Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam

Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam PDF Author: Effie Karageorgos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472585828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The South African and Vietnam Wars provoked dramatically different reactions in Australians, from pro-British jingoism on the eve of Federation, to the anti-war protest movements of the 1960s. In contrast, the letters and diaries of Australian soldiers written while on the South African and Vietnam battlefields reveal that their reactions to the war they were fighting were surprisingly unlike those on the home fronts from which they came. Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam follows these combat men from enlistment to the war front and analyses their words alongside theories of soldiering to demonstrate the transformation of soldiers as a response to developments in military procedure, as well as changing civilian opinion. In this way, the book illustrates the strength of a soldier's link to their home front lives.

Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam

Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam PDF Author: Effie Karageorgos
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472585828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
The South African and Vietnam Wars provoked dramatically different reactions in Australians, from pro-British jingoism on the eve of Federation, to the anti-war protest movements of the 1960s. In contrast, the letters and diaries of Australian soldiers written while on the South African and Vietnam battlefields reveal that their reactions to the war they were fighting were surprisingly unlike those on the home fronts from which they came. Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam follows these combat men from enlistment to the war front and analyses their words alongside theories of soldiering to demonstrate the transformation of soldiers as a response to developments in military procedure, as well as changing civilian opinion. In this way, the book illustrates the strength of a soldier's link to their home front lives.

Battle of Long Tan The

Battle of Long Tan The PDF Author: David W. Cameron
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780670078271
Category : Long Tan, Battle of, Vietnam, 1966
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
"On the afternoon of 18 August 1966, a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, Australian troops fought one of their bloodiest, most significant battles of the Vietnam War. The Australians had arrived at Nui Dat four months earlier to open up the province. While out on patrol, Delta Company of 6RAR, originally numbering just 105 Australians and three New Zealanders, collided with Viet Cong forces numbering around 2500 troops, ahead of a planned Vietnamese ambush. Under heavy fire and short on ammunition, the Australians could only guess at the enemy's strength and number. Morning light revealed a shattered woodland, trees bleeding latex - and hundreds of dead enemy soldiers who had fallen in the numerous assaults against the small Anzac force. What was first thought by the Australians to be a significant defeat quickly turned out to be a major victory. Marking the battle's 50th anniversary, and drawing on unpublished first-hand accounts, David Cameron brings to life the events of this famous battle as it unfolded - minute by minute, hour by hour - and reveals the deeds of heroism and mateship now part of Australia's Vietnam War story. His compelling account commemorates the men who fought in the rubber plantation of Long Tan - and those who did not come home. Praise for David Cameron's The Battle for Lone Pine- 'A fine work of military and social history', Weekend Australian'A riveting read', Daily Telegraph"

Australia's Battlefields in Viet Nam

Australia's Battlefields in Viet Nam PDF Author: Gary McKay
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781865088235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
A traveller's guide to the Australian battlefields and cemeteries in Vietnam written for people actually holidaying in Vietnam as well as the wannabes who think they might go to Vietnam.

Vietnam Remembered

Vietnam Remembered PDF Author: Gregory Pemberton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781742579450
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book makes the first real assessment of what the Vietnam War meant, on the battlefields and in Australia. When the first Australian troops landed on Vietnamese soil, the significance of the conflict was scarcely realised - but in time it was to affect not only tens of thousands of Australians who served in Vietnam, but an extraordinary cross-section of people at home. Debate about the war continues two decades later - and this book provides the vital answers about how Australia got involved in Americarsquo;s war; what happened to our troops in Vietnam; the way protest against the war built up on the home front; how the lsquo;Vietnam erarsquo; - the sixties and early seventies - impinged on Australian attitudes; how Australia received its Vietnam veterans on their return. It also looks at our countryrsquo;s relationship with the Vietnamese, now that many live in Australia. A top team of experts show in this book that the Vietnam War had far-reaching effects on Australiarsquo;s foreign policy, national politics, and social attitudes. Some of the controversies it provoked have spread beyond the years 1965-1971, when Australia was directly involved. This thorough, fascinating account tells the whole story of the Vietnam conflict, abroad and in Australia. It contains the Roll of Honour of those who died as a result of the Vietnam War; and it ends with a fourth edition of the lists of those who served in Vietnam.

Vietnam

Vietnam PDF Author: Paul Ham
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0732291577
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
For the first time this is the full story of Australia's involvement in our longest military campaign 'Surely God weeps,' an Australian soldier wrote in despair of the conflict in Vietnam. But no God intervened to shorten the years of carnage and devastation in this most controversial of wars. the ten-year struggle in the rice paddies and jungles of South Vietnam unleashed the most devastating firepower on the Vietnamese nation, visiting terrible harm on both civilians and soldiers.Yet the Australian experience was very different from that of the Americans. Guided by their commanders' knowledge of jungle combat, Australian troops operated with stealth, deception and restraint to pursue a 'better war'. In reconstructing for the first time the full history of our longest military campaign, Paul Ham draws on hundreds of accounts by soldiers, politicians, aid workers, entertainers and the Vietnamese people. From the commitment to engage, through the fight over conscription and the rise of the anti-war movement, to the tactics and horror of the battlefield, Ham exhumes the truth about this politicians' war - which sealed the fate of 50,000 Australian servicemen and women. More than 500 Australian soldiers were killed and thousands wounded. those who made it home returned to a hostile and ignorant country and a reception that scarred them forever. this is their story.

