Just saw this. That film is great. Congrats Dennis. What a find. Chloe's restoration story is a real classic ("come get it or I'll dig a hole and push it in") and Dennis' earliest -1999 thru to its first drive for ANZAC Day 25apr2000.
http://www.remlr.com/lot359.htmlTime to update the Chloe story - she's a movie star now!
This is the AWM Collection film caption:
"HMAS Sydney anchored off Vung Tau, South Vietnam on Tuesday morning 8 June 1965. The 1st Battalion RAR troops disembarked into Dukws; ferried to L.C.U. (Vietnamese Navy) then to shore where they were greeted on landing by the Commander, Military Assistance Command Vietnam, General William Westmoreland and the CO 1RAR, Lieut-Colonel I R W Brumfield. A fleet of US army trucks carried the Australians to nearby Vung Tau air base where they boarded C-130 Hercules and C-123 Provider aircraft for the flight to their battalion positions at Bien Hoa air base, north of Saigon."
See a still photo of the C-123 Landy loading:
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DNE/65/0008/VN/which is dated 6 June 65, the day of 1RARs first chalk's arrival by air; 2 days before the Sydney arrived. The film shows the unloading of Sydney cargo and troops. Coming off the Sydney are the soldiers of 1RAR B Coy and RASigs, RAE, RAASC, RAEME, RAAOC soldiers. Cargo is off-loaded with slings and barges and the DUKWs ferried the troops. It also shows 173rd Airborne and a certain US Gen. Westmoreland and air base lifts and troop movement by truck with the US 173rd.
Well... as part of the June 65 arrival in country, 1RAR were given a parade on 10th June 65 at Tan Son Nhut, Saigon. The notes say 400 1RAR troops were there.
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DNE/65/0021/VN/ and
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DNE/65/0022/VN/The parade is not in the film at all and that smacks strange; that welcome parade by and for the SVN Government was PR "gold".
...and the film includes a sign at Vung Tau Airbase near the film's end. After the VT airport sign the cameraman gets airborne shots of the Sydney at anchor, then the next scene is the Bien Hoa road sign at the very end.
That VT airport sign may well account for the AWM footage caption: "A fleet of US army trucks carried the Australians to
nearby Vung Tau air base where they boarded C-130 Hercules and C-123 Provider aircraft for the flight to their battalion positions at Bien Hoa air base, north of Saigon."
...but was it so?
The airbase involved in 1RAR arriving in country was the one and only Tan Son Nhut, Saigon - here is the 1RAR diary entries for the period. All 5 "chalks" of 1RAR go thru Tan Son Nhut Airbase:
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm95/7/1/awm95-7-1-26.pdfWestmoreland's visits are noted by the 1RAR as 6th June 65 "for 20 minutes" and again on the 8th with the Australian Ambassador and the Sydney's Officers when they are at anchor.
I originally thought that 65 and 66 footage was perhaps spliced together. What threw me a bit is that Gen. Westmoreland is mentioned by the Sydney Captain's letter in the arrival of Op Hardiwood in May 66, but not in the arrival of 1RAR in June 65. Yet the 1RAR diary certainly mentioned the naval officers in the meeting in '65. On deeper looking, AWM has the Ships proceedings about that first trip to Vungers, 8th June 65, but it also mentions a separate Captain's letter about the day: and the AWM doesn't seem to have it.
Back to Chloe. She definitely arrived in SVN early in the war: 0800 8th June 65, on the Vung Tau Ferry.
....and then gets airlifted from Vung Tau Airport to Bien Hoa?
