During the long war in Vietnam, the men of the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) undertook many cordon and search and clear operations to defeat the NVA and VC from operating in population centres. This remarkable photograph was taken from an Australian army M113 by Stuart Courtenay, a soldier in the 5th Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment, during the 1969 battle of Binh Ba. It is remarkable because of what it shows. This candid and uncensored real-life colour photograph shows Vietnamese civilians seeking cover behind an Aussie APC during the operation.
The Battle of Binh Ba (6–8 June 1969), also known as Operation Hammer, occurred when Australian Army troops from the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR) and the 1st Armoured Regiment (1 Armd) fought a combined force of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong (VC), including a company from the PAVN 33rd Regiment and elements of the VC D440 Battalion, in the village of Bình Ba, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province.
The battle was unusual in Australian combat experience in South Vietnam as it involved fierce close-quarter house-to-house fighting, although the majority of enemy killed was through heavy United States supporting artillery and air-bombardment.
In response to PAVN/VC attempts to capture Binh Ba the Australians assaulted the village with infantry, armour and helicopter gunships, routing the VC and largely destroyed the village itself. Such battles were not the norm in Phuoc Tuy (the province the Australian 1ATF had primary responsibility for), and the heavy losses suffered by the communists forced them to temporarily leave the province. Although the Australians did encounter PAVN/VC Main Force units in the years to come, the battle marked the end of such large-scale clashes, and ranks as one of the major Australian victories of the war.
Caption from Australian War Memorial photographic archive:
Binh Ba on the first day of the battle. The 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR) began a search-and-clear of the village of Binh Ba, following an attack on a Centurion tank. The operation evolved into an extensive firefight and search of the village with tanks and infantry.
