Now then, something about the actual area of base camp. We're under canvass with tent ropes stretched between rubber trees and wooden floors several inches above ground level. The living area of the camp is within 'cooie' of the perimeter wire and no-mans land; or (Charlie Territory) The Battery perimeter is some seven hundred metres long and is part of the Australian task force Base Camp perimeter. To keep 'charlie' on his own side, we have several sets of wire stretched out and spaced to cover approximately100 yd width of cleared ground. Between the 'living' area and the first Wire barrier, we have the gun pits and several 'stand-to' and piquet bunkers and weapon pits; only sandbagged positions though. To give us ample warning of any unauthorised movement outside the perimeter, the gunners man a listening post at night and a standing patrol during the day 1000 metres outside the fence. Clearing patrols are sent out night and morning before stand-to. Even though all these precautions are taken, the six of us are of the opinion that 80% of the Battery still take life under the rubber far too casually�.

Now then, onto something more interesting, social activities, very limited. The Battery has its own 'wet' canteen open between 11.45 AM-12.15 PM and 4.45 PM-5.45 PM for liquor sales (All canned) and at morning and afternoon tea and 'T.V.' hours for soft drink sales (all canned too). I mentioned 'T.V.'; it runs every night from 8 PM-11PM showing programmes similar to our own. If this is not desired, one can make use of the reading and writing tent or just feed the eyes. Apart from social calls on other units' bar hours, which are very similar and the odd sports outing, what I've mentioned is all the social activities available under the rubber.

Our first W/E leave, happily enough, occurred on Sappers Day. We all motored� to Vung-Tau on the Saturday morning having been allotted a rover for the W/E. Vung-Tau is the llocal R and C centre, Aussie air Base and coastal resort, some 25-30 miles from base camp. We slept that night amongst the sand-dunes of the Aussie Plant Troop area after spending most of Sat afternoon drinking up large at the local 'Yank' club 'The Beachcomber'. Not satisfied with that though, we all hailed a 'lambretto' into the heart of Vung-Tau (about 2 miles away) to sample the local brew and let everyone know that the R.N.Z.E. were in town.