And so we started patrolling our area. This was just like training back in Australia, except for the heat and humidity and the packs ... Oh the packs. We hadn't yet learnt how to lighten our loads. This was the dry season and we were carrying extra water bottles, plus we were carrying live ammunition ... live ammunition is a lot heavier than blank ammunition. To add to the weight we were also using some American C rations. The Yank rations were a welcome break from our normal rations, but with all their tins they were a lot heavier than our Australian ration packs. To add to all of that we had to carry:

our bedding (we hadn't learnt about hammocks yet);
additional link belts for the machine gun;
claymore mines; and
sundry other munitions that we hadn't carried in training

Sometimes you had to get your mate to give you a lift, just to get the pack off the ground.

The first indication that all was not right came on the morning of 1 March 1971.
Only 2 days into our "Training Exercise" we heard that 12 Platoon Delta Company had a contact and killed one enemy. Later on in the morning we got word that 10 Platoon Delta Company had sighted enemy movement. All day sightings were reported of enemy in the area. All of these sightings and contacts made us patrol a bit more cautiously.
This was starting to feel less and less like a training exercise in Australia.

On the morning of 2 March we married up with a troop of tanks to begin practising working with the tanks. Most of us had missed out on this training in Australia, so we were getting a chance to practice here ... how lucky this would turn out to be. We continued patrolling during the day, practising Company manoeuvres and platoon patrolling.

That night we harboured up in a grove of bamboo with the tanks from 5 Troop. The harbour went in quickly and without too much fuss considering it was a sizeable manouvre practiced only in Australia once or twice before. The 3 Platoons linked on the perimeter, back to each Platoon headquarters in depth, and then to Company HQ in the center of the large circle. We had 3 Centurian tanks join the harbour on the perimeter. There was no moon and the night was black. Once we were all in position (in a big circle) we dug our shell scrapes. Delta Company were on a small rise opposite us. Despite everyone trying to keep quiet, it was impossible with two companies in such close proximity to each other. The noise of digging and setting up went on for some time. Eventually it all quietened down and we turned to cooking our evening meals and relaxing after a long day of patrolling. In between Charlie Company in the bamboo and Delta Company on the small rise was a wide green swathe of open grassland.

We were awoken from our sleep at around 10 o'clock at night and told to "Stand To". The heart was fairly racing as we struggled from our beds and into our shell scrapes and readied our weapons. Word was passed around that there was movement outside our perimeter ... eyes and ears strained into the blackness trying to catch any glimpse or hear any noise. Safety catches were gently being eased off throughout the camp. We lay there for about half an hour, on edge, listening and watching. The tension was building with each passing minute.

Suddenly the night split apart with small arms fire. The M60 machine guns spat out 30 round bursts, rifles were giving quick one and two shot bursts, claymores were exploding, the enemy AK47's were giving out their little burp, burp sounds and there were some larger explosions that we couldn't identify. It seemed like all hell had broken out across at Delta Company's position.

The height of the battle, only several hundred metres away, was terrifying with gunships, artillery, mortars, flares and tanks all firing. Bob Lewis was impressed by how calmly and efficiently everyone was going about his business preparing to defend the Company perimeter.

As suddenly as it started it stopped. Then there was another outbreak and then it stopped. Small pockets of fighting kept breaking out, and then it would go quiet for awhile ... then somewhere else another short burst of firing. Word was passed around that Delta Company was taking casualties.

Bob Lewis received the message through the radio network that "Snow" Strickland had been severely wounded and several others badly hurt as well. Then the news came through that Paul Manning and Johnny Wheeler had been killed. The RAAF dustoff was unable to come in because the LZ was not secure (something that hadn't been considered in training).
A Yank medevac on route from Vung Tau to Long Dien offered to help. He came in under fire and hovered over D Company's position with the chopper's blades swinging just over the tops of the trees. While the boys on the ground who were hooking up "Snow" and the others in the dark, the Yank in a very calm voice requested "Hey you guys, can ya hurry up" ... his chopper was being peppered by small arms fire. He and his crew refused to leave the hover which was typical of Americans pilots.

The enemy started appearing around some of the Charlie Company positions. Junior, who was near the radio, heard a tank commander continually requesting permission to fire as the enemy were advancing on his position. Permission was refused. When the lead enemy soldier got to about 10 metres from his tank, the tank commander fired a fleshette shell. The explosion was deafening and the ground shook as the shell was fired. Woody and Boodgie were just behind the tank ... when the thing fired, they were lifted clean off the ground. This was one hell of a training exercise. After the tank commander blew their lead scout apart they left us pretty much alone for the rest of the night and concentrated on Delta Company.

Artillery flares started to appear overhead. They lit up the area to our front like it was daylight, but when they went out, your night vision disappeared too. The shell cases from the illumination rounds crashing through the bamboo didn't do much for our nerves either.
Warren Turner remembers hearing the whine of the expended flare casings as they came down.

During the contact many thoughts ran through soldier's minds as we lay in our weapons pits.

Warren Turner prayed and told God that if he got through that night he would be a good Catholic forever. Thoughts of his wife and son were upper most in his mind as he wondered if he would survive Vietnam.

About an hour after the initial contact, the helicopter gunships appeared. There were three of them operating on a rotational basis ... one would do a pass firing his mini guns or rockets, while the chopper before him was pulling out from his previous pass over the area, with the third gunship wheeling high in the sky readying himself for his pass.
We were left to admire the fireworks and the light show when the gunships came in. The RAAF choppers took turns at coming straight down the grass swathe firing their mini guns and rockets. When the mini guns fired it looked like two red spotlights coming from the choppers. The firepower from the choppers was awesome and occasionally you would hear some Oohs & Aahs from 7 Platoon, just like kids at the fireworks. One chopper got carried away and let go with two rocket pods and both mini guns at the same time ... the chopper actually went backwards in the air ... it was a sight to behold.
The sights and sounds of the gunships impressed themselves on Warren Turner's mind:
the peculiar roar of the miniguns;
the tracer rounds like broken dotted lines, racing at the ground;
the "whoosh, whoosh" as the rockets were fired;
the "thump, thump" of the explosions as they hit the ground.

About 1:00 o'clock a Tank switched on it's spotlight ... geez talk about giving away our position and making a target of yourself. The spotlight swept the area in front of the tank and then switched off ... Oh well there goes the night vision again. We stayed awake for the rest of the night, but it got a lot quieter after the gunships left the area. There was still the occasional burst of firing, but it lacked the intensity of the earlier contacts.

The enemy were well organised, well equipped and very determined. They would have been used to Australians working in platoon strength and it must have come as a shock to them when they found out that they were matched against a Company. It must have been a bigger shock to find that another Company with tanks was in the bamboo opposite.

The contact went on for about nine hours as the VC tried to probe the positions to determine the size of our forces.

Lt John W Wheeler; and
Pte Paul Manning
had died that night and that several soldiers had been wounded.

JW (Lt John Wheeler) was Bob Lewis' very good friend. Lt Wheeler was a career soldier trained at Duntroon, a highly respected leader because of his competence and personality. Bob Lewis had introduced him to his fiancée back in Oz and his death really affected Bob Lewis. Bob Lewis never saw John Wheeler's fiancée again, and was unable to say goodbye to him until 20 years later. Such was the nature of the Viet Nam war.

When 7 platoon did a sweep of the area immediately in front of their night position we recovered a sandal. That was all that we could find of the nogs who walked up to the tank.

We received a message from Headquarters in the morning to officially inform us that "training" was cancelled and that we were to consider ourselves as operational. Thank you for that advice, we would never have figured that one out for ourselves.

Click on book
to read Personal Recollections of that night.