve with the Australian Federal Police and then the NSW Police Force.

Source: The Canberra Times