The Dark Room - A Collection of Photos of the War

"BIEN HOA PROVINCE, SOUTH VIETNAM. 1968-05. GUNNERS FROM THE 12TH FIELD REGIMENT, ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY (RAA), WATCH AND WAIT AT FIRE SUPPORT BASE (FSB) CORAL, WHERE TWO LARGE VIET CONG ASSAULTS WERE DRIVEN BACK. THE VIET CONG TWICE TRIED TO OVER RUN THE GUN POSITIONS, ON 1968-05-13 AND 1968-05-16. ELEMENTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN TASK FORCE KILLED ABOUT 130 ENEMY IN THE CLASHES AND IN SUBSEQUENT SMALLER CONTACTS IN THE NINE DAYS FOLLOWING THE FIRST ATTACK ON 1968-05-13. NOTE THE SANDBAGS AROUND THE GUN PIT AREA."

Photographer: William Alexander

Source: Australian War Memorial Website
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ERR%3A68%3A0515%3AVN

Oh my I would not want to be forwards like that machinegunner when that canon fires flat trajectory!

I think that configuration was specifically for the photographer's benefit. The barrel doesn't look elevated enough to fire over the front of the emplacement either.

T-54 tank crew, Saigon, 30 April 1975.

Photographer: Françoise de Mulder

Source: CORBIS

SP4 Norm W. Singleton, military policeman, 89th MP Gp, checks a Vietnamese hospital employee's identification papers at the front entrance to the Third Field Hospital, located just outside the main entrance to Tan Son Nhut Air Base. SP4 Singleton, recovering from shrapnel wounds, along with other patients, volunteered for guard duty at the hospital's front and emergency entrances to increase the hospital's security during the enemy's Tet offensive in the Saigon-Cholon area. 2 Feb 1968.


Photographer: SP4 Richard S. Durrance
Source: www.fold3.com/image/270440901/

A U.S. Air Force Fairchild AC-119G Shadow (s/n 53-3205) from the 17th Special Operations Squadron from Nha Trang Air Base in flight over Tan Son Nhut Air Base, 29 October 1969. This aircraft was sold to South Vietnam in August 1971.

Photographer: Unknown

Source: U.S. Air Force photo 342-C-KE-37296, National Museum of the US Air Force

USS Boxer (CV-21/LPH-4) loaded with helicopters of the 1st Cavalry Division, August 1965, Mayport Naval Station, Florida.

Photographer: Unknown

Source: US Army
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Airmobility/p69.jpg

Photographer: Unknown

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/4263845417/

Nice photos. I noticed that the AC 119 was "sold" to South Vietnam. I always thought we just gave them all this stuff. Learn something every day.

Tom

Garryowen wrote:Nice photos. I noticed that the AC 119 was "sold" to South Vietnam. I always thought we just gave them all this stuff. Learn something every day.

Tom,

"Sold" is a very broad term. We here in Australia quite regularly "sell" our "End of Service" (EOS) items, like jets and helicopters, including all the spares we have for them, to "developing" nations to aid them in their defense. The price they pay is only a very small percentage of what the kit is worth but the Aussie government gets lots of gratis for helping developing nations, all politics.

We once bought F111's as they were the only aircraft at the time that could fly from Australia and bomb Indonesia and then fly on to a base we have in Malaysia at a place called Butterworth which to this day is a RAAF base and there is always an infantry battalion based there "for training".

The last lot of air force kit we sold off as it was EOS we sold to Indonesia, go figure!

On the outskirts of Vung Tau.

Photographer: Te Hira Wati Heremaia

Source: Auckland Museum

Full collection of Te Hira Wati Heremaia's Vietnam War photos:
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/heremaia?utm_source=social&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_campaign=onlinecenotaph&fbclid=IwAR1xx-Dvxdy2QCyUPDRaI9UiQkhfWf1jVX51bRqnr1Ea5NT4or8QGB387Bw

Nothing says "Please don't shoot at me" quite like painting your jeep light blue.

Great photo OTB!

OTB wrote:Nothing says "Please don't shoot at me" quite like painting your jeep light blue.

Maybe the UN got their paint scheme from THAT guy.

It even looks like he painted the military tarp blue too.

Todd's right. That is a great photo. I love it. The photographer has other excellent photos at the site you linked to, OTB.

You can see the back end of a Lambretta. I just ordered one of those from the folks in Germany who do the 3D printing with a lot of Vietnam items.

Tom

Australian MPs and Landrover near the Cholon Post Office, mini-Tet Offensive, 10 May 1968.

Photographer: Christian Simonpietri

Source: Sygma/Corbis

Great find OTB!

Funny how you can post one pic, and I spend a haf hour looking at various types of detail and making notes. It is a great find.

Thanks guys - the very small Australian MP contingent in Saigon were billeted in Cholon at the St George Hotel, so if you want a really exotic unit for your next Tet Offensive game...

View of the newly-built US Embassy in Saigon, September 1967. This is the corner where the VC Sappers blew a hole in the wall during the Tet Offensive.

Photographer: Bill Mullin

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/8455589109/

Another view, 1968:

View of the Saigon River from the Caravelle rooftop bar.

"Ïn the early evening [...], we'd stand on the roof of the Caravelle Hotel having drinks and watch the airstrikes across the river, so close that a good telephoto lens would pick up the markings on the planes. There were dozens of us up there, like aristocrats viewing Borodino from the heights, at least as detached about it as that even though many of us had been caught under those things from time to time."
Michael Herr - Dispatches

Photographer: C. E. Hablutzel

Source: Saigonner - https://saigoneer.com/vietnam-heritage/26424-from-saigon-to-đà-lạt-a-tourist-s-journey-through-vietnam-in-1963?fbclid=IwAR3nHOM8YnfWzh5Aw-tj-hviBls63dijgFZQQOOZ1G_k-eV79GHJXsu9ZRQ

ROK M113s, Sui Kai Valley, Qui Nhon, July 1968.

Photographer: Unknown

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zippo132/14586047335

Provincial Action Team unit raised by Lt David Brockett, AATTV, on parade, Quang Nam Province, 1965.

Photographer: Probably David Brockett

Source: The Team: Australian Army Advisers in Vietnam by Ian McNeill

SSgt Barry Sadler in Vietnam.

Source: FB
Photographer: Unknown