Records held by Headquarters 1st Division (HQ 1 Div) relating to the Vietnam War

Accession Number AWM117
Collection type Official Record
Object type Paper document
Maker Commonwealth Government of Australia
Date made 1965-1972
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

The Australian Army’s 1st Division (1 Div) can trace its lineage to the beginning of the First World War, being the first division of infantry raised for the AIF. After the war, 1 Div became a Citizen Military Forces (CMF) formation and continued as such during the Second World War.

With the reorganisation of the Army beginning in 1957, 1 Div became a regular army formation. The Army projected that they would require a regular force of up to one division that could be available for operations, including those overseas, within three months. This was to be the role of 1 Div.

Further changes occurred with the introduction of the Pentropic Division in 1959. In this new formation, the traditional infantry elements of the division (brigades), were replaced by smaller task forces. The task force was designed to be flexible and could be shaped and sized to suit a particular task, unlike a brigade’s fixed establishment.

1 Div was to have the Australian Regular Army (ARA) task forces under its command. These task forces were to be deployed overseas should that become necessary for the defence of Australia.

In 1964 the Pentropic Division structure was abandoned. The army reverted to its previous tropical establishment, however brigades continued to be known as task forces. Additionally, Area Headquarters were set up to relieve the divisions and their task forces of much of their administrative duties. Thus, Headquarters Liverpool Area took on this role for Headquarters 1st Division (HQ 1 Div).

In June 1965, 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) was sent to Vietnam. The following year this battalion was replaced with 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF). Both of these formations belonged to 1 Div, as well as all subsequent army units that rotated in and out of the 1 ATF. HQ 1 Div, while its main task force was serving in Vietnam, remained based in Sydney, Australia.

‘Headquarters 1st Division exerted command over its designated subunits, irrespective of location, in all matters except for local administration, which remained the responsibility of the local command headquarters. Furthermore, Headquarters 1st Division exerted command over the units of the formation’s logistic support force and combat support group, except where the army had specifically allocated them to another headquarters. Headquarters 1st Division thus commanded all the units that formed the field force, whatever their physical location.’ (Palazzo 2001, p 263)

Above 1 Div was Eastern Command, which was also based in Sydney and controlled 2nd Division, and the logistics and the training formations as well.

‘Eastern Command … set the policies that 1st Division implemented, and, in effect acted as a corps headquarters.’ (Palazzo 2001, p 263)

The next step up in the chain of command from Eastern Command was Army Headquarters (AHQ) which was the highest level of command in the army.

In 1971 the army reorganised its upper structure with the geographically based commands replaced by an overall Field Force Command, a Logistics Command and a Training Command.

‘To create the new command headquarters, the army drew upon its existing structure. Headquarters Eastern Command became Headquarters Field Force Command; Headquarters Southern Command became Headquarters Logistic Command; Headquarters 1st Division became Headquarters Training Command; and Headquarters Northern Command became Headquarters 1st Division.’ (Palazzo 2001, p 292)

Field Force Command (in Sydney) exercised control over HQ 1 Div. Under HQ 1 Div (which was by now based at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane, QLD), there were 3 Task Forces, one each based at Holsworthy, Enoggera and Townsville. Each Task Force had two infantry battalions, artillery and engineers. 1st Div also had a tank regiment, two cavalry regiments, and numerous other supporting units. Directly supporting HQ 1 Div were 1 Div HQ Defence Company and 1 Div HQ Light Aid Detachment.

Records Provenance – Post Vietnam

HQ 1 Div’s records relating to the Vietnam War were eventually sent to the Department of Defence (Army) archives in Canberra. They remained there until 1984 when, along with a large consignment of other records, they were transferred to the Australian War Memorial. They formed part of a large consignment of army records covering not only Vietnam, but previous conflicts as well. The whole consignment was accessioned as OW84/5, with the Vietnam portion designated OW84/5E. Within OW84/5E were some records of HQ 1 Div. In July 2002 these HQ 1 Div records were redesignated as series AWM117.

AWM117 was originally earmarked for records of the units under the command of Headquarters 1st Australian Logistics Support Group (HQ 1ALSG). The series was registered on the database in June 1990 but was never used for that purpose. In July 2002, AWM117 became the series number for the Records held by Headquarters 1st Division (HQ 1 Div) relating to the Vietnam War, 1965-1972.

A small quantity of the records in this series arrived at the Memorial with the first major transfer of the Army’s Vietnam records between November 1981 and March 1982. Of these a few were incorporated into the temporary artificial series AWM181 for the purpose of the December 1982 parliamentary report into the use of Herbicides by the Army in Vietnam. Being no longer needed for this purpose in 2002, these records were removed from AWM181 and incorporated into AWM117.

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