It could have been a shooting gallery for the VC...
I have just read a stack of Commander Diaries of 5 Coy RAASC, 1969.
I'm trying to understand more about the war in that province. It was two and a half years after the Battle Of Long Tan.
For most of 1969 its day in and day out convoys up and back from Vungers to Nui Dat for 5RAASC. Sometimes Saigon, Baria, etc. But mainly Nui Dat.
To the VC it must have been a case of see you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel. For months and months and months.
For those Australian Servicemen equal to the task it must have been a real courage-call to go out for a drive every day. There's no covert tactics, no sneaking around. No cam and concealment. A big convoy raises noise and dust and there's no hiding it. Seems to me that the road going supply convoy is the most vulnerable target in many ways. And the goodies being carried are highly desirable - ammunition, munitions, weapons... The convoy is relatively easy to attack compared to Nui Dat and the typical FSB and I'm left wondering whether its a case of the supply convoy being the canary in the coalmine. And its not like all the VC manpower is otherwise employed - somewhere off flying planes and steaming around the oceans in their Navy. Ground attack, night maneuvers, and mafia-like terror and coercion on the locals was all they did.
The VC definitely seem to have been buttoned down in their tactics and limited to a single shot or harassment, some shoot n skoots, some grenade chuckings, some land mines, and some bridge demolitions. Maybe it was a case that their orders were to simply maintain the stress levels on the convoys. Did they take note of the Cessna overhead and the Huey gunships on call (etc) and conclude there was just too much firepower available to back up the convoys? In what I've read of the proceedings in that area, the VC don't appear to have gone to the next step; they didn't attack in force and properly hold up the supply line to draw out Infantry from Nui Dat as either a diversionary tactic to weaken defences before attacking Nui Dat itself or as a deliberate trap to isolate and ambush the Infantry sent to rescue their fellows in the supply convoy.
Interesting discussion, whatever the truth. And interesting reading.
14 doc snips, in chronological order:
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below: 24feb69
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below: Red Alert then Amber then Red again. 25feb69
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below: 2am attack 23mar69. One rocket hit HQ verandah.
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below: 23mar69 continued
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below: Convoy ambush by 12 VC 20apr69
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below: ANZAC Day shots fired at trucks 25apr69
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below: RPG fired at Land-Rover 24jul69
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below: Bridge blown 02aug69
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below: Rebuild bridge 03aug69
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below: Rebuild bridge 04aug69
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below: Another bridge blown 12aug69
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below: Shot fired 15aug69
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below: US Convoy hit - 'elm' is a enemy land mine? 25sep69
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below: Vungers rocketted 16oct69
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