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
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
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
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
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
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
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’
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
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
50th Anniversary: South Vietnam’s 1967 Presidential election
By Bob Hall and Amy Griffin Counterinsurgency campaigns are essentially politics with guns. Unlike conventional war, victory in counterinsurgency campaigns rarely comes through military action. Instead, although military action remains a key component of any campaign, counterinsurgencies tend to be resolved politically or diplomatically. This was well understood by the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the … Read More
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