CHRONOLOGY: 2 - 4 OCTOBER 1969


DAY FIVE OF THE SEARCH: 2 OCTOBER 1969

On 2 October 1969 at 1030 hrs B Company 6 RAR, commanded by Major M. J. Harris, was inserted into the search area, using an LZ at GR YS 613 961. The company patrolled eastwards. At 1630 hrs B Company contacted two enemy near GR YS 632 955. The enemy were moving from south to north, one was killed and the other fled south. The Company established a firm base at GR YS 631 955.

DAY SIX OF THE SEARCH: 3 OCTOBER 1969

Areas Searched. The area indicated in a statement to the Court of Inquiry by Major M. J. Harris does not correlate with the area mapped by the Court of Inquiry in Annex W of their proceedings. Based on the report by Major Harris, B Company in fact appear to have searched an additional block to the northwest of the area shown at Annex W. Areas searched during the period 2 to 4 October 1969 are plotted on this map. For ease of reference the area searched by B Company, as reported by OC B Company, will be referred to as the "THIRD AREA." It is noted that the THIRD AREA covered the SECOND AREA (searched by C Company 9 RAR)completely, with the SECOND AREA making up 37% of the THIRD AREA. As mentioned above, the SECOND AREA contains the impact location deduced by the re-enactment of the fly-out.

A base line search was carried out using one platoon split into two groups. Each group had a dog and a handler. Shown below is an extract from a copy of the report by the Court of Inquiry which shows the area searched by the two B Company groups, as per a statement by Major Harris. The Group 1 area is hi-lighted in blue and the balance is the Group 2 area. Shown to the left is the area searched as per Annex W of the report by the Court.

  

DAY SEVEN OF THE SEARCH: 4 OCTOBER 1969

B Company 6 RAR was extracted from GR YS 613 961 at 1200 hrs on 4 October 1969. Enroute to the extraction LZ B Company examined two suspect bomb craters in the vicinity of GR YS 621 959.

Results. No signs of FISHER were found. Mr Bob Bettany was the commander of one of the tracker teams that was deployed with B Company 6 RAR. Bob says that the dogs would have been of no use searching for a cadaver. This opinion is supported by Mr Bob Jennings who has been a Military Working Dog Specialist for the last 25 years. He has been in charge of the RAAF research and development (canine) program and has developed a new dog capability for the Australian Defence force. He is currently considered the Australian Defence Force expert on subject matter involving military working dogs. Nevertheless, since FISHER would have been dead for four days at least, it could be expected that olfactory evidence would have been picked up by the human search element, which did not happen. This would indicate that FISHER'S body, if he fell in the area searched, had been buried or was submerged.

NON-RECOVERY OF FISHER FROM THE THIRD AREA: 2 - 4 OCTOBER 1969

Location of FISHER. It will be established later in this paper that FISHER was not captured alive and this possibility will not be considered further at this stage.

On the proviso the FISHER fell in the area searched by B Company 6 RAR the probability of his body being buried or submerged is increased.

This page was last updated on 4 November 2003.