Photos Aussies and Kiwi's in Vietnam

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Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. July 1970. Armed with a US Rocket Launcher 66mm M72 Light Anti Tank Weapon (LAW) and an L1A1 self-loading rifle, Private Nicholas Andropof of Reservoir, Vic, patrols silently through a rubber plantation during a combined infantry-tank operation against Viet Cong bunker systems in Operation Petrie. He is a member of 8th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (8RAR).

 

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Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. July 1970. A column of Centurion tanks rumble through a jungle clearing during Operation Petrie. Riding 'shotgun' on the tail of an armoured recovery vehicle is Private Allan Aspinall of Yeppoon, Qld. He is a forward scout with 8th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (8RAR), which later located and destroyed a big Viet Cong bunker hideout.

 

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Phuoc Tuy Province, Vietnam. February 1967. Walking beside an M113 armoured personnel carrier (APC) from 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC), troops of B Company, 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), leave the jungle to search semi-open rice padi areas during Operation Tamborine, a search and destroy mission near the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base at Nui Dat. Identified personnel include 214548 Corporal Geoffrey (Geoff) David Luck, in front holding an M16A1 automatic rifle; directly behind him and partially obscured is 2782655 Garry James Cassidy; to the right front of the armoured personnel carrier (APC) is 2781449 John Vincent "Spud" Murphy and a short distance behind him is 3786972 Bruce Gregory Everard. The APC is probably a mortar carrier as the soldier without a hat behind the .50 Calibre machine gun shield is 216422 Sergeant Graham Michael Nesbitt of 5 RAR's Mortar Platoon.

 

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The black thing over Geoff Luck's shoulder is an inflatable mattress insert, one of three that would go into your ground sheet and provide a very disappointing sleep. However it made an excellent cover for your M60 link. The downside being that you had to compensate the Queen for willfully destroying her very good quality inflatable mattress sectional.

Inflatable sleeping mattress with three inner tubes : Captain M T Turrell, Royal Australian Infantry Corps

www.awm.gov.au

 

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Air mattress : D S Gibbons, Photojournalist

www.awm.gov.au

This one has a pic of both the stretcher top and the tubes.

An interesting bio on the photographer too.

History / Summary
Born in Sydney in 1937, Denis Gibbons had undertaken army training and work as a news photographer in Sydney before he arrived in Vietnam in January 1966. For the next five years, Gibbons recorded the tours of nine Australian infantry battalions for Fairfax press and United Press International. Australian readers could regularly view his photographic essays in People magazine.
In all, he took tens of thousands of black-and-white and colour photographic that together provide a very comprehensive view of the activities undertaken by Australians during the war.
The extended period spent by Gibbons in Vietnam was highly unusual among Australian photographers. Most official photographers and other photojournalists tended to spend just a few days photographing an operation before moving on.
They were also based in Saigon, a city that remained far removed from the gritty reality of the war. However, Gibbons lived at the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat and was able to spend months with a particular unit. In this way he could record all areas of the work of Australians in great detail.
Gibbons was flown out of Vietnam in November 1970, after being wounded when an Armoured Personnel Carrier he was travelling in hit an enemy mine; he was wounded six times over the course of his five years in Vietnam.

 

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Phuoc Tuy Province. 2 May 1967. Troops from 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (7RAR), dash from a US Army Iroquois to launch Operation Lismore, their first major mission against the Viet Cong.

 

[colin traveller]

From Modellers FB page ,

Today I had the huge privilege of showing my 1/32 scale OV-10A model to retired Air Vice Marshal (RAAF) Graham Neil DFC at his house in Noosa, Queensland where I joined him and his wife Ronni for lunch. I based this model upon the aircraft that Graham flew during a combat mission in the Vietnam war on the 6th of June 1970 for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Graham has been a driving force behind obtaining the Australian War Memorials full sized OV-10a (‘639) in which he also flew combat missions. During a recent visit to the museum, I discovered that Graham’s flight suit and gloves that he was actually wearing during his DFC sortie is on display, a pic of which I have included here.

 

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Today I had the huge privilege of showing my 1/32 scale OV-10A model to retired Air Vice Marshal (RAAF) Graham Neil DFC at his house in Noosa, Queensland where I joined him and his wife Ronni for lunch. I based this model upon the aircraft that Graham flew during a combat mission in the Vietnam war on the 6th of June 1970 for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Graham has been a driving force behind obtaining the Australian War Memorials full sized OV-10a (‘639) in which he also flew combat missions. During a recent visit to the museum, I discovered that Graham’s flight suit and gloves that he was actually wearing during his DFC sortie is on display, a pic of which I have included here.

