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Balmoral
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Intoduce self Introduce Balmoral, Coogee, Coral became known as battle of Coral Instead patrolling Ambushing to Enemy came actively looking for them Will talk about Political background, lead-up to Balmoral, FSB Balmoral and lessons learnt Background The time is May 1968 and North Vietnam's strategic aim is win at the Paris peace talks what she had been unable to win militarily-ousting the United States and taking over South Vietnam. To strengthen her bargaining position she needed a victory capable of psychological exploitation on the world scene. Saigon was the obvious target and while military activity was directed to keeping pressure on all cities and base complexes, Saigon was the main centre of attention. Since the TET offensive three months earlier, major reinforcement and retraining of both VC and NVA units had been necessary. Many units had been withdrawn to Cambodia for this purpose. Other formations were reinforced by infiltration groups direct from North Vietnam. A total of eleven enemy main force regiments were committed in the attack on Saigon. At this stage eleven allied Brigades were deployed in or around Saigon. Most of these were in the Rocket belt 6000-11000 metres/out of Saigon, which was the optimum launch area for NVA rockets. On the 12 May the Australians deployed AO surfers North of Saigon. The 1 ATF commander's concept of the operation was for: - 3 RAR to land by helicopter on 12 may 1968 to secure FSB Coral for the fly in of 1 RAR and then move to establish blocking positions and patrol in the west of AO Coral. 12 Fd Regt, HQ 1ATF, and 1 RAR fly-in and establish FSB Coral on 12 May 1968. * Task Force Maintenance Area, heavy artillery and armour join on 13 May 1968. * 1 RAR block and patrol to the East on 13 May 1968 Slide 6 Their intentions were to blocking action against an enemy that had been beaten and were retreating from Saigon. Instead they were to meet a fresh strong enemy advancing toward Saigon.
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