“D Company has a few snags securing the landing zone because of VC interference and diverts to a nearby alternate, but the rifle companies soon move off into their Areas of Operation and start finding installations and skirmishing with the VC. There are signs that the area is indeed a staging area for VC Main Force units and supplies from North Vietnam. At Hill 82 which is only three-and-a- half clicks south-east of us and our guns at Fire Base 'Queen', and five east of the 173rd Fire Base' Ace', Healy's company bumps into a well dug-in enemy, probably a battalion, and starts probing to find the flanks of the VC position.

Very soon Healy finds that there are no flanks and that the VC are too strong for him. He takes many casualties and loses two men close to the entrenched VC machine-guns. Their bodies are not recovered and the VC are waiting, with their interlocked machine-gun lanes, for anyone foolish enough to try .Healy coolly and cautiously stops any foolhardiness by his platoons and disentangles his company. He is both outnumbered and up against a strongly defended position.

He has problems with the US artillery to his west because they are shooting towards him over Hill 82. Our guns to his north-west, though only six of them, can give him only slightly better support. We call in the F-l00 Super Sabres and AlE Skyraiders, loaded with napalm and bombs according to the Forward Air Controller in his Ll9 Bird-dog, but we have to send them away because John is too close to the VC positions. The Kiwi Artillery Forward Observer, Captain Bruce Murphy, is with Healy and they are making some very sensible decisions about air and artillery support. They cannot use it to help them much. A Company is experiencing one of those moments in combat when geography isolates you from your anticipated firepower or manoeuvre resources; and they have a tiger by the tail.

I go out by huey to see if we can help evacuate the casualties. There is not a usable landing zone anywhere near A Company. We will have to use helicopters with winches; we have no winch. As we hover closely over the trees above him, where there are openings for winches, we start receiving ground fire and have to move. US Army Dustoff helicopters have no winches either so I manage to get two ARVN H34 Choctaw helicopters to come to the scene, but as soon as they hear ground fire near them they clatter off. Then a US Air Force Rescue HH43 Huskie, an extraordinary beetle-eyed and unwieldy looking chopper with contra-rotating blades comes whining in. Without a thought for their own skins they settle down almost in the branches of the trees and, while A company puts suppressive fire onto the VC positions, winch out the casualties and whine off to Bien-Hoa. Magnificent!

Healy needs smoke grenades urgently. I go back to our Fire Support Base 'Queen', pick up a box of grenades and drop them to him through the trees. At about thirty metres above the ground we approach the clearing. I lean out of the door, hanging on to the seat struts, and see the wisps of smoke in the canopy above A Company approaching me. Suddenly there are Diggers underneath. I slide and push the heavy box out and away from the helicopter skids and surprise myself and Healy with my accuracy. The wooden box drops, hits a stump in the centre of the small clearing and splits open, distributing the grenades. My US Army pilot says that before he runs out of luck or fuel-he feels we've been hit a number of times and his gauges are showing 'empty'-he is going home! I go back and have a quick chat over a cup of tea with Denis Warner, who is visiting us again. He's seen it all before.

A Company is still in trouble. It gets dark and Healy moves his company into a tight perimeter defence. He has VC around him. Corporal Rusty Smith, Healy's signaller, whispers hoarsely on the radio that he cannot speak as they can hear VC talking near them. I quickly set up a code system. I ask questions and he answers by pressing his transmit button: one short press for 'yes', two for 'not understood' and three for 'no'.

Healy breaks contact with VC the next morning. While under the expert tutelage of Lieutenant John Guild in his Sioux helicopter, I relearn how to use the gun-target line to adjust artillery fire rather than the more familiar observer-target line. In a fine display of flying to confuse any VC who might wish to fire at us (they would probably break their necks trying to follow the Sioux), I place artillery as best I can on and around Hill 82 to prevent the VC interfering with Healy's return to us. After that I decide to leave controlling artillery fire from an aircraft to the experts. Though the two Johns on the ground seem satisfied, they must have been terrified while it was happening. They probably thought I was more dangerous than the VC. Major Peter Tedder, whose guns are being used, perhaps abused, is not amused. Nevertheless we do confirm that the six 105 L5 pack-howitzers of his battery, 105 Field, need calibration. He seems to have one gun firing 'long' and one 'short' which is rather dangerous for the receiver! After A Company move away from Hill 82, we bomb it. Knowing the VC, I am sure they will have anticipated this and scurried away.

After we are hurriedly returned from Hump I do a full military appreciation and prepare a plan to return in strength to smash the VC and recover the bodies of our dead. Brumfield polishes the plan and approves it, but it is firmly rejected by our superiors.”