Training film for SME on land clearing DPR/TV/1306

Engineers of 1st Australian Task Force are knocking down hundreds of acres of jungle which form a natural hideout for a Viet Cong engineer unit operating in Phuoc Tuy Province. Using four D8 bulldozers, sappers of 17th Construction Squadron Land Clearing Team, have so far cleared 200 acres, about eight miles north west of Nui Dat. In all they will clear more than 2000 acres. The area is known to have harboured K76 Engineer Battalion, but by cutting deep trails through the jungle, the sappers hope to deny the enemy future concealment in the area. Providing protection for the land clearing team are infantrymen of the Anzac Battalion, supported by Centurion tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Their presence has been needed, for in the last two weeks Australian soldiers have killed at least 20 Viet Cong in the area. As an unplanned bonus, the land is providing the civilian population nearby with valuable stands of easily recoverable timber and firewood, and in some areas new land for cultivation.