Major General Kenneth Mackay - Australian Army

In MemoriamMajor General Kenneth Mackay, CB, MBE(1917–2004)Kenneth Mackay served with distinction in the Australian Army for almostforty years. He entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as a cadetin 1935 and retired as a Major General in 1974. In a long and meritoriouscareer, Mackay saw service in the Middle East and New Guinea in World War II;and during the Cold War, in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.In 1938, Mackay graduated from Duntroon as a Lieutenant in the ArtilleryBranch of the Australian Staff Corps, and his first appointment was to the 1stHeavy Brigade at the North Head Fort in Sydney. During his time at the fort, thethen Lieutenant Mackay first demonstrated the courage and moral fibre that was todistinguish the whole of his military career. Using a rope, he courageously rescueda seriously injured civilian from the base of the cliff at North Head. For his action,Mackay was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal.In late 1939, the then Captain Mackay graduated from the Field ArtillerySchool and was subsequently posted as adjutant of the 2nd/8th Field Regimentat Puckapunyal. In November 1940 he was deployed to the Middle East area ofoperations as a battery commander, and later served as a regimental artillery officerand artillery liaison officer with the Headquarters of the 9th Division. He endedhis service in the Middle East as the Brigade Major of the 26th Australian InfantryBrigade in 1941–42 and was directly involved in the fearsome battles aroundEl Alamein that stopped the German drive to capture Cairo and the Suez Canal.During his service in the Middle East, Mackay also attended the United Kingdom’sCommando Instructors Course in Northern Palestine and the United Kingdom’sStaff College (which had been temporarily relocated to Haifa in Palestine). As aresult of this experience, he helped to raise and train the 9th Division’s commandounit—a remarkable achievement for a still relatively junior officer.In early 1943, Mackay deployed with the 9th Division to New Guinea asBrigade Major of the 26th Brigade. In New Guinea, he distinguished himself withoutstanding staff-work during operations against the Japanese at Lae, Satelberg andWareo, and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In early 1944, hewas posted as an operations staff officer at Army Headquarters in Melbourne beforebeing seconded to the War Office in London. During this secondment, Mackay waspart of an exclusive military team that reported directly to the Chief of the GeneralStaff of the British Army. In July 1945, he attended the Postdam Conference as amember of Field Marshal Lord Allanbrook’s personal staff.Australian Army Journal Volume II, Number 1 page 247

MilestonesFollowing the end of World War II, Mackay was appointed Secretary to theJoint Chiefs of Staff and Joint Planning Committee for the British CommonwealthOccupation Force in Japan. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel,and in mid-1949 became Commanding Officer of the 67th Australian InfantryBattalion, then stationed in Japan.Under his command the 67th Battalion became the 3rd Battalion of the RoyalAustralian Regiment (RAR). The 3rd Battalion, or 3 RAR, has since become anintegral part of today’s Army, and for the rest of his life Kenneth Mackay remaineddeservedly proud of the unit that he fathered and of its very fine combat record inKorea, Malaya, Vietnam and East Timor.Mackay returned to Australia in August 1949 as a staff officer in the Directorate ofMilitary Operations and Plans at Army Headquarters. With the exception of a shortstint in Korea in late 1952, he remained at Army Headquarters until he was posted as theChief Instructor at the School of Tactics and Administration in Victoria. Between 1955and 1962 he served in both Britain and Australia. In Britain, as a colonel, Mackay servedin London as Assistant Defence Representative and then, following promotion to brigadier,he attended the Imperial Defence College. His appointments in Australia duringthe late 1950s and early 1960s included Director of Personnel, Maintenance, Quarteringand Military Training at Army Headquarters in Melbourne, and then Director ofMilitary Operations and Plans at the new Army Headquarters in Canberra.When the Australian Government decided to provide ground combat troops toSouth Vietnam in the mid-1960s, Brigadier Mackay led the initial planning team andnegotiated arrangements with the Americans for operational areas of responsibility,logistic support, and command and control. Indeed, it was on his recommendationthat Australia assumed control of a separate operational area in Phuoc Tuyprovince—a decision that served Australia well. In 1966, when Australia’s militarycommitment expanded from one battalion group to a joint taskforce, Mackay waspromoted to Major General to command the expanded force. In his book Too LongTan, Ian McNeil writes admiringly of Ken Mackay:He [Mackay] was one of the few senior officers at the time who had a clear understandingof the development of the war and Australia’s part. Besides, he had formed a close andharmonious working relationship with senior American and Vietnamese commandersand staff. With disdain for the excesses of red tape, and possessing considerableknowledge and drive, helped along by a rather roguish sense of humour, he was wellequipped to lead he Australian forces into their biggest commitment since 1945.In Vietnam, Mackay proved to be a resolute commander, standing his groundagainst American efforts to move Australian operations towards attrition and ‘bodycount’ tactics rather than pacification measures in Phouc Tuy province. In 1967,on his return from Vietnam, Mackay was appointed a Companion of the Orderpage 248 Volume II, Number 1 Australian Army Journal

In Memoriamof Bath and took command of the 1st Division. Between 1969 and his retirementin 1974, he was Quarter Master General in Canberra and then General OfficerCommanding Eastern Command. In 1973, his last appointment was as the inauguralGeneral Officer Commanding the new Field Force Command, the precursor oftoday’s Land Command.To his military contemporaries, Ken Mackay was a tough, uncompromisingofficer who possessed an excellent sense of humour and great integrity. He was athoroughly professional soldier who served his country long and well. Finally, withMajor General Mackay’s passing, we are again reminded of the thinning of the ranksof that great generation of Australian soldiers who came of age in World War II, andwhose careers spanned Cold War conflicts in Malaya, Korea, Borneo and Vietnam.All of Australia owes this generation, of which Kenneth Mackay was an outstandingexample, a great debt of gratitude. Their military service must always be honouredand is never to be forgotten.Major General Ken GillespieLand Commander, AustraliaMajor General Timothy Frederick Cape, CB, CBE, DSO1915–2003Tim Cape had a long and distinguished military career serving from thelate 1930s through World War II and, later, holding a variety of positionsin the postwar period until his retirement in 1972. Born in Vaucluse, inNew South Wales, he was the youngest of three children whose family could traceits heritage to a line of British colonists dating back to 1817. Tim Cape’s father wasa New South Wales volunteer in the Boer War of 1899–1902 and was awarded theDistinguished Service Order (DSO) for his service in South Africa. In the mid-1930s, Tim Cape joined the Australian Army and graduated from the Royal MilitaryCollege, Duntroon, in December 1937. The then Lieutenant Cape was commissionedin the Australian Staff Corps and allotted to the Artillery.Although he retained a lifelong interest in all matters pertaining to artillery,his service with the guns was short. He served with the 1st Heavy Brigade atGeorges Heights in Sydney and was one of two officers tasked with establishing the13th Heavy Battery on the approaches to Port Moresby in 1939. Shortly after theoutbreak of World War II, he raised the Anti-Tank Wing of the School of Artilleryat Puckapunyal. For his work at the School of Artillery and his later New Guineaservice, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.Australian Army Journal Volume II, Number 1 page 249