The day the CO was shot down
The day the CO was shot down, as told to Michael C English by Colonel Peter
Scott, the CO of 3RAR 1971 tour.
Towards the end of March, 71 71SIGINT had located an enemy unit,
believed to be D445, in the general area between the Song Rai and Suoi
Giou rivers about 4000metres north-east of FSB Beth. The battalion was
quickly deployed on 30 March, in APCs and on foot, to cordon and search
the suspected area. D Coy and attached A Coy 2RAR/NZ (ANZAC) were the
searching coys. A Coy was given the task of searching the western bank
of the Song Rai to a distance of 500metres.
On the afternoon of 31 March, the Task Force Commander, Brig brice
McDonald was visiting FSB Beth and talking to me when A Coy (2RAR/NZ)
contacted the enemy at about 1430hours. I immediately left the TF Comd
with the Ops officer and flew off to the contact area in the Direct
Support (DS) Possum helicopter. Possum being its radio call sign. The
pilot was Lt Frazer Gibson who was later awarded the DFC for meritorious
service in SVN.
I had always adopted the practice of getting airbourne in possum
whenever there was a contact or the need for me to give assistance or
supervise an operation, during daylight.
The enemy reacted very strongly on this occasion and helicopter gunships
were called in, and including the battalion reserve, consisting of
Pioneer platoon in APCs and a section of mortars were also moved to the
west bank of the Song Rai adjacent to the contact area. 4Tp CSqn 1Armd
regiment was also deployed to the same area.
A bag of coloured smoke grenades was now carried in the DS possum in
case a coy or pl ran out of smoke. This had occurred on 20 March when a
half platoon of 8pl C Coy ran out of smoke grenades and helicopter
gun-ships could not engage the enemy because the position of our own
troops could not be indicated. I tried on a number of passes to drop
bags of grenades to the platoon but missed because we could not hover
directly over their position because we we would indicate their position
to the enemy and also provide a sitting target to the enemy. I remember
we flew back to the fire support base at least once to get more bags of
coloured smoke grenades, but I was still unsuccessful in dropping them
accurately.
In this case 2Pl A Coy (2RAR/NZ) had run out of smoke grenades and as
they were thought to be 400metres from the enemy I directed the pilot to
fly over to 2Pl so I could drop a bag of smoke. Just then a yellow smoke
grenade was thrown and confusion existed as to whether I had thrown it
or if 2Pl had thrown it, if so this meant 2Pl was much closer to the
contact area than they thought.The pilot and I were talking on the
intercom when I realised that we were flying over the enemy position.
just as I told the pilot to get the hell out of there, the enemy engaged
us with small arms fire and we took a number of hits, with one or more
passing between the pilot and myself. Lt Gibson realised that he was
loosing control, the oil pressure gauge was dropping rapidily and there
was a need to land immediately if we were not ot crash in the area of
the contact.
Lt Gibson was able to turn the helicopter away to the east and land on
the eastern bank of the Song Rai, in no mans land, just as the engine
quit. Lt Gibson and I got out of the helicopter quickly as we did not
want to be in it if it caught fire ot exploded nad of course we wanted
to join the troop of tanks we knew were in the area a few hundred metres
to the north. But we were not sure what we would meet on the way. Taking
essential maps, etc and armed with our pistols and M16 rifles I led the
pilot north through the undergrowth towards the tank troop. We were
challenged but I am not sure by whom but we did marry up with the tank
troop and sent a troop of APCs to secure the helicopter. I mounted one
of the tanks, and reported to the battalion CP that we were safe and
using one of the tank radios, continued to exercise control of the
operation. neither of us were hurt, only shaken and embarassed and
relieved that we had got out safely.
Many stories and tales have developed over who shot the CO down. The
stories get better every Anzac day. Some have said he was shot down by
his own men, but research has quashed this line of thinking. I now
believe that the story just told is the most accurate to date and
research bares this out.
Michael C English
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