OK this has been bugging me for a while now .

Why did the enemy hang around at Binh Ba when it became clear that 5RAR was not going to permit there presence
?

Put another way the North Vietnamese regulars could have left village disguised as Civilians and come back another day to re infiltrate the villages . IMO the enemy differed from his standard play book and gave up his usual advantages .

Good Day Mate
Please excuse my memory as age does tend to change it quite a bit.
At the time of Binh Ba 6RAR were conducting an operation to the north and were being quite successful.
I remember our Int Officer telling us that a small group had been assigned by the North Vietnamese to Binh Ba in an effort to relieve the pressure on them from 6RAR by pulling Units back to deal with them.
5RAR had just finished an operation and had returned to Nui Dat for a rest.
One company was alwats assigned as Ready Reaction and at the time it was D Company.
Although on paper there was a full company in actual fact there were only about 70 men as a lot of the D Company personell were on NCO Courses or had returned to Australia on R & R.
The briefing that was given before the battle severely underestimated the number of enemy in the village.
We were told that the infantry units were really only there to support the Armoured Corps.
When the actual attack on Binh Ba took place the Australian were extremely small and outnumbered by the Vietnamese, in actual fact I don't think it was the Australians who were considered dangerous.
B Company 5 RAR was reacted after the battle had begun as a result of better intelligence of the situation.
At the celebrations in Canberra we were told it was a marvellous victory but I believe that had we known what we were getting into there would have been better preparation.
To understand how small aforce D Company was, my Platoon (12 Platoon) was commanded by Corporal John Kennedy who was killed 10 days later in Dat Do.

As you would know the association has just commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Binh Ba and a symposium about the battle was held at the AWM.
The AWM recorded the event and you can listen to it by clicking on the link in the centre column on the contents page.
In particular, the talk given by Brigadier Colin Khan who, as you would know, was the CO of 5RAR at that time. In his talk he gives his, and the District Chief, Major Nho, reasons as to why they fired on a Centurian tank and armoured recovery vehicle. I think it will more than answer your question. It's a big file (37Mb) so you'll need ASDL or Broadband and it is very interesting listening.
The direct link is here: http://www.awm.gov.au/media/talks/binhba2.mp3

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

ted Harrison

@ Everyone thanks for the replies I will check out the audio .

Well I have now had had the pleasure of listening to the audio . Any thoughts I put below are just my opinion I am not making any claims of cold hard facts nor do I wish to take away from what elements of 5RAR achieved .

I would regard it as fortunate that the lack of a common radio channel didn't contribute towards a bad friendly fire incident . This is something for future commanders to take note of . Nobody has been able to crack the nut of tunnel system used by the North Vietnamese despite the fact it is the sort of problem likely to be faced in future counter insurgency / guerilla(SP?) wars . In this instance I would Imagen that the enemy often used the extensive tunnel network to re infiltrate the town after Diggers had left . Although during the battle the tunnels didn't serve the enemy so well because of the sheer force against them , aside from leaving afterwards anyway .

Khan explanation concerning for the origin of the battle makes sense . The quality of enemy varied from poor trained village conscripts to well trained regulars . Although a bullet will kill regardless of who fires it . Its not mentioned in the audio or officially noted but the presence of Soviet advisor's could have spurred on the activity that 6RAR was dealing with while trying to influence the peace talks .

Binh Ba represents the problematic side of counter insurgency warfare as the real difficultly is to prevent the enemy from re infiltrating the area . I sure have learnt a lot about the tactical value of tanks.