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THE 33RD REGIMENT
North
Vietnamese Army
Chamberlain, Ernest: The 33rd
Regiment – North Vietnamese Army: Their
Story (and the Battle of Binh Ba).
Vietnam Veteran and linguist Ernie
Chamberlain has recently written and
privately-published another book that would
certainly interest all who served in Phuoc
Tuy province during the Vietnam War. This
33rd Regiment history complements the
histories of its “brother” Viet Cong
battalions – D440 and D445, published in
2011 and 2013. The 33rd Regiment was the
only North Vietnamese unit faced by the Task
Force in Phuoc Tuy ― and the toughest.
In early June 1969, the 33rd Regiment occupied the village of Binh Ba
north of the Australian Task Force’s base at
Nui Dat. In the ensuing battle about 80 NVA
soldiers were killed. What is now known
however is that the 33rd Regiment’s 2nd
Battalion was tasked to ambush the Task
Force relief force led by (then) Major
Murray Blake. However, that ambush was not
“sprung”. If initiated, the engagement might
have even eclipsed Long Tan in our Vietnam
“iconography”. In order to provide context –
and to comment upon the Vietnamese accounts,
the book is comprehensively referenced by
the author. The comments cite a large number
of captured NVA/VC documents – some not
previously translated or available to
researchers. The author has also included 22
appendices ― as well as photographs and
maps.
While the book is not available commercially, the text of the book has
been placed on the Internet as
“free-to-read” ―
http://www.scribd.com/doc/217396459/The-33rd-Regiment-North-Vietnamese-Army-Their-Story-and-the-Battle-of-Binh-Ba.
Interested readers will probably find it more convenient to access the
book ― ie for free, on the Internet.
Author's comment:
To save 5RAR readers wading through 33rd
Regiment’s “early years”
(eg the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in
late 1965 – “immortalized” in Hollywood’s
“We were soldier once ...” starring Mel
Gibson as LTCOL Harold Moore),
your editors might wish
to note that the Battle of Binh Ba is
covered in pages 47-84.
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