Journeys with my Gun

Napalm and Minefields

Photo. Phan Thi Kim Phuc (Kim) with her two cousins who were victims of a village napalm attack.
                    
A Vietnamese pilot inadvertently dropped napalm on these kids and others in the region of Trang Bang north of Saigon, South Vietnam in 1972. This weapon was used to set fire to foliage, the enemy and their resources. Research reveals that the raid was ordered by the Americans by mistake.

Kim survived her shocking injuries but her cousins running beside her unfortunately died. The American Officer in question and Kim became friends in later life.
The thick napalm jelly is constituted of naphthalene and Palmitate and then added to petroleum which ignites on contact.
This dreaded weapon sticks to the skin and continues to burn. Although being around for other wars commencing with the Indonesian/ Malaya emergency it was beefed up for the Vietnam War.
                       
Apart from the terrible pain inflicted, Napalm can cause multi organ failure and death.
Kim although suffering incredible injuries was fortunate in so much that she was taken into care at a Saigon hospital where her wounds we're determined to be so severe that she would not survive. Her wounds were stabilised after 17 operations in 14 months including skin transplants after which she travelled to West Germany to receive plastic surgery.
( I believe she may have also received similar care in Miami) and has continued to receive medical assistance over the past 50+ years.

In time Kim the student was allowed to travel to Cuba to continue her studies in Spanish and Pharmacy, there she met her husband to be, another Vietnamese student.
Kim and her husband Bui Toan, were given a gift of a trip to Moscow, and either on the way or way back whilst the aircraft was refuelling in Canada (Newfoundland) Kim sought and received asylum, eventually becoming a Canadian citizen and was cared for initially by a Quaker family.
Kim has achieved much in her time along with two kids, well educated and honoured for her work in her foundation for war affected kids.
She is well traveled, well known and welcomed wherever she goes. Kim was a goodwill ambassador to UNESCO and is now (2025) approximately 62 years of age.
Kim's original photograph above taken by Nick Ut was a Time magazine photo of the year, Nick also received the Pulitzer Prize for what is known as the most haunting photo from the war and has been credited with assisting in stopping the war in Vietnam, which is a little doubtful as most Americans had left the country at that time and the eventual paris peace talks were almost underway.
Today in 2025 there is much consternation and controversy about who actually took the famous photo, with claims it was taken by a ARVN photographer, Nguyen Than Nghe.
Former AP photo editor, Carl Robinson who was involved in aspects of the controversial documentary 'The Stringer' broke his silence at that time claiming in much detail that Nick Ut was not the person who took the iconic photo of Kim as he was an eye witness.

Photo 🆎 - The Australian Government says that people from a grateful nation thank us. I look forward to meeting them and that grateful nation.

The Australian Minefield.
Hill 269 north and eastern edge of Dat Do, then eastern side of route 44 to the sea east of Phuoc Hai.

A sad saga of probable negligence, lack of training and or experience. Many have reported about this deadly event including Greg Lockhart, Bruce Davies, Army Research Centre, YouTube, AWM, Screen Australia, IMDB , Honest History and many others.
Greg Lockhart's book 'The Minefield' is highly recommended.

'Mass Produced, victim operated explosive traps'
The Australian 1ATF Commander, Stuart Graham described his mission to establish a fenced minefield by infantry and engineers as (inter alia)
'A project to protect the civilian population and restrain the movement of the enemy in Phouc Tuy province'
His plan was to lay eleven km of M16  ( Jumping Jack) anti personnel mines.
These mines weighed three and a half kg, containing a half a kg of TNT explosive, with a firing mechanism that commenced with a two second delay fuse which ignited a black powder which drives the mine out of the ground with great force to knee height or higher, then igniting a milli-second fuse detonating the mine with devastating consequences.
These mines area of danger is approximately twenty five metres however, death and injury could be caused over a greater distance.
These complex mines were fitted with anti- lift devices and one in four of the Australian planted mines were fitted with trip wires to facilitate a secondary method of ignition.
Methodology
A bulldozer would clear an area of ground around the village of Dat D, then heading towards the coast Infantry would erect a series of two parallel belts 100 meters apart, each belt (2 fences ) was to be approximately 2 meters high x 2 meters wide.
The project construction was fraught with danger from the outset due to an unrealistic completion schedule, insufficient knowledge, limited if any training, lack of safety knowledge and skills, rugged terrain, poor management of rubbish, terrible climatic conditions and exhaustion and obvious incompetence at high levels of command.
Australian engineers  layed approximately 21,000 mines which had super sensitive hair trigger mechanisms with dirt movement clouding the danger, as did sweating, exhaustion and the ever present pressure to complete the work. Apparently the barrier was not adequately protected.
Many Australian Infantry and engineers were killed or wounded, including some dismembered during the development of this shambolic mess through inexperience, incompetence and pressure to complete the task.

The history of the consequences of this disastrous project is a greater story than mine however, the project was apparently based on another 1957 French project in Algeria, the 'Morice' line.
The French laid a 300 km mine barrier inside Algeria to the Tunisian border however, conditions being different were not taken into consideration by the Australians.
Even I know that these barriers have to be protected as the French did by an intertwined network of appropriate numbers of infantry, air and land patrols .
The enemy reacts.
The communists sacrificed many lives in accessing the minefield in order to learn how to excavate the mines (at night) for their own use.
The amazing incompetence led to the enemy lifting approximately 2,000 to 2,500 mines and eventually using them against the allies whilst killing civilians in the process, the total allied and civilian casualties from this failed project is unknown.
1995
Since the early nineties it is reported that in Vietnam, 100,00 casualties occurred from mines including 40,000 deaths.
Eighteen percent of the country was covered in planted and abandoned mines and only one percent had been cleared over a period of 10 years, that exact period is unknown and many clearing projects have failed.
Unexploded bombs of various kinds including mines covered areas along the entire coast of Vietnam.
Free Tip - don't walk in any likely or bush areas and keep your hands off whatever that you don't have to touch.