Murray Bridge RSL Museum

17/09/2026

He was a bank clerk from Sidcup, married barely two years, when the war took him to Burma.

Lieutenant George Cairns fought with the Chindits, dropped deep behind enemy lines to smash Japanese supply routes. On 13 March 1944, the Japanese counter attacked his position at Henu, and Cairns' men were sent to storm the hill that anchored the assault: Pagoda Hill.

In the chaos of hand to hand fighting, a Japanese officer hacked off his left arm with a sword. Cairns k*lled him anyway. He picked up the fallen sword with his one remaining arm and kept fighting, cutting down enemy soldiers until he finally collapsed.

He d*ed the following morning. His last words to his commander: "Did we do our stuff?"

It took five years, a lost recommendation, a plane crash that k*lled the general carrying it, and his widow's own fight with the War Office, before George Cairns finally received the Victoria Cross he'd earned with his life.

He rests today at Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma.

Image credit: Wikipedia

31/08/2026

11/08/2026

The Fromelles Missing: 'bones, badges, and scraps of uniform

The Battle of Fromelles occurred in France almost 110 years ago on 19 July 1916.

Australian official historian Charles Bean stood at this exact location on 11 November 1918.

Back on the morning the Great War ended, Bean awoke to hear a few hoarse cheers and the bleating of a tin trumpet.

‘I guessed what it meant. The armistice must have been signed. No more gun flashes, no more flares.’

That morning, Bean travelled to Fromelles to take some photographs before the place changed. He wandered the old battlefield, where almost 2,500 soldiers had been slaughtered in a hellish attack in July 1916.

'We found the old no man's land simply full of our dead, Bean recorded, 'the skulls and bones and torn uniforms were lying about everywhere.’

Bean explored Sugar Loaf salient, which was pitted by shellfire and bombs. He found leather equipment, water bottles, and rusted German wire strewn about in the ditches and water channels.

As Bean surveyed the battlefield, he must have realised that the muddle of bones and torn uniforms that lay about would be impossible to identify. Tangled in their equipment, the remains were no longer much of anything.

As drizzle fell across the fields, Bean took some photographs. These stark images, which symbolise forlorn hope and thwarted lives, are still held at the Australian War Memorial.

When Bean published his third volume of the official history in 1929, which covered Fromelles, bereaved families would have eagerly read it, searching for vital clues about their loved one's fate.

Yet, beyond sketchy maps, official narratives, and annotated footnotes, there were no answers to be gleaned.

Those answers eventually came, 93 years later - thanks to Lambis Englezos’ persistence and advocacy - with the discovery of 250 bodies at Pheasant Wood.

Excerpt from 'The Nameless Names: recovering the missing Anzacs'

Author signed copies available through my website.

https://scottbennettwriter.com/shop/

Photograph credit: thanks to Lambis Englezos for sharing.


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11/08/2026

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the Indonesian Confrontation.

Indonesia and Malaysia fought an undeclared war between 1962 and 1966 which came to involve troops from Australia, Britain and New Zealand. Fighting escalated when Indonesia launched a series of cross-border raids in Borneo in early 1963.

Australia's commitment to operations against Indonesia in Borneo and West Malaysia fell within the context of its membership in the Far East Strategic Reserve - a British Commonwealth force stationed in the region. 3RAR and 1 SAS Squadron deployed to Sarawak and Brunei in early 1965 and fought as part of a larger British force. 4RAR and 2 SAS Squadron served in Sarawak in 1966. Each of these units took part in secret cross-border operations code-named 'CLARET'.

Because of the sensitivity of these operations, which remained secret until 1996, Confrontation received very little coverage in the Australian press. Despite fighting an undeclared war, Australia and Indonesia maintained diplomatic relations.

Australia also sent detachments from the Royal Australian Corps of Signals, an artillery detachment and five squadrons of the Royal Australian Engineers to Borneo. Ships of the Royal Australian Navy served in the surrounding waters, and several Royal Australian Air Force squadrons were also involved during Confrontation.

Continuing negotiations between Indonesia and Malaysia ended the conflict, and the two sides signed a peace treaty on 11 August 1966.

Twenty-three Australians died as a result of their service during Confrontation, seven of them on operations, and eight were wounded.

Today we remember all who served.

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📷 Image: An Australian artillery crew from 102nd Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, fires a 105mm L5 Pack Howitzer at dawn from a forward base near the Sarawak–Kalimantan border, c. 1965. Photograph by William Cunneen. AWM CUN/65/0777/MC

11/08/2026

24/07/2026

In the early hours of 23 July 1916, men of the Australian Imperial Force attacked the German-held village of Pozières in northern France. Launched in part to divert attention from the besieged French stronghold of Verdun, Australia's first major action in the Battle of the Somme saw the diggers capture most of the village that first day.

German command ordered that Pozières be retaken at all costs. So ensued weeks of bitter fighting as the Germans saturated the area with artillery fire and gas, while launching determined counterattacks. It was all the Australians could do to hold on - indeed they managed to expand their gains further northeast to capture the OG trenches and the Windmill. To the north west they ground their way towards Mouquet Farm.

When they were relieved in early September the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions had suffered some 23,000 casualties.

While Gallipoli remains the best known Australian campaign of the First World War, official historian Charles Bean famously noted that Pozières ridge "is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth".

One hundred and ten years on, we remember all who endured the carnage at Pozières.

Lest we forget.

24/07/2026

25/04/2026