Thursday, June 23, 2016

HISTORIAN AGAIN CHALLENGES KATTER'S WAR STATEMENTS


The above special report  by military historian, writer and  journalist , Ross Eastgate, who  specialises in defence ,  was  run  across two pages  in the Townsville  Bulletin  on  June 16 , without  any apparent reference to  the  Member for  Kennedy, Bob Katter ,  or  a  request  for  comment .

It came  after  the issues  were  earlier  raised  by Eastgate , a graduate of  Duntroon  and  the Army Command and  Staff College , who has  served  in the Middle East, PNG  and East Timor .

The Australian  newspaper of  May 30 carried a  report  by  Sid  Maher which stated Bob Katter was  threatening defamation proceedings against a Townsville Bulletin columnist, Ross  Eastgate ,  who questioned his account of  his compulsory military service in the 1960s and his depiction of his ­father’s unit’s involvement in the Kokoda campaign.
 
It said  Katter, the long-serving independent member for Kennedy in far north Queensland, has been under fire by a senior LNP figure over his description of the 49th Battalion as “my own’’ in his book An Incredible Race of People.

Eastgate  had  picked up on the story after Dennis Quick, the LNP regional co­ordinator in far north Queensland, claimed Mr Katter had exaggerated his father’s and uncle’s ­involvement.

The report  said  that in  a letter to the Innisfail Advocate, Mr Katter wrote: “When the 49th were relieved at Sanananda, there were only 28 of the 800-man battalion able to walk out from the trenches. We had put our lives between ourselves and the enemy again and again, denying them ­access to Port Moresby and the ­invasion of Australia. 

“While of course I was not there, it was father’s battalion and my Uncle Billy’s battalion. As kids, we would hear the stories in awe about the men who had fought and saved their country from ­invasion.’’
 
The Townsville Bulletin had  reported that Mr Quick wrote in reply that Mr Katter’s use of the word “we’’ was “misleading’’ about his service in the Army Reserve and challenged his claim that more than 95 per cent of the 49th Battalion was lost at  Sanananda.

Mr Quick said the 49th lost 60 per cent of its assault force “and the attack failed ... therefore Mr Katter’s statement ... is also unable to withstand scrutiny.’’
 
Eastgate wrote in a column in the Townsville Bulletin that Mr Katter’s father, Bob senior, was discharged from the 49th Battalion on medical grounds in 1942 as the Kokoda campaign began. He said the attack to which Mr Katter referred took place a month  after the Kokoda campaign ended.

“His interpretation of the 49th Bn history is at odds with both the Australian War Memorial’s record of the 49th Bn’s war service, and the official battalion history, Fred Cranston’s Always Faithful: A History of the 49th Australian Infantry Battalion 1916-1982,’’ Eastgate wrote. He also questioned Mr Katter’s writings in The Australian in which he said as an 18-year-old he was handed an “SLR rifle and had to give next-of-kin phone numbers.
 
The Australian report  ended by  stating   Mr  Katter’s spokeswoman said he was “bringing an  action of  defamation against Ross Eastgate."