Australian forces used counter-insurgency tactics, prioritising persistent patrolling and ambushes within jungle and rural areas. While risk levels varied across units, ground troops and aircrews frequently encountered hazardous close combat. Landmines and booby traps caused deaths and injuries, as well as significant psychological trauma.
Australians serving in the former Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) could be involved in several types of combat.
Some engagements carried relatively little risk for those involved, such as naval vessels providing gunfire support for land forces. Australian bomber crews ran slightly higher risks, but for the most part their war was also fought at a distance from their targets.
Infantry, members of the armoured, artillery and engineer corps, along with helicopter crews and forward air controllers, were among those who were frequently in danger. Sometimes, they engaged in regular, close combat. For the most part, these Australian troops experienced combat in rural or jungle terrain against experienced, skilled opponents.
While it is commonly held that United States forces sought to draw the enemy into battle and defeat them with overwhelming firepower, Australian forces took a different approach.
Australian counter-insurgency tactics demanded constant patrolling, the laying of ambushes and pursuit of the enemy. Army units would spend long periods patrolling, painstakingly seeking signs of the enemy. Following enemy contact, combat was often at close range and of relatively short duration. But there were times when Australians were involved in longer battles, such as those at Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral in 1968.
Air force and naval helicopter crews flew troops into and out of combat, evacuated the wounded and provided gunfire support to ground troops. They ran considerable risks in doing so and were often exposed to intense enemy fire during their operations.
For Australians, combat in Vietnam meant more than exposure to mortar and small arms fire. Even where there was no contact with the enemy, men could be wounded or killed by concealed landmines and booby traps. This type of warfare carried a heavy psychological burden. Danger was ever-present, and many of those who suffered no physical injury were nonetheless traumatised by the experience.
Troops of 1RAR move through paddy fields as American helicopters fly overhead after landing them during a search and destroy operation, Bien Hoa, January 1966. 1 RAR made up entirely of regular soldiers, was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade at Bien Hoa. [AWM SHA/66/0007/VN]