Journal Entry - 21 September 1971

(14 & a Wakey)

We had been in the ambush positions now for four days and we were nice and relaxed.  It was cool and shady under the jungle canopy.  The events of the previous day had alerted us that some serious enemy forces were in the province.  But they were several clicks from us, so we weren’t particularly worried.  Although we did keep a sharp look out on the track we were ambushing.  As the day wore on we continued to hear contact reports over the radio as 4RAR/NZ and it’s supporting arms went into full battle with the North Vietnamese Regular soldiers.  As the day wore on we became more and more alert.

Battle of Nui Le

On the morning of the 21 September 1971, patrols by 11 Platoon, D Company 4 RAR/NZ, found sawn logs near the south eastern part of the Courtenay rubber plantation. This suggested that there were major fortified bunker positions nearby.  As they moved forward to investigate, they found well-worn tracks that indicated the presence of hundreds of enemy soldiers.

The OC D Coy (Officer Commanding Delta Company) made the decision to draw the company’s platoons together to prevent them from being overrun should they run into a superior number of enemy troops.  12 and 10 platoons moved towards 11 Platoon.

Twelve Platoon made first contact with a bunker system, suffering one dead (the forward scout) from a rocket propelled grenade and four wounded.

The Battle of Nui Le had begun – the last major battle for Australian troops in the Vietnam War.

Then 11 Platoon, D Company 4 RAR/NZ was attacked by an estimated platoon strength assault.  After a 15-minute firefight the enemy forces withdrew to their bunkers after removing their dead and wounded from the battlefield.  The Australian platoons were ordered to withdraw to an area to the south so that airstrikes and artillery could be called in to soften up the bunker systems.

United States Air Force air strikes were called in and F-4 Phantoms and A37 Dragonflys bombed the area with napalm, air to surface missiles, flechette and 500 pound bombs.  Iroquois and Cobra helicopter gunships and artillery strikes also hit the bunker system.  After several hours of air strikes, the Forward Air Controller reported the enemy was pulling out and moving north.

A decision was made for 4RAR/NZ to enter the system and clear it before nightfall, and D Coy was to take the lead.  At 14:00, D Company 4 RAR/NZ moved forward.   The North Vietnamese let the Australians advance some 50 metres into the bunker complex before opening fire.  11 Platoon, suffered three killed and two wounded.  Many grenades thrown by the North Vietnamese fortunately did not explode, reducing casualties.  This battle would be fought hand to hand as the Centurion Tanks of the 1st Australian Task Force had already left Vietnam. 12 Platoon was also pinned down by enemy fire and could not move forward.

Warren Dowell in an interview with the Army Newspaper noted that “relaying orders was a big problem because there was so much noise, it was very hard for anybody to actually hear orders above the sounds of battle.”  The fight lasted for several hours and the light was fading, so the company commander made the decision to break contact and move back 300 metres to form a secure company harbour position for the night.

The bodies of the three Australian soldiers could not be recovered. “Ten Pl was given the task of moving first,” remembers Dowell.  “They hadn’t gone too far when they ran straight into another bunker system where the RHQ of the 33 NVA Regt was located.  With 10 Platoon fighting in the rear 11 Pl and 12 Pl tried to extract themselves from the bunker system in the front.”

Under heavy fire 11 Platoon was finally able to withdraw at 16:00. Just as the sun was setting they ran into another enemy force, with the commanding officer of 11 Platoon, Gary McKay being hit twice by a sniper's bullet in the shoulder.  Now at night time, the company discovered that it had established a night defensive position in between the Headquarters of 33 Regiment, North Vietnamese Army and 2nd Battalion, 33 Regiment, North Vietnamese Army.
“We were in contact all the way around and the NVA from RHQ had observation posts in the trees, which were directing fire into us.  There were wounded within our position that had to stay there because they couldn’t get them out.  As it started to get darker and quieter, it became a bit spooky as well.  We didn’t think the enemy had withdrawn, as they had shown during the day that they wanted to fight.  The thought in my mind was that the enemy wanted to knock us over to prove they’d pushed the Australians out.  During the night, as the adrenalin started to wear off,  your thoughts start to wander. You think ‘maybe I should have done something different years ago,’ and ‘am I going to get through this?’”

