Aussie SASR had defeated the VC by the winter of 1967

[alexs]

"The ability of the SAS to remain concealed so close to the enemy that they could litterally touch them and the news that the enemy would receive that small VC forces would suffer swift violent death in their rear areas from and opponent that they almost never saw caused the enemy to fear and give the SAS the name of 'phantoms of the jungle'

The value of the SAS was appreciated by the Australian higher command. Major General Tim Vincent Commander Australian Force Vietnam had this to say.

" Please do not think that we measure overall success by body count kills- separation of main forces from the population is important, perhaps of paramount importance- erosion of the infrastructure is an essential element of success... But what is clear is that infantry on their own in search and destroy operations against a dispersed enemy, kill at about 3 to 1, The fleeting enemy and out rifle are too evenly matched. This was one of the reasons for asking for medium tanks which can accompany the infantry most places with their canister guns. Dispersed or dispersing VC can nearly always elude our foot infantry who have insufficient immediate contact firepower while on the ground mobility of our infantry is no better and usually inferior to that of the VC... On the other hand small infantry parties operating where the enemy has freedom of unobserved movement can reap a comparative harvest. Our SAS now have 81 kills to their credit with one Aust DOW and one Aust WIA. If for every 100 combat infantry slice the allies could kill 80 enemy a year as our SAS do, then there would be no worthwhile enemy alive after a year. We would like to have more SAS type ambush patrols, but we do not have the Iroquois and gun ships to do it."

And by the way,la legion etrangere defeated the rebels in Algerie,too.

[hist2004]

Operations - Vietnam
March 1966 - October 1972
The Australian SAS Regiment " The Jungle Ghosts " arrived in South Vietnam on the 15th June 1966. Three fighting Squadrons served in rotation in the Phouc Tuy Province 70 kilometers south east of Saigon. On the 26 June 3 Squadron commenced operations from its base at Nui Dat. Their role was intelligence gathering and recon. Specifically, they were to find the whereabouts, movements and habits of the two main force enemy units in Phuoc Tuy province. Members of the Squadrons had already been in Vietnam since 1962 as advisers. The Squadrons performance won great praise from their American allies as they carried out deep reconnaissance and ambush patrols. In Vietnam the Australian SAS developed new tactics for Helicopter insertion and extraction. The SAS patrols had such an impact on the VC that one report stated that the VC had placed a bounty of $US5,000 dead or alive on the head of each 'Ma Rung' - Phantoms of the Jungle. January 1967 a Australian SAS patrol became engaged in fire fight with a large enemy group and one SAS patrol member was wounded. The patrol was extracted under fire. The injured soldier was returned to Australia for treatment, but due to complications he died. He was the first SAS and only Australian SAS to die from enemy action.

