In 1940, in one of his most celebrated speeches, Winston Churchill praised the Allied airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain: “Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.”

I believe the Coast Watchers were the Pacific equivalent of the Battle of Britain’s famous “Few”.

Just like the gallant fighter pilots over Britain, the Coast Watchers were a tiny gallant band, which had an impact far out of proportion to their numbers. And, like the fighter pilots, the Coast Watchers changed the course of the war.

The Coast Watchers volunteered to stay behind the enemy lines in the Pacific islands when, all around them, others were fleeing in the face of a seemingly invincible invasion force. When they volunteered there was no guarantee – or even likelihood – that the Allies would ultimately prevail in the conflict. The only certainty was that if they were captured they faced torture and death.

Indeed, at least 30 Coast Watchers were captured and executed, mostly by beheading.

They were remarkable characters. Most were ‘old hands’ in the islands, who knew the land and the people intimately. They stayed on, in their jungle posts, after the Japanese swept through the islands, constantly moving camp, living off the land, working with their islander comrades, all the while on the lookout for enemy patrols intent on hunting them down.

They made their reports using the then ‘state-of-the-art’ communication system the ‘portable’ AWA 3B teleradio, an absurdly cumbersome set of gear that weighed 150 kilos and needed between 12 and 16 men to move it.

Many Coast Watchers died heroically, like Con Page on Simberi Island off New Ireland, who continued to radio reports, even when the Japanese were closing in on him.

Greg Benham and Bill Kyle stayed behind, refusing the last chance to escape when a group of civilians left New Ireland by boat, to keep reporting.

Just last week, speaking at Camden Library, I met Greg Benham’s nephew. He showed me his uncle’s last letter to his family, taken out by the escaping civilians.

In it he wrote that he stayed behind because his mate Bill Kyle had been ordered to stay behind with the radio: “I felt it my duty to volunteer to stay with him instead of going on the boat to the Solomons and thence to Sydney. I know I owe you all a duty to return and to dear Lillian – however I know you all realize the decision I made was the only honourable one.”

Both Bill Kyle and Greg Benham continued to send their reports until they were captured by the Japanese, just hours before they were due to be rescued by submarine. They were both beheaded. 

The wonderful news that another 19 missing Fromelles Diggers have been identified highlights two things: one, that the original bureaucratic dismissals of the chance of any identifications were well wide of the mark; and, two, that the time has come to have the name of the battle inscribed on our major war memorials.

Currently, of 250 sets of remains discovered, 203 have been identified as Australian and, of these, 94 have been individually named. This result far exceeds the authorities’ expectations.

Indeed, when Lambis Englezos originally approached our bureaucrats asking that they search Pheasant Wood, he was told there was almost no likelihood that any remains would be found and, further, if any remains were found they would have virtually no chance of identification.

So, having overcome both these hurdles, surely the time has come for the name of this tragic battle to be added to our war memorials. Many Australians will be staggered to learn that Fromelles, the worst loss of life in a single night in our nation’s history, does not appear on our major memorials.

The long-term advocates of Fromelles, call their quest for the battle’s recognition on our war memorials, the Third Battle of Fromelles: the first was the original in July 1916; the second was the fight to find the missing soldiers, now in its final stages.

Fromelles appears on the Australian Memorial in London’s Hyde Park and on the 5^th Division’s Memorial at Polygon Wood, near Ypres in Belgium, but it does not appear on any of Australia’s major memorials.

The original argument that prevented Fromelles being inscribed on our memorials was that it formed part of the Battle of the Somme. Certainly, Fromelles was originally designed as a diversion to hold German troops away from the Somme, about 80 kilometres away, but it was a separate battle and, in scale and importance, far outweighed many other battles that have been long since carved into our history. (For example, almost four times as many lives were lost at Fromelles than those who died in all our years fighting in Vietnam.)

Inclusion of Fromelles on the memorials would in no way denigrate the battle honours already there. Rather it would right a wrong that has endured for almost a century.

Many Australians draw inspiration from the story of Kokoda and from the challenge of walking the Track but few give anything back to the people of PNG.

That’s why it’s great to see that the Hawthorn Football Club has embraced the spirit of Kokoda – in word and deed. Not only have the Hawks integrated the spirit into their club culture, they have committed to play a Kokoda Game each season, with funds raised at it to be used to help educate the kids living along the Track.

The Hawks will donate funds raised at the Kokoda Game to the Kokoda Track Foundation’s Adopt An Angel Scholarship Scheme, which provides scholarship and school resources to the descendants of the beloved Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels in the Kokoda catchment area.

Hawks’ President, Jeff Kennett, and club director, Geoff Harris, are showing great leadership by initiating the project, which is in keeping with their determination to use the Kokoda spirit to inspire their players to become better men.

The Kokoda Track Foundation currently supports 156 children with primary and secondary school scholarships and provides educational supplies to 18 schools along and around the Track. The Hawks’ initiative will mean the Foundation should be able to substantially increase the number of children it supports.

The vast majority of current scholarship kids have parents who are subsistence farmers – and can’t afford school fees – or are orphans. Many of them simply would not be able to attend school without their scholarship.

It costs about $300 a year to send a child to primary school and about $1000 for secondary school. If you can afford to help the Foundation by donating an Adopt An Angel scholarship, please check out the Foundation’s website at www.kokodatrackfoundation.org

Thanks to the science of DNA identification and the persistence of men like Lambis Englezos and Tim Whitford, at least 75 of the Missing Diggers of Fromelles now have their names back.

After 94 years languishing unknown and undiscovered in a series of burial pits dug by the Germans following the battle in July 1916, the Missing Diggers will at last have a dignified individual grave and at least 75 of them will have their names on their gravestones.

This will bring great comfort to their families, many of whom have waited for almost a century to finally discover the fate of their loved ones and to have a place where they can commemorate their sacrifice.

We should not forget that it has been the dogged persistence of Team Lambis (Lambis Englezos and his supporters in Australia and around the world) which has made this day possible.

Without the impetus of Team Lambis, the Missing Diggers and Tommies from the Battle of Fromelles would still lie jumbled and unsung in the damp mud of French Flanders. 

Without Team Lambis, every day, the people of Fromelles – and the many visitors roaming the tragic killing fields there – would still have passed by Pheasant Wood, just below the town centre, without knowing that the Missing Diggers where lying there waiting to be recognised.

When you see “the great and the good” basking in the reflected glory of the reinterment ceremonies of the Missing Diggers, spare a thought for those who fought through the bureaucratic inertia and obfuscation to make sure they were discovered and identified – even though, at every turn, they were rebuffed and told that both goals were impossible dreams.

Some Wonderful news from Maj-Gen Mike O’Brien, the man responsible for the Pheasant Wood exhumation and reburials: the first wave of those Missing Diggers will be identified by Anzac Day.

The DNA testing of the Pheasant Wood remains has been far more successful than at first thought. In fact, I understand that all bar six of the remains have now yielded viable DNA.

Considering that around 70 percent of the Missing Diggers have had a descendant register with the Army and provide a DNA sample, this gives great hope for a substantial proportion of the Missing to be finally identified and buried under a marked headstone.

It’s a long-awaited vindication of the constant claims by Lambis Englezos and his supporters that, not only could the Missing Diggers (and Tommies) be found, but the majority of them could also be identified.

What a moving and memorable ceremony awaits those who make the journey to Fromelles on 19^th July for the official commemoration of the new cemetery and the unveiling of the named headstones.

The Missing Diggers’ families have waited 94 years for this.