RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA L I A I SON L ETTER – 2024 – 2025 E D I T I ON C ANNON BALL S UP PLEMENT 135 many Gunners) when Aviation formed as a Corps in Jul 1968). A last word on Military Cemeteries, it was a long-standing practice prior to the Vietnam War not to return bodies to Australia but to bury the dead then where they fell in Commonwealth War Graves in the actual field of conflict. In Vietnam we “had a bit each way” with the dead being sent to Malaysia for interment in the Military Cemetery at Camp Terendak. In early 1966 this was no longer politically acceptable and sometime after that all bodies were RTA. Despite this change in policy, burials at Terendak continued until Dec 1969. Of the remains of 36 soldiers interred at Terendak and only 3 remain there today. AATTV The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) served from the beginning to the end of the conflict. They had a manning of over 1100 staff during this time in the conflict and many of them were Gunners. The “history “mentions two of these in Captain Mike Thompson who was the first Gunner deployed in Aug 1962 and Captain Noel de la Hunty MC who was an Advisor from Feb 64. Among many distinguished Gunners who served on the AATTV, probably one of the larger-than-life figures was WO1 Don Donkin MBE. I was a very young officer in 1 Fd Regt at Holsworthy in late 1963 and Noel de la Hunty was as flamboyant as a BC HQ Bty as you would wish to have. One day he announced that he was off to SVN with the AATTV. Two questions; where is Vietnam and what is the Training Team. A year or so later, all of our questions were answered. Among many distinguished Gunners who served on the AATTV, probably one of the larger-than- life figures was WO1 Don Donkin MBE. Don’s career was a kaleidoscope of the History of the Australian Army after WW2. It was somehow inevitable that he would turn up in Khe Sanh with AATTV in 1964. His eulogy on the RAAHC Website is a good read. There is a comprehensive listing of all of the Gunners who served in AATTV in “The Men who Persevered” by Bruce Davies and Gary McKay. Honours and Awards The major valour awards are well covered including 9 MID where elements of bravery were involved. This topic is by its nature often contentious so I will not make further comment on the wider implications involved. Lessons Learnt. Artillery Support. The big lesson came early in the form of the necessity of the Artillery to be joined at the hip with the supported Arm. To be fair, the prevailing mood at the time was that the Infantry (in their oft voiced estimation); could do it all and all they needed was their Mortar Platoon. On the other hand, the prevailing logic in the Gunner world (that was very prevalent in 1 Fd Regt at the time) was that the Infantry were uncouth savages best avoided wherever possible. I suspect this was born out of the fact that the last time the RAA had to operate closely with the Supported Arm was in the Western Desert in 1942 (brief Divisional campaigns at the end of WW2 at Tarakan and Balikpapan excepted). The situation was not assisted with the Australian Armies ill-considered experiment with the Pentropic Division from 1960-1964 which had two large Infantry Battalion groups in Australia, which I suggest added to the Infantries’ view that they could do it all and anyone else around them was a distraction. The Battalion in Malaya / Malaysia was organized on traditional lines and about half the size of the two battalions back in Australia. Similarly, the RAA Regiments in Australia had 8-gun batteries while the Battery deployed to Malaya / Malaysia was a 6-gun battery. A lot of complexity on rotation of all of these units during the various Malaysian conflicts from the mid 50’s to mid- 1960’s. We had one Regiment (1 Fd Regt) equipped with the M2A2 and the other (4 Fd Regt)