POEMS 2

We found numerous packs containing Chicom grenades, other ammunition and clothing, but no bodies, although we only swept our immediate front of the kill zone. I believe that we obtained enough grenades that night for them to be diffused and everyone in W Company received one as a souvenir at the end of our tour. When we had completed the search, we moved back to Mani’s position and returned to our Platoon harbour area. There must have been a lot of blood in the kill zone we searched because when I awoke the next morning, I had a fair number of patches of blood on my greens.    When I moved to Queensland in 1990, I met a guy named Peter Gurney who was in B Company 2RAR. When we got chatting, he made a comment that he was dirty on W Company, because they had found 22 bodies in a mass grave about 3 or 4 days after our contact and had to dig them up and take photos for the Intelligence Unit.    

This was a night which I will never forget, however I must add that, for some strange reason, I never felt any fear or discomfort in any of our further contacts during our Tour of Duty. I am sure that Wayne Chester would be able to confirm this contact and maybe add to it from his experience from the other end of the ambush.    

Regards to all my Whiskey Company Brothers                                                                                                         by Wayne Linsay

On the Eastern front the Russians were making no headway against the Austrians and Germans. In fact it was doubtful whether they could hold out much longer. The Gallipoli expedition, which was inspired largely by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was an attempt to break this deadlock. The idea behind the operation was to land a strong force which would fight its way up through the Dardanelles and take Constantinople, forcing Turkey out of the war and bringing the Balkan States into it on the Allied side. Munitions and aid could be sent through the Black Sea to the tottering Russian armies and the eastern front would once more constitute a threat to the German high command. As it happened, the British lost a half-dozen battleships trying to force the narrow passage of the Hellespont, and the landing force ran into ferocious resistance from the Turks.    

The landings were even bloodier than the Normandy landings in 1944, and the Gallipoli Peninsula was the scene of some of the most  bitter hand- to-hand fighting of the war. The terrain was murderous. The Peninsula is a cluster of razor-back ridges and deep ravines today well fertilized with the blood of 150,000 Allied and 251,000 Turkish casualties.    

The Anzacs never penetrated more than a few miles inland.  In one single attack on Lone Pine Ridge, mounted by Anzac, British and Indian troops, seven Victoria Crosses, Britain's highest award for valour, were won. In another awe-inspiring battle, one of the most courageous and gallant of the whole campaign, two  companies  of  New Zealand infantry rushed the summit of Chunuk Bair  the peak which dominated the battlefield, and dug in under heavy fire just below the crest. The "last chance" Turkish counter attack which came a few weeks later won back the heights but took a ghastly toll in lives.  It is estimated that the Turks lost well over half of the estimated total killed, a conservative 45,000 men.    

On Dec. 12, the decision was made to withdraw the force from the Peninsula. The manoeuvre, which was spread over the next week, was carried out with masterly deception. Under cover of darkness unit after unit quietly left their positions and filed down the ridges to the assault boats on the beaches. In the vacated trenches rear parties of two or three men ran from rifle to rifle laid on the parapets, keeping up the appearance of a company in action.  What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

In the small hours of Dec. 20 the last of the rear parties slid down to the beach and boarded the boats for the wailing troopships. When dawn came, the Turks, realizing they had allowed a withdrawing Army to escape, occupied the empty Anzac positions and were caught in a hail of shells from British battleships offshore.  

The Anzacs went on to fight in France and have fought in every major war since. Australian and New Zealand troops fought in the second World War, Korea, the Malaysian emergency, in the confrontation with Indonesia and now in South Vietnam. The new Anzac Battalion has already been  bloodied in the recent operation Coburg when they formed a blocking force against withdrawing Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops who attacked Saigon during the Tet offensive.    

 Pacific  Stars  and  Stripes

Thursday April 25, 1968.                                      (New Zealand Army Information Service)

They are known as the Kiwis. Named after the flightless bird native only to New Zealand's islands, they include hundreds of men scattered throughout Saigon, Vung Tau and Binh Dinh Province in the area of Bong Son, 181 miles south of the 17th parallel in Vietnam. Picking up the tab for each bullet and each bandage used, New Zealand like Australia, pays the full cost of maintaining its forces in Vietnam.   

 The New Zealander's bring to Vietnam a proud  Heritage of racial tolerance growing out of a Century long period of peaceful coexistence between their European descendants and their Maori minority. The dark-skinned Maoris are Polynesian people who were the first to settle New Zealand six centuries ago. They constitute only 7 percent of the population, but the ratio of Maoris in the armed forces is much higher, for they have a love of action and a communal  back ground that produces fine soldiers.

