The Spirit of the Digger Read online

  I had the pleasure to meet a 34-year-old father of two whose back is so worn out that he will have no choice but to resign at year’s end. Another is recovering from serious injury and at a mere 29 years of age realises he also will have to leave. Yet another is walking around with grenade fragments in the back of his head as a result of an accident on the range. The first medic to the scene of his accident was the young man whose funeral he had attended earlier that day.

  Sam Halvorsen was moved to write because he realised that, because of their security restrictions, Ben’s mates could not be identified.

  Everyday Australians therefore have no idea who these people are. These people who die for us; who suffer lifelong disabilities for us; who protect us from sinister influences within our very own borders.

  In an age when we idolise so-called celebrities – TV performers, sportspeople, actors – I pose the question, ‘Where have we gone wrong?’ On a personal level it is this commando family that has inspired me to strive to do better, to put in more effort for those in need in our society, and to focus less on material wants.

  On a national level is it not time we started to redress the unhealthy pastime of idolising those who are simply working at what they enjoy and who happen to feature on our television screens or in the media?

  … I have met my heroes. They will hereafter be my inspiration. But I can’t tell you who they are.

  The last word rests with Ben Chuck’s father, Gordon:

  Ben and the many other brave and selfless young men and women in our Armed forces, who constantly present themselves in harm’s way, do so for the greatest cause of all: the defence of peace and basic human freedom.

  Ben and his comrades died protecting the rights of ordinary people, allowing them to live as they choose and not under the tyranny of fanatics who seek to rule through intimidation, murder and cowardice. The lives of these brave men have made a difference.

  Ben will be missed every minute of every day, but we will take comfort from the knowledge that we shall forever live in the glorious light of his magnificent contribution and selfless sacrifice.

  CHAPTER 1

  Ben Roberts-Smith VC, MG

  As is so often the case with a great photograph, it’s not what the photograph shows but what it doesn’t that sets it apart. This is true for the image of Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith that now hangs in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial, the room honouring the nation’s Victoria Cross winners.

  It captures a rugged, battle-soiled SAS soldier, and was taken about 90 minutes after a fierce firefight in which he won the Victoria Cross and became Australia’s most decorated serving Digger.

  Ben Roberts-Smith stands in full combat kit. He fixes the camera with a steely-eyed glare. We can almost see the adrenalin still coursing through his body. Over his right shoulder we see the butt of an AK-47 assault rifle, not Ben’s weapon, which is slung across his chest, but one taken from the body of an insurgent lying dead just out of shot.

  The insurgent had missed with a burst from around 10 metres behind Ben and was immediately shot and killed by one of Ben’s comrades. It was the last action of the firefight. Fortune favoured the brave then, just as it had earlier in the battle.

  It’s hard to imagine a finer template for the modern Digger than SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith. Not only does he look the part – 2 metres high and, seemingly, almost as wide across his shoulders – but he has repeatedly displayed extraordinary bravery. Prior to his June 2010 VC-winning action, he won the Medal for Gallantry in Afghanistan in 2006.

  Born in Perth on 1 November 1978, Ben Roberts-Smith joined the army as an 18-year-old on Armistice Day 1996. (In doing so he followed in his father’s footsteps. Leonard William Roberts-Smith QC, barrister and former Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, had joined the Army Reserve in 1964 and transferred to the Legal Corps in 1970. He rose to become a Major General and the Acting Judge Advocate General of the Australian Defence Force before being appointed Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commissioner.)

  Ben trained at Singleton’s School of Infantry before being posted to 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), with whom he served two operational tours of East Timor (including the Interfet force) as well as being deployed twice as part of the Rifle Company to Butterworth, Malaysia.

  He won selection in the SAS in 2003 and saw service in Fiji, Iraq and Southeast Asia. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 as part of the Special Operations Task Group. That year, on his second Afghanistan tour, he won the Medal for Gallantry for his actions as a sniper and patrol scout during Operation Slipper.

  On the night of 31 May 2006, Ben Roberts-Smith was a scout and sniper in a patrol sent to establish an observation post in extremely rugged country overlooking an enemy sanctuary. It took the patrol ten hours hard slogging to walk into their position. Their orders were to coordinate air attacks and to assist another patrol that was engaging the insurgents in a firefight in the valley to the north. After that firefight, Ben’s patrol was ordered to stay in their observation post and monitor insurgent movements.

  Ben’s patrol’s extensive reports allowed the Coalition forces to devise a future operation to move against the insurgents. In the meantime, the insurgents realised that Ben’s patrol had penetrated their territory and tried repeatedly to locate and outflank them. On one occasion, Ben and another soldier were sent out from the relative safety of their observation post to locate and neutralise the insurgents. No sooner had they achieved this than the insurgents tried to attack the post from a different direction. Again, Ben and his partner defused the attack.

