VICTOR FOUR COMPANY

THe iNFANTRYMAN

No air power ever wins a war

It can only help the artillery, tanks and the supply columns that are only the supporting troops but without the Infantry

you can do nothing at all.

In the end, one man, grimy, unshaven, lousy, bleary eyed, scared as hell will hoist himself up, grab his rifle and plug forward.

He is

'​THE INFANTRYMAN'

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(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

ORIGIN OF V4

V4, like most other units and sub-units that deployed to South Vietnam, the Officers, Senior NCOs, 
Junior NCOs and Other Ranks came together from a variety of camps within NZ and Overseas.

Waiouru Military Camp could be termed as the basic training area for the majority,
although Burnham Camp was the training area for South Island National Servicemen
who joined directly into the Regular Force.

Officers usually trained either at Portsea (Australