The Bookshelf 1) No Need for Heroes No Need for Heroes is the first book to be published by a member of the first Royal Australian Engineers unit which served in South Vietnam - 3 Field Troop. Sent as a support element to 1 RAR in 1965, 3 Field Troop served alongside that unit with the US 173rd Airborne Brigade during the first year of Australian committment to the Vietnam war. Written by the OC during that first tour, Major Sandy MacGregor, the book follows the usual format, with MacGregor detailing how he raised 3 Field Troop from scratch and then took it to Vietnam. As with xxxx's book, it goes into considerable detail of the difficulties which were encountered upon arrival in Vietnam. 3 Fd.Tp. basically created the Nui Dat and Vung Tau bases in Vietnam which were later used by the rest of the Australian contingent upon arrival in Vietnam. Reading rather like a "Boy's Own" style of adventure story, the dangers faced by the sappers are downplayed but not completey ignored. Rather the real danger seems to be more from the Australians' own superiors as the committment to Vietnam was increased in 1966 and more and higher headquarters arrived in Vietnam to take control. As in any small, semi-independent unit which has tended to operate on its own for an extended period, 3 Fd.Tp's members were resentful of how authority was once more reasserted over their rather wild and wayward ways. How they expressed that resentment is interesting in itself. Be it the appropriation by HQ of their very big generator which they had salvaged and repaired from a US Army junkyard at some cost in time and effort (which they proceeded to let it run itself to pieces as an act of revenge) or the appropriation of the showers which they had built in their own time by Task Force HQ at Vung Tau (which one member proceeded to rig up one night with VC style boobytraps which of cause they were the only ones who could disarm), they showed that one should be careful about how authority is exercised in wartime. McGregor does not control the narrative completely and hands chapters over to different surviving members of 3 Fd Tp so they can have their say and explain their viewpoint of the various operations. As a consequence the book does present very different viewpoints of similar events as well as the rather interesting stories of how the diggers would often "put one over" on their OC at various times. What is important though is that this is the first book which tells the story of the discovery of the first tunnel complex at Cu Chi, which was later to become infamous as the place where the National Liberation Front (NLF - Viet Cong) had their supposed HQ (COSVN - Central Office in South Vietnam) in South Vietnam. It also goes into considerable detail of how tunnel operations were run and what it was like to actually go down a tunnel designed for and built by small, slight Vietnamese people when you're a burly well built Australian sapper. No Need for Heros is all in all an interesting read, however the claim by McGregor that if they had simply continued to search the tunnel system, instead of being withdrawn after only a few days down in them, they could have found and eliminated the COSVN and thereby "winning" the Vietnam War must be taken with a rather large grain of salt in my opinion. Such naivity indicates that McGregor does not appreciate that Vietnam was not just about military operations but that it was primarily a political war and the simple elimination of a single HQ would not have stopped the war there and then. He also assumes that the NLF forces in the tunnels, which up until the time 3 Fd.Tp. was withdrawn had refused combat would have continued to do so as their tunnel system was penetrated further and further. Nor does he obviously believe the NLF would not have made some effort to evacuate the COSVN if it had really been threatened. Today, the tunnels of Cu Chi are a tourist attraction in Vietnam and have been considerably enlarged to allow western tourists to discover the many kilometres which exist in relative comfort compared with that experienced by the Australian Sappers. MacGregor, S., No Need for Heroes: The Aussies who discovered the Viet Cong's secret tunnels, Calm, Sydney, 1993, ISBN 0 646 15167 3, RRP $19.95 2) Australian Military Equipment Profiles, Vol.4, The M113 & M113a1 Armoured Personal Carriers in Australian Service 1962 to 1972. The forth volume in the series of Australian Military Equipment Profiles thus far published, this one, as the title suggests, covers the M113 APC in Australian service during the period of our committment to the Vietnam war. Using the now well established format of the rest of the series, the volume covers the trials, employment and modifications carried out to the M113 during those years. It provides considerable insight into the reasons why the M113 was chosen over its main competitor, the British FV432 Trojan APC (basically the FV432 was no where as good a performer as the M113 in nearly all conditions). The book is a A4 format paper bound one featuring numerous photos to illustrate the main points which the text covers. Still missing though is the scale drawings which would turn it into a particularly useful tool for the modeller. However, considerable