In 1968, John Bryant fought in the brutal Battle of Coral-Balmoral. Fifty-six years later, his memories are helping to unearth bodies of fallen Vietnamese soldiers.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.John Bryant remembers shooting flares into the screaming night, illuminating what seemed to be thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers charging towards the wire ahead of his position, their bodies falling to the ceaseless fire of the machine gun operated by his mate, Private Paul Donnelly.
The long-dead soldiers, declared “martyrs of their nation”, were reburied with great ceremony in a Vietnamese military cemetery in Binh Duong Province, with Johnson and Byrant among the thousand-strong mourners.recently won a gold medal – the top award among 70 submissions – at Vietnam’s National Defence Awards.
Johnson lives these days in Vietnam, speaks Vietnamese fluently and is married to a Vietnamese woman who was raised in a village not far from the site of the battle of Balmoral., which helps the families of US soldiers still listed as Missing in Action in Vietnam. Before his current quest began, Johnson spent many years visiting all the battlefields of Vietnam where his father fought.
Balmoral was established by members of 3RAR, as part of an attempt to prevent North Vietnamese forces from reaching Saigon in the wake of attacks on the city during what was known as the Tet Offensive that year.The People’s Army of Vietnam’s 7th Division attacked the Australian base on May 26 and 28, but their forces were repulsed.
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