page_title: 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment
section_title: First tour of Vietnam
hierarchical_section_title: 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment / History / First tour of Vietnam
caption_attribution_description: Vietnam. 1966-09-08. Signalman with notepad watching soldiers of the 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR), disembarking from a US Iroquois helicopter on extraction from Operation Toledo.
context_page_description: The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment is a regular motorised infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally established in 1965 it would serve two tours of South Vietnam before it was linked with the 7th Battalion to form the 5th/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in 1973. In late 2006 the two units were de-linked, and 5 RAR again joined the Australian Army's order of battle in its own right. It has since served in Iraq, East Timor and Afghanistan.
context_section_description: Early in 1966 the battalion learnt that it was to serve in Vietnam as one of two infantry battalions in the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF). As it was given only three months notice for its deployment, the training schedule prior to embarkation was hectic. 'Range practices began in the dawn hours and often went until 2200 hours. Nights and weekends were spent training in night movement and conducting lectures on Vietnamese customs, history, culture and language'. Each company trained at Gospers, in the Wiangaree State Forest in New South Wales, as well as at Canungra, Queensland. In March 1966 the battalion emplaned at Aero Paddock at Holsworthy and moved to Gospers for its final exercise, which included advances to contact, night movement, and defensive operations. After this C Company would deploy to Vietnam on HMAS Sydney, whilst the remainder of the battalion flew by air.
  Upon arrival in South Vietnam the battalion, under Warr's command, commenced operations on 24 May 1966 by participating in the clearance of the 1 ATF base at Nui Dat – Operation Hardihood. For this operation the battalion was under the command of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and worked alongside two American parachute battalions to clear the area out to mortar range, so that the base could be established. It was on this operation that the battalion's first soldier, Private Errol Noack, a 21-year-old from Adelaide, South Australia, was killed. Noack was critically wounded during a water resupply and died of his wounds at 36th Evacuation Hospital on 24 May 1966, sixteen days after he said farewell to his family.  He was also the first National Serviceman to be killed in Vietnam.
  Other activities followed: such as the reclamation of Binh Ba (Operation Holsworthy, 7 to 18 August 1966) – a village that would figure prominently during the battalion's second tour; clearance operations following the 6th Battalion's action at Long Tan (Operation Darlinghurst, 26 to 31 August 1966); clearance of the Nui Thi Vai feature to secure Route 15 (Operation Canberra, 6 to 10 October 1966); operations against the village cadres (such as Operation Beaumaris, 13 to 14 February 1967); and searches of the Viet Cong base areas in the Long Hai Hills (Operation Renmark, 18 – 22 February 1967).
  Attempting to restore the control of the South Vietnamese Government to the areas of population which had been cut off by the Viet Cong (VC), who controlled many of the villages and the supply routes between the towns, was a key focus for the battalion. It therefore attempted to drive out the village cadres and Viet Cong through cordon and search operations, numerous successful ambushes, and by establishing a good local intelligence network – largely through close relations with the senior members of each village. Many of the villagers did not support the Viet Cong regime due to the heavy taxes they levied, the manner in which they restricted civilian travel to the various markets for trade, and because they conscripted those of military age. As the battalion did not have the manpower to patrol the areas in the north of the province in search of regular Viet Cong units, they chose to concentrate on the villages in an attempt to destroy the Viet Cong power base. This resulted in cordon and search operations of Duc My, Binh Ba, Ngai Giao, Phuoc Hoa, Xuyen Moc and on Long Sơn Island. These operations were largely successful and the techniques developed in their execution were to be accepted and used throughout the Australian Army.
  Another sign of the innovations used by the battalion was the raising, in October 1966, of the first specialist Reconnaissance Platoon to be used in Vietnam. 'Prior to the arrival of 5 RAR only 24,775 of the inhabitants of Phuoc Tuy Province were under South Vietnamese Government control in 24 hamlets. However, by April 1967, 98,408 villagers were under Government control in 105 hamlets. 5 RAR killed 70 Viet Cong... Many hundreds more Viet Cong were captured either in conventional operations or during cordon and search operations. However, the important statis
caption: Soldiers from 5 RAR disembarking a US Army helicopter during Operation Toledo in September 1966
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2017:08:24 08:44:17", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "96", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "364", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5394", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:08:24 08:40:02", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "636", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "431", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "640", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "449", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "228", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "97009ed1bee9e4a36e28c508413d6e06"}