Cobram RSL marks Australia’s bloodiest chapter in Vietnam
Long Tan has become the Anzac Day of the Vietnam War but the lesser known sustained fighting around fire support bases Coral and Balmoral in 1968 proved the bloodiest, and most costly, for our Diggers.
By the time the 24 days of dogged defence were over, 26 Australians were dead and a further 99 wounded.
On Saturday Cobram RSL will mark the 50th anniversary of the fighting and mark the 52nd anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan by holding a ceremony at the
It was a decision that would change his life and — whether 20-year-old Greg Monk knew it or not — a decision from which he would never really escape.
Conscripted from Numurkah for national service, he was on the family farm at the time.
As a farm worker he qualified for an essential service exemption and could have stayed on the land, far away from the hell into which Vietnam was descending.
‘‘My father told me about the exemption but I decided to go to war — when I told my mum she broke down,’’ Greg said.
Greg was part of the 15th intake of national servicemen, which began with recruit training at Puckapunyal before he was assigned to the infantry as a rifleman.
With a suspected heart murmur, it took longer than planned to get the all-clear from a medical in Shepparton.
Greg arrived in the war zone toward the end of 1969 during the battle of Long Hai.
‘‘I headed over as part of a replacement unit as part of the 5th Battalion but they were due to come home so I was transferred to the 8th Battalion,’’ he said.
‘‘We were in a mountain group and the Viet Cong were very strong.
‘‘Arriving in Saigon and getting off the plane, the smell of fuel cenotaph on William St from 9.15 am.
Australian, New Zealander and American forces were involved in a series of actions between May and June in 1968 at fire support bases Coral and Balmoral, 20 km north of Bien Hoa City.
These bases were established across a route used by North Vietnamese forces to attack Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and Bien Hoa provided defended positions for artillery and mortars which, in turn, supported infantry patrols of the area.
The first Fire Support Base from the jets and the heat knocked me flying.
‘‘They gave us a few weeks to get acclimatised, which meant we slept in the rain and dried out when we could.
‘‘Vietnam was different to the two world wars; it was a lot of surprise attacks, mines, booby traps and so on.
‘‘The Viet Cong mixed with villagers — there was a curfew and anyone leaving the village was considered an enemy.’’
Greg said at times the only thing that got him through was the rapport with fellow Diggers and having a good sense of humour.
‘‘At the time we were at Nui Dat, in the SAS they’d spot the enemy and we’d be ferried out there in helicopters and armoured personnel carriers,’’ he said.
‘‘We went out with our rations and all our gear. We had grenade launchers, belts of ammunition and the pack, which was only a ground sheet.
‘‘You walked in a long line, the first bloke was a forward scout armed with his weapons — and a pair of secateurs to cut through foliage and bush too thick to penetrate.
‘‘There were snakes everywhere and if you even brush past a bush, ants would get all over you — but we always had a sense of humour about ourselves.’’
In October 1970, Greg had finished Coral was occupied on May 12, 1968 by the 1st Battalion, Royal Australia Regiment, 102 Field Battery Royal Australian Artillery and 161 New Zealand Field Battery.
Defences had not been completed on May 13 when the base came under brief but intense rocket and mortar fire.
The defenders were successful in beating the attack after having temporarily abandoned one of their guns.
The base was attacked again on May 16, by which time it had been defended by armoured personnel his service earlier than his fellow members of the 8th Battalion and was flown home.
In one day he went from the chaos, insanity and hourly uncertainty of war to a world he had trouble recognising — no shooting, no choppers roaming the sky and no-one afraid to go out and about.
It was a world that increasingly, didn’t care for Greg and his fellow soldiers, because of the controversy piling up week after week about the seemingly endless fighting in Vietnam.
‘‘Coming home, it was very political. We were coming into Sydney and we had to change to civilian clothes — they were worried about protesters even though it was 2 am when we got in.’’
But a friend and fellow Digger carriers of A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment as well as 1RAR infantry. Fighting lasted several hours before the attackers were forced to withdraw.
Attacks continued until May 28, but the base was not seriously threatened again.
On May 26, supported by tanks from 1st Armoured Regiment, patrols left the base and destroyed an enemy bunker system that earlier patrols from the base had detected.
But by then the enemy had switched tactics and turned its attention to FSB Balmoral. had a plan for Greg to make a surprise entrance back home.
‘‘One of my mates told me not to tell my parents I was coming home. He picked me up from the train at Albury and took me to the family farm at Katunga,’’ he said.
‘‘He walked up to the door and said to my parents, ‘there’s someone here I think you may know’.
‘‘To them he was a complete stranger. And then out I stepped.
‘‘There was a 21st on that night and people came from the hall back to the house to see us and then headed back to the party.’’
For Greg, war service is a family legacy; his great-great uncle fought and died in World War I, his grandfathers fought in World War II and his father was in the air force.
But he also faced the same
On May 25 two enemy battalions concentrated their efforts on FSB Balmoral, which was 5 km away and occupied by 3rd Battalion RAR and tanks from 1st Armoured Regiment.
The defenders repulsed attacks on May 26 and 28.
North Vietnamese activity in the area subsided and operations at Coral and Balmoral were suspended on June 6.
Estimates suggest more than 300 North Vietnamese were killed in these actions, but exact figures will never be known. struggles as any other veteran when he tried to settle back into the peaceful civilian life he had left behind barely two years earlier — issues every Digger faced, but didn’t necessarily want to talk about.
‘‘Back at home, Greg said.
‘‘I was diagnosed with PTSD. It made everything that bit harder, I had problems sleeping at night — my wife could tell you all about that,’’ he said.
Greg’s only physical battle scar was stitches after a stray piece of bamboo hit him on the eyebrow while he was headed through the jungle in a troop carrier.
‘‘But I ended up all right,’’ he said. it was hard,’’