D-Day

Brothmark

When I was a lad in the 50's we used to have a parade in our village. We had the Small Arms School at Netheravon army camp and they were soldiers from all regiments on courses. They would form up and march through the village. There were Scots in Kilts and Scots in Troos (tartan trousers), then the others would have every cap badge in the army. But better than that were the old men. Old Mr Fisher, in a blue/black suit with waste coat, shiny black boots and a row of medals bigger than his chest. There were about twenty of them all then very old in their sixty's & seventies. They were the proudest men I have ever seen. They had been through Mons, The Somme, Ypres, Pashendale and probably even Galipoly. They could all march but not as fast as the young lads in their kilts swinging from side to side. It was a great day for a seven year old seeing them.
The old Contempt-ables.

1933 Taunton best photo that I could find but that is what they would have looked like.

The right hand thatched house was old man Fishers house, all bar the pub has demolished.

On the subject of medals Keith Payne won the VC in Vietnam. He had previuosly served in Korean and Malaya, and after leaving the Aussie army he served in the Sultan of Omans army during the Dhofar war. He has a grand total of 23 medals, more than the Duke of Edinburgh!

Early life
Keith Payne was born at Ingham, Queensland , on 30 August 1933, the son of Romilda (Millie) Hussey and Henry Thomas Payne. He attended Ingham State School and later became an apprentice cabinet-maker. Dissatisfied with working as a tradesman, Payne joined the Australian Army in August 1951 and was posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in September the following year.
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keith_Payne&action=edit&section=2"][COLOR=#0645ad]edit[/COLOR][/URL Military career

Payne served with his unit in the Korean War between April 1952 and March 1953. He married Florence Plaw, a member of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps, in December 1954, and was promoted to corporal the following year. Payne served in Malaya with this unit and in 1965, now a sergeant , he joined the 5th Battalion. In June 1965, by now a Warrant Officer Class II, Payne was a fieldcraft instructor on the staff of the Officer Training Unit, Scheyville, established to commission national servicemen. In February 1967 he was posted to Papua New Guinea where he served with the 2nd Pacific Islands Regiment. He remained there until March 1968 when he returned to Brisbane. On 24 February 1969 he was appointed to the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam .
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keith_Payne&action=edit&section=3"][COLOR=#0645ad]edit[/COLOR][/URL Victoria Cross action

In May that year he was commanding the 212th Company of the 1st Mobile Strike Force Battalion when it was attacked by a strong North Vietnamese force. His company was isolated and, surrounded on three sides, Payne's Vietnamese troops began to fall back. Payne, by now wounded in the hands and arms and under heavy fire, covered the withdrawal before organising his troops into a defensive perimeter. He then spent three hours scouring the scene of the day's fight for isolated and wounded soldiers, all the while evading the enemy who kept up regular fire. He found some forty wounded men, brought some in himself and organised the rescue of the others, leading the party back to base through enemy dominated terrain.
Payne's actions that night earned him the Victoria Cross , which was gazetted on 19 September 1969. [2]
He was evacuated to Brisbane in September suffering from an illness, receiving a warm reception at the airport before entering hospital. In January 1970 Payne was posted to the Royal Military College Duntroon as an instructor.
Payne received his VC from the Queen aboard the Royal Yacht, Britannia, in Brisbane. He was made a Freeman of the city and of the shire in which his hometown was located. A park in Stafford, Brisbane, where Payne lived was also named after him. He also received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star from the United States of America and the Republic of Vietnam awarded Payne the Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star.
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keith_Payne&action=edit&section=4"][COLOR=#0645ad]edit[/COLOR][/URL Later life

Payne retired from the army in 1975, but saw further action as a captain with the Army of the Sultan of Oman in the Dhofar War .
He joined the Legion of Frontiersmen in 1975 and holds the rank of an Honorary Chief Commissioner.
Payne returned to Australia and became active in the veteran community, particularly in counselling sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder . Payne and his wife raised five sons and are now living in Mackay, Queensland . He was also awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to the veteran community in 2006.
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keith_Payne&action=edit&section=5"][COLOR=#0645ad]edit[/COLOR][/URL In the media

Payne was interviewed for the 2006 television docudrama Victoria Cross Heroes which also included archive footage and dramatisations of his actions. [3]


Wikipidia

Richard wrote:

I have just found an MOD PDF file of medals its very concise.
www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F094AB02-070D-4D...0/Medals_Booklet.pdf

I get 'runtime errors' when I try to open that doc with Foxit Reader.

PETERTHEEATER;47412 wrote:

I get 'runtime errors' when I try to open that doc with Foxit Reader.

No probs here, Peter, with Foxit 2.3, build 2825.

Graham