Major Ian McKay, Officer Commanding B Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment ...

Accession Number P02809.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white, Landscape
Physical description Black & white, Landscape
Maker Stevenson, Edmund Hugh
Place made Vietnam: Phuoc Tuy Province
Date made 18 February 1967
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

Major Ian McKay, Officer Commanding B Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR), second from left, and soldiers from company headquarters packing their gear the morning after Operation Bribie watched by a member of A Squadron, 3 Cavalry Regiment (A Sqn 3 Cav Regt). After contact with the Viet Cong (VC) force, probably a company of D445 Battalion supported by North Vietnamese reinforcements, 6RAR were engaged in heavy fighting until early evening when the battalion and the supporting Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) from A Sqn 3 Cav Regt, withdrew from the battlefield to make way for the aerial and artillery bombardment that followed that night on the enemy positions. The battalion mounted an assault onto the site of the previous days fighting, but the enemy had vanished. After the battalion sweep of the Bribie battlefield B Company, supported by APCs, patrolled across the "Light Green', about two kilometres to the east, and thought to be the enemy's likely withdrawal route. After an uneventful day the APCs carried B Company back to Nui Dat arriving late in the afternoon. Seven soldiers from 6RAR and one trooper from A Sqn 3 Cav Regt were killed in action and 27 wounded during the operation.