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An SAS digger who single-handedly took out three Taliban machine gunners will today receive Australia's highest military honour, the Victoria Cross. The soldier, known only as Corporal Ben, will receive his medal from Governor-General Quentin Bryce at Perth's Campbell Barracks. Also attending will be Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, Defence Minister Stephen Smith, Defence Force Chief Angus Houston and Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett. Corporal Ben is reported to have earned the VC by his actions during the intense gun battle in Afghanistan's Shah Wali Kot region last October. In the fight, Corporal Ben charged the enemy...

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd, federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, Victorian Premier John Brumby and senior defence chiefs are among hundreds of people who have turned out for the funeral of Ted Kenna, who was Australia's last surviving World War II Victoria Cross recipient. One of Australia's two living Victoria Cross recipients, Vietnam veteran Keith Payne, was also at the service. ..... Nepalese Victoria Cross recipient Limbu Rimbahadur was also among the mourners at St Patrick's Cathedral in East Melbourne. Mr Kenna will be buried with full military honours.

Somebody has placed this incredible documentary on youtube and I commend it to anybody interested in the history of heroism, or the history of war in general. Overall, it's about an hour long and it explores in a fair amount of detail the actions that lead to the award of the Victoria Cross, the British Empire's and Commonwealth's highest decoration for bravery in the face of an enemy (thus given in the same place in our heirarchy of bravery awards that the Medal of Honour occupies in the United States), to Australian's since the dawn of the twentieth century. It...

This really is worth watching at youtube.

THE first Victoria Cross for Australia has been awarded to a Trooper Mark Donaldson this morning for his bravery in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce made the historic announcement today at Government House in Canberra. Tropper Donaldson received the award for his actions in Afghanistan on September 2 last year, when, under heavy fire, he ran 80 metres to save an interpreter for the coalition forces and carried him to safety under sustained and accurate shooting. The Victoria Cross is the highest possible award for acts of bravery in wartime, ahead of the Military Cross. Queen...

SEVEN Network boss Kerry Stokes will return a Victoria Cross awarded to one of the country's greatest war heroes to the Australian War Memorial. The media mogul and the South Australian Government were yesterday revealed as the mystery bidders of the medal, which sold at auction in Sydney for $488,000. It is the third Victoria Cross Mr Stokes has bought at auction and returned to the War Memorial since 2006, spending almost $2 million to save the pieces of Australia's history from being lost to the public. Carey Badcoe, daughter of Adelaide-born digger Major Peter Badcoe, was happy her father's...

FOUR weeks ago, auction house chairman Tim Goodman received a call from a wealthy client in the US. The businessman, a passionate military memorabilia collector, had learned that medals and frontline archival material belonging to Australian army Major Peter Badcoe, who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1967, would feature in Bonhams and Goodman's May auction, to be held in Sydney on Tuesday. The collector told Mr Goodman he intended to bid for the Badcoe collection, which includes the only Vietnam War VC medal still in private hands and awarded to Major Badcoe posthumously. The estimated price for the...

THE attack came under cover of darkness. Without warning, rocket-propelled grenades slammed into two of the New Zealand SAS troop vehicles, the force of the blast throwing Lance Corporal Willy Apiata to the ground and wounding two of his fellow soldiers. One of the men, members of an SAS patrol in Afghanistan in 2004, was bleeding heavily after shrapnel had severed an artery, and was lapsing in and out of consciousness. Without immediate medical assistance, the soldier, identified only as Corporal D, would have died. The three men were isolated, pinned down by machinegun and rifle fire from an estimated...

A NEW Zealand soldier has become the first person since World War II to be awarded the country's highest honour for bravery, after a daring rescue of a wounded comrade in Afghanistan in 2004. ACorporal Bill Apiata of the New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) was given the Victoria Cross for New Zealand. The medal is based on Britain's Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for British soldiers. Prime Minister Helen Clark said Cpl Apiata, 35, was awarded the medal for carrying a severely wounded soldier across open ground while coming under heavy fire. Cpl Apiata's patrol came under attack from...

A BRITISH soldier posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in Afghanistan may have been shot dead by his comrades. Father of two Corporal Bryan Budd, 29, of the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, was killed as he stormed a Taliban position single-handedly in Helmand, trying to protect seven of his colleagues from heavy fire. His widow Lorena, 23, a clerk with the Royal Artillery, is due to collect his posthumous VC from the Queen at Buckingham Palace next month. She has been told his death may have been caused by "friendly fire", The Sun reported last night. She...

Raw courage and utter selflessnessBy Caroline Davies (Filed: 28/04/2005) Even as the Queen reached up to pin Britain's ultimate award for valour on the khaki tunic of Pte Johnson Beharry yesterday, he was thinking not of himself but of others. Her Majesty had not awarded the Victoria Cross to a living recipient for 40 years. "You're very special," she told the 25-year-old Grenadan, who twice came close to death while saving the lives of colleagues during ambushes in Iraq last year. The modest Pte Johnson Beharry: ‘I wasn't thinking about a medal’ But as the young soldier stood, ramrod straight,...

VC for soldier who led convoy through ambushes in IraqBy Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 18/03/2005) A British soldier who fought in Iraq is awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry, today for saving dozens of comrades during two incidents in which he was seriously wounded. Pte Johnson Beharry, 25, who emigrated from Grenada in 1999, is only the fourth black serviceman to win the award, instituted in 1865 to honour heroism in the Crimea. He was cited for his actions during battles with Iraqi insurgents in the southern town of Amarah last summer. Pte Beharry, of 1...