A
GRUNTS 
VIEW
A Diggers viewpoint of being at the sharp end. Gained while serving with 3 Platoon - 'A' Company -7 Battalion (Infantry) Royal Australian Regiment, as a Rifleman in Australia's then longest war - in South Vietnam.
Chapter 1 - Page 8 - Updated MARCH 2011 - Next Page:- Introduction to Oink 9/35
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[site map][Site Introduction][[Orderly Room][Announcements][Books][Student Page][Anzac Legend][Memorial Page] [Chapter 2 - 9] |
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This page has a number of images that may take a few minutes to load. This Page holds the Dedication for the site. The midi playing is from the Movie 'Platoon'. The IMAGE on the left is the MEMORIAL Page. Any time you see it you can 'click' on it to return to the Memorial Page. |
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If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance for the place you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them , though you may, or may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle Heroes you left behind. Written By Major Michael Davis O'Donnell. KIA/MIA January 1st 1970 South Vietnam, while on a rescue mission, flying his chopper. |
THIS PAGE HOLDS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:-
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The Image below was taken one night in late summer close to were I live. Anyone is free to copy & use this images as long a 'A Grunts View' is listed and linked back to this site. www.gruntsview.org |
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PLEDGE As of ANZAC DAY 2011, "A GRUNTS VIEW" re commits its self to Honouring our War Dead. This site SALUTES and HONOURS all those who served before the Vietnam War and since on deployments on Active Service, Peacekeeping and Peaacekeeping Missions. Like our Soldiers doing their duty in East Timor, Iraq, Solomon Islands and the War in Afghanistan It will also list those members of 3 Platoon A Company 7RAR (The PIGS) who are no longer with us. As such this site would not suit those who acted against the Diggers who fought in Vietnam. It would not suit those who marched against young Australians who were fighting a dirty and difficult war. Those who now wear their treachery it like a 'badge of honour'. Believe me it is no 'badge of honour'. I cannot forget and I will not forgive. This site would not suit the union members who struck against sending much needed supplies to our forces in Vietnam. It will not suit the postmen who refused to handle our mail. It will not suit the politicians who betrayed us and our War Dead, by sitting with delegates of North Vietnam and the NVA and VC under the NVA flag in Australia, after the fall of South Vietnam. |
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DEDICATION This site is dedicated to my Father KEN BLAKE a World War 2, 'North Africa' Veteran. It is Dedicated to my mate MICK TOWLER who was killed in Vietnam, 12 JUNE 1971. It is Dedicated to the Diggers of 7 Battalion whom I served with. To my mate DOUG VAINSAAR who made it out of Vietnam and to the year 2002 before all became too much for him. It is Dedicated to those listed on the MEMORIAL Page, who paid the ultimate sacrifice and did not return to live in peace in Australia. |
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LEST WE FORGET |
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THE LIFE & BATTLES OF KENNETH WALLACE CARTER BLAKE MID 257836 Royal Corps of Signals |
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The photo above is of my father taken some time in the 1980s. He was one of the men who answered the call in in World War Two. |
The image on the RIGHT is of his Pay Book. 257836 Kenneth Wallace Carter Blake, enlisted at Liverpool England, on 3rd April 1939. |
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Kenneth Blake was one of those men who served in the dark days of World War Two. When at times during those years it looked like freedom had come to an end with Nazi Germany controlling most of Europe. Until it was defeated after many hard years in 1945. He was in North Africa from the start of the "phoney war" as it was called; in 1939 to when he was wounded in action in 1942. |
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COURSES & SCHOOLS Anti Tank Rifle 9/101939. Lineman group "C" Class "E" 16/8/1940. Although my father said little about his war time service when I was growing up I did learn about a couple of his adventures. He was a dispatch motor cycle rider and to ensure communications he went from unit to unit with messages. Below is an image of his field compass which he used to navigate across the desert. During one battle he went out under fire to connecting wire need for some urgent communications between untis. He was awarded a Mention In Dispatches. (MID) |
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The Image on the left is of his Compass used in the deserts of North Africa. The image on the right that of his Field Medical Card, when he was wounded, 20th June 1942 near Tobruk. |
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Wounded In Action: TOBRUK 20th June 1942 Dad was wounded in Action 20th June 1942 Land Mine Wound to the Left Foot. During an attack on their position by German tanks near Tobruk and he was firing the anti tank gun at the tanks. He told me that he could see the rounds just bounce off the Panzers. Running around the area to find a better firing position, he stood on a land mine, badly injuring his left foot. Left in the open the CSM ran out picked him up and placed him behind a wall, calling for a medic. He was taken to an ambulance and it made off with the general withdrawal of the 8th Army in the face of the German attack. He was loosing too much blood the ambulance crew had a hard decision to make in order to save him. They surrendered to the enemy in order to get Dad some blood. In the hands of the Germans he was taken to a Military hospital with other wounded Brits, near TOBRUK. While in the hospital bed the ward was inspected by General Rommel. After North Africa was lost to the Germans Dad was moved to Italy and then to Germany to spend the rest of the War in STALAG Luft lVB. But he did not cease to fight as he made a number of escapes but he was recaptured. They were reported in the Liverpool newspaper which I read about when I was a teenager as Dad said nothing to me about it. It was perhaps lucky that he did not get himself shot as the Germans did not mind shooting POWS during the war. number of escapes Then one day he met up with the advancing USA Army in Tanks and they gave him food and chocolate. I guess that must have been General Patton? One of the reasons I have a soft spot for "Old Blood and Guts". |
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* * * RETURN FROM THE WAR The day he arrived back in England he went home to Liverpool and although the street had come out to welcome him home he went down the back street and to his home via the back door? Many years later when I was a teenager he took me to see a WW2 War Movie called "Ice Cold in Alex". Its story line was about a Brit Ambulance taking a wounded soldier through the North African Desert. Going home on the bus I could tell that the movie had hit home. I believe now that Dad was suffering from PTSD but in those days it was not diagnosed as such. |
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Dad and the family came down to watch me 'March Out' at the end of my Rookie training at Kapooka in 1969. More detail on the INTRODUCTION to Oink PAGE. |
My Dad and myself taken at Kapooka. |
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