A Diggers viewpoint of being at the sharp end. Gained while serving with 3 Platoon - 'A' Company -7 Battlion (Infantry) Royal Australian Regiment, as a Rifleman in Australia's longest ever war - fought in South Vietnam.  

Chapter 1 - Page 4 - Updated December 2006 - Next Page:- Books 5/35

 Site Index

At present in December 2006 a Complete redesign and overhaul of the Site is now in progress. As a result of the overhaul some pages might not be available during this time? The Annoucments Page will have all the details of the progress of the site.

Pages fixed and the lastest add ons to the site will be listed here. So far the fllowing pages have been re-designed, cleaned-up and checked:-

Index/Site Map 1/Site Introduction 2/ Orderly Room 3/ Announcements 4/.

  NEW ITEMS PROGRESS REPORT & NEW DESIGN!

 Index of ALL pages & stories built on new site page. COMPLETED

Up-load all stories from old site:- COMPLETED
Change all Title frames to new design To Be completed by January 2007
Build the Student Page with history of the Vietnam era. To Be completed by April 2007
Write the history of the RAR - To Be completed by April 2007
Put ANZAC Diggers on every page:- To Be completed by April 20076
Standardise design of site across all pages to remove "green bars". COMPLETED
A new site map will be added to the top left of each page:- To Be completed by April 2007
Fix up the second Sky Images Page. To Be completed by April 2007  

 © "Tony (oink) Blake"

MEMORIAL PAGE

This site is dedicated to a number of Soldiers. The Memorial Page contains the a dedication to my father Ken Blake. It contains the Honour Role of the 7RAR War Dead from the Vietnam War.

Use the Memorial Image of the RAR Cross; to move to the page from any page. Or use the Memorial page link in the site map! Tragical Australia has lost a some Diggers in recent operations they will be added to the Memorial Page ASAP!

THIS SITE SALUTES THE ANZACS

When Completed each page on the site will be Dedicated to a Digger who served on a Battlefield in the Service of this Country. In the Wars and conflicts this Nation has been involved with since World War One.

Each Diggers information and will be listed at the bottom of every page with his exploits. The ANZAC page will explan how the different events originated to up the ANZAC legend.

Also as that area is worked on the site will have a list of books - on the Book Page, recommended reading for subjects about the ANZAC Legend, Battles that Australia has taken part in and about the Diggers and their Battlefield Commanders who made the Legend.  

 Dr John Laffin: Guide to Australian Battlefields of the Western Front.

1916-1918

SELECTION OF DIGGERS FOR PAGES

To enable me to ensure that the details of each Digger is correct including the description of his action against the enemy and the Award of a bravery medal, I have been granted permission by the family of Dr John Laffin to use information from his book listed on the left. To ensure that his work is correctly identified all listings and notes from the book will have the following:- Copyright sign. © DJL 

© "Tony (oink) Blake"

NEWS SECTION

INFORMATION for the Vietnam War Memorial the Cherry Tree Walk has been moved to the original Grunts View site, at:- WWW.HINET.NET.AU/~OZGRUNT  

VIETNAM BATTALION & UNIT LINKS

The LINKS for the Battalions that served in the Vietnam War with the Royal Australian Regiment have been installed on the NEW RAR page. Also 5/7 RAR.

©

COPYRIGHT ISSUES

All Stories and photographs unless stated otherwise, are the work of:- "Tony (oink) Blake" and are copyrighted. When "tagged" they have the following identification. © "Tony (oink) Blake"

Use of images, concepts and story lines is not permitted, in ANY form of publication, for any reason. Publication includes but not restricted to:- "print format" such as stories or assignments.

"Electrical" includes web sites, blogg sites or copied to CD ROM without the express permission of the owner and author of this site: www.gruntsview.org

People wishing to use any story line and or images should in the first instance direct their enquiry to the Author via the email below.

© DJL Dr John Laffin: Guide to Australian Battlefields of the Western Front.

VIETNAM HISTORY on Information Page

From time to time I get requests from Students and others who want to discuss aspects of the Vietnam War in relation to my service and the effect on Australian Society and the Diggers when they returned home from the war. While I seek to assist were I can, each request is subject to my own activities and time frame. People seeking such help can as a start read some of my stories including the one that details my life after the war.

On the old site I used to have a commitment to the effect that my story was based on my own experiences and would not deal with the political issues. I feel now that is the wrong approach. As the years pass it is pleasing to see that the Vietnam War is a subject in schools.

However I fear that without a balance the students may receive a distorted viewpoint about that era. I have decided to use the "info page" and try to place the Vietnam War in to the context of what was occurring in the world at that time.

 I hope this will allow students to see some of the reasons Australia became involved in that war? Everyone sees history a little different but as I lived through those times and was effected by events great and small, I feel with out that context the site is not balanced! oink, 19th April 2004.

During the overhaul taking place in 2006 I will add further inforrmation to the Student Information page on an ongoing basis until the project is completed.

SKY IMAGES OF PHOUC TUY PROVINCE !

2 Pages.

TO add to the visual appreciation of the difficulties of active service in Vietnam I will place two pages that contain images taken of the Province from the air. I was traveling from Nui Dat to Saigon and was able to take many images of the areas that the Battalions operated in the Province.

They will be linked from the "Enemy in Phouc Tuy Province" page and the NEW site map page.

THIS SITE SALUTES THE ANZACS

THIS SITE SALUTES THE ANZACS THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE. THOSE DIGGERS WHO FOUGHT ON MANY A BATTLE FIELD IN THE SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA.

THIS PAGE SALUTES THE ANZAC.

CORPORAL GEORGE HOWELL

AWARDED the VICTORIA CROSS.

1st BATTALION AIF. Section Commander.

On 4th May the 1st Battalion moved in to a new position on the 6th May sent an urgent message to HQ to say that the Battalion on the right flank was pulling out. In the resulting attack by the Germans Howell jumped out of his trench on to the open parapet.

Then he raced along it fully exposed throwing bombs on to the Germans. As they retreated in panic Howell followed and when he ran out of bombs he jabbed down with his bayonet at the enemy. Shot in several places he fell back in to the German trench. But his mates inspired by his example and in fierce close-quarter fighting re-took all they ground lost on other days.

Howell survived his wounds and was awarded the VC. © DJL