Late on the afternoon of June 6 we heard that 5 Platoon Bravo Company had contacted a bunker system. They had been ordered to withdraw and the bunker system was engaged with artillery and mortar fire. We could hear the roar from the Fire Support Base as the 105mm howitzers and mortars were fired in support of 5 Platoon. We had seen all of this before ... the Nogs would bug out during the night and we would lose another chance of closing with them. Then we would have to go chasing them all over the jungle again.

At first light on June 7 the rest of Bravo Company headed off with a troop of tanks to attack the bunker system. 5 Platoon moved off to marry up with the the rest of Bravo Company.

They hadn't gone far before they were again in a firefight with the enemy. Then the tanks were fired on ... what the hell was going on! A RAAF chopper was shot down trying to resupply Bravo Company.

To read Danny Wright's story behind the SAS Recon patrols of this complex, click on the SAS badge. Headquarters knew the Nogs were going to stay and fight ... they just didn't bother to tell us.

The Nogs hadn't bugged out at all ... they were waiting for a fight. You beauty ... we were ready to accomodate them. After the frustrations of the previous months where we could never close with them, this seemed like our opportunity. The Platoon was excited. Delta Company was sent in on APC's to support Bravo Company and the tanks, while we came in by chopper. Another troop of tanks was also sent to help. After that it all got a bit confusing, with lots of units moving everywhere.

Artillery and mortars started firing on the bunker system, while Bravo Company evacuated their casualties. Helicopter gunships, both Australian and American attacked the bunkers. Delta Company attacked the system with two troops of tanks.

We came in by choppers, fast and low. Just as we got near the area some helicopter gunships came in and suppressed the treeline. We could see the white puffs as the munitions exploded at the edge of the jungle. Then we started taking ground fire.
Shit this was a hot LZ.
The choppers didn't want to get too close to the tree line, in case they got shot down.
So they came down in a clearing about 100 metres from the tree line. As soon as the skids touched the grass I jumped. I still remember having my knees bent as I waited for the impact. But it took a long time coming and when it did it was bloody hard. The skids had touched elephant grass, 3 to 4 metres high. I lay there with my back aching and dirt in my mouth. Then I thought "Shit the other blokes will be jumping soon and are going to land on top of me." I rolled away, picked myself up and started running for the jungle. The other blokes hadn't jumped ... they saw me disappearing and realised how high the grass was ... they waited for the choppers to get lower (smart bastards!).

When we got to the tree line, we regrouped. Dogs Kearney came by checking on everyone. "Woody, who the f*cking hell do you think you are! Audy Bloody Murphy". "No Dogs" I replied "I just wanted to get out of the bloody chopper, I don't like heights". We felt safer in the jungle ... even though we had taken ground fire and it was obvious that the Nogs were here, we were too exposed when we were outside the J. We were about 2 Kilometres south east of Bravo Company's position and started moving towards them. All around us was noise, artillery, mortars, and gunships.

We could hear the Yanks chatting over their radios as they came in on their runs. They were either very brave or very high ... they were playing baseball. You scored a run for every bullet that went through the perspex of the chopper. These guys were bloody mad. Bravo Company was having some trouble evacuating their casualties. We heard over the radio that some Yanks were coming in to get them out and they were going to suppress the area. Suppress the bloody area, they fired that much ordnance into the area that they stopped the war. Everyone stopped firing and just hugged the earth as the Yanks blasted away. After they stopped there was the eerie silence, and then we got back to fighting the war.

I was moving up a creek bed, when I spotted some branches that weren't quite right. We had found an obstacle training course. Then we found the bunkers. Slowly and carefully we moved towards the bunkers. The rest of Charlie Company were running into bunkers as well. As we attacked each bunker we found it to be ... empty! Bugger them. Why did they stay and then run. It just didn't make sense. Slowly and carefully we searched through our bunker system. We had 31 bunkers. and from all the stuff that they left behind they must have bugged out pretty quickly. The documents that we found identified this as D445's bunker system ... the same mob that had attacked 6 RAR in the Battle of Long Tan. Bravo and Delta Company's got into their system and found 47 Bunkers. The documents found identified this as 3/33 Regiment's system.

They'd stayed for a while, but then run away again once the fighting started to get serious. We spent the night in their bunkers.