No Need for Heroes. Sandy MacGregor
took over, and everyone moved up. If he got shot, the radio man took over and so on until they'd all been taken out. It stuck in my mind, and Sandy Saunder's too.
"I remember once going out with a mob with the jeeps and the 50 cal machine gun and I felt so unprotected. I'd rather be walking along the bush than sitting up in those things with no protection. They're just a duck shooting target as far as I'm concerned.
"I think their officers were trying to win more battle colours – I don't think the Diggers were. There might have been a few nuts, but they're humans those people too, you know. I felt sorry for them poor buggers just standing up there with just a 50 calibre. He'd be the first bloke you'd shoot. They always go for the bloke on the gun and it only takes one shot because there's no protection."
The essential difference between the Australian soldier and the American is that we used stealth where they used fire power. Often when my engineers were on attachment to American troops they'd be used as forward scouts.
We didn't like being sent to work with the US troops all that much but if it was an engineering task, we did it. If they needed a particular piece of equipment, like the Oliver dozer and backhoe or front-end loader and backhoe, they would take an operator and a truck driver out with them. We weren't supposed to be with them as field soldiers, supporting infantry, we were there to operate the equipment and maybe delouse booby traps.
As engineers, the Americans had the same attitude as their infantry: where we'd often have to improvise with whatever we had to hand, they'd have men, equipment and raw materials in abundance. In operation Rolling Stone, which I will describe in detail later on, I was mightily impressed with the way they could build one or two kilometres of road a day through the jungle.
And in my last couple of weeks in Vietnam, after 3 Field Troop had gone back to Australia, I had a chance to work closely with the American engineers when I was attached to them as an observer. The size of their operation left a huge impression on me.
But perhaps the men who worked and fought alongside them had a different perspective.
"I found Americans to be brave at times to the point of being ridiculous, generous to a fault and, probably the same way they find Australians, brash, uncouth and several other things," says Snow Wilson.
"They were exceptionally nice people but I could never bring myself to operate the way they did. We have all probably seen a few movies about Vietnam and seen these guys with transistors hanging round their neck and the camera hanging below that and a cigar hanging out of their mouth and a couple of socks hanging off their basic webbing with tins in. That was exactly how they were. I couldn't believe it!"
Les Colmer felt quite comfortable with the Americans' "informal" approach.
"I found it pretty slack but it suited the engineers' way of life," says Les. "It didn't suit the infantrymen, though. But there was nothing wrong with their fighting ability. They fought like diamonds and died like bloody heroes.
4/12
Bien Hoa airbase or rather "The Snake Pit". Most operations using helicopters started from here. It was a magnificent sight to see 10 slicks, each of up to 10 helicopters, ready to go at once.
"But the infantry used to complain about being with Americans because they just sort of blundered through, as if they're saying 'Here we are – come and get us'. In fact it was an American tactic to make a noise, attract enemy fire and then give the enemy every bit of hardware that they could muster.
"But the Australian way was to almost fight like the Viet Cong did, stay concealed, stake 'em out. I read somewhere about a fire support base with mortars, artillery, tanks and about 500 men. It was a blocking force and the Viet Cong would come down there every night and have a go at them. So the Yank commander said to the Aussies, 'You patrol my perimeter at night and I'll fight the Viet Cong during the day ... you keep them out 'cause you're best at it'."
One of the most significant differences between the two armies' daily routines was their "clearing" procedure at night. We used to send a patrol out from each machine gun post to the farthest point at which they could still see the compound wire and each other. Then, as they returned – and always to the next gun-post so they would be recognised – each man would say "Sapper Smith with two behind" and so on. The machine gunner would then know that anybody who was out there after the last man came in was probably enemy.
The Americans, on the other hand, used to "clear by fire", in other words, blast away into the jungle for a few minutes every night and morning. It was not only wasteful and inefficient – it doesn't take too much imagination to hide in a ditch or behind a tree – but downright dangerous. More than once we'd have men out on patrol when they opened up and on at least one occasion their shots were coming right through jungle to where we were camped at the other side.
Mick McGrath, who spent six weeks on attachment with American forces has mixed but generally fond memories of our allies.
"The Americans had the utmost admiration for us and we heard that the American brass wished they'd had more Australians over there. No matter where you went, they seemed to welcome you with open arms.
"On the social side, the Yanks have always got something to sell and they aren't always real good bargain hunters. I was told before I went not to worry about taking any clothes – just a kit bag full of slouch hats and badges and things and worry about getting restocked with a uniform when I got over there.
"I wish I had, because I could have bought all the uniforms I wanted to for the rest of my life. I once got a brand new pair of boots for a rag hat and you could never compare the value of the two."
But it wasn't all trade and barter. Mick spent a lot of time in the field with the Americans and found that when they said "come and get us", the Viet Cong didn't have to be asked twice.
"Wilfie Eyles, Beau Guest and I were attached to the 173rd Airborne Brigade," recalls Mick. "I had Wilfie's Oliver backhoe on the back of my tipper, Beau had the TD15 dozer on the back of a Yankee low loader and we were away with them for six weeks straight.
"It was good experience but it was pretty harrowing at times. The Viet Cong sometimes didn't seem to want to fight us Australians at all. Even when they had a chance a lot of times they'd go without firing a shot. But they never missed a chance to have a shot or antagonise the Yanks. On other operations when I was with Australians they would sort of torment us or let us know they were there without actually trying to engage us, it seemed to me."
The men from 1RAR and 3 Field Troop who were ambushed and fired on in operations like Crimp and Silver City would disagree, but Mick's view does help point out a difference in attitudes.
"I think they were wary of the Australians because we don't just sort of stand and blaze away," says Mick. "We'll try and encircle the enemy and get 'em. The Yanks would sit back and just shoot, shoot, shoot until they got their kill and make a lot of noise doing it, but we'd been taught differently.
"On that operation, Wilf and Beau and I could never get used to the American's idea of Stand To. They used to clear their front by fire of a morning to just warm up their weapons for the day. But the Yank that was driving the low loader and us three Aussies kept ourselves pretty well to ourselves. We made sure we were safe every night, as safe as we could make ourselves, by camping underneath the low loader. Where it wasn't practical to do that, the dozer would come off, dig a nice enough scrape for the four of us to get in and we'd position the equipment so that we had protection.
"During the day we still ran our own race. They were building this part of the road and they had Yank trucks belting up and down the highway. I must have looked like the proverbial pimple on the elephant's arse, with my little tipper trying to keep up with them. But they seemed to appreciate me there working alongside them.
"Anyway, one day we got hit with sniper fire and the convoy stopped and I just sort of pulled up alongside of everybody else and watched the little