DURRINGTON, John Thomas
| Service Number: | 36485 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Warrant Officer Class 2 |
| Last Unit: | Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) |
| Born: | Paddington, New South Wales, Australia, 4 October 1938 |
| Home Town: | Ashburton, Boroondara, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Quaug Nam, South Vietnam, South Vietnam, Vietnam, 30 May 1968, aged 29 years |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne Garden of Remembrance, Garden of Remembrance, Springvale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Canungra - The Grove - AATTV Row of Memory, Grafton Clarence Valley Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Kallangur Vietnam Veterans' Place, Port Pirie Vietnam Veterans Honour Wall, Seymour Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk Roll of Honour |
Vietnam War Service
| 14 Aug 1967: | Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Warrant Officer Class 2, 36485, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug 1967: | Involvement Australian Army (Post WW2), Warrant Officer Class 2, 36485 |
Help us honour John Thomas Durrington's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography
Royal Australian Infantry Corps
"SECOND DIGGER DIES IN AMBUSH
SAIGON, Sunday (AAP). — A warrant officer of the Australian Army Training Team was killed in action in Quaug Nam province, South Vietnam — a few hours after returning from leave in Hong Kong to his base near Da Nang. He was John Thomas Durrington, 29, married, of Ashburton, Victoria. He was the second Australian killed in an ambush by North Vietnamese troops on Thursday. The death of the other Australian, Warrant Officer Second Class George Hamersley, 38, single, of Gosnells, Western Australia, was announced on Friday.
The two Australians were leading a company of Montagnard troops to help a US truck convoy which had been ambushed by North Vietnamese forces. The Australians were caught in a second North Vietnamese ambush only 400 yards from the US convoy. An Australian Army spokesman said that WO Hamersley had returned the same day from leave in Hong Kong to his base at a remote hill outpost 30 miles south-west of the provincial capital of Da Nang.
Rocket attack.
The US army convoy, with two tanks and a protecting infantry company, was moving along Route 4 to the Thuong Duc Green Beret special forces camp, about 21 miles west of Hoi An. A North Vietnamese unit opened up on the convoy with small arms and Soviet made RP6 rocket grenades. The infantry company counter-attacked and the enemy fled, leaving behind 39 dead. Nine marines were wounded in the ambush. The Australian advisers were called in to bring their 120 Montagnard — mountain tribesmen — troops from Hill 52, only a mile away from the ambush site. About half an hour later they were ambushed and killed by the North Vietnamese, 400 yards from the convoy..." - from the Canberra Times 03 Jun 1968 (nla.gov.au)
Click images to start slideshow.