Fiercest battles???
Rowan, Im not sure where your coming from with some of your choices.
Gallipoli although very bitter fighting was low on casualties campared to what was to come in France.
Loss of the 8th Div was a tragedy. Agree, they were thrown away for a lost cause. Canadians probably feel the same about their Hong Kong Garrison.
Sandakan did not involve any fighting, just the systematic starvation and marching to death of Australian and British POWs..... more of a war crime than battle.
Gulf War 1 and 2 has me at a loss.
Lots of observers for Gulf War 1 (1990) which was more of an RAN show.
Gulf War 2, provided us with experience, an exceptionaly good working relationship with our Allies (good lessons learned) and pretty good allowances to go with it. This then morphed into the follow on phases that have seen all three services involved ever since. No complaints from everyone I know that was there and our casulties were pretty low compared to everyone else.
Afghansitan and the war on terror may be a different story depending on what you did there.......