Rumour Control

Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam?

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Information Gathered to Date

Name: Derek
E-mail: derek@fsmail.net
Date: 07/05/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Possibly
Not one to trust Wikipedia, but this is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_veteran Check the footnote after the section on NZ veterans.

Name: Anonymous
E-mail: Anonymous
Date: 1/4/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: No
No. Only Australian and New Zealand Special Forces served there , as well as the Americans, of course. They were deployed mainly in the central highlands training the Montagnard tribesmen, under the control of the CIA.

Name: David
E-mail:
Date: 25/3/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Yes
As a member of the Intelligence Corps of the British Army I was on secondment from 3 Commando Brigade and serving in the British Embassy in Saigon from early Jan to the end of March 1966. At the same time there 3 members of the Royal Military Police who provided security for the embassy. There were also the usual Military Attache staff. It was not a combatant role, but I did get out and about in Saigon, Bien Hua etc. There were a large number of British passport holders in South Vietnam, but they were all serving in the US/NZ or Australian Armies at the time. I did see papers where a lot of pressure was being applied on the British Government (Harold Wilson's Labour Government) to provide a Battalion for the Free World Forces - the Americans specifically asked for the Black Watch!!! Harold said NO! None of the serving British Military in Saigon at that time qualify for the South Vietnam Clasp of the GSM - although Air Crew up until 1964 did qualify.

Name: William Lewis (Bill)
E-mail: spearfisher@blueyonder.co.uk
Date: 11/3/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Possibly
This a a rough description of the "Crown" airfield project and a picture of the finished runway.
I was one of the two S/Sgt Shift Commanders (except for a junior officer of course) during the middle months of 1966.
There is no question in my mind now that this was not to open up the North East of Thailand for the Thais as was stated to us.
It was for the use of the "Baby Airforce" to attack Laos/ Vietnam. Subsequently the "war" finished before it was used extensively. Amazingly my government doesn't even recognise that I was there! Or that we the British were involved.
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/poetryantiwar/

Name: Norm
E-mail: Anonymous
Date: 25/2/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer:
I was in Vietnam during tet offensive 1968. Although the british government deny this. This denial cost me the chance of a 2.5% home loan. There were army personel at the embassy and two RAF people (me + 1 other at Saigon airport, (Non combatant)

Name: Anonymous
E-mail: Anonymous
Date: 22/1/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Yes
A small unattached party with the Austrians / American â€˜Mekong Deltaâ€™ Riverine Force were visiting the American embassy during The Tet Offensive of 1968. It is understood they where on R&R from over from Borneo.
I was demobed 38 years a go.
Have a closer look close by american guys firing through the ground floor windows.

Name: Anonymous
E-mail: Anonymous
Date: 3/1/2008
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: POssibly
"The very rare clasp 'South Vietnam' (December 1962 to May 1964) was awarded to only 68 members of the Australian Army Training Team, working with the forces of the Republic of South Vietnam (Australian and New Zealand forces actively involved in the later Vietnam War received their own campaign medals)." (British Campaign Medals 1914-2000, Peter Duckers, 2001).

the UK Foreign Office has recently released the first of a four part series of declassified papers and documents re Indochina. Part 1 _Viet Nam, 1959-63_ consists of 33 reels microfilm. Subjects covered include: Politics, Sai Gon and Ha Noi; Viet Cong military Ops; International Commission for Supervision & Control; British Advisory Mission, Sai Gon; Military training South Vietnamese Women; US Military Advisory Group; Biographic materials on officials and leaders. Part 1 costs $41.75. Available from: Adam Mathew Publications, 8 Oxford Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire SNS 1AP, UK.

Newsinger, John. "The British Intervention in Vietnam, 1945-1946." Monthly review: an independent socialist ... vol.43; n.2, June 1, 1991; 29-EOA.

Newsinger, John. "A forgotten war: British intervention in Indonesia 1945-46." Race and class. v.30; n.4; April 1, 1989, p. 51-EOA.

