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."
