OPERATION HOBART 25th July 1966
A Medics Story
Very soon after completing Infantry training I was posted to a reinforcement unit and within weeks was in Vietnam on my first tour of duty. I could not to my dismay shake my Medical training experience as the very first Infantry platoon that I was posted to used me to carry a medical bag as well as perform the role of infantryman .
On the 25th July 1966 Operation "Hobart" 6 platoon B Company of 6 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment Pulled up at about 1300 hours to have a meal break. We were on a Search and Destroy Operation. I carried the platoon medical bag. Clumps of Bamboo mixed with medium density scrub gave the platoon of some 27 men some protection from view. I learnt later that we were a blocking force for a C Company action and enemy could be heading our way!
Small arms fire from some distance off could be heard while the platoon went into all round defence and sentries were placed out so the platoon could brew up and open their cans of meat and biscuit ration. Soon however the rifle fire appeared to be coming right into our area, I noticed some leaves of a tree above my head getting hit and falling to the ground. From somewhere a voice was shouting "dig in, they've got mortars". I stopped making my coffee as another soldier; an "Engineer attached to us" grabbed my entrenching tool and began digging a shell scrape.
Another burst of fire, very close! I took my entrenching tool back and lying on my back as flat as I could make myself, I dug a shell scrape just 3 or 4 inches deep and rolled into it.
The incoming fire was increasing, our sergeant called on the platoon to return fire which they did. I then heard the first of the enemy bugle calls, then another from a different direction. They were lousy bugle players "all quivery".
We were taking fire from three directions now and leaves were flicked off an inch or two above our heads. Above the din I heard "Medic" being called so I left my shell scrape and crawled about twenty five meters or more to a soldier who had been shot through the left wrist. A corporal alongside the wounded man was busy returning fire with his automatic S.L.R. I put a shell dressing on the wounded man gave him a morphine injection and laid him against an old anthill for protection. I lit him a cigarette. The bugles sounded again, I shouted something back in frustration.
Another shout for "Medic" and I crawled to another position on the perimeter finding a machine gunner with bloodied face lying along side his upturned machine gun, the bipod legs were gone! I assisted the soldier's mate Stevo, to rest the barrel of the machine gun on a back pack and it went on firing again.
I recall that the wounded gunner Pop Vicukes indicated that he had been hit by a grenade; he could still talk and said he had got the enemy who had blown him up. I noticed a dead enemy soldier a few meters in front of the machine gun.
Another shell dressing was going on and Pop said to me something about praying to God. I thought"yeah please don't let it happen now"
As I bandaged Pop I heard someone scream "get down Mortars" then a massive blast. I was lifted into the air and onto my feet by a hot blast of air, then as clods of ripped up earth fell onto my head I thought "James you're f….. Then "no I'm not" so I went to ground again. My ears were ringing
Stevo, whom I'd just helped set up the machine gun with had his knees bent up and called out that he had been hit. The machine gun was again lying upside down having received some of the mortar blast.
I crawled across to the machine gun M60) and dragged it across to Lance Corporal Jackett and righted it again on another back pack ready to use.
I could see that Stevo had been hit in the feet with shrapnel and so I cut down his bootlaces with his bayonet and removed his boots. One foot wasn't too bad but the other was damaged under his toes and messy. I dressed these, I remember Stevo grabbing his boots and saying "These are going out with me!"
At this stage there was still a lot of firing and our platoon commander was calling down artillery onto the attacking enemy and the sound of the salvos of 105 Howitzer shells made their distinct whirring noise before splashing down and exploding. Still the bugles sounded!
Without let up I was called to return to the first position where I had left the soldier after putting a shell dressing on him and giving him a cigarette.
With my medical bag strap around my shoulder and the bag scraping the ground I crawled towards where I had left the two soldiers. My Owen gun was in one hand and I crawled forward searching for the right place Some how my Owen Gun nose dived into the earth blocking the barrel. I removed the barrel and stuck a bit of bamboo into the barrel clearing it ,I crawled on.
The corporal with the automatic SLR was lying on his stomach facing forward. His eyes didn't move I could see he was dead, even though there was little blood.
The soldier propped up against the ant heap had his eyes closed, the cigarette still smoldering but a meter from him. He was gone. I called out to the Platoon Commander that this position was knocked out. I grabbed the SLR, broke it open, removed the breach block and threw it into the scrub. I picked up the M16 belonging to the other soldier and crawled back towards the centre of our position.
While this action took place, 'Wink" a rifleman while on his stomach and firing his SLR was grazed by a bullet across his scalp from the front. A dressing was applied by someone and Wink was put on his back in his shell scrape with his head partly above ground Wink was clipped by another bullet, this time from the back, he pulled his head in even lower! Then whilst still on his back and looking upwards he alerted the Platoon Commander to the fact that a mortar bomb was swinging in the bamboo a few feet above his position. It was caught by its tail fins and just swung and hung there.
With reduced firing from the enemy, Corporal Bob Walker's section was ordered to clear the front. The section had only just stood up to go forward when another burst of firing from the enemy knocked over Bob and another man. I crawled to where Bob was and dressed his leg giving him a morphine shot as well.
The O.C. Major Ford had come forward from CHQ to see for himself what was happening in our area. I called out to him to keep his head down. Fortunately the firing had slackened and he was not hit.
Later when the fighting was over Dust Off or Med Evac Helicopters were called in and so I helped to load the casualties into the choppers as they arrived. One soldier saw the wind from a chopper lift the cover off one of the dead men. It was his friend! He just broke up and really lost it. I filled in another casualty card tied it by its string to the soldiers shirt front and pushed him into a chopper.
After we harboured up that night I dug my shell scrape a little deeper mindful of the mortars that had fallen amongst us.
I know a lot of other incidents occurred whilst this fight was on but this is what I saw and can remember of the day.
Jim (Doc) Burton
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