AARON PATRICK: The War Memorial’s Anzac Hall will teach new generations about sacrifice

Six years after work began expanding Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Anzac Hall was officially opened today at an event attended by politicians, businessmen, donors and heroes.

Long after the dignitaries leave, the two-level exhibition will certainly become an iconic Australian place. From an FA-18 fight-bomber to a drawing of Sarbi, the military dog, the ambition, sensitivity and quality of the displays places the Anzac Hall among the world’s great memorials to war.

The new hall has exhibits from World War II, including a Japanese midget submarine, spliced into three pieces, that attacked Australia. There is a restored Japanese tank and the tail fin of a German fighter plane flown by one of the war’s top aces.

Emotional force

But it is the galleries on Afghanistan, East Timor and Iraq that will draw new generations of Australians to the War Memorial.

An example of the attention to detail by the memorial’s staff are three mounted bullet fragments that hit an Australian Chinook helicopter, registration A15 202, operating out of Southern Afghanistan during the peak of the war.

The transport helicopter’s fuel line was pierced, which could have led to a crash. The helicopter, elegantly lit, is part of the display.

While the hardware is impressive, it is human stories that deliver an emotional force likely to be felt by visitors long after they leave.

One is a sign for Poppy’s, a recreation centre at the Australian base at Tarin Kowt, named for Trooper David Pearce, who was so old at 41 years that the other soldiers called him Poppy. He was killed by a bomb in 2007 driving an armoured car for the 14th Light Horse Regiment, which was protecting engineers working on a civil reconstruction project.

Then-prime minister Tony Abbott delivered the sign over to the memorial in 2013 after visiting the base to mark its closure.

A photo of Trooper Pearce in desert-like terrain around the base shows a man who looks happy. Interviews with veterans displayed among the exhibits feature soldiers proud, not of the killing of war, but of the profession of arms.

The Victoria Cross

All four of the men awarded the Victoria Cross during the war, Mark Donaldson, Ben Roberts-Smith, Daniel Keighran and Cameron Baird, lived in Tarin Kowt. Apart from Corporal Baird, who died in battle, all were invited as honoured guests.

Mr Roberts-Smith, facing charges he executed prisoners, obtained permission from a court last week to attend the event. The ex-SAS corporal became ill over the weekend and sent his regrets, according to his representatives, saving other guests the awkwardness of greeting a man whose life has almost overshadowed the whole war.

The accusations made against Mr Roberts-Smith and others are not ignored in the Anzac Hall. Nor are they highlighted.

A redacted version of the Brereton Report into war crimes allegations is behind glass, a reminder that the war’s true history remains in dispute.

A single panel describes the Battle of Shah Wali Kot, where the 2nd Commando Regiment and the SAS’s 2 Squadron won the greatest battle of the war, and Mr Roberts-Smith saved his team by charging multiple Taliban machine guns.

Anthony Albanese officially opened the hall on Tuesday evening. He read from a letter written in the dying days of World War II by a Hilda Barnes about her son, pilot Osmond Barnes, who went missing over Germany in January, 1944, according to a copy of the prime minister’s speech distributed to media outlets in advance.

“We are still hoping he may be found in hospital somewhere,” Ms Barners wrote. “He may have lost his memory or even disfigured by burns.

“I am enclosing a photo of him. I thought it might help if he has lost his memory. You will have an idea of what he looks like. He was 20 years and 10 months of age at his presumed death.”

Which was an example of exactly what the War Memorial is for: so Australia never forgets those men and women who died for those who stayed at home.