1 Squadron, SAS departed Vietnam on the 16th of February 1968. They were replaced by 2 Squadron. During their tour 1 Squadron mounted 246 patrols, killed 83 VC and sighted 405 enemy. Their own casualties were one died of wounds (DOW) and one wounded (WIA). On the 21st of February 1969, 3 Squadron SAS arrived to replace 2 Squadron SAS who had completed their first tour. During their tour the 2 Squadron accounted for 151 VC with a further 22 possibles. 3 Squadron SAS completed their on the 18th of January. They were replaced by 2 Squadron SAS. During their tour 3 Squadron had mounted 230 operations with 78 contacts resulting in 144 enemy KIA plus 32 possibles. The Squadrons withdrew from South Vietnam in 1972. Many of the men who had served in Vietnam went on to become instructors at the SAS Jungle warfare school in Malaya.
In 1966 the SAS was first deployed in Vietnam, by then the SAS had been expanded from two squadrons to three. As well as a Base Squadron and H.Q. In late 1966 a Signals (chooks) Squadron was to be raised Although as in all theatres of operation the SAS was never to be deployed as a Regiment. The Regiment structure being there to provide the necessary infrastructure to enable Squadron of SAS to be deployed wherever required.
Phouc Tuy Province 70n kilometres south east of Saigon was to be the area of operation for the next six years. Vietnam was to see the formation of a very close relationship with 9 Squadron R.A.A.F., this closeness was begun when in training with 5 Squadron R.A.A.F. based at Pearce Base in Western Australia and continued on as those members of 5 Squadron were rotated to 9 Squadron in Vietnam. The SAS were to rely heavily on the skills of the Squadron "chopper" pilots.
The SAS were fortunate to have in Brigadier Jackson someone who was to appreciate the SAS value. He was to later write
" in the Vietnam setting good intelligence was very scarce indeed. I was more than a little interested to know the whereabouts, movements and habits of the two main force VC regiments and one of the local battalions in the Province and nearby areas. I the thought the SAS quite invaluable in gaining this sort of intelligence" He of course was tempted to use the ability of the SAS in a more offensive role, but he understood the value of their 'recce' skills. The irony of course is that the offensive skills of the SAS became to used more and more as time passed
Vietnam was to developed the SAS tactics of Helicopter insertion and extraction, including insertion by rappelling and 'hot extraction' the gentle art of hooking onto a rope in two's and three's dangling below the 'chopper' and swinging here like a tea bag as the 'chopper' would rise and with them still hanging head for safer ground to lower them once more to the ground where they would unhook and clamber aboard.
Although the SAS had as it's primary role it's 'recce' work, ambushes and contacts were inevitable. The response of one patrol commander summing up his patrol after a sticky situation displays the laconic humour of an SAS soldier. Under the heading 'condition of the patrol' he wrote 'A little older'. With five man patrols the SAS was always in a tenuous position and a man wounded caused far greater problems to the SAS than to the infantry. For this reason the SAS were and are very security conscious and plan in great detail all plans including contingency plans.
Ambushing the enemy to obtain information from maps and document became a tool that the SAS used to great effect, however the patrols that gained intelligence without a shot being fired, was sometime to be considered the most successful patrol for if the enemy did not know that they had been visited by the SAS then they would have no for warning of any activity in there area, so would not take what for them would have been the necessary precautions against a follow up force. These type of close reconnaissance patrols were often the more dangerous because it would require the patrol to observe for extended periods and often were required to move very close to the enemy camps. The ability of the SAS to remain concealed so close to the enemy that they could litterally touch them and the news that the enemy would receive that small VC forces would suffer swift violent death in their rear areas from and opponent that they almost never saw caused the enemy to fear and give the SAS the name of 'phantoms of the jungle'
The value of the SAS was appreciated by the Australian higher command. Major General Tim Vincent Commander Australian Force Vietnam had this to say.
" Please do not think that we measure overall success by body count kills- separation of main forces from the population is important, perhaps of paramount importance- erosion of the infrastructure is an essential element of success... But what is clear is that infantry on their own in search and destroy operations against a dispersed enemy, kill at about 3 to 1, The fleeting enemy and out rifle are too evenly matched. This was one of the reasons for asking for medium tanks which can accompany the infantry most places with their canister guns. Dispersed or dispersing VC can nearly always elude our foot infantry who have insufficient immediate contact firepower while on the ground mobility of our infantry is no better and usually inferior to that of the VC... On the other hand small infantry parties operating where the enemy has freedom of unobserved movement can reap a comparative harvest. Our SAS now have 81 kills to their credit with one Aust DOW and one Aust WIA. If for every 100 combat infantry slice the allies could kill 80 enemy a year as our SAS do, then there would be no worthwhile enemy alive after a year. We would like to have more SAS type ambush patrols, but we do not have the Iroquois and gun ships to do it.'
This idea that normal infantry could achieve what the SAS were achieving was a sentiment shared by many in the SAS given that in the area of Phouc Tuy the SAS were not involved in long range deep penetration, However The British officers who were visiting attache reported to their superiors that the SAS were being far to modest about their successes.
In may 1966 to October 1966 a report prepared by the Australian Army Operational Research Group stated that.
That the infantry battalions, two until December 1967 then three had been involved with 74% of all Australian contacts with 24% by SAS and 2% by Armour. However when casualty were examined it was found that of the 410 enemy KIA the infantry had accounted for 188 the SAS 173 and the armour for 49. The infantry had suffered 9 KIA and 73 WIA the SAS had 19 WIA and the armour 2 KIA and 22 WIA .
Weapons of the SAS
The hardware carried by each patrol was totally in the discretionary province of the patrol commander and the indiviual patrol member and depending on a great degree on the type of mission being undertaken. Most soldiers preferred the 7.62 SLR on fully automatic for it's stopping power, however other soldiers were happy with the M16 Armalite. A popular version of the M16 was one with an M79 grenade launcher slung underneath. The earliest form being the XM147 or XM148. later saw the arrival of the M203 version. C.S. grenades along with M26 grenades were carried, on some missions a GPMG M60 machine gun was carried. On rare occasions Silenced Stirling sub machine guns of shotguns were also carried.
Communications of the patrol
Communications the life line of a patrol were handles by the AN PRC 64, a set of high frequency that was able to be used in Morse or Voice. Three URC 10 These sets had the beacon and voice facilities. The beacon facility was capable of being picked up by aircraft. Three sets were carried in a patrol. Two were on the frequency of support aircraft and one was set on the international frequency(Mayday). Some times the AN PRC 25 was carried. Signals via the AN PRC 64 using Morse code were sent in OTLP. (One time Letter Pad) This was a book with a different code on each page and as the name would suggest, the code for a transmission was only used once. This gave added security . In particular when map references were given using the POO ( Point Of Origin) map referencing system rather than grid references.
The SAS were a highly disciplined and well trained force and operated mostly in secret and in small numbers, and saw service in Borneo and Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the force became feared by the Viet Cong, who aptly named them the "Ma Rung", the 'phantoms of the jungle'.

