Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Raymond Petersen was born on 6 May 1930 in Auburn, New South Wales, before moving to Western Australia. He enlisted in the Regular Army and served with 3RAR. Petersen arrived in Korea as a reinforcement to 3RAR on Remembrance Day 1950. It is likely he came from one of the other battalions of the RAR back in Australia.
In June 1951, the Chinese had withdrawn north to recover from heavy losses in April and May. The Americans were keen to maintain pressure and the 28th British Commonwealth Brigade was tasked to secure territory north of the Imjin River, which
had recently been vacated by the Chinese.
It is not clear from the battalion’s War Diary what happened to Petersen. On 6 and 7 June, US Army Engineers built a bridge across the river, which two companies from 3RAR crossed on 7 June. The battalion did not encounter any notable opposition
until 8 June. However, there was some enemy shelling of the bridging work on 6 June and, Petersen may have been killed as a result of this.
Petersen is remembered at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, Busan, Korea.

Sources:
www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1716312/
nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1215548&c=KOREA
O’Neill, R. Australia In The Korean War 1950-53 Volume II Combat Operations,
Griffin Press Limited, Adelaide, 1985.