RELATED: Your guide to Anzac Day 2017
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Eaglehawk paid tribute to the its service men and woman on Tuesday with veterans marching to the borough’s war memorial outside the town hall to mark Anzac Day.
The service’s guest speaker was Australian Army colonel, Jackson Harding, who spoke of the importance of remembering the nation’s war heroes as they were – not super-humans, but “ordinary men and women who in desperate times were called upon to do extraordinary things”.
To illustrate his point, Colonel Harding recounted the story of a machine-gunner who was awarded the Military Medal for his part in the defence of Darwin from Japanese bombers 75 years ago this February.
“As the aircraft appeared overhead, he ran from the showers wearing nothing more than his boots, a tin hat and a towel,” he said.
“He grabbed a Lewis gun, engaged, attacking enemy aircraft, downing one, all the time being exposed to enemy fire – he was very exposed, early on he lost the towel.”