580 SAS soldiers served in South Vietnam. There were 298 contacts with the enemy, inflicting 492 kills, 106 possible kills, 47 wounded, 10 possibly wounded and 11 taken as prisoners. 5366 enemy were sighted in 801 separate sightings. The Australia and New Zealand casualties were one(1) killed in action, one(1) died of wounds, one(1) killed in a grenade accident, two(2) accidentally shot on patrol, one(1) missing on a hot rope extraction and one(1) died of illness.
Patrol Composition
Patrol composition varied, dependant on the mission. A typical patrol consisted of five men, a lead scout, patrol commander(usually a sergeant or lieutenant), signaller, medic and a second-in-command (2i/c). The most common patrol in Vietnam was reconnaissance patrols consisting of four to five men. The next most common patrols were ambush patrols often consisting of 10 men but on some occasions as small as five or six men.
Patrol Dress
Each Member of a patrol was given a high degree of individuality in choosing his own equipment. Dress was either the US pattern camouflaged "cam suits", or the normal Australian olive-drab "greens". Many patrols adopted the habit of wearing scarves around their foreheads instead of the standard green bush hat and allowed their to grow longer than normal. A number of SAS owe their lives to the fact that the VC were often hesitant in identifying SAS in the gloom of the jungle. All parts of the SAS dress would be checked for rattle or shine. Personal camouflage cream was used to break up features and the shine on skin , this would be maintained throughout the patrol. Boots were either Australian issue, British jungle or American pattern. Mesh gloves were sometimes used to protect and camouflage hands.
During 3 Sqn's 9 months tour they mounted 134 patrols with 27 contacts, killed 46 enemy with a possible 4 killed, 13 wounded and 1 prisoner of war. The patrols sighted 198 enemy in 88 seperate sightings.The most common patrol consisted of four men only.

Regards & Thanks,
Hist2004

[FuturePara]

The Viet Cong was eliminated as a competent and sizeable fighting force in the after math of the Tet Offensive. They simply couldn't sustain the losses they took in places like Hue. From then on the war was carried on by the NVA.