A sapper from 1 Field Squadron, Royal Australian Engineers (RAE), hands a roll of cord on a spool ...

Accession Number P04655.234
Collection type Photograph
Object type Digital file
Maker Gibbons, Denis Stanley
Place made Vietnam: Phuoc Tuy Province
Date made December 1969
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

A sapper from 1 Field Squadron, Royal Australian Engineers (RAE), hands a roll of cord on a spool to a comrade who is inside the entrance to a Viet Cong bunker which is well supported and protected by a revetment of logs. The bunker is one of a complex that was discovered by A Company, 8RAR, in dense jungle during Operation Atherton, a reconnaissance and ambush operation in the northwest of the province and the battalion's first in Vietnam. The engineers, who are known colloquially as tunnel rats, will use the cord to detonate an explosive charge that will destroy the bunker.