  At that stage Ben realised the forward edge of his patrol’s position was not secure so he split his team and moved into an exposed position forward of his comrades so he could more effectively use his sniping skills. He was able to break up an attack by 16 insurgents advancing across open ground towards his patrol, despite being under accurate small-arms fire himself.

  Ben held off the insurgents without support for 20 minutes until offensive air support arrived. His citation for the Medal for Gallantry reads, in part:

  Lance Corporal Roberts-Smith’s actions on the 2nd June 2006, whilst under heavy Anti Coalition Militia fire and in a precarious position, threatened by a numerically superior force, are testament to his courage, tenacity and sense of duty to his patrol.

  His display of gallantry in disregarding his own personal safety in maintaining an exposed sniper position under sustained fire with a risk of being surrounded by the Anti Coalition Militia was outstanding.

  His actions, in order to safeguard his patrol, were of the highest order and in keeping with the finest traditions of Special Operations Command Australia, the Australian Army and the Australian Defence Force.

  On 11 June 2010, Ben Roberts-Smith was back in Afghanistan, on his fifth tour of duty in the country, as a member of a Special Operations Task Group team conducting a helicopter assault into the village of Tizak in Kandahar Province. Their goal was to capture a senior Taliban commander.

  As soon as it was inserted, the team found itself under fire – by machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades from a number of dominant positions – which wounded two members and pinned down the patrol. Using the cover provided by close air support and small-arms and machine-gun fire, Ben and his team moved to within 70 metres of the enemy positions to try to regain the initiative by neutralising the enemy machine guns.

  Despite ‘very heavy, intense, effective and sustained’ enemy fire, Ben and his patrol edged forward to within 40 metres of the enemy before the weight of fire halted them.

  Seeing a chance to exploit the cover provided by a small building, Ben moved forward and immediately confronted an insurgent grenadier who was about to fire on his patrol. He shot the man at point-blank range. Then, with his patrol still pinned down, Ben deliberately exposed himself to draw fire away from them and allow them to return fire against the insurgents. Ben’s patrol leader was then able to silen
ce one of the enemy machine guns with a grenade.

  Seeing that, Ben immediately stormed the enemy position, killing the two remaining machine gunners. His citation for the VC continues the story:

  His act of valour enabled his patrol to break in to the enemy position and to lift the weight of fire from the remainder of the troop who had been pinned down by the machine-gun fire. On seizing the fortified gun position, Corporal Roberts-Smith then took the initiative again and continued to assault enemy positions in depth during which he and another patrol member engaged and killed further enemy. His acts of selfless valour directly enabled his troop to go on and clear the village of Tizak of Taliban. This decisive engagement subsequently caused the remainder of the Taliban in Shah Wali Kot District to retreat from the area.

  Corporal Roberts-Smith’s most conspicuous gallantry in a circumstance of extreme peril was instrumental to the seizure of the initiative and the success of the troop against a numerically superior enemy force. His valour was an inspiration to the soldiers with whom he fought alongside and is in keeping with the finest traditions of the Australian Army and the Australian Defence Force.

  It wasn’t until after the six-hour action, when Ben and his patrol were able to survey the result of the firefight, that they realised they had been facing a force that outnumbered them by at least four to one. About 60 Taliban insurgents were killed and two Diggers wounded in the battle.

  Speaking to the media after his VC investiture by the Governor-General in January 2011, Ben said:

  You don’t really focus on yourself. It is just like being in a football team – you go as hard as you can until the game is won. I am just extremely honoured. I am very proud to be a member of this unit. I saw a lot of brave men do a lot of brave things that day. I am wearing it [the VC] for my unit.

  Ben Roberts-Smith plans to return to active service in Afghanistan with his comrades once he has completed a range of ceremonial duties as the nation’s latest VC winner.

  CHAPTER 2

  IEDs

  The newsreader’s voice was practised and well modulated, without any hint of emotion:

  Two Australian soldiers in Afghanistan have died as a result of wounds sustained when an IED – or improvised explosive device – detonated on Monday morning, Afghanistan time.

  The Diggers were two of ten NATO soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan on 7 June 2010, the worst day for the foreign forces operating in Afghanistan in more than seven months and, at the time, the worst day for Australian troops since Vietnam.

  The Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, offered his deepest sympathies following the deaths of Sapper Jacob Moerland, aged 21, and Sapper Darren Smith, 26, both from the Brisbane-based 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment, who were serving with the 1st Mentoring Task Force. Both men were on their first tour of Afghanistan. Sapper Smith’s explosive detection dog, Herbie, also died in the incident.

  Air Chief Marshal Houston spoke to their mates still serving in Afghanistan:

  I ask you to look after each other and support each other. We will support you, but I need you to make sure that you seek any assistance that you may need to come to terms with your loss. Draw strength from each other. Pay tribute to your mates. Honour their sacrifice. Strengthen your resolve.

