Through Enemy Eyes

The VC and NVA recce the base and draw up a plan to eliminate it. They assemble three experienced battalions for the task…

The Australian priority: (1) saturation patrols to secure the area and (2) build up the feeble defences. They know the threat…

On 18 August 1966, the Australian company runs into five of the VC/NVA battalions as they approach the Australian base…

"What you have produced is a very good historic document. It is riveting along each step of the way. ...for those of us who spent a year of our lives involved in Vietnam, it never really recedes...You are to be congratulated..."

"I have just bought and read your book. From the minute I started till I finished I was transfixed and was reliving my year there. I will certainly recommend it to all my friends...."

BOOK REVIEW - “Through Enemy Eyes” - by Dave Sabben MG
Dave Sabben was OC 12 Pl D Coy 6RAR at the Battle of Long Tan. He is a graduate of the first class from OTU Scheyville with our own 5RAR 1^st tour comrades, Melford (Finnie) Roe, John Deane-Butcher, Harry Neesham, Ted Pott and Terry O’Hanlon. Dave has written a book titled “Through Enemy Eyes”. It recounts the story of the arrival and build up of 1ATF from May 1966 to the conclusion of the Battle of Long Tan. The book is largely written from the perspective of our former foes.

Dave describes the book as “faction”; a combination of facts over disposed with some fiction.  I found it extremely interesting and he is quite accurate in his portrayal of the early days at Vung Tau and Nui Dat during Op Hardihood. Throughout, he gives good press to 5RAR activities and alludes to the “Binh Ba 10 000” of June 1966 when the 1ATF base was first seen to come under major threat. Naturally, his main emphasis is the battle on 18 Aug 66 in which he was a key player. He details the enemy plan to overrun the fledgling 1ATF base and does this from the perspective of the enemy commanders of 5 VC Div, 274 Regt, 275 Regt, D445 Bn and other units. Naturally, due to the lack of Vietnamese historical records this is where much of the fictional part is portrayed. He has however researched the official histories to provide the basis for the enemy battle plan to decimate 1ATF. This will be of interest to 5RAR members.

The question has always been asked “What were the enemy intentions if they had not encountered D Coy 6RAR on the afternoon of 18 Aug 66”. This book provides some potential outcomes and will be of interest to all those who served at Nui Dat.

The book was first published in 2005 by Allen & Unwin.

BOOK REVIEW by David Murphy - “Through Enemy Eyes” - Oct 2018

Hi Dave,
I came across your book "Through Enemy Eyes" recently and read it purely because you were the author. (I saw an interview you did some years ago and you were impressive.)
I enjoyed the book. So thank you for the effort you put into it.

I was a Nasho radio operator with 104 Sig Sqn. First posting was to the Hill which was mortared at dawn in my first week (the first time I'd heard mortars!) Then I was with 9RAR up near Bien Hoa, then Xuan Loc, then with 2/52 ARVN Btn at Xuyen Moc and then FSB Doody up Route 15, then R & R, back to Xuan Loc, then up to Hill 837 when David Fisher fell off his rope and SAS got seriously into the Nui May Tao area.
I mention all that because it was very easy for me to follow the movements in your book without even referring to your maps which were terrific, by the way.
I was in Vietnam less than 11 months after starting in the army and I believe much of my preparation in that 11 months was next to useless for Vietnam. I see you got there in about 13 months and must have learnt "on the job" because you seemed to handle Long Tan well. I doubt anybody there could have been prepared for what happened.
I agree that D Company unwittingly prevented an NVA attack on Nui Dat - anybody who can't accept that is ignoring the facts. On that point, I don't understand why 547 Sig Tp's plotting of 275 Regt progress to Nui Dat wasn't acted on properly. The Brigadier was certainly derelict in his duty with that.

Great story. Good plot, vivid, realistic, riveting descriptions, realistic dialogue, and well-developed characters. Thanks again.
 

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...and a full review by Dr Bruce Gaunson, historian and author.  Dr Gaunson was formerly Head of History at Sydney Grammar School.

Seizing history by the belt

Dave Sabben, Through Enemy Eyes. Allen & Unwin, 2005, 380 pages

   It’s fairly easy to access the basic facts about the battle of Long Tan, but it’s a lot harder to solve the mysteries behind it. If (as some have claimed) the Australians were ambushed, then why did the enemy gather such a massive force to destroy a single company? And why would a force lacking heavy weapons and mines set up an ambush within range of the Australian artillery?

   These and other questions have ricocheted around for decades, and pieces of the puzzle are still missing. Yet things are becoming clearer now. One instrument of this greater clarity has been Dave Sabben, who led 12 Platoon at Long Tan. Among other things, he contributed to a joint narrative by former Long Tan commanders, published in 2004.

   But difficult questions still hung in the air, and to get at them, he has ventured into the field of “faction” to explain the enemy’s intentions. It must be said that Sabben’s faction has a strong grip on history’s belt. It’s not enough to say that if this story actually happened, none of the known facts would be any different. That formula applies to clever novels like Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal, which is 95% fiction. By contrast, Sabben is right on the heels of history as he narrates the enemy’s preparations and actual battle experiences.

    Indeed, he is offering a kind of historical thesis, which seeks to explain crucial facts which, so far, have insufficient explanations. He is contending that, if the evidence ever comes to light, his thesis will be vindicated. This approach has often been fruitful, and it sometimes triumphs. A good example is the “rebellion thesis” of Kelly biographer Ian Jones, which has been accepted by prominent academics after decades of fence-sitting. Well, to get off the fence right now, I think that Sabben’s thesis, or something very close to it, will prevail as the most satisfactory explanation.

   This substantial book has been built on extensive research, and the result is a fascinating story – told from the enemy’s point of view. This sort of thing is not easy to write, and Sabben has achieved an uncanny empathy with his former enemies.  

   Some characters are necessarily fictional, but they’re highly realistic. Once you’ve met Colonel Quang, a brave man who has battled the French and Japanese and is now tackling Saigon and the Americans, you’ll have moments when you almost hope he’ll succeed – until you realise what that would have meant! This is a measure of the book’s fictional quality.

   Its factual side is meticulous and perceptive. For example, Sabben’s grasp of the enemy’s ideology, culture and methods is firm. In contrasting the plain guerrillas’ dedication with the cold calculations of their commissar, he gives us a cameo of how the Party has treated its ordinary fighters.

   Equipped with both imaginative and historical strengths, the book takes us through the enemy’s careful preparations, and shows us his crucial decisions. These, when mixed with lucky timing, twists of fate and sound Australian soldiering, produce an unlikely result: most of D Company survives, while the enemy’s plans are wrecked in a shattering defeat. Sabben depicts this fearful destruction most vividly, yet with an unswerving respect for his erstwhile enemies.

   This book is not just an excellent narrative. It brilliantly expounds the belief that the enemy, employing eight battalions, was poised to destroy the whole Australian base at Nui Dat. Had that happened, it would have been our soldiers who suffered the devastating casualties of 18 August 1966.

- Dr Bruce Gaunson, historian and author, was formerly Head of History at Sydney Grammar School.