Cordon and search of Ap Bac DPR/TV/1284

Australian troops recently carried out a day-long cordon and search at Ap Tay, a hamlet of Hoa Long, about 1 mile south of the Task Force base. Acting on intelligence reports, Delta Company, 8RAR, the battalion's assault pioneer platoon, and engineers from the 1st Field Squadron, surrounded a section of the hamlet in the early morning. While the infantry guarded the perimeter, the engineer teams moved in and began a painstaking search for tunnels, caches of weapons, supplies and documents, or possible VC suspects. Intelligence had indicated that a Viet Cong VIP might be visiting the hamlet. But the Australians, with the Vietnamese National Police, made a different discovery. Eight people were questioned for having unreasonable large amounts of money in their possession, for such a poor hamlet. They had 397,900 piastres, which is about 3,300 dollars Australian. They were questioned by National Police. The rest of the search proved mostly fruitless. However, a school teacher was found to be concealing a quantity of medical supplies in a house. Also identified: Corporal Gordon Temby, 19, of Hamilton, Vic; Private (Pte) Robin Jagger, 22, of Victor Harbor, SA; Pte Dennis Moss, 21, of Kilsyth, Vic; Pte Ray Armstrong, 23, of Seven Hills, NSW.