#STAND O FOOD 3 RAR RAR#

Although our battalion suffered вЂ“ well I know it suffered more casualties than any other Australian unit, it did fight well but of course youвЂ™ve got to realise 3 RAR were there for over three years of fighting and our casualties were, I think 234 killed in that time вЂ“ out of a total Australian fatal casualty list of 340, but thatвЂ™s over a three-year period. The US Marines were very gung-ho, very macho, but I think they suffered more casualties than they needed to do because some of them just refused to dig in, because вЂњMarines donвЂ™t do that!вЂќ Whereas we had the attitude вЂ“ вЂњYou dig or you dieвЂќ and thatвЂ™s the difference I think. But a lot of the units were extremely good. So that particular division suffered close to 60% casualties including those captured. Under those circumstances youвЂ™d have thought that the officers or senior NCOвЂ™s would have rallied the men and attacked uphill and tried to clear the hills, but they didnвЂ™t. A lot of the US soldiers refused to get out of their vehicles and just stayed there and hundreds of them surrendered. One US Division tried to fight its way through a roadblock. Like when the Chinese first came in, in early November 1950. And consequently some units performed poorly.

The radio equipment that they had issued to them, probably 50-60% of it didnвЂ™t work. They were soft, physically unfit and a lot of them, just frankly didnвЂ™t want to be there. They were in the main occupation troops who had been doing no training. вЂњThe Americans вЂ“ initially they didnвЂ™t perform very well at all because theyвЂ™d been flown in very quickly from Japan.

Stand o food 3 rar