Contact gone wrong – 3RAR

Robert HallAustralian Army, News, VC, Vietnam War

By Bob Hall During the Vietnam War, major units such as infantry battalions regularly compiled ‘lessons learned’ documents critically assessing their operations, noting problems that had arisen and suggesting solutions. These ‘lessons’ documents were widely distributed throughout the Army and provide insights into the tactical successes and failures of the campaign. In April 1971, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scott, CO 3RAR … Read More

The National Intelligence Committee Reports

Robert HallARVN, Australian Army, Civil Affairs, News, Uncategorised, VC, Vietnam War

By Bob Hall In early 1970, Malcolm Fraser, then Minister for Defence in the Gorton-led Coalition government, visited Vietnam to ‘survey the political situation, the prospects of the Saigon Government, and the progress in pacification of the countryside’.[1] According to the Departmental Secretary, Arthur Tange, Fraser was dissatisfied with what he saw. In particular Fraser believed that reporting from Saigon … Read More

Now’s the time to record your place in history

Robert HallNews

Now that COVID-19 is confining us to our homes, you may be finding that you’ve got time on your hands. One way of making good use of that time is to help make the Australia’s Vietnam War website the best it can be. Here’s some things you can do: Scan your old photographs and upload them to the website direct … Read More

New articles posted

Robert HallNews

To mark National Serviceman’s Day (14 February), we’ve posted an article titled ‘Gallup Polls #1 – National Service’. The article graphs the level of public support for the National Service Scheme, according to Gallup Polls, between 1961 and 1972. It shows that support for the scheme never fell below 50%, but support for deployment of National Servicemen to a war … Read More

Hamburger Hill – 50 years ago

Robert HallNewsLeave a Comment

About 50 years ago last week the battle of Hamburger Hill was fought in the jungle covered terrain of the A Shau valley west of Hue. It was a major battle marked by the courage and determination of both sides as they struggled for control of the dominating feature over the 10-day battle. Few people acknowledge the role of ARVN … Read More

New article on 1ATF combat efficiency

Robert HallNewsLeave a Comment

An article titled ‘Shots per casualty: an indicator of combat efficiency for the first Australian task force in South Vietnam’ has recently been published by Andrew Ross and Bob Hall in Defense & Security Analysis. The article argues that in combat, the ratio of shots fired per casualty inflicted can provide a measure of the combat effectiveness of a force. … Read More

New Air Sorties and Naval Gunfire Support data

Robert HallNewsLeave a Comment

Air Sorties: The website now has over 2,249,000 air sorties plotted on the battle map. To see the air sorties, select ‘Battle Map’, then go to the ‘stacked map’ symbol in the top right of the screen and click the ‘Air sorties’ button. The air sorties displayed include USAF, USMC, USN, Vietnamese, Australian and other air sorties against targets throughout … Read More

The Battle of Long Tân: Việt Cộng ‘numbers’ – 275 Regiment ‘s ‘QM notebook’

Robert HallArticles, Australian Army, News, Uncategorised3 Comments

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

Clearance Diving Team 3 – 1st Contingent

Robert HallNews, Royal Australian NavyLeave a Comment

Data extracted from John Perryman & Brett Mitchell, Australian Navy in Vietnam: Royal Australian Navy Operations 1965 – 1972. p. 60-63. Reprinted with the kind permission of the Authors. Photographs from the Australian War Memorial Collection licensed under CC BY-NC Unit: Clearance Diving Team 3 Composition: LEUT M. T. F. Shotter, RAN POCD B.V. Clark LSCD P. Boettcher ABCD P.C. … Read More