Baria begins to recover DPR/TV/774

Twenty-five members of the 1st Australian Civil Affairs Unit and a section of infantry from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, on Wednesday were the first troops from the Australian Task Force based at Nui Dat, Vietnam, to enter Baria, the capital of Phuoc Tuy Province, since it was recaptured from the Viet Cong two days earlier. As the Australian troops entered the city, evidence of the Viet Cong offensive was apparent. Sporadic fire in the north-west section of the city still continued as Vietnamese troops cleared the last pockets of Viet Cong resistance. One of the worst hit Government buildings was the Baria hospital which was taken by the Viet Cong, and most of the equipment in it broken or destroyed before they were forced out. Some of the villagers had been wounded and one of the first tasks of the Civil Aid team was their evacuation to hospital at Vung Tau. Three of the more seriously wounded civilians were loaded gently onto a truck which took them to the nearest helipad for transfer to hospital by helicopter...the fastest means possible. At the Baria High School, refugees had poured into the classrooms. Many of the people at the High School were not refugees but people who lived on the outskirts of the city and had sought the better protection which could be given in the centre of the city. Other troops were busily engaged preparing rations for distribution by the local Vietnamese Refugees Relief Organisation. Sanitation was the worst aspect of some 2000 people living at the High School and engineers with the Civil Affairs Unit had the task of preparing toilets and providing water for the people of Baria, who for the first time in three days had started to recover from the Viet Cong Tet (Chinese New Year) offensive. (Also identified: Corporal Trevor Brown of Holsworthy, NSW; Captain Ian Menzies of Mt Martha, Vic; Lance Corporal Peter Spicer of Kapooka, NSW; Corporal Bill Gooch of Rydalmere, Sydney, NSW; Cpl Garry Doodson of Wollongong, NSW; Trooper Dave Martin of Grovely, Brisbane, Qld.