Series number

AWM319

Series title

Records of Headquarters 26 Transport Company Royal Australian Army Service Corps (HQ 26 Tpt Coy RAASC), Vietnam

Contents date range

1964-1971

Extent

3.2 metres

Access conditions

Subject to the Archives Act (1983)

Agency controlling

Department of Defence

Custodial agency

Australian War Memorial

Function and provenance

Headquarters 26 Transport Company, Royal Australian Army Service Corps (HQ 26 Tpt Coy RAASC) was formed in Nui Dat in December 1967.  Up until this time 5 Coy RAASC had been providing supply and transport support to 1 Australian Task Force (1 ATF) from Vung Tau.  However, with an expansion of the task force base and increasing enemy activity in the task force area it became necessary for a second company headquarters to be established at Nui Dat to provide forward support to 1 ATF.

26 Tpt Coy took over the second line role from 5 Coy which remained at Vung Tau. 

It also took over the role as administrative headquarters for other logistics units within the Task Force Maintenance Area (TFMA) at Nui Dat.  As there was no additional manpower for this extra function the staff had to be drawn from units within the TFMA.  Units in the TFMA also provided infantry type patrols which varied from overnight ambushes, standing patrols, fighting patrols, provision of protection parties for overnight civil aid projects and defence of fire support bases.

In June 1971, as part of the planned withdrawal of Australian troops from South Vietnam, Hq 26 Tpt Coy RAASC returned to Australia and took over the unit name and barracks from 25 Coy at Puckapunyal in Victoria.  The unit is still based there today and is now known as 26 Transport Squadron of the Royal Australian Corps of Transport.

The records of 26 Tpt Coy were amongst the first major transfer of records relating to the Vietnam War from the Department of Defence to the Australian War Memorial which occurred between November 1981 and March 1982.  This consignment was accessioned as OW82/11.  They formed part of a large series which was designated as AWM100 in the mid 1980s when the Memorial adopted its new numbering system.

The registry cards which controlled this series of records were transferred in February 1982, accessioned as OW82/20 and later designated AWM104.

Since 1999 Official Records staff have removed subseries from AWM100, and registered each of them as a separate series of records.  The records of 26 Tpt Coy were added to the RecordSearch database in May 2003 and the series was redesignated AWM319.

Content

HQ 26 Tpt Coy created its files to document its activities, to record events and to enable efficient retrieval for future reference.  The files in this series include the following categories: audit reports, stores and equipment and vehicle accidents.

System of arrangement and control

The system of arrangement and control is the original Department of the Army filing system, as used when the records were created.

Registered files

Registered items have a three-part item number conforming with the Department of the Army registry classification of correspondence catalogue.  The first number represents the primary topic of the item, the second and third numbers refine the topic further.

Non registered files

Non registered items (not having registered item numbers) were given imposed numbers by the Australian War Memorial (AWM), beginning at 1 and continuing serially.  They are single numbers, not two or three part numbers like the registered items.  They retain their original titles.  Where no title was found, the AWM has imposed one that best describes the item’s contents.  All imposed information is enclosed in square brackets.

Using the series

Each item in the series is recorded on the RecordSearch database which researchers can access via the Internet.  Further assistance in finding relevant information may be gained from related series of records (click on Series Links at the bottom of this page).

The original registry cards which control this series form part of series AWM104.  They can also be accessed in the Memorial’s Research Centre.

Sources

AWM administrative file, AWM319 Series dossier

Lindsay, Neville 1991, Equal to the task, Volume 1, The Royal Australian Army Service Corps, Kenmore, Qld, Historia Productions

Christopherson, G. J. 1969, ‘Operations of 26 Coy RAASC (GT) – 1 ATF – Nui Dat, December 1967 – November 1968, Royal Australian Army Service Corps Digest, July, pp. 48-59

‘HQ 26 Transport Company’

http://www.raasc.org.au/content/26%20TPT.html  [website accessed May 2004]