Our Duties Done VC LE print by Ian Coate

The artist is a former member of the Australian Army whose wife has also served in the Army. His eldest son is now serving in the Army. 

Private Edward Kenna VC
2/4th Battalion, 2nd Australian Imperial Force
15 May 1945, near Wewak, New Guinea
In the final months of Pacific war the 2/4th Battalion, Second AIF faced the Japanese defences on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. After two days of hard fighting the enemy vacated the town, but still held strongly fortified positions on higher ground.

On the morning of 15 May Private Kenna’s company was given the task of clearing the Japanese from the Wirui Mission area. The Australians met heavy machine gun fire and took cover. Ted Kenna’s platoon was ordered to deal with one of these troublesome guns, but as members of the platoon tried to get round it, another machine gun in a previously unseen position fired on them.

As Ted Kenna saw some of his comrades fall wounded, he fired his Bren gun at this new threat but was unable to hit it. To get a better shot he rose in full view of the enemy and fired until out of ammunition. The enemy’s fire was so accurate that bullets, the citation states, ‘actually passed between his arms and his body’. Unable to put the bunker out of action with his Bren gun, Kenna called for a rifle and, still in full view, managed to kill the enemy gunner with his first shot. When another tried to take this man’s place. Kenna shot him with his next round.

Thanks to Kenna’s brave and prompt action the position was taken with few casualties. He was awarded the VC for ‘his magnificent courage and complete disregard for his own safety’. Three weeks after his heroic action at Wirui Mission Kenna was severely wounded by an explosive bullet which hit him in the mouth and tore his flesh to his shoulder. He required months of surgery at the Heidelberg Repatration Hospital.

Warrant Officer Class II Keith Payne
Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
24 May 1969, Kontum Province, South Vietnam
Keith Payne is Australia’s 96th, and most recent recipient of the VC. Warrant Officer Payne was in charge of a company of indigenous Montagnard soldiers of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion. On the morning of 24 May 1969 the battalion was operating in the western mountains of South Vietnam in an area close to the borders of Laos and Cambodia.

There they came under fierce attack from the 66th Regiment, North Vietnamese Army and were forced to fall back. Despite being wounded Payne was everywhere encouraging his men, throwing grenades and firing at the enemy. Indeed, in the next hours Payne worked tirelessly to provide cover for the battalion as it withdrew, reluctantly leaving numbers of men, including wounded, behind the enemy positions.

As darkness fell on the battalion’s new defensive line, Payne decided to go out, as his citation states, ‘with complete disregard for his own life’, and rescue the wounded. Over the next three hours, he located and assembled more than 40 wounded and missing men.

Payne guided the party back to the defensive position he had helped establish just hours before only to find it abandoned. He then led his party on through jungle he knew to be full of enemy. At 3.10 am, 25 May, they struggled into an area held by another friendly battalion. By that time Payne had been in action more than twelve hours. He had been wounded, organised and covered his unit’s fighting withdrawal, rescued 40 men and then led then them back to safety.

As his citation states: ‘His conspicuous gallantry was in the highest traditions of the Australian Army’.

Acknowledgment The text for these notes draws heavily on For Valour, Australians and the Victoria Cross, by Dr Richard Reid