3 RAR action in Vietnam (DPR/TV/853 & 855)

[euqsabtnatillim]

Mate: HIT ME BUT DONT SHIT ME! You ever heard of the term huey chandelier? WTF do you think happened in long range operations when you 'snatched someone for intell?' What? escort him back to the rear esch? Dont clean the war up now that its over- we gave as good as we got. No one will ever know what our special forces got up to except them.As if all our special units out there including elements liasing with ASIO/CIA are telling the war memorial what they were up to and what did or didnt do.

[bobkats]

@euqsabtnatillim CIA etc maybe but Aussie RAR's and SAS I doubt it bloke, we are not that naive but to say we had anything to do with hanging blokes out of Iroquois???

[karlkarlkarl1234]

I'm surprised the survival rates for casualties was so hard with all the dirt and muck around the place which would've made infection rampant.

[nair0bij0nes]

hard survival rates ?

[MzKarinAnn]

My father, who was in 3 RAR has watched this youtube video and knows the man 13 seconds into the video Dave Butler (RP) corporal.

[karlkarlkarl1234]

Send the AustWarMemorial account a PM, they will likely appreciate this info.

[nighthawk006]

interesting post! *****

[wattlebough]

I am curious to know what happened to the enemy POWs afterward. Were they kept in Australian hands or were they handed over to the South Vietnamese government. I wonder how they were treated by their captors once they were handed over. Perhaps we'll never know.

[AustWarMemorial]

Thanks for your question here is a response from Ashley Ekins as broken into parts:

Part1:

Australian forces handed over captured enemy prisoners to the South Vietnamese (Republic of Vietnam) authorities, normally after interrogation locally by Australian intelligence officers, who then sent them on to the Combined Military Intelligence Centre (CMIC) at Long Binh near Bien Hoa for further questioning and documentation (photos, fingerprints and details).

[AustWarMemorial]

Part 2:

Those classified as 'suspects' or 'detainees' were tried and either released or jailed; those classified as 'PWs' (prisoners of war) were sent to RVN prisoner compounds.

In the III Corps area (III Corps Tactical Zone, later Military Region 3) where the 1st Australian Task Force operated, prison camps included those at Bien Hoa and Long Son Island near Vung Tau.

[AustWarMemorial]

Part 3:

Under the terms of the Geneva Conventions Australia had a 'residual responsibility' for the POWs captured by Australian forces even though they were handed over to the South Vietnamese.

Australian officers and Red Cross officials regularly visited these compounds and reported on conditions. For example, see AWM photograph WAR/70/0358/VN showing a visit by Colonel John Whitelaw, Chief of Staff, HQ AFV, visiting the Bien Hoa III Corps POW 'cage' in June 1970.

[AustWarMemorial]

Part 4:

For further information on the Australian treatment of Viet Cong prisoners, see the article by Ashley Ekins, '"Not one scintilla of evidence"?: The media, the military and the Government in the Vietnam water torture case', Australian Journal of Politics & History, vol. 42, no. 3, 1996, pp. 345-64.

Ashley Ekins

Head, Military History Section

Australian War Memorial

[dean11081988]

i had a uncle that served in vietnam with the australian forces i was just wondering if there were more of the british there and how meny please answere thank you

[heywoodjerbloume]

I served with the NZSAS in the Nam and if I remember correctly there were some British SAS tearing around.However the Brits will deny this.All the Aussies and Yanks we met were first rate blokes who never let us down.Please dont disrespect those who fought over there or in Afghanistan today.

[bobkats]

@heywoodjerbloume  If 1NZSAS and our Chicken stranglers were there then it's a fair bet UK / Rhodesia and Fiji's SAS were there too. Mate thankyou for your Service if Australia needs Hero's and it does you bloke's are it.

Dave

[TheHarbinger82]

@wattlebough good question my group LRRP 82nd ABN Oscar Company, we turned them over to PIC Provience Interrogation Centers, these were closer to it than mentioned below. Trust me water boarding was the least of their worries, most didnt survive

[wattlebough]

Very interesting. We rarely think about the "after the battle" mop up.

[wattlebough]

How stuffed was that VC/NVA's right arm?! I bet it was probably easier to amputate it when he got to the hospital than try and fix it up.