Fred Smith donated his broken phone and guitar, along with other items, to the Fall of Kabul gallery space at the Australian War Memorial. Photo: John Lomnicki.
As bombs fell, machine gun fire raked the streets, and the Taliban seized control of Kabul in Afghanistan, Fred Smith’s phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.
The now musician and author had previously worked as a diplomat in Afghanistan, and Afghan nationals who had worked for the Australian Embassy were desperately contacting him to find out how they could escape.
“I was getting messages from people I had worked with, who had become my friends, all asking ‘what do we do?’,” Mr Smith said.
“It was an evacuation executed on WhatsApp … The phone really embodies the story of how we got a vast number of people out of Afghanistan.
“When your visa is on your phone and your battery dies, that can mean the difference between getting out or being left behind. Every day we told people: take an extra phone charger, keep your passport close, don’t push, don’t argue, just keep moving.”
The final days of Australia’s longest war are being brought to life at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) through eyewitness accounts of the fall of Kabul, five years after the return of the Taliban, and the evacuation of thousands of people from Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Former Australian Ambassador to Afghanistan and now Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson was in the same WhatsApp groups as Mr Smith.
Putting together the immersive AWM installation saw him look back through those messages as well.
“This is instantaneous communication, [nowadays] it’s what we all do,” Mr Anderson said.
“But for 10 days … it was life or death.”
Fred has donated his eyewitness footage and contemporary records, along with his broken phone and guitar, to the gallery space.
The eyewitness display in the new Afghanistan gallery is complex, chaotic and emotional. The images of dozens of men clinging to the wheels of departing aircraft are juxtaposed with real-time messages from those on the ground trying to get out and from the people trying to help them.
The installation shows the throngs of people navigating suicide bombers, a moat of sewage canals, COVID-19, the violent end of a 20-year war, the searing heat and uncertainty over whether they would survive the returning regime.
“What visitors see in the new Afghanistan gallery is our first draft of this history,” Mr Anderson said.
“We have no official history yet. This is the first draft.
“You only have to spend time in the Afghanistan gallery to realise it’s complicated. Every person who served experienced a different Afghanistan, and that is what the new galleries are trying to reflect.”
Fred Smith at the north gate of Kabul Airport. Photo: Roger Richards.
It’s hoped people will walk away from the galleries with a new understanding of what Australians and the Afghan people went through in August 2021.
“Despite the many challenges during the evacuation mission, the Australian team managed to get 4100 people out, most of whom are now living in Australia,” Mr Smith said.
“Their girls and boys are going to school and having swimming lessons. We’ve changed people’s lives. This is a story worth telling.”
And you might also have a newfound appreciation for your mobile phone.
“I hope [visitors] look at their text messages and realise that, for a moment in time in August of 2021, that a text message was a lifeline, that text message getting through … [to] have a phone with battery charging was the difference between getting out or staying, of getting through a checkpoint in time,” Mr Anderson said.
Mr Smith agreed: “The phone really embodies the story of how we got a vast number of people out of Afghanistan.”
The galleries aren’t the end of the story.
Australia’s final evacuation flight left on 26 August 2021, marking the end of the nation’s 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan, but the fight there continues.
“We went for the right reasons. We stayed for the right reasons. But once our allies made the decision to leave, we couldn’t stay. That’s the tragedy,” Mr Anderson said.
“I am still in contact with people who are desperate to get out. That’s what people need to understand. For many Afghans, this story didn’t end when Kabul fell.”
The day the Taliban returned to power will be marked by two concerts by Mr Smith on 15 August at the Australian War Memorial.
Concert tickets are available at Unforgotten: Songs of Australians at War.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Australian service in Afghanistan 2001-2021. To commemorate this, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs will hold a national commemorative service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 11 October 2026 (11 October 2001 marks the official start date of Operation Slipper).
