Cordon and search Duc Trung. Civic aid follows search DPR/TV/1228

Accession Number F04415
Collection type Film
Measurement 6 min 6 sec
Object type Actuality footage, Television news footage
Physical description 16mm/b&w/silent
Maker Bellis, Christopher John
Place made Vietnam: Phuoc Tuy Province
Date made 29 December 1969; 7 January 1970
Access Open
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Source credit to This item has been digitised with funding provided by Commonwealth Government.
Description

Soldiers of Australia's 5th Battalion, in South Vietnam last week, carried out a successful cordon and search operation in Phuoc Tuy Province, concentrating on the hamlet of Duc Trung, just north of the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat. The Australians moved into the cordon the night before they were to enter the hamlet, and carried out the search at first light. The villagers moved out of their homes to a nearby compound where they were interrogated, and as a result, 12 people suspected of being Viet Cong were detained. Later, at the nearby rubber plantation village of Binh Ba, 19 suspected Viet Cong were detained following a similar search, and the villagers soon after were given handouts of food from members of the Battalion's headquarters catering staff. The distribution of food parcels was the first gesture in a small scale civic aid program undertaken after the search. An army dentist with the patrol, Captain David Coates of Wagga, NSW, attended to the childrens' teeth, and made several extractions. A baby girl in the village, who had been scalded by boiling water earlier, was given treatment by a member of the Medical Corps, Corporal Tony Horner of Lindfield, NSW. Other villagers needing medical attention were also given treatment.

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