By Claude Ducker[1] The men of C Company 5 RAR may not have been aware of it at the time, but President Nixon was meeting with the South Vietnamese President Thieu on Midway Island on 7/8th June 1969. The main purpose of this meeting was to make the South Vietnamese take greater responsibility for the war; and Richard Nixon announced … Read More
Strategic context: The battle of Binh Ba
By Bob Hall What we call ‘the battle of Binh Ba’ was fought 50 years ago. Elements of 33 PAVN Regiment occupied the hamlet of Binh Ba on the night of 5/6 June 1969.[1] At 0810 hours on the morning of 6 June, two 1ATF armoured vehicles of 4 Troop, B Squadron, 1 Armoured Regiment – a Centurion tank and … Read More
May 1969: The switch to pacification
By Bob Hall In July 1968 the Psyops advisor in Phuoc Tuy Province, Major Desmal C. Smith Jr. was nearing the end of his tenure in the job. He was writing his end-of-tour report giving an overall assessment of progress and recommendations for change and improvement. He argued that the achievement of physical security was the key to improving pacification … Read More
An Australian at Hamburger Hill
By Bob Hall The Background In mid-1968 General Westmoreland was replaced as Commander US Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV), by General Creighton Abrams. Following the heavy losses suffered by the Viet Cong and People’s Army of Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968, Abrams attempted to introduce a new ‘pacification’ strategy. This reversed the previous US strategy in which top … Read More
33 PAVN Regiment morale and the ‘red rats of Phuoc Tuy’
By Ernie Chamberlain (This article was first published as Ernie Chamberlain Research Note 25/2018) On 10 September 1969, the 199th US Light Infantry Brigade killed a number of VC in an engagement at YT557333 in southern Long Khánh Province – including the second-in-command of the 1st Battalion 33rd PAVN Regiment named Bùi Đức Nhật. They recovered a 33rd Regiment ‘News … Read More
The Battle of Coral (Sở Hội) 13 May 1968 – the 141st NVA Regiment Account
By Ernie Chamberlain The 141st North Vietnamese Regiment History (1997) [1] relates that: On 12 May, we discovered a battalion of Royal Australian troops had deployed to South Sở Hội (six kilometres north of Tân Uyên), and the Regiment was ordered to launch a night attack. The night was dark, and the regimental commander – Doãn Khiết, together with the … Read More
The Battle of Long Tân: Việt Cộng ‘numbers’ – 275 Regiment ‘s ‘QM notebook’
By Ernie Chamberlain The 50th anniversary of the 1966 Battle of Long Tân is now past. However, with the the Red Dune movie “Danger Close” – “based on” the Battle, to begin filming in southern Queensland shortly, interest in the detail of the Battle is expected to increase. Estimates published in a 2016 “fact sheet” by the Red Dune … Read More
The Tet Offensive in Ba Ria, Viet Nam 1968
Luke Johnston is the son of Pte David Johnston, 2 Pl A Coy, 3 RAR. Read his analysis along with his father’s recollections, of the Tet Offensive.
Baria, Tet ’68: Province Senior Advisor Report – February 1968
By Bob Hall Each month the Province Senior Advisor (PSA) in each of the Republic of Vietnam’s 44 provinces submitted a detailed report up the chain of command. These reports assessed the political and psychological, security and economic situation in their province. They provided a qualitative evaluation of the previous month’s developments and so, form a useful complement to the … Read More
Keeping Troops in the Field Part 3: Resupply
Bob Hall and Andrew Ross The system and frequency of resupply affected the soldier’s load. The length of the gap between resupplies determined how many days of rations and water the soldier was required to carry. The ability to deliver an emergency resupply of ammunition when necessary could also influence the ammunition load the soldier carried. Background Counterinsurgency operations in … Read More