Toughest Unit

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 15

Toughest Unit

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright;

SYDNEY, April 30.

The Australian troops being sent to South Vietnam belong to the toughest fighting unit in the Australian armed services.

It is the Ist Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, nicknamed the “Royal Blues.”

In the Korean War and against the Communist insurgents during the Malaya emergency they earned a proud reputation for tenacity and grit. During nine months of front-line duty in Korea, the battalion won two Distinguished Service Orders, two Orders of the British Empire, three Members of the British Empire, seven Military Crosses, seven Military Medals, one British Empire Medal, and 21 mentions in despatches.

Casualties suffered were 34 killed and 170 wounded. In 1960 the battalion was sent to the jungles of Malaya and since returning the next year has been based, at Holsworthy near Sydney.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan “Lou” Brumfield, aged 38. of

Sydney, will command the Ist Battalion in Vietnam. He is married with an eight-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. Colonel Brumfield graduated from Duntroon Military College in Canberra in 1947 and after serving with the 3rd Battalion, the Citizen Military Forces and cadet units was transferred to headquarters, Far East Land Forces, in Singapore. Early last year he was appointed the Ist Battalion’s executive officer and in February was promoted to commanding officer.