Beckett, Ian F.W. "Robert Thompson and the British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam, 1961-1965." Small wars & insurgencies. v. 8, n. 3, Winter 1997, p. 41-EOA

There were rumors of personnel from the Special Boat Service of the Royal Marines and troops from the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment on "attachment" to the Australian SAS Regiment and the New Zealand SAS Regiment when they were in Vietnam. Sir Robert Thompson, head of the British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam, 1961-1965 never did mentioned, IIRC, whether there were British military troops on secondment to his mission in Saigon.
John Parker's book, SBS: the inside story of the Special Boat Service (London: Headline, 1997) mentioned that SBS personnel were training the Vietnamese Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai (LDNN) (Vietnamese SEALs) alongside with U.S. Navy SEALs advisors. But nothing about British military in W.D.
Baker's book, Dare to Win: the story of the New Zealand Special Air Service and David Horner's book, SAS, Phantoms of the Jungle: a history of the Australian Special Air Service.

Name: Derek
E-mail: derek@fsmail.net
Date: 22/12/2007
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Possibly
A friend of my father-in-law was in the merchant navy in the 60s. We were having one of those conversations that meanders from subject to subject and he just casually mentioned that he was in Vietnam a few times during the war. When I read the various entries from people on Shell tankers I was reminded of this, so I'll get back to Dave and ask what ships he served on.
On another small point, mentioned in one of the entries here, the Vietnam memoir 'Once A Warrior King' by David Donovan, a US Officer based in the Mekong Delta in 1960-70, describes seeing two black Canberra bombers with no numbers or national markings on them, flying low over his camp near the Cambodian border. Of course, they could have been one of the nine remaining Mitchell B57 Canberras left in Vietnam by 1969, or Australian Canberras from 2 Squadron RAAF or but why were they flying low when the whole point about the Canberras was high level bombing using their optical bomb sights?
Hope this helps.

Name: Simon
E-mail: Anonymous
Date: 19/12/2007
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: No
Heard Of
Whilst in the States {Philly} for a while, got to know a chap who was or meant to have been in the CIA.....but he did in passing make comment to British Special Forces in Vietnam - not Aussie but Brit and he was impressed with them. As I said it is only hear say and can not be proven

Name: Harry Evlogosis
E-mail: harry.evlogosis@gmail.com
Date: 18/12/2007
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer:
Not AS BRITISH forces.
However English persons living in Australia were:
1/ called up for national service
2/ were serving in the Australian Army i.e transfered or joined.
BUT not as a British Force

Name: Brian Whitehead
E-mail: brianwhitehead@rogers.com
Date: 16/12/2007
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: No
The only British Military presence in Viet Nam that I am aware of, apart from those on the Embassy staff, were the flight and ground crews of RAF Beverley aircraft. They were non-combatants delivering flood relief goods, rice, medical supplies, etc. The flights went to Canh Tho, Ban Me Thout, An Loc, and Loc Ninh, among other places. At Loc Ninh, a Beverley became stranded with a failed engine. The RAF personnel were not allowed to spend the night at Loc Ninh, due to the fact that the Special Forces Base there was very close to being attacked in what came to be called the first battle of Loc Ninh. As a result, the recovery team had to commute from Saigon in the Air AttachÃ©â€™s Devon every morning and night, which slowed the work considerably. The repair took almost a week to complete. I was part of the recovery team.
That was in October of 1967. Contrary to the statement made by "Anonymous", Beverleys were in service with the RAF right up to the end of 1967. They were never used by the RNZAF, or by any other foreign service for that matter. The aircraft "Anonymous" flew in was probably a Bristol Freighter, which bore a (very) superficial resemblance to the Bev, but was much smaller.

Name:
E-mail:
Date:
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: POssibly
I do not have any inside information on this question.
What I can contribute is a link to this remarkable article:
http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/tenyears.htm
It is about the Australian General Ted Serong and his contribution to war in Vietnam.
There are two books about Gen. Serong that I have not read but that would likely be of interest to you:
http://amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ted+serong

Name: George W
E-mail:
Date: 12/12/2007
Did British Forces Serve in Vietnam? Answer: Possibly
I was on the Task Force 117 web site (Gamewardens) --USN PBR's, etc., and in the middle of the (Vietnam) photo gallery section is a photo of an AVRO Vulcan flying overhead: (www.tf116.org/vgallery1.html). Of course, he may have just been visiting an airbase in the South, much like we did throughout (Western) Europe with our F-4's.

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