conference proceedings - Australian Army

PRePARING ARMOuReD uNITS FOR OVeRSeAS SeRVICe
of the battlefield. 37 Their success brought accolades from the infantry they supported.
Second-Lieutenant Kevin Byrne described the tank support he received at the Song Ca
not long before 1ATF withdrew from operations:
Once they entered the battle area they were very effective. But as they came
forward between us all they were pushing down trees that had the effect of
camouflaging the enemy and the bunkers … I remember [Lieutenant] Bruce
Cameron getting out of his tank or attempting to get out the first time and an
RPG-7 whistled past his ear and down he went again. eventually he got out and
jumped down and came and spoke to me on the ground and so that was excellent.
The other thing was that they had a tremendous shock effect, particularly when
they put their barrel down a bunker and went kaboom! And also in driving over
bunkers. The end result was fantastic I guess and we made the most in that
situation with that troop of tanks and their cooperation was tremendous. The
movement of the platoon was dictated largely by where the three tanks went and
that’s the way I played it. It was futile for me to be dictating the movement of
the tanks because once the tanks came in I realised that they were the ones that
were vulnerable but they were also the ones that had the firepower’. 38
The APCs learnt the technique of ambushing using three or four vehicles and 30 or
40 claymore mines and had some spectacular successes. 39 Both tanks and cavalry had
forces on two-three minute standby as ready reaction forces, and prided themselves on
their ability to get on the move quickly. They were used a lot. The simple instructions
you usually gave your ready reaction troop leader were, ‘get on the move north, south,
east, or west (the actual roads or tracks were predesignated in our own SOPs), I will
give you orders as you go!’ His maps and codes were already in the vehicles which
reversed quickly away from their protective bunds and got going. 40
As well as firepower and protection, great use was made of their flexibility and
communications. Armoured communications, particularly with the new range of
American radios we absorbed in Vietnam, were superb. I was continually monitoring
37. This basic premise is condensed from Major General Tim Vincent’s original paper, asking for tanks to
be despatched to South Vietnam as soon as possible, AWM98, Item R579/1/23, Request for an increase
to AFV (Army Component), 22 June 1967. I believe it has contemporary relevance to the new spate of
asymmetric warfare.
38. McKay and Nicholas, Jungle Tracks, 192-3.
39. Sergeant e.S. Levy, DCM, who as a crew commander had been wounded by shrapnel on an earlier tour,
became highly skilled at ambushing as a section commander on his second tour. In a series of ambushes
on 31 December 1970, 7 January 1971, and 21 June 1971, his APCs killed 21 enemy, then three, then
twelve, and captured four prisoners together with documents and other intelligence: Anderson, When
the Scorpion Stings, 251, 267-8.
40. Ibid., 241-4.
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