Eyewitness accounts of Private Errol Noack's wounding

The following eyewitness accounts have been provided by two men who served in the same section as Private Errol Noack, both of whom were with him when he was shot and mortally wounded;

’Late in the afternoon on 24th May 1966 B Company stopped and went into a harbour position and sent water parties forward to collect water under the command of Sergeant Barry (Sam) Hassall of B Company. However Major McQualter firstly posted a listening post about 50 meters in front of the forward platoon, which was 5 platoon and 4 section was allocated for this job under the command of our section commander CpI George Gilbert, Errol Noack was a member of this section along with myself. We were on the edge of an old banana plantation on a ridge above the creek but we could not see the creek, which was positioned on our left front maybe 50 meters away due to the tall grass and some scrub to our front. My recollections are that two men from each section went forward with the water party to collect water for the rest of their section, I was one of those from 4 section involved in the water party, I cannot be sure if Errol Noack was or not but it was likely he was. Upon returning from the creek with water for my section I recall distributing this water to the other members of my section. At the time I had sweat rag wrapped around my head after losing my bush hat in the helicopter.

’The contact: My role in 4 Section was number 2 on the machine gun, our section machine gunner was Private John O’Callaghan. John and I were positioned together about two or three meters apart in the centre of the listening post, Errol Noack was immediately to our left eight to ten meters away grouped with another member of 4 Section. My memories of what happened next are eternally embedded forever in my mind. I was standing talking with John O’Callaghan when Errol Noack approached me and asked me how to use the two different water purification tablets we were issued with to add to our water and I was in the process of explaining this to Errol when John screamed to me to hit the deck, John and I dived forward into our positions as I was going to ground I recall a thud as a bullet hit Errol Noack and through him approximately 3-4 meters behind me on my left. There was a tremendous roar of gunfire and bullets thudded into the ground next to me and ripped through the canopy overhead, you could hear their zing as they passed overhead. We returned fire in the direction that we thought the fire was coming from as our vision was obscured by the long grass to our front, at one stage John’s machine gun jammed, I have no recollection of how many rounds we fired or how long the contact lasted. It seemed to me that the fire was all directed at the position where John & I lay. However our section commander Cpl George Gilbert who was positioned behind John and I but further to our left suddenly rose and started yelling ”stop firing we are Australians”, this broke the contact, I do not know how Cpl Gilbert became aware it was fellow Australians firing at us, if he was told over the radio, I am not even aware as a listening patrol we even had one, or maybe he recognised the machine gun fire was the familiar sound of the M60 machine gun. However what he done was extremely brave and for whatever reason was never recognised to my knowledge. During the contact I recall looking back at Errol as he was praying, he looked terrible and had turned a greyish colour. When the contact had stopped we started calling out ’medic, medic’ I think the first on the scene was our platoon commander Lieutenant Terry O’Hanlon and he organised for others to come forward and assist, I think this is when they administered morphine as I recall Errol calling out ”I can’t feel anything I’m dying god help me” or words to that effect. They moved Errol to another position back from where the contact took place to be evacuated by helicopter. We moved to another position within the company harbour for the night, by this time it had gotten dark

’We were told at the time, that the contact was caused by VC moving between us and A Company, which is feasible. But I never believed this account, my reasoning for this was that I had lost my bush hat in the flight by helicopter into our landing zone for the operation to commence, my platoon sergeant Barry ”Sam” Hassall told me to wrap my sweat rag around my head in place of the bush hat. I believe that I was mistaken for a VC by members of A Company who were not aware that we were operating in the same area. Later that night Sgt Hassall gave me Errol Noack’s bush hat, I still have this bush hat in my possession.’

2781305 Private Kevin Borger OAM, 4 Section, 5 Platoon, B Company, 5RAR

On the 24th of May 1966 Errol Noack was shot and died in South Vietnam. He was the first national serviceman to be killed. It was the first day of the first operation of 5 R.A.R.

At the time there were only about seven of us present isolated from the rest of our company {B} and because of the terrain the only witnesses. Only four of us are still alive.

One of the most significant events in Australia’s involvement in that war is constantly misreported. None of us has ever been interviewed.

The misreporting began when our company commanding officer Major McQualter wrote in his after action report that Errol had stood up and was shot. This is wrong and has been quoted in and embellished in many books about the Vietnam War and in speeches regarding Errol.

Of our little group Kevin Borger O.A.M. was the number 2 machine gunner and I was the machine gunner of 4 Section 5 Platoon.

Just prior to his being shot Errol was standing in line with us asking Kevin Borger about water purification tablets. Kevin was on my left. Bullets cracked past my ear and I yelled to Kevin to hit the deck but before Errol could react he was struck and flung violently off his feet to the ground behind us where he stayed till the firing had finished and he could be tended to.

2781397 Private John O’Callaghan, 4 Section, 5 Platoon, B Company, 5RAR