Pte. Shoebridge and L/Cpl Bryan supporting Pte Riik after a booby trap explosion had wounded several members of C Company on Nui Thi Vai.
Clearing a Mountain October '66
This image has often been used by the Australian media and it also featured in the ABC's coverage of the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.
But what were the circumstances surrounding this image?
This incident occurred during the clearance of the Nui Thi Vai mountain used by the VC as an observation post.
The battalion's Intelligence Officer Capt. Robert O'Neill in his book, "Vietnam Task" described the event thus:
"Late on the morning of October 8th the peaceful atmosphere of the tree covered hilltop was shattered by the rattle of firing followed by the reverberations of explosions. C Company had swung around to the north-west crossing the summit of 'Julie' the evening before and were now searching the southern slope of Nui Thi Vai. The forward platoon
had found a track which it was climbing when it encountered two Viet Cong trail watchers. The platoon was fired upon and the men leaped off the track to take cover. However, the Viet Cong had booby trapped the likely areas of cover and several of our soldiers were wounded by explosions as two of the traps were sprung. The Viet Cong made their escape while our men were attending to their own wounded. Mortar fire from the helicopter pad on Julie and artillery fire from Route 15 was brought down swiftly onto the likely Viet Cong withdrawal routes while C Company prepared a landing zone for the Dust Off aircraft."
Ref: O'Neill, Robert. J., (2022) Vietnam Task,, 3rd. Ed. ANU Press, Australian Capital Territory. p/125.