detail is evident in the various photos which goes somewhat towards making up that shortcoming. The book reveals new information with regard to the way in which particular conversions and uparmouring of the various vehicles employed in South Vietnam were undertaken. Of particular interest is the way in which the various armaments and turret configurations were adopted. I am sure most people, like me, would not have been aware of the attempted fitting of a Mini-gun to a M113 by the Australian task force in conjunction with the Americans in an effort to improve the firepower of these vehicles. I am also sure that most people would not have been aware of the two different types of turret which were used on M113's by the Australians in Vietnam (the AAI Model 74c and the more usually seen Cadillac-Gage T50 turrets) as well as the various patterns of gun shield fitted to the normal .50 cal HMG position. Also explained for the first time fully is the reasons behind why so many vehicles in South Vietnam were seen with their .30 Cal MMG removed from the turret and mounted on its top, in the case of the T50 version. Like the others, the book is well worth the RRP of $16.95. Cecil, M., Australian Military Equipment Profiles, Vol.4, The M113 & M113a1 Armoured Personal Carriers in Australian Service 1962 to 1972, Australian Military Equipment Profiles, Castella, 1994, ISBN 0 646 18181 5 3) Battle Surface! Battle Surface is about the Japanese submarine war against Australia. It begins with telling of the midget submarine attack on Pearl Harbor and continues on through until mid-1944, with the last Axis attack (surprisingly not by a Japanese sub but rather by a German U-Boat which decided to patrol off the east coast before returning to Europe). David Jenkins has done a considerable amount of research and it shows. He has interviewed both Australian and Japanese veterans and has come to some startling conclusions about operation and events which were relatively unknown in Australia at the time and since. In addition he ranges far and wide in drawing together very different threads to narrate this important piece of history. In particular, he clears up fully and finally the truth about the code books which were supposedly taken from the Japanese submarine minelayer I-124 which allowed the Australian and US Navy codebreakers to supposedly finally break the Japanese naval codes. Many other authors have always attributed this to the recovery of the code books from the sub which went down near Darwin in early 1942. However, Jenkins has found that while the wreck was found and a series of dives were made on it (which revealed that the reason why the submarine had sunk was because of defective hatch seals which had been broken open by the depth charging) none of them actually entered the sub and therefore it was not possible for the codebooks to have been recovered. In addition he gives a lively account of the various personalities within the codebreaking units within Australia, ranging from Captain Eric Nave who had only taken up Japanese by accident (he did have a gift for languages though) upon discovering that the extra pay recieved while learning it was five bob a day compared with the rather paltry sixpence for learning German or French, when he was serving in the RAN in the 1920's. If we add to that the strange personality of Arthur Cooper, an English codebreaker who also had a brother working in England at the same time on the Enigma decrypts. Jenkins makes the point about Cooper that, "they say he was a model of sanity compared with his brother Joshua," which must have made Joshua Cooper as about as mad as a hatter when compared to some of the things that Arthur got up to. Over a third though, of the book is devoted to the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour and here Jenkin's analysis shines through. With clear diagrams and text he lays out the events of that evening in considerable detail and in particular the fates of the three midgets are finally (in my opinion anyway) laid to rest. However, because he devotes so much to the Sydney Harbour attack he has left himself very little space in which to discuss the other submarine attacks which occured after that event around Australia. What does come through though, from this book, is just how ill prepared and unable the Japanese were to seriously mount a submarine campaign against Australia. Their entire doctine of submarine use had resulted in over-sized boats with huge crews, which were intended for supporting the fleet rather than engaging in anti- commerce warfare which is exactly what they needed if they wanted to carry out their intended strategy (declared after the events of late 1941, early 1942 when they had managed to gain more than they had ever imagined possible) of "isolating Australia" and precluding its use as a possible Allied base from which to stage attacks from. This book is an excellent piece of work and well with the price (I managed to pick it up at remainder warehouse for only $24.95). If fills a gap in the area of Australian naval history which has existed for a long time. Jenkins, D., Battle Surface! Japan's Submarine War Against Australia 1942-44, Random, Sydney, 1992, ISBN 0 09 182638 1