  Later, Acting Chief of the ADF Lieutenant General David Hurley said he was deeply saddened by the loss of the two brave soldiers:

  Their role is a dangerous one – seeking out explosive devices and other threats to keep their colleagues safe. They are fighting a determined enemy in the Taliban, whose aim is to kill and maim Coalition soldiers and Afghan security personnel.

  It was sobering news to most Australians. Until our troops became involved in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan most of us had never heard of IEDs. Now IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, are part of our daily news digest. They have changed the way war is waged and they have changed the way our Diggers view warfare, as a veteran of two tours to Afghanistan (who we will call Private Z) explains:

  It basically meant that you could never really relax, were never really safe. Every single step you took outside the wire, potentially, could be the one. The IED threat was something that really got inside your head when you were over there. During the year that I was there they were really starting to cause lots of casualties, really starting to kill guys.

  In simple terms, IEDs are roadside bombs, booby traps or homemade bombs, aimed at ambushing enemy troops. The name originated in the 1970s from the British Army, then in confrontation with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which used bombs made from fertiliser and semtex, smuggled from Libya, to make booby traps. They are often made using military explosives but, just as often, they are made from commercial explosives or even common household materials with explosive capacity.

  Their aim is simple: to destroy or incapacitate people or vehicles, and to spread fear and chaos while doing it. IEDs can be used to distract, disrupt or delay an enemy. They are frequently used to undermine authority. They require minimal cost and manpower to make and to set up and they cause damage far out of proportion to the effort required to use them. The IED has had a cumulative affect on our Diggers’ morale. Private Z:

  After a while it really started to screw with you, especially once it started killing blokes on a regular basis. After seeing what those things did to people, there were definitely times when I woke up and put my boots on and thought: ‘I really don’t want to die today.’

  Most IEDs are simple devices incorporating an explosive charge, a detonator and an initiation system (some kind of electrical charge that triggers the device). Those used against armoured vehicles usually include some form of armour-penetration device, normally a copper rod or cone, which is propelled by a shaped explosive load. When used against people, IEDs regularly contain some kind of shrapnel, perhaps nails or ball bearings (nicknamed ‘shipyard confetti’ in Belfast). IEDs can be set off by remote control (for example, via mobile phone), infra-red or magnetic triggers, pressure-sensitive bars or trip-wires.

  Because IEDs are often made by inexperienced constructors, they regularly explode during manufacture or they fail to detonate when triggered. Those that explode during construction are known as ‘own goals’ by their intended targets.

  In Afghanistan the insurgents have managed to increase the stress levels of the Coalition troops by teaming their constant IED campaign with other weapons like rockets and mortars, as Private Z recalls:

  And even when you were back in a patrol base there were the rockets, which killed people as well. You could be behind the wire, in a Forward Operating Base or even in Tarin Kowt [capital of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan], sitting around having a brew and then wham! one would smash into the hesco [sandbag-filled protective barriers] or shoot straight over your head and go off in the dasht [local word for ‘plain’ or ‘desert’]. It never stopped us doing out jobs but I was a nervous wreck by the end of it. I was so jumpy, someone would only need to slam the door and I’d jump three feet in the air.

  Trucks or cars packed with IEDs (as in the Bali bombings) are known as vehicle-borne IEDs, or VBIEDs, and are normally used by suicide bombers.

  IEDs were used extensively in the Vietnam War, where the Viet Cong often deployed their enemies’ ordnance against them. They were the IRA’s weapons of choice during ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland from 1969 through to 1997. The IRA pioneered the use of radio-controlled IEDs, but when the British Army countered with jamming devices the IRA reverted to command-wire alternatives.

  These weapons have come back into vogue in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the insurgents started by using anti-tank mines as IEDs against the invading USSR troops in 1979. At first the Taliban inserted hacksaw blades as the trigger for their IEDs. When a victim stepped on the device, his weight connected the two blades, closing an electronic circuit and detonating the explosive. By January 2010, the Taliban had developed a new-generation IED, which has no metal components and is thus unde
tectable by traditional methods. The latest versions use graphite blades instead of metal ones and have replaced artillery shells with ammonium nitrate as the explosive charge. This innovation has brought sniffer dogs back into play as the most reliable method of detection.

  IEDs are the number-one cause of death and injury to NATO troops in Afghanistan. As these conflicts have dragged on, the insurgents have become far more sophisticated in their placement of IEDs. They secrete them in animal carcasses, soft drink cans and boxes, or imbed them in roads to be detonated by passing vehicles or personnel to ensure maximum impact and damage.

  When the Coalition forces increased and improved their vehicle and body armour, the insurgents responded by placing their weapons in trees, utility poles, road signs and other elevated positions to attack the least protected areas. The insurgents also developed the capacity to shape their charges to penetrate armour and to focus their blasts.