Warren remembers how his training took over from the natural instinct to flee. “While you were scared, nobody was so scared that they couldn’t perform their tasks. You didn’t want to let your mates down,” he says.

But the determination of the enemy to close with the Australians was unnerving.   “We knew we were up against a determined, courageous enemy, so you started to think ‘have I got it what it takes?’, but again I had confidence in my training and especially in my mates around me.  I realised that one of my friends, a national serviceman named Private Ralph Niblett, had been shot.  Ralph was the heart of the platoon – the joker – and when he got shot that really brought it home to me.”

Ralph Niblett died after he was loaded onto a medical evacuation helicopter at Nui Le, he was due to return to Australia in a few weeks time.

 The bunker system they had come across was found later to be the 33rd Regiment's Headquarters. Artillery fire was brought down onto the surrounding area as more North Vietnamese forces joined the battle.  The North Vietnamese finally disengaged at 21:00, just as the Australians were running low on ammunition.

 Keith Michael Kingston-Powles 24 Queensland
Gun Shot Wound to head
during bunker contact
East of Courtenay.
Body left on battle field.

Roderick James Sprigg 21 Western Australia
Gun Shot Wound to head during bunker contact East of Courtenay.

SPRIGG Roderick J, 21, of Merredin, WA, was working as a farmhand when he was called up on January 27, 1971.

James Duff 21 Victoria
Gun Shot & RPG Wounds during bunker contact East of Courtenay.
Body left on battle field.

DUFF James, 21, of Tallangatta, Victoria, worked on a dairy farm and at the Mitta Mitta sawmill when called up in July 1970.  The private with D Company 4RAR, was the last Australian killed in action in Vietnam.

Ralph James Niblett 22 Victoria
Gun Shot Wounds to chest during bunker contact East of Courtenay.
Body left on battle field.

NIBLETT Ralph J, 22, of Melbourne, Victoria, was a rifleman private when 4RAR/NZ sailed from Townsville to Vung Tau on May 13, 1971.  He was shot dead by VC soldiers during the Battle of Nui Le.

Brian Charles Beilken 21 Western Australia
Gun Shot Wounds to chest during bunker contact East of Courtenay.
Body left on battle field.

BEILKEN Brian C, 21, of Cottesloe, Western Australia, was a boilermaker when he was called up in January, 1971.

Journal Entry - 20 September 1971

(15 & a Wakey)

Over the radio there were snatches of contact reports that indicated that 4 RAR/NZ were in heavy contact with 3/33rd NVA Regiment.  Despite heavy resistance 4 RAR were still pushing forward. We sat in our ambush positions silently saying a prayer for our brothers-in-arms in 4 RAR/NZ.

Later we found out that this was the prelude to what was to become known as the “Battle of Nui Le”

11 Platoon of D Company 4 RAR/NZ made contact with an enemy platoon and after a half hour skirmish, four dead enemy soldiers were found on the battlefield. Their uniforms and equipment and study of the tactics used during the skirmish pointed toward the unit being from the North Vietnamese Army.  These were well trained, well equipped and highly motivated soldiers.  Tracks made by the enemy force indicated about two hundred soldiers had passed through the area.

The commander of the 33rd Regiment NVA set a number of ambushes for the expected Australian relief forces, however the Australians did not follow the route that was expected by the North Vietnamese and the Australians went around the ambush sites.

Journal Entry - 19 September 1971

We had 14 & a wakey to go.  We were nicely settled into our ambush positions and feeling very comfortable and relaxed. We had done this before and it was nice and relaxing and the VC & NVA would dodge everything, and we would just laze around which was better than scrub bashing all day.

Meanwhile Intelligence reports had alerted 4RAR/NZ to the presence of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops in northern Phuoc Tuy.  4 RAR/NZ commenced Operation Ivanhoe, a reconnaissance in force against any North Vietnamese or Viet Cong forces who may be in the north of Phuoc Tuy Province.

