Peter Clayton & John Hosking: Tunnel Rats
Posted on: Mon 25 Jul 2022
We repeat this interview with Peter and John, engineers who went bush with the Armoured and Infantry Corps in Vietnam. They stayed out for four to six weeks at a time, operating as Infanteers and carrying out specialist duties of mine and booby trap detection and clearing, tunnel and bunker searching and demolition, and bomb disposal. It was a tenuous, dangerous existence.
Of all the men in all Royal Australian Engineer (RAE) units who served in Vietnam, the only men killed in action were the Tunnel Rats. Thirty-five of them were killed! A horrendous statistic.
Interviewer Helen Meyer
Main photo 1 Field Sqn Vietnam 1969. Photo AWM licensed copyright https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1178926
