Combined operation DPR/TV/1293

Australian troops in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, recently launched an operation with Vietnamese Regional and Popular Forces on a scale not previously attempted. In the operation this week, Australian and Vietnamese soldiers established ambushes around towns and villages in the Province with other troops making sweeps into remote areas. The operation is part of the first major redeployment of the new Task Force Commander, Brigadier W. G. Henderson. The success of the operation led Brigadier Henderson to say that joint operations of this type indicate that Regional and Popular Forces are becoming increasingly capable of carrying the fight to the enemy. To the east of Nui Dat, a troop of Armoured Personnel Carriers from B Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, carried out a reconnaissance of a large area of broken jungle with soldiers of the Xuyen Moc Regional Force Company. The onset of the "wet season" has added to the difficulties of using heavy machinery in isolated areas. During the current operation three Armoured Personnel Carriers, nicknamed The Good, The Bad and The Ugly became immobilised in ground softened by monsoon rains. The crew's efforts to get the 11 ton APC's out of the morass failed and the three vehicles commanded by Lieutenant Bob Story of Auckland, NZ, remained bogged down until help arrived to tow them back to firm ground. The sweep then continued. Also identified: Corporal (Cpl) David Rees, 22, of Nundah, Qld; Cpl Robert Abbott of Redcliffe, Qld; Cpl David Chalk of Cairns, Qld; Lieutenant Bruce Reid of Coorparoo, Qld.