The English who arrived in New Zealand early in the last century, fought the Maori tribesmen for 25 years, but the two races have lived in peace since 1869. They have fought side by side in Korea, Malaysia, Borneo, Sarawak, Africa, the Middle East and continental campaigns during World War II. Their mutual cooperation at home has been as successful as their comradeship on foreign battlefields. New Zealander's believe in self-determination, a high degree of national sovereignty and complete international cooperation. Therefore it is no wonder their Government responded favourably when Vietnam asked for military help during the dark days of 1965. The Australians and New Zealander's joined forces in Vietnam in June 1965, marking the beginning of the New Zealand/V Force. The New Zealand/V Force has been under the administrative command of Lt. Col. Robertson H Smith, a veteran of the Japanese occupation and the Malaysian battle campaign after a command and staff expert who has received  training in Australia and the U.S. With and abundance of troops continually arriving the Canberra and Wellington governments thereupon agreed to change the battalion’s designation to RAZ/NZ (ANZAC). ANZAC, a famous designation going back to World War I days, stands for Australian-New Zealand Army Corps. The military mission of the Australians and the New Zealander's when they arrived in the Phouc Thuy province was simple to describe but difficult to execute. Their mission was to break the back of a firmly entrenched Communists military and political organisation so the people of the province could resume their normal activities. In their operations the ANZAC forces have all but eliminated organised Communist opposition, with only scattered elements remaining to harass villagers and military patrols. And at no time has the enemy succeeded in penetrating the ANZAC base perimeter.  

Although a non combat team, the Kiwi medical workers up north also find their work hazardous, for their area of operation is the insecure plains of Binh Dinh.  Why do these men choose to leave their own beautiful and ordered homeland to work and fight in a country 6.000 miles away? The fighting men of the Kiwi contingent debated that question themselves recently. Capt. Walter Steward, currently serving his second tour with 161 Battery in Vietnam, spoke with deep conviction. “Why am I in Vietnam? It’s reason enough for me to know that I am backing the Allied effort which is aimed at giving the people of South Vietnam a long-awaited chance for freedom. I think that our effort here in Vietnam are beginning to bear fruit” Gunnery Sgt Fred Bigwither said, “We’re here to give the South Vietnamese a chance to gain confidence in themselves, their army and their government.” A 1965 white paper issued by New Zealand’s Department of External Affairs explained it as follows: "If the Viet Cong have been able to make progress in the South it is because of the extent of assistance available from the North. It is this which has given the Viet Cong their effectiveness. It is this which marks the technique seen in Vietnam in recent years as a new form of aggression. As such it is imperative that other countries should give assistance to the Republic of Vietnam to resist that aggression.  "In doing this the New Zealand government believes that it will assure for itself the understanding and good will of the people of the Republic of Vietnam. The government deeply deplores the suffering of the Vietnamese people in current hostilities. A generation of Vietnamese has known no freedom from warfare. But if the New Zealand government deplores this suffering it does not believe that it can relieve it by turning its back on it."

The jungle operation was the first for both companies. In 15 days Victor Co deployed twice by tanks and armoured personnel carriers and once by helicopter. Whisky Co deployed three times by helicopter, and both companies made night marches in search of the enemy. The operation began with a ruse. After completing a day long road clearing operation Victor Co established a simulated base camp to fool enemy soldiers observing their movements. Before dark helicopters arrived, apparently carrying bales of wire and supplies to fortify the camp The drums and containers slung under the helicopters concealed the soldiers of Whisky Co. When the helicopters landed in hidden spots, the New Zealanders crept out and into hiding. A VC attack on the reinforced position failed to materialise, and after dark both companies began night marches to assume blocking positions for other elements of the  battalion. At dawn the cordon operation flushed and killed a lone enemy soldier.  

The next day, a platoon of Whisky Co located an old base camp area where eight VC were cooking dinner. They opened up on the enemy, only to have the VC escape through a system of tunnels. The Reds left behind two transistor radios still tuned to a local armed forces broadcast as well as food, clothing, an automatic weapon and several medical packs.  

After several uneventful days of tracking Whisky Co was airlifted to the edge of a rubber plantation where intelligence reports indicated the enemy was located. Sweeping the area which was thick with rubber trees, tall grass and scrubby undergrowth, a platoon of the company discovered a huge cache of supplies. A day long search turned up five more caches, which included an oil drum filled with flashlight batteries, 10c cans of condensed milk, and large quantities of medical supplies.  

During the search, a single Kiwi soldier was killed by automatic weapons fire from an ambush. His attacker was wounded but escaped. The two Kiwi companies continued to search the area for several days, but made only sporadic contact with the enemy. After moving to still another area, Victor Co killed 12 VC in two highly successful ambushes. Laying in wait along well-used enemy trails through the dense jungle, the company killed three enemy one day and nine the next.