Dedicated to
Signalman A. H. Young
104
Sig Sqn
KIA at FSPB CORAL,
SVN, 16th May 1968
(Never forgotten Cowboy)
Royal Australian Corps
of Signals
Battle of Coral Balmoral
Operation Toan Thang
(Final Victory)
The Battle of Coral Balmoral began on 12th May 1968 and lasted until 6th June 1968. It was the largest and most sustained engagement of the Vietnam War involving Australian troops and was the first Australian all arms brigade sized operation since WW2. 26 Australians were KIA and over 109 WIA. All members who were part of the 1st Australian Task Force (Forward) during the Battle were awarded the Unit Citation for Gallantry (UCG) on the 13th May 2018 (50th Anniversary of the battle).
Click Unit Citation for Gallantry Government Gazette 21 March 2019 (PDF) This also included members of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals from 104 Sig Sqn (Fwd) and detachments from 110 Sig Sqn (Force Signals), 547 Sig Tp (SIGINT) plus the 53rd Sig Bn (US Army).
Signalman
Alexander Young from 104 Sig Sqn was KIA
during the battle and three other 104 Sig Sqn members
WIA.
Two major reunions for all the veterans of the Battle of Coral Balmoral have been held in Canberra. The first in May 2008 (40th Anniversary) and the most recent in May 2018 (50th Anniversary). Battle Overview
In early May 1968, the
Australian Commander agreed to a request by General
Weyand (US Commander, II Field Force), for the
deployment of a forward Task Force of over 2000 troops from the Australian Nui Dat base into
War Zone D as part of a joint blocking force. The
situation was that enemy troops were withdrawing north
away from the recent unsuccessful Mini-Tet Offensive
against Saigon. The mission was to intercept and
disrupt these troops in an attempt to prevent them from
reorganizing in their staging areas. Consequently on
12th May 1968 the advance elements of the
Australian Task Force were deployed into the Area of
Operations (AO) called AO Surfers and Fire Support
Patrol Base Coral (FSPB Coral) was established. The
following day FSPB Coogee was established to provide
support for FSPB Coral. After two weeks FSPB Coogee
was abandoned and FSPB Balmoral established.
There were many ‘first’
in this battle. The most significant first for the
Battle of Coral Balmoral was that this was the first
time since WWII that Australian troops had operated
independently on the battlefield as a Fighting Brigade.
This proved to be most fortunate as they came up
against one of the toughest, aggressive and most
competent North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Divisions that was
very willing and prepared do whatever was needed to
defend their controlling presence in the area. It
turned out that these Australian FSPBs were unknowingly
established very close to the headquarters of the battle
hardened and well established 7 Division, NVA. Their Commander saw an
opportunity to immediately annihilate or at least to
restrict the mission of the new troops who had
encroached into ‘his’ area. He did
this by using two of his Regiments to separately assault
the Australians with four full-on major night attacks. The
Australians, however, in both FSPBs, each repelled two
Regimental sized attacks on their positions. This was
no mean feat given the tactics, skills, aggressive
competence and strength of the enemy.
On three occasions during these
attacks on FSPB Coral, the NVA forces over-ran elements
of the Australian FSPB. The entire Mortar Platoon base
plate position of 1RAR, one Gun position of 102 Field
Battery and the forward pits of 3 Platoon, A Coy, 1RAR
were over-run by ‘human wave’ enemy assaults, requiring
determined and successful counter attacks. In addition to the 4 major
attacks during the 26 day battle period from 12th
May to 6th June 1968, there were 57 other
Section, Platoon or Company size contacts and attacks
conducted by the Australian troops which simply and
dramatically highlights the intensity. The Australian casualties in
this battle were the highest of any battle in the
Vietnam War with 26 killed in action (KIA) and 109
wounded in action (WIA). The enemy suffered 276
KIA by body count (with many more suspected battle
evacuations). If the Australian troops had not fought so skilfully and heroically, the enemy may well have completely over-run one or both of these bases. If this had occurred it would have created the potential to have an immediate adverse political and social impact on Australia’s resolve to continue the war.
For addtional information on units
and veteran interviews, see the interactive documentary
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