The former military intelligence officer, who lodged a 4000-word submission with the inquiry last year, said it had been obvious from the start the panel would not be able to ''quarantine'' submissions on the 13 soldiers and sailors named as worthy of consideration for retrospective awards by the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, David Feeney, in November.

''It [the inquiry] has opened a large and voracious can of worms,'' he said. ''A number of the scheduled hearings were put off and I am sure there would still be people out there with stories [to tell].''

High on Senator Feeney's original list was Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the stretcher bearer who used a succession of donkeys to transport injured diggers down Shrapnel Gully during the first weeks of the Gallipoli campaign.

Wilson has just published a book, Dust Donkeys and Delusion, that attacks the myths that have grown up around Simpson over the years.

''Just about every word that has ever been written or spoken about Simpson, apart from the bare facts of his civilian life and his basic military service, is a lie,'' he said.

''The 'VC for Simpson Campaign' bases its reasoning on the 'fact' Simpson 'saved the lives' of a large number of men, often venturing into no-man's land to rescue badly wounded men from under the very rifle muzzles of the Turks, taking far more risks than anyone else - even his fellow stretcher bearers - since he could not take cover because he was leading a donkey.''

He argues it would have been impossible for Simpson to have done even a fraction of what is claimed for him and only men with non-life threatening wounds would have been fit to ride the donkey.

''I am not saying Simpson was less brave than his fellow stretcher bearers; what I am saying is that there is not a single shred of proof Simpson was even a scrap braver [than them].'' Wilson said Shrapnel Gully, where Simpson was collecting his wounded, was actually a safer place to be than the beach to which he was taking them.

''No member of the 3rd Field Ambulance [Simpson's unit] was killed or wounded in either Shrapnel Gully or Monash Gully between April 27 and May 19, 1915,'' he said.

''But 30 of them were wounded, several of them severely, while working at the beach in the same period. The beach was under constant artillery bombardment, as the Turks sought out docks, piers, supply dumps, landing points, artillery batteries and so forth.''

Wilson believes the award of a retrospective VC to any of the men on the committee's list, not just Simpson, would be an affront to the 70 Australians who were recommended for the VC by their superiors during World War I but who, for one reason or another, missed out.

It would make better sense to revisit these cases before moving on to men for whom recommendations were never made.

''I am anti-peddling the myth as history and then using that to build a campaign for a VC.''