Posted on 01/31/2016 2:15:15 PM PST by naturalman1975
A new book tells the fascinating story of one of Australia's most lethal military men and how his exploits are now part of army folklore.
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Opie won a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) in Korea for almost single-handedly capturing an enemy position. Many thought he should have got a Victoria Cross (VC) - amazingly no Australian got a VC in the Korean War.
Leading a team of only six men he captured a hill known as 'Hill 614' that had held up the whole brigade of 3,000 men. The Chinese were well dug in and it was a very steep and well-fortified hill.
'Len charged up the hill with his small group of men, using at least three different weapons along the way. They cleared out foxholes up the hill, killing Chinese soldiers as they went,' the book's author Faulker told Daily Mail Australia.
When they had reached the summit Opie was the only man standing. His only injury was a shrapnel wound in his hand from when a grenade went off close by. During the attack Opie used an Owen gun, a .303 he took from a dead Chinese soldier, a US Garand rifle, Mills bombs, Chinese grenades and an M1 carbine.
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Opie's Korean War experience was sandwiched between fighting the Japanese in World War II in New Guinea and Borneo, and the Vietnam War where he was a highly decorated member of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.
He was later transferred to the CIA's black ops program, Phoenix, to be its head of training. It made Opie a crucial cog in America's counterinsurgency war in Vietnam. Some believe his CIA association even continued after the Vietnam War.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
One of my personal heroes. The main reason he never received the Victoria Cross was the general requirement for three witnesses (at least one of whom was an officer) could not be met because he tended to either operate alone, or outrun everybody who was with him when they started. The Distinguished Conduct Medal he did receive was the second highest decoration for valour by a non-officer (in those days, Britain and the Commonwealth had a number of decorations where officers and 'other ranks' received different medals for the same action). Opie finished his army career as a Major, having been a private soldier then a non commissioned officer, then a warrant officer, then a commissioned officer.
A very interesting article. Sort of the Australian Audie Murphy. I checked my library catalog for the book, but it wasn’t there. Maybe it will turn up after a while: surprising things do.
What a British face Mr. Opie had!
Very interesting, I enjoyed the pictures.
Daily Mail is good for pictures. It appears the gentleman died some years ago, and he’s in the news now because of the publication of a new book.
Awesome story! Thanks for posting.
ping
Thanks for the ping!
He was ONEHELLOFASOLDIER!
Admiration is the first word that jumped out of me.
Yes!
Concur. Though his tastes in hardware seems a bit more generalized.
Nice collection.
My library catalog has a listing for the author of the new book, but no items following. That probably means they’re planning to order the book eventually.
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