This week, Jeff Popple reviews a new book about Australian Diggers in Korea for Anzac Day. More of Jeff’s reviews can be found on his blog, murdermayhemandlongdogs.com
The Diggers Of Kapyong by Tom Gilling
Allen & Unwin, $34.99
Anzac Day celebrations have traditionally focused on Australian achievements at Gallipoli, the Western Front, along the Kokoda Trail and perhaps in Vietnam. For many years the Korean War was not seen as being a ‘proper war’, and Australia’s involvement in it was often overlooked or played down by the public and officials.
Just in time for Anzac Day, Tom Gilling’s new book, The Diggers Of Kapyong, sets out to correct this by focusing on Australia’s involvement in the desperate fighting for a strategic hilltop near Seoul in 1951.
Australian troops stationed in Japan as part of the Occupation force were redeployed to South Korea shortly after the invasion by North Korea in June 1950. By April 1951, after ten months of heavy fighting, the war hung in the balance. Chinese troops had joined the fighting in support of North Korea, and by April, they were engaged in a bloody offensive to drive General MacArthur’s UN forces off the Korean Peninsula.
Stationed on a small hilltop above the Kapyong Valley, a few hundred soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment were waiting for the advancing Chinese forces on the evening of 23 April. Over the course of that night, these soldiers fought off wave after war of Chinese infantry in a desperate attempt to halt the advance. Although outnumbered, and suffering significant casualties, the Australian troops prevailed and played a major role in turning around the Chinese forces.
Told from the perspective of the soldiers involved in the fighting, Gilling’s account of the battle for Kapyong Valley, and the lead up to it, gives real insight into one of the major battles of the Korean War. The individual stories of the various soldiers are fascinating, and Gilling ably pulls it altogether into a coherent whole that provides a compelling overview of the battle and its implications.
A great book to read around this Anzac Day.
