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Authors: Paul Jordan
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the field for only a few days. We threw on a brew and shared a few stories with these guys before heading off again. Before we left, their patrol commander approached me on the quiet with his map in his hand and asked if I could show them where they were. No problem and we parted ways.
We continued on and, at about 3.00 pm that day, I located the track that we were to ambush. With the patrol dropping a little further back and John and I moving a little further forward, I located a suitable section of the track to ambush. I told John to lead the patrol to the rear of the ambush position so we could prepare to occupy the position at last light. It was to be a rifle ambush and, given that we weren’t using any comms, there was very little preparation required. I located a reasonably secure lay-up position and, about 20 minutes before last light, we moved in and occupied the ambush site. I lay in the middle of the ambush, about six metres off the track and in a small hollow in the ground. I expected an enemy, possibly two or three, to move down the track at around 10.00 pm this evening.
Once the ambush was set, the only thing to do was to wait and be patient. At 7.30 pm I heard some people talking as they moved up the track from north to south. There were about ten people, maybe two families, laughing and chatting as they went, using torches to guide them. The children were all over the place and very unpredictable. They were walking off the track and into the jungle, and came within a few metres of us. In an ambush, the trick is to remain motionless. If they aren’t looking for you, they won’t see you. Children, being so inquisitive, are the best at compromising ambushes. I was sitting in an ambush near Daly River in the Northern Territory once, and we were trying to ambush the Americans at a creek road junction. The plan was to allow their humvees to cross the creek and ambush them with a few sticks of PE-4 (explosive) which would shower them with water to let them know they had been hit. While we were waiting, a car load of Aborigines pulled up next to the creek for some lunch. We waited, hoping they would leave, but they didn’t. The men walked into the bush and started removing bark from a tree about two metres in front of me, and the kids spotted the explosive in the water and moved in to retrieve it. The men then walked to another tree behind me and were about to kick me when I let them know of our presence. They didn’t say a word as the rest of the patrol recovered the explosives and we withdrew.
Back in our jungle ambush position, we watched as the family moved along and again we waited. About 15 minutes later, I heard more noise and saw more torches coming down the track. ‘Fuck me,’ I whispered. Then they came into view: four men wearing military uniforms and carrying M16s. As the middle man came to my front, I let rip with a 28-round burst from my weapon and the rest of the patrol followed suit. We didn’t all fire 28 rounds, some only fired 20 and some 10 — we didn’t want to risk everyone having a stoppage at the same time. The enemy went down and I gave the nod for my search teams to go into the killing ground to search the dead enemy. After two minutes my guys returned and we withdrew through the rear of the ambush.
We couldn’t move far because it was as black as dogs’ guts in the jungle, and our night vision had been destroyed by the gunfire and torches, so we propped and waited. One of the pretend enemy soldiers called out for us to make our way back to the track.
We followed the soldiers back along the track that would take us to a small township. When we arrived we moved into a military camp and were shown a piece of lawn to sleep on. More cats. They were everywhere. There were kittens all over the place and, while John was taking a piss, Tony shoved one into his sleeping bag and, less than a minute later, John crawled in after it. The kitten obviously decided to crawl up onto John’s
We continued on and, at about 3.00 pm that day, I located the track that we were to ambush. With the patrol dropping a little further back and John and I moving a little further forward, I located a suitable section of the track to ambush. I told John to lead the patrol to the rear of the ambush position so we could prepare to occupy the position at last light. It was to be a rifle ambush and, given that we weren’t using any comms, there was very little preparation required. I located a reasonably secure lay-up position and, about 20 minutes before last light, we moved in and occupied the ambush site. I lay in the middle of the ambush, about six metres off the track and in a small hollow in the ground. I expected an enemy, possibly two or three, to move down the track at around 10.00 pm this evening.
Once the ambush was set, the only thing to do was to wait and be patient. At 7.30 pm I heard some people talking as they moved up the track from north to south. There were about ten people, maybe two families, laughing and chatting as they went, using torches to guide them. The children were all over the place and very unpredictable. They were walking off the track and into the jungle, and came within a few metres of us. In an ambush, the trick is to remain motionless. If they aren’t looking for you, they won’t see you. Children, being so inquisitive, are the best at compromising ambushes. I was sitting in an ambush near Daly River in the Northern Territory once, and we were trying to ambush the Americans at a creek road junction. The plan was to allow their humvees to cross the creek and ambush them with a few sticks of PE-4 (explosive) which would shower them with water to let them know they had been hit. While we were waiting, a car load of Aborigines pulled up next to the creek for some lunch. We waited, hoping they would leave, but they didn’t. The men walked into the bush and started removing bark from a tree about two metres in front of me, and the kids spotted the explosive in the water and moved in to retrieve it. The men then walked to another tree behind me and were about to kick me when I let them know of our presence. They didn’t say a word as the rest of the patrol recovered the explosives and we withdrew.
Back in our jungle ambush position, we watched as the family moved along and again we waited. About 15 minutes later, I heard more noise and saw more torches coming down the track. ‘Fuck me,’ I whispered. Then they came into view: four men wearing military uniforms and carrying M16s. As the middle man came to my front, I let rip with a 28-round burst from my weapon and the rest of the patrol followed suit. We didn’t all fire 28 rounds, some only fired 20 and some 10 — we didn’t want to risk everyone having a stoppage at the same time. The enemy went down and I gave the nod for my search teams to go into the killing ground to search the dead enemy. After two minutes my guys returned and we withdrew through the rear of the ambush.
We couldn’t move far because it was as black as dogs’ guts in the jungle, and our night vision had been destroyed by the gunfire and torches, so we propped and waited. One of the pretend enemy soldiers called out for us to make our way back to the track.
We followed the soldiers back along the track that would take us to a small township. When we arrived we moved into a military camp and were shown a piece of lawn to sleep on. More cats. They were everywhere. There were kittens all over the place and, while John was taking a piss, Tony shoved one into his sleeping bag and, less than a minute later, John crawled in after it. The kitten obviously decided to crawl up onto John’s
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