The Battle of Binh Ba
by Arthur Burke
http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/vietnam/binh_ba.html
"Twenty-five years after the Allied landing at Normandy on 6 June 1944, another military force also crossed a start line and advanced into history at the small rubber plantation village of Binh Ba in South Vietnam.
The peaceful morning air of Phuoc Tuy Province in South Vietnam was shattered at 7.20 am by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) striking the turret of an Australian Centurion tank as it entered the village of Binh Ba, some six kilometres north of the Australian base at Nui Dat. Forty-eight hours later, the vicious Battle of Binh Ba concluded leaving one Australian dead and 10 wounded, but at least 107 enemy killed, six wounded and 29 detained for further investigation. This battle on 6 June 1969 was an undeniable success for the Australians and ranks as one of the major military victories of that force during the Vietnam War.
The question has often been asked, ‘Was this an ambush or an accident?’ Was the RPG fired by a nervous young local Viet Cong (VC) guerilla or a trigger-happy North Vietnamese Regular, or was this a deliberate attempt by 1st Battalion of 33rd North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Regiment to entice two Australian armoured vehicles into a trap which would draw resources away from the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regimental (6 RAR) Group which was exerting pressure on the enemy from further north? This article tells the story of that modern D-Day battle and leaves the reader to make a decision.
The 6th Battalion had not long been in country and was still undergoing its warm-up or nursery operation which had commenced towards the end of May in an area some 17 km north of Nui Dat. Their supposedly rather benign patrolling southwards had, however, inadvertently begun to encroach upon the cross-country movement of an NVA battalion which was temporarily laying up in the former French rubber plantation village of Binh Ba. There is no doubt that it felt threatened by the hammer and anvil effect of 6 RAR pushing south towards the defended Nui Dat base............"
AWM BEL/69/0382/VN. Binh Ba, South Vietnam. 6 June 1969. Troops of D Company, 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), Commanded by Major Murray Blake, supported by Centurion tanks of B Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment, sweep towards the edge of a rubber plantation, five miles north of the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) Base at Nui Dat.
The RPG which hit the replacement tank -- being accompanied to 6 RAR by an armoured recovery vehicle (ARV) -- seriously wounded the loader/operator and prevented the turret from traversing. The crew commander opened fire with a .30 calibre machine gun and was supported by the fire from two similar weapons on the ARV. The tank continued north to a nearby friendly village post whilst the recovery vehicle withdrew south to Nui Dat.
The tank’s arrival alerted the Vietnamese Regional Force (RF) Company who prepared to react against an enemy of (at that time) unknown strength. In parallel, the tank’s contact report sent by radio to the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) base and a request for assistance from the Vietnamese District Chief resulted in the task force’s ready reaction force -- based on D Company 5 RAR -- being mobilised at about 9 am.
