APC damaged by mine DPR/TV/989

During Operation Kinghit in an area north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy province an armoured personnel carrier of A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment was damaged by an enemy mine set in a trail. The carrier was moving troops of the 9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, alongside Route 2 when the incident occurred. Two Australians received slight injuries from the explosion. Within minutes of the incident, combat engineers from the 1st Field Squadron, Royal Australian Engineers, boarded another carrier and went to the site of the explosion where they swept the area with mine detectors in case other mines had been planted by the enemy. The mine damaged one track of the carrier and three of its roadwheels. The men aboard the carrier who were injured received first aid and one of the soldiers was transferred to another carrier to be returned to base for further treatment. The damaged personnel carrier was towed back for repair by another carrier of A Squadron. The combat engineers, after sweeping the area with their detectors, then probed the hole made by the mine seeking information as to the type and size of the mine. After the damaged armoured personnel carrier had been removed, the move of the 9th Battalion men continued as they carried on with their first battalion sized reconnaissance in force operation since they arrived in Vietnam three weeks earlier. (Also identified: Lt Mick Bell of Ashgrove, Qld; carrier driver, Lance Corporal Terry Murray of Carlton, NSW; Troop Sergeant Bill Shakespeare of Shanton Park, WA; Craftsman Paul Roche of Merrylands, NSW; Sgt Bill Schofield of Holsworthy, NSW).