The Battle of Long Tan

The Battle of Long Tan PDF Author: Harry Smith
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 192226556X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
On the afternoon of 18 August 1966, just five kilometres from the main Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, a group of Viet Cong soldiers walked into the right flank of Delta Company, 6 RAR. Under a blanket of mist and heavy monsoon rain, amid the mud and shattered rubber trees, a dispersed Company of 108 men held its ground with courage and grim determination against a three-sided attack from a force of 2,500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army troops. When the battle subsided, 18 Australian soldiers lay dead and 24 had been wounded. Battlefield clearance revealed 245 enemy bodies with captured documents later confirming the count at over 500 enemy killed and 800 wounded. These men were led by a gruff and gusty perfectionist, Major Harry Smith. Now, some 53 years after the battle, Harry tells his story. The Battle of Long Tan is more than just an account of a historic battle. Harry Smith takes his readers on an extraordinary journey — one that ultimately reveals a remarkable cover-up at the highest military and political echelons. The Battle of Long Tan is also Harry’s life story and portrays his many personal battles, from failed marriages to commando-style killing; from a horrific parachute accident through to his modern-day struggles with bureaucracy for recognition for his soldiers. Harry’s battles are tempered by his love of sailing, where he has at last found some peace. The Battle of Long Tan portrays the wrenching, visceral experience of a man who has fought lifelong battles, in a story that he is only now able to tell. Harry can still hear the gunfire and smell the blood spilt at Long Tan. For him, the fight continues.

WE WERE REOs

WE WERE REOs PDF Author: Richard “Barney” Bigwood and Andrew Bi
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1456893831
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
SUMMARY A VIETNAM WAR RE-INFORCEMENT_--A “REO”. Author: Rick (Barney) Bigwood. Barney was a twenty two year old living on his own in Sydney in 1968. He had just been involved with the end of a relationship and was influenced by the TV coverage of the war in Vietnam. He had missed out on being “Called Up” for National Service, although some of his friends had been. and decided to volunteer for it and submitted the documentation. However with the wheels of government moving slowly he went to the enlistment office and signed up for three years. This tome follows Barney’s journey as the perpetual “REO” (reinforcement). After recruit training where he meets men who would share his disjointed service, one “Jock” Rennie never to come home alive, he is posted to the Infantry Corps. Here he learns the trade of “Death” the lot of an infanteer getting exposed to all the weapons currently being used in South Vietnam. He and his group of Infanteers travel to the Jungle Training centre at Cunungra in South West Queensland run by Major Felix Fazekas MC (Military Cross). Major Fazekas MC Earnt his Military Cross endeavouring to rescue “dasher” Wheatley VC and warrant Officer Swanton while in the ATTV. Felix was a real character of the Australian Army who earlier had been an officer in the Hungarian Army supporting the Germans in World war Two. After completing the jungle training Barney and approximately 60 Infantry were sent as “REOs” to Vietnam) Barney and his peers arrived in “Country” on the 28th of November and after acclimatization at the re enforcement unit (1 ARU) the group started to get broken up. The three battalions stationed in Vietnam in December 1968 had suffered a lot of battle casualties, malaria casualties and the issue of National Servicemen being returned to Australia as the completion of their term of enlistment approached. This loss of manpower needed to be replaced and it was here the “REOs” came into the picture. Barney and a group were posted to the 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (RAR); all went to platoons in rifle companies. Here Barney recounts how he was received by the old timers and original troops. Here he experienced the frustrations of a soldiers lot like being in mangrove swamps for a week and coming out to find portable showers set up and “hot box” meals ready, then after washing putting on new fresh uniforms being formed up and marched straight back into the swamp. His baptism of battle, was to answer the question that all soldiers ponder “How will I perform under fire?”,he found himself no different to the majority of all diggers . Scared, tense but switched on and committed to not letting your mates down. As this Battalion was due to return to Australia in February Barney’s time there was reasonably short and on the 10th of February he was on his way to another battalion with his fellow “REOs”. Barney marched into 4RAR/NZ, this battalion was a true ANZAC battalion with 2 rifle companies of New Zealand Infantry and 3 rifle Companies of Aussies. In the other companies Kiwis made up the platoons. Barney and his close mates Des Blazely , Bob Secrett and Cec Ebsworth joined the “Tracker” platoon with its three 4 four legged soldiers. Here the experience of battle was intense both when under Australian and American control. When the trackers were loaned to the Yanks to chase down NVA who had fired rockets a huge US base (Long Binh). Barney recounts the differences between the operating styles of the two countries. One African American who was following Barney through the jungle and seeing how he carried his machine gun at the ready compared to the US soldier with his over his shoulder hanging onto one of the bipod legs commented to his buddy “Dat Aussie carries his 60 like a rifle”, to which the soldier replies “don’t put no shit on dat Aussie or he will shoot your arse off” The tales of off duty times when the company is allowed 2 days leave in the “OPEN” town of Vung Tau is hair raisi

Vietnam

Vietnam PDF Author: Bruce Davies
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1743315597
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 738

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Book Description
Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam war comes an objective analysis of Australia's involvement. The book shows the extent of Australia's engagement in the Vietnam war and its contribution compared to its allies.

In Good Company

In Good Company PDF Author: Gary McKay
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781864489040
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
An enthralling account of an Australian infantryman and his companions in the Vietnam War.

On the Offensive

On the Offensive PDF Author: Ian McNeill
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781863733045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 690

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Book Description
On the Offensive is the eighth volume of the Official History of Australia's involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975, and the second of three volumes on Australian ground operations in Vietnam.