With Courage and Honour

The signal read, "Single Gun Ready" – the date was 15 July 1965 - and with that, New Zealand’s seven-year artillery contribution to the Vietnam War began.

161 Battery, equipped with four Italian-made 105mm pack howitzers, went into intensive training at Papakura military camp in mid-1965. Their syllabus included familiarisation lectures from a South Vietnamese Army captain flown in from Saigon.

A cautious New Zealand government ordered a cloak of secrecy over the Battery’s mobilisation in what proved a successful effort to stop North Vietnam and the Viet Cong learning of the departure date and laying on a welcome.

Nine RNZAF Hercules flights airlifted the Battery’s 110 Gunners, five howitzers, including a spare, and 14 Landrovers from Whenuapai air base to South Vietnam.

It was the first time in New Zealand’s history that a complete military unit with all its weapons and supplies had been flown from its home base to a theatre of war.

Gun maintenance Bien Hoa base 1965. Evan Black Collection

161 Battery was to be domiciled at the huge American air base at Bien Hoa 15 miles north of Saigon which already housed the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment and the US 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Bien Hoa’s strategic value was not only in providing a buffer against military incursions into Saigon but as a launching pad for air, artillery and infantry operations against a Viet Cong stronghold known as War Zone D.

Nine days before the first detachment of 161 Battery flew in on 15 July, Staff Sergeant Graeme Black led a small advance party from New Zealand to set up the base camp assisted by a group of New Zealand Army Engineers.

In 1964, the Sappers were sent to Vietnam in an unsung and little publicised non-combat role to help rebuild essential services in war torn areas and earned the admiration of the Vietnamese for their friendly ‘can do’ attitude.

At Bien Hoa, the gunners were armed with FN self-loading rifles and officers with World War II 9mm Owen sub-machine guns – and that was it.

The 173rd Airborne was surprised to find the New Zealand advance party had arrived with no heavy support weapons for perimeter defence and gifted three new belt-fed M60 machine guns.

"These Americans were simply wonderful, keen to learn all about us, and help us in any way possible," says Black.

Lance Corporal John Taylor recalls that because the advance party was sent to Vietnam before the government officially announced its decision to commit combat troops, its members were described as "government employees" and their ID photos were taken in civilian clothes.

Staff Sergeant Black and his men had the base almost completed when Battery Commander, Major Don Kenning and the first detachment arrived.

Black, who was the Battery Sergeant Major, says he had "a fair bit of power over the advance party" so when, in the dark of the evening of 15 July, he heard the first howitzer being prepared for action he demanded to know who gave authority.

Back through the gloom came the distinctive voice of Don Kenning: "I did" – and oops, the boss had really arrived and I’m not in charge any more!

The 1000th shell about to be delivered to the enemy. Photo via Chris Turner

That led, just before midnight, to the Royal Regiment formally signalling the Republic of Vietnam: "Single gun ready." It was the historic start to New Zealand’s long combat involvement in Vietnam.

For the first month, 161 Battery dug in, trained, and provided fire support for Australian and American infantry patrols pushing into War Zone D on search-and-destroy missions.

Corporal Taylor recalls sporadic mortar and sniper attacks by Viet Cong at night before the base was built up into too formidable a target and the first 161 Battery casualty on 31 July was Bombardier Taffy Williams, hit by an enemy sniper.

As time went on Battery officers and men accompanied allied patrols as forward observation teams to call in supporting fire by transmitting the co-ordinates of known or suspected enemy positions and calling the fall of shot.

The worst single tragedy for 161 Battery came on 14 September 1965 when, for the first time, a Battery contingent, including three howitzers, joined Australian, American, and Vietnamese troops in a major search-and-destroy convoy into the Viet Cong’s hard core Iron Triangle.

On a narrow and rutted dirt road near the village of Ben Cat, the Viet Cong electrically detonated a powerful landmine, which literally blasted apart a Battery Landrover killing Sergeant Al Don and Bombardier Jock White instantly.

Two passengers in the rear, seated on 105mm shells protected by sandbags, were concussed but blown clear. One of them, Chris Turver, the New Zealand Press Association’s first war correspondent attached to 161 Battery, was slightly wounded and the other, Bombardier Ron Edwards was unhurt.

Another four gunners were to be hit by grenades or shrapnel in close encounters in the wake of the Ben Cat tragedy and two more were wounded in October, one by a demolition charge and the other in a booby trap.

The Battery developed increased mobility when helicopter trials with the Americans showed that dismantled howitzers could be flown to operational areas and the Australians found howitzers could be packed into armoured personnel carriers.

In November, Captain Bruce Murphy won the Battery’s first Military Cross for gallantry under fire as a forward observer with the Australians. He saved two Aussie platoons at Hill 82 deep in War Zone D by calling in close artillery fire to stop them being overcome by the Viet Cong’s 271st Regiment.

During the Battery’s first year in Vietnam two gunners were killed and eight wounded and the supporting V-Force lost one killed with three wounded.

In late May 1966 the first reinforcements began to arrive at Bien Hoa, just in time to join in the packing up as the Battery prepared to deploy to a new Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy province, the Battery’s base for the next six years.
Lieutenant Barry Dreyer arrived with the new Battery Captain, Major Red Potts, and former New Zealand Army pilot Lieutenant Peter Williams, together with 24 gunners, two Landrovers and a new howitzer.

They found the sprawling Bien Hoa air base overpowering, with about ten times the number of combat aircraft than the total combined military air power of Australia and New Zealand.
Rural Nui Dat was infinitely quieter than Bien Hoa but more dangerous.

In summary, 161 Battery served for another six years in an ANZAC environment as a sub-unit of an Australian Field Regiment within 1st Australian Task Force - a brigade sized formation.
The operational area was south-east of Saigon on the northern side of the Mekong Delta.

The Battery fought in all the major engagements of the Australian Task Force, the most significant being the Battle of Long Tan in August 1966 when Kiwi gunners formed the forward observer party with D Company 6 RAR during a half day infantry and artillery battle which at that stage was the biggest single ground engagement of the war. The guns of 161 Battery were the direct support artillery during the battle.

161’s last commander, Major John Masters, recalled that the last 105mm round was fired on 1 May 1971. “In these days, when so little is taken at its face value and indeed any singular piece of history is cynically challenged, provenance of any item is suspiciously treated.”

"Charge 8". Photo via Chris Turner

Masters says he cannot guarantee target record reports implying that the last shell was number 231,769 fired in theatre.
"We did fire nearly a quarter of a million shells and some 665 fire support missions in direct support of Australian and New Zealand infantry in close contact with the enemy,” he says.

“It’s important to those involved that the last cartridge case fired by 161 Battery in South Vietnam is placed with the Regiment for safe keeping with my personal pledge as to its authenticity."
Over the whole seven years of New Zealand’s combat involvement in Vietnam, including 161 Battery, V and W Companies of the 1st Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, and the New Zealand Special Air Service, 37 were killed and 187 wounded.

On its withdrawal from the theatre in May 1971, 161 Battery was awarded the South Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation of the Cross of Gallantry with Palm Leaf in recognition of its service.

The last word goes to retired Lieutenant Colonel Dreyer, organiser of a reunion to be held at Palmerston North in July 2005 marking the 40th anniversary of that "Single Gun Ready" signal.

"The reunion is an opportunity to remember how soldiers from a very small country handled themselves with courage and honour in the most difficult political and military circumstances we could imagine over a seven-year period of active service."

Compiled by Chris Turver who spent three months as the first NZPA war correspondent attached to 161 Battery in Vietnam before being switched to 1 RNZIR in Borneo to report on "confrontation" with Indonesia.