 The province now seemed secure and Graham saw the opportunity to continue pacification on a more methodical basis in Phuoc Tuy. Planning to attack the remaining Viet Cong where they were most vulnerable, the Australians returned to interdicting communist supply lines and bases, with 2 RAR conducting two search and destroy operations to the east of Dat Do — Operation Cairns in late-July followed by Operation Atherton in mid-August, both of which resulted in only minor contact. Meanwhile, the Hat Dich area had been quiet since US forces had swept of the area as part of Operation Akron (9 – 29 June), and Australian intelligence assessed that it was free of Viet Cong main force combat units. By late-July communist rear services units and other supporting units were believed to have begun moving back into the area, in an attempt to rehabilitate their base areas that had been destroyed in the earlier fighting. Yet in reality the location of communist forces was largely unknown to the Australians. In mid-July, the Viet Cong 274th Regiment — now believed to be commanded by Ut Thoi — had been forced to move from the Hat Dich towards its north-eastern base areas due to Operation Paddington and Australian signals intelligence had been able to effectively track the regiment's movement due to the location of its transmitter. However, 1 ATF intelligence officers had then lost track of the unit.
