Military history of Seymour and Puckapunyal - Vietnam and the second National Service scheme

The early 1960s brought significant change to the Seymour military facilities with the School of Infantry moving to Ingleburn in Sydney, the School of Tactics and Administration, which would later become the Army Command and Staff College, moving to Queenscliff and the remaining land being disposed of with the exception of the married quarter blocks in the old site 13 area along the Goulburn Valley Hwy.

Any remaining smaller units either moved interstate or relocated to Puckapunyal.

However, Mob Siding and the Tel-El-Kebir barracks in Seymour continued to operate throughout the decade but with reduced significance as the army presence in Seymour diminished.

Dysart Siding was also still in use but become less important as movement of troops and stores became less reliant on rail and more reliant on road and air movement.

Since its establishment in 1949, the First Armoured Regiment had been fairly secluded at Puckapunyal.

The excellent field training and gunnery ranges as well as a perception that the tanks were not transportable over long distances had precluded the regiment's attendance at interstate training exercises.

However, that did not mean that the training could not come to them at Puckapunyal.

In the early 1960s, 1st/15th Royal New South Wales lancers, a Citizen Military Force armoured unit based in Sydney, which was also equipped with Centurion tanks, regularly sent troops to Puckapunyal to train with the First Armoured Regiment and the Armoured Centre, or the School of Armour as it is now known.

In 1960, 150 men from B Squadron of the Lancer Regiment spent their annual camp participating in two weeks of intensive tactics, gunnery and wireless operation with the regular soldiers of the Armoured Regiment and the Armoured Centre.

This type of training was repeated again in 1962 with soldiers from all three squadrons from the Lancer Regiment qualifying on the tank's weapons and wireless equipment.

Many of the tank crews were national servicemen who had continued to serve in the Citizen Military Force after their national service commitment had been completed.

It was in 1964 that some variety was seen for the First Armoured Regiment with B Squadron being moved by rail, road and army landing ships to Tin Can Bay and later Shoalwater Bay in Queensland for battle group exercises.

This was the first time the tanks had been moved across two state borders using the standard gauge rail network and proved tanks were able to participate in interstate exercises.

The following year was significant for Puckapunyal with the raising of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment at Puckapunyal and the introduction of the second National Service scheme, which resulted in the Second Recruit Training Battalion also being raised at Puckapunyal.

The raising of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment and the Second Recruit Training Battalion was directly related to the Australian Army's commitment in Vietnam and the increase in troop numbers that the war required.

The commitment to Vietnam was not fully supported in the community and as early as September 1965, a mere three months after the National Service scheme was implemented, anti-Vietnam protests were planned for Puckapunyal.

In one instance, on September 12, 1965, 20 mothers from Melbourne travelled to Puckapunyal for the ‘passing out’ parade of the first National Service intake at the Second Recruit Training Battalion.

After stringing themselves out along the road, they raised several banners with slogans such as ‘save our sons’, ‘keep our sons out of Vietnam’ and ‘thou shalt not kill'.

The demonstration lasted from 10.30 am to 2.20 pm and only ceased after the military police threatened to call the civil police unless the mothers moved on.

The 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment would slowly build up to its first deployment to Vietnam in April 1967.

About one-third of the battalion would be comprised of national servicemen, many of whom had presumably trained at Second Recruit Training Battalion before being posted to the 7th Battalion.

The battalion departed Puckapunyal on April 2, 1967, via train from Dysart Siding.

The departure of the 7th Battalion from Dysart Siding would be significant as this lonely rail siding south of Seymour would have seen the departure of soldiers to the Pacific theatre in World War II, the Korean War and now the Vietnam War over a period of 35 years.

The 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment's shakedown operation in Vietnam was quite fittingly called Operation Puckapunyal and resulted in one of the most well-known photos from the war.

On its return from Vietnam, the battalion was based in Sydney, bringing to a close the era of the regular infantry battalions based at Puckapunyal.

The recruitment battalion march out or ‘passing out’ parades were a regular calendar event at Puckapunyal as every three months a new intake of national serviceman completed their training.

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These parades were often visited by senior dignitaries and in 1968 Governor-General Lord Casey, Minister of State for the army Phillip Lynch and numerous senior army officers attended the parades.

They would often plant a tree within the recruitment battalion lines as a mark of their visit and fix a brass plate to either a small concrete plinth or large rocks near the trees.

Sadly, the trees have mostly been removed, along with the brass plates, although the Army Knowledge Centre is in possession of six of the plates.

The recruitment battalion lines were the old World War II and national service lines from the 1940 and ‘50s, which were refurbished in the 1960s.

Many of the company buildings, the other ranks mess and storage buildings are still standing and are currently used as transit and overflow accommodation lines.

The parade ground used by many thousands of young Australians to mark the completion of their training is still in good condition and it is not hard to visualise the parades from the 1960s when walking around the area.

In June 1960, A Squadron 4th/19th Prince of Wales Light Horse was formed in Seymour as an armoured reconnaissance squadron equipped with the M113A1 Armoured Personnel Carrier.

The squadron relocated to Puckapunyal in 1962 and, in 1965, a troop of eight vehicles from the squadron deployed to Vietnam to support the infantry operations.

The troop was later renamed the First APC Troop in 1966.

The troop was very busy as it was the sole Australian armoured unit in Vietnam.

This operational tempo resulted in the remaining vehicles from the troop deploying to Vietnam in mid-1966, which brought the complement to 15 M113s.

While the First APC Troop was in Vietnam, the remainder of A Squadron 4/19 PWLH relocated to Holsworthy and the First APC Squadron was formed at Puckapunyal to provide reinforcement vehicles to the troop deployed in Vietnam.

In January 1967, the First APC Squadron was renamed A Squadron Third Cavalry Regiment and moved to Holsworthy in Sydney.

March 1968 saw the deployment of tanks to Vietnam.

This was the first time since the end of World War II that Australian tanks had served overseas.

C Squadron First Armoured Regiment was the first squadron selected to deploy to Vietnam. Before departing, the squadron was visited by future prime minister and Federal Army Minister Malcolm Fraser.

During the visit, Mr Fraser was asked if he would like to try his hand at driving the Centurion.

He agreed and was put through an abbreviated driver's course and issued with a licence.

His instructor reported that Mr Fraser was ‘aggressive and rather fierce at times’ in his handling of the tank.

There was a learning period for the armoured crewman and the infantry once C Squadron arrived in Vietnam.

The infantry was somewhat unfamiliar with tank operation due to the First Armoured Regiment being secluded in Puckapunyal for so long.

The Centurions continued to rotate through Vietnam for the next four years before the last squadron returned to Puckapunyal in September 1971.

Of the 52 Centurions deployed to Vietnam, 42 suffered battle damage and six of them were beyond repair.

The formal cessation of Australia's commitment to the war in Vietnam in January 1973 as well as the conclusion of the second National Service scheme the previous year resulted in Puckapunyal returning to a peacetime footing with a return to exercises rather than operations.

In concluding the military history of Seymour and Puckapunyal articles, I would like to thank Carolynne Burgess Blackwell from Burgess Signs in Seymour, Kath from the Seymour Historical Society, Tony Crook from the Proof and Experimental Establishment at Graytown for their kind assistance.

I would also like to acknowledge Major Chris Saultry from the Army Knowledge Centre for the initial development of the article series concept and editing of the articles.

The Australian War Memorial, Trove and the National Library of Australia, the Australian Construction Services Summary History of Puckapunyal and the Military History of the Seymour Region by Erik Wellington were the primary sources of information for the articles.

- Captain David Adams, Army Knowledge Centre