[confused]

Interesting post. The Digger wasn't infallible but pound for pound were among the elite of the commonwealth forces and cut to bits everyone that the enemy threw at them - including Waffen SS in Greece and Fallschirmjaeger and Gebirgsjager in Crete.

They had the misfortune to be always placed in positions where the powers-that-be said that they should go - usually hopelessly untenable but still did the best of them all. ie Greece, Crete , Rabaul, Malaya and Java. Don't forget it was the 9th Division held Tobruk for months against Rommel until withdrawn for a rest.

You might be interested to know that after the fighting retreat down the Kokoda Track, which saw the Japanese whittled down to nothing with a butcher's bill of huge casualties, General Blamey addressing the survivors said
"It's not the rabbit that leaves his hole that gets shot by the man with the gun, it's the rabbit that runs." Meaning that the AIF ran away!! At a 7th Division address Blamey actually had rifles pointed at him by some listeners for making that little remark - it wouldn't have taken much more for the trigger to have been pulled. A 2/27 battalion digger who was there told me that in all seriousness.
Where the Digger excelled was that generally his frequently rural lifestyle in civilian life meant he was better suited to living rough in the field. The NZ'ers were the same. It's easy to sneer at the legend when we weren't there, but the achievements speak for themselves.

Remember these words to the tune of "A Policman's Lot!" (Gilbert & Sullivan)

When you're British not a thing can ever hurt you , ever hurt
you.
When you're safely standing at the back, at the back.
And you'll find Australian soldiers won't desert you, won't desert
you.
When you send them off to face the fierce attack.
At Gallipoli, our motives were no purer, were no purer
When we let the Aussies frolic in the mud, in the mud
And we sent them up the front in Singapora, Singapora,
Thus preserving quite a bit of British blood.
So when the Mother Country tests her Atom Bombs, Atom Bombs
The Australians stand much closer than the the Poms!!
(Max Gillies, Maralinga the
Musical)
And please note, despite what I've written here , I REALLY DO have the greatest admiration for the British soldier. Everything we are and have been, we learned from them!!