Mine Warfare: 1st Australian Task Force’s Struggle for South Vietnam

Mine warfare, in its various forms, is a favoured weapon used by insurgents against government forces. By June 1966, when the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) arrived in Phuoc Tuy Provence, South Vietnam, the Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam forces were well entrenched in the provence and used mines extensively. The mine campaign risked few enemy lives and was a powerful statement to everyone, including civilians, that the Viet Cong were still in the war and not a spent force. The intense patrolling practised by 1ATF inevitably put its men in close contact with enemy mines.

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