Australian engineers build jungle road DPR/TV/402

In South Vietnam Australian Engineers of the 21st Support Troop tear into jungle with heavy earth moving equipment to build a road up the side of a mountain to facilitate supply of Australian infantrymen engaged in a search and destroy operation. The engineers, part of the Australian Task Force build-up of 4500 men in South Vietnma, are supporting elements of the Fifth and Sixth Battalions, The Royal Australian Regiment, in their first campaign against the Communist Viet Cong. The road, about one and a half miles long, is needed to supply men of the Fifth Battalion occuppying the top of this feature. The Engineers are using bulldozers, graders and shovels to rip the road from the virgin jungle. Working under constant threat of sniper attack from the Viet Cong, the engineers keep a close armed guard on their project as the road pushes ahead and have signallers in touch with nearby infantry elements at all times in case assistance is required to defend the road. Because of torrential daily downpours of the moonsoonal season now reaching its peak in Vietnam, the engineers must provide culverts over creek crossings to prevent floodwaters from washing the road away.