D Company, 3RAR was attached to 4RAR/NZ for the operation.  Other units committed to the operation were:
• 1st Troop, A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment;
• 4th Troop, C Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment;
• 2 Troop, 104th Field Battery;
• elements of 104th Signal Squadron; and
• 161st (Independent) Recce Squadron

There were no centurion tanks available, as they had been withdrawn from Vietnam earlier.  This left the infantry to bash around the bush, without armour support.

During the morning of 19 September 1971, there was an accidental clash between 10 & 11 Platoons, Delta Coy, 4RAR/NZ.  Max Rhodes (10 Platoon) was mistaken for a VC soldier by 11 Platoon and was shot.

2796378 RHODES Maxwell L, 22, of Sydney NSW, was a qualified metallurgist when called up on January 27, 1971.  He was a rifleman private in 10 Platoon D Company of 4RAR/NZ when he died from a gunshot wound in an accidental clash between 10 and 11 platoon in Phuoc Tuy on September 19, 1971.


During the night of 19 September 1971, North Vietnamese Army forces fired rockets and mortars at a South Vietnamese Regional Force outpost at Cam My on Route 2.  

Australian M113 armoured personnel carriers were sent to investigate and to relieve the outpost.  En route they were ambushed. They came under attack from rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire from what was considered to be large force.

Journal Entry - 18 September 1971

Charlie Company, 3 RAR had settled into our ambush positions. Using techniques learnt from Enemy Camps, 8 Platoon made A frame stretchers; Boodgie Barrett from 7 Platoon made tables and chairs from split bamboo tied together with vines. 7 Platoon didn’t need the A Frames, because we used silk hammocks – which of course were outlawed by the Army.

4 RAR/NZ had commenced their Operation Northward on 5 August 1971. With all the activity going on 4RAR/NZ concluded Operation Northward on 18 September 1971. They moved south from Duc Than towards Long Dien. Charlie Company were deployed along the Song Rai (river) to the west of Xuyen Moc ... to the left as you look at the map.

The Australian Government’s website commemorating the Vietnam War has a brilliant map. Click on the link below to view it.


http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/phuoc-tuy-province/map-phuoc-tuy.php

Journal Entry - 17 September 1971

After the party last night we were severely hung over. Intelligence pointed towards a major buildup of Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army forces in the north of Phước Tuy Province.

Abductions and assassinations had increased in the adjacent Long Khanh Province. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese were preparing for the withdrawal of the 1st Australian Task Force from Phước Tuy Province, and were hoping to defeat the Australians.


South Korea had announced the withdrawal of their 48,000 troops by June 1972. We were getting short and lonely.
We moved out of Nui Dat to search east of Xuyen Moc. Riding in an enclosed, hot and smelly APC, with diesel fumes, does nothing for a severe hangover. We said buggar it and rode on top of them. The only thing we had to watch out for here were the ants in the trees; and Dogs Kearney took great delight in shaking them off onto the following APC.

No sooner had we got to our area of operations than we heard that elements of 3/33rd NVA Regiment were infiltrating the area north of Duc Thanh. 4RAR/NZ Battalion would be the sweeping force and 3RAR would be the blocking force. We moved into ambush positions. We sat and waited.

Previously in the Battle of Long Khan we had been the sweeping force and 4RAR/NZ were the blocking force. But we didn't mind swapping roles. We were getting way too short for another major battle.

Lads?

Lads?

"Come on lads, hurry up,

Soon there'll be no sun".

Yes, lads we were, boys in fact,

Not yet twenty-one.

"Soon you'll leave Canungra

And go home to your folks,

Then it's off to Vietnam

With all the other blokes.

"You're lucky lads, to have a chance

To fight for this great land,

just like your Dads before you,

You'll come home a man.

"Heroes, every one of you,

We won't let you down,

Medals, glory, RSL

And freedom of the town".

So away we went to do our duty

Just like our Dads before,

We did our best, but could not win

This politicians' war.

This was a war without a front

No lines to go behind,

This was a war without the rules

The blind were leading the blind.

Where was this cunning enemy

Who lived beneath the ground?

In the jungle? In the village?

No, mostly all around.

A war of nerves, but, just hang on

It's only just a year -

Weapons, claymores, choppers -

Why won't the wharfies send our gear?

Where's the wire? Where's the ammo?

And the mail's delayed again,

Are these the same Australians

We came here to defend?

We're short of men, work twice as hard

To live another day

In this leech-infested jungle

Where we sleep on the wet red clay.

The invisible enemy with his trip-wires

Plays a waiting game,

He knows our pattern, watches us,

His traps will kill and maim.

Riots in the street back home,

"Murderers" we're branded,

"They're killing kids and using napalm"

Each of us feels stranded.

We fought so hard to win the battles

But found there was no glory,

In your lounge room on the box

You were told a different story.

We count each day a blessing

Now close to leaving here,

Some of us won't make it

How things change in just a year.

Men we've grown to deeply care for

With whom we work, we trust, we fight,

Soon we'll see no more of,

Now shadows in the night.

On coming home we heard them cheer,

We heard some jeer,

Emotions of pride, anger, rage were felt,

Our reward for one lost year.

Yes lads we were, boys in fact,

But now well over twenty-one.

Some still battling with their thoughts,

Others sleeping with a gun.

© 11 Feb 1999

R. S. KEARNEY

(Bob 'Dogs' Kearney, was the Platoon Sergeant for 7 Platoon Charlie Company)

All the survivors of the war had reached their homes

and so put the perils of battle and the sea behind them.

Homer,The Odyssey

THERE IS NO WAR IN VIETNAM

Take a man and put him alone,

Put him 6,000 miles from home,

Drain his heart of all but blood, 

And make him live in sweat and mud

There is a life I have to live 

while my soul to the devil I give,

But you free-boy in your easy chair

you don't know what it's like over there

You have your fun without near trying

while over there our boy's are dying

You burn your draft cards and march at dawn

you plant your sign's on parliament lawn

You want to ban THE BOMB 

but there is no war in Viet-nam

You take your drugs and have your fun

then refuse to carry a gun 

There is nothing else for you to do 

And I'm supposed die for you

I'll hate you till the day I die 

you made me see my mate cry,

I saw his arm a bloody red ,

I heard them say "This one's dead"

It's a heavy price he had to pay 

Not to live another day

But he had the guts to fight and die

And he paid the price and what did he buy

He bought a life by giving his 

But who gives a damn what a soldier gives

His wife, His mum or maybe His son

But there about the only one's for you see,

There is no war in Vietnam .©

 Graham "Mack" Mackie

 found this poem while doing recruit training at Singleton , and has never forgotten it.

Absent Friends

Absent Friends

He sits by the window and gazes

at the mountains all distant and blue

and I see the vista then raises

fond memories of days spent with you.

He's wondering where you are roaming

and where you'll be camping tonight

and recalling how through the gloaming

you all yarned by the fire's warm light.

He is seeing the gold of the wattle

and smelling the scent of the gum

and smiles at the thought of the bottle

that held the last drop of the rum.

He savours the black tea that he drinks

as he reclines against an old log

and smokes on his pipe while he thinks

as he fondles his faithful old dog.

How sweetly memories have beckoned

and lightened his burden of gloom

just for the glimpse of a second

he was freed from this hospital room.

He lowers his eyes as if grieving

the lack of the Evening Star

and we both know soon he'll be leaving

to join his old friends where they are.

Vic Jefferies © 2003

Originally posted on perandis' site

3RAR 1971 - Australia's Heroes

A photo tribute to the members of the Third Battalion Royal Australian Regiment and their Tour of Duty in the Republic of South Viet Nam 1971

A Tribute to our KIA in Viet Nam 1971

A tribute that was made for the 40th Reunion. I thought I would share it here as well. The first musical piece is Flowers Of The Forest - by The Scots Guards (a traditional piece played at Funerals by Units with Pipe Bands).