Anzacs capture Viet Cong rice DPR/TV/933

In a 10-hour raid on a Viet Cong supply base this week Australian and New Zealand troops captured nearly 30 tons of rice - the largest rice cache ever found by the 1st Australian Task Force. They also captured a ton of salt, jungle boots, sandals, socks, bolts of green plastic sheeting and white calico and surgical alcohol. Men of the New Zealand V Company also shot and killed a black uniformed Viet Cong squad commander as they moved towards the supply base. He was armed with an AK 47 rifle. The operation - code-named Stirrup Cup - was mounted by A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment; V Company, and engineers from 1st Field Squadron. The rice, salt and equipment were hidden in small caches dotted around the thick secondary jungle east of Thai Thien village, in the north west of the Australian area of responsibility. The Australians and New Zealanders found eight caches, covered with plastic sheeting and raised off the ground on log platforms. The rice was polished, bagged in 100 lb sacks, and some caches contained up to 150 sacks. Thirty tons of rice is considered enough to feed 1,100 Viet Cong for a month. More than half the rice was recovered by the armoured personnel carriers from A Squadron, and was taken back to Route 15 where it was re-loaded onto waiting Army of Vietnam trucks for use by ARVN troops and their families. Some rice will also be distributed to orphanages and hospitals in Phuoc Tuy province. But much of the rice could not be recovered due to the thick scrub and had to be destroyed by engineers from 1st Field Squadron. To destroy the rice the engineers cut the sacks and scattered the rice on the ground. Larger piles of rice were scattered with plastic explosive. Daily monsoon rains will rot the rice in a few days. (Also identified: Corporal Ken Ford of Maclean, NSW; Sapper Bruce Oakmay of Wagga, NSW; Sapper Lloyd Chambers of Mudgee, NSW; Sapper William Adams, Preston, Melbourne, Vic; Sapper Phillip Baxter of Belmore, NSW; OC W Company 4 RAR/NZ (ANZAC) Major John Hall of Auckland, NZ.).