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WOW!!!!!!!

 

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Vietnam. 1966-12. Troops from 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), enjoy a cigarette before they board an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). The APCs took them into deep jungle during a three day patrol immediately following the Christmas truce period.

 

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NZ gunners loading a howitzer into an M-113 APC.

 

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Nui Dat, South Vietnam, c. 1970-5. Australian M113s facing outwards on the perimeter fence of 1 Australian Task Force (1ATF) headquarters.

 

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At the Kangaroo Pad at the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base, soldiers of 7RAR (Royal Australian Regiment) wait to board helicopters to commence Operation Finschhafen, the battalion's first operation of its second tour of duty in Vietnam. The men are fully armed and some have their faces smeared with camouflage paint. The soldier in the foreground is Private 55645 John Joseph Smith of 5 Platoon, B Company 7RAR from Cottesloe Western Australia. He is armed with an M72 66mm Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW). This weapon was not used after this initial operation because soldiers found it too difficult to move through dense vegetation with it slung across their back.

 

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Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. July 1970. A column of Centurion tanks rumble through a jungle clearing during Operation Petrie. Riding 'shotgun' on the tail of an armoured recovery vehicle is Private Allan Aspinall of Yeppoon, Qld. He is a forward scout with 8th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (8RAR), which later located and destroyed a big Viet Cong bunker hideout.

 

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Nui Dat, Sas Hill, South Vietnam. 1971. Members Of No. 22 Patrol, F Troop, 2 Squadron, Special Air Service (SAS), Preparing To Move Out On Patrol. Left To Right: Sergeant (Sgt) Frank Cashmore; Sgt Danny Wright, Patrol Commander; Trooper (Tpr) Felix Richards; Tpr Ben Bennett; Tpr Don Barnby And Tpr Jock Tiernam.

 

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2 Platoon, V3 Company at Bien Hoa.
From back left to front: Bill Walker, Willis Hapi, Herb Roberts, Gary Horn, Paul Sciascia, John (Tiger) Robinson, Don (Ossie) Beverley, Henry Kerekere (front).

 

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Informal portrait of USN, RAN and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) personnel preparing detonators and explosive charges at an ARVN base in the Delta. The Australians, members of Clearance Diving Team 3 (CDT 3), worked in conjunction with the Americans and were responsible for detecting and clearing enemy obstructions and mines in the delta area. The sailor at far left is crimping the end of a length of orange fuse and the sailor immediately in front of him, wearing his watch on his right hand wrist, is inserting a fuse into a detonator. Identified personnel include: R63936 Able Seaman Clearance Diver (ABCD) Brian John Bullock (far left) and Petty Officer Clearance Diver (POCD) Barrie John "Bill" Bailey (standing at right rear).

 

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Vietnam War. Phuoc Tuy Province. 1971. Known as a bit of a sook because of his dislike of water, Marcian the black Labrador tracker dog looks very unhappy as his handler, Private David Nelson of 4RAR/NZ (ANZAC), carries him across a fast flowing stream. Despite not liking water, Marcian was highly rated as a very fast dog, obedient and proficient at keeping a track scent. Marcian was retired from 4RAR in November 1971 and was adopted by the Consul General at the British Embassy in Saigon. Photo by Brian Wood.

 

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Australian soldiers assist in the recovery of an M113A1 APC of 1 Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron after it hit a mine. The APC has been pulled back from the point of detonation - note the chunk of track left in the hole in the left foreground.

 

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Phuoc Tuy Province, Vietnam. 1969-12. Three Australian soldiers carry Viet Cong (VC) small arms from a weapons and explosives cache found in a cave (behind) to a nearby bomb crater for demolition. Left to right: Private Daryl Williams of Temora, NSW; Private John Sigvart of Mount Morgan, Qld and Corporal Gordon Black of Belmont, NSW. The cache, the largest found to date in Phuoc Tuy was discovered by D Company of 6RAR /NZ (ANZAC) (The ANZAC Battalion comprising 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment and a component from the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment), during Operation Marsden in the May Tao mountains, twenty three miles north-east of the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base at Nui Dat.

 

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August 19, 1966 - a Smiling 1731079 Private John David Winstone, Support Section Company Headquarters, C Company, 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (6rar), waits to be lifted back to Nui Dat at the end of Operation Smithfield. John Was Among Troops Who routed a large Viet Cong force during the Battle at Long Tan.