Bushranger strike on Long Hais DPR/TV/1368

Helicopter gunships launched air strikes on the Long Hai hills this week following clashes with Australian infantry in which seven Viet Cong were killed. In his command Sioux, the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ron Grey of Watsons Bay, NSW, directed the RAAF helicopters himself. The gunships - nicknamed Bushrangers - made repeated passes over a part of the hills riddled with caves and possible enemy hideouts. They used their rockets and machine guns for the strike, on the western end of the Long Hais. Recently soldiers of the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, have been ambushing in the scrub around and between the hills. Colonel Grey called for the air strikes following two ambushes sprung by his soldiers on groups of up to 30 guerillas. Apart from the seven enemy killed in the two ambushes, heavy blood trails left by the fleeing enemy indicated up to a dozen other Viet Cong were wounded.