3609 Australian Bravery in the Vietnam War - Part 2
Australia's involvement and commitment to the Vietnam War continued until 1973 when the last remaining platoon who were acting as guards for the Australian Embassy in Saigon, were withdrawn in June 1973. As with American involvement, Australia's contribution also escalated over time. Following the arrival of the AATTV in 1962, in August 1964 the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) began to run supply missions to Vung Tau, the port south of Saigon. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3
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22:09
3608 Australian Bravery in the Vietnam War - Part 1
Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1962. In July that year, the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) (or 'the Team') first arrived, consisting of thirty military advisers. These special teams were designed to train and advise local troops - ARVN units, Montagnards, territorial forces, and Mobile Strike (Mike) Forces. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3
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24:28
3607 Martin Leake VC
Arthur Martin-Leake, serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 was the first man to be awarded a Bar to the Victoria Cross he received during the Second Boer War in 1902. In both circumstances Martin-Leake's conduct was to put the lives of his injured comrades first despite being exposed to constant enemy fire, and being wounded himself. Martin-Leake is the only recipient to gain his two Victoria Crosses in separate wars. Only two other men have been awarded two Victoria Crosses: Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse in 1916 and 1917, and Captain Charles Upham in 1941 and 1942. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3
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19:55
3606 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment at Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863
On September 22nd, 1862, already almost two years into the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation stating that, as of January 1st, 1863, all slaves within any State would be "thenceforward, and forever free." This proclamation freed 3.5 million men and women of African-American descent and, included in the proclamation, was the sentence that "the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." This meant that African-Americans could serve in the armed forces of the Union. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3
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19:03
3605 The Battle of the Granicus
In the Spring of 334 BC, the 22-year-old Macedonian king, Alexander III (r. 336-323 BC - not yet ‘the Great’), invaded the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire with an elite but small army of some 30-40,000 veteran infantry and only 5,000 cavalry. This invasion was the culmination of almost a century of pressure for some Greek commander or other to punish Persia for its own invasion of Greece during the fifth century BC. Persia had also continued to seriously meddle in Greek affairs thereafter, affecting the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC and with the King’s Peace in 386 BC. Dur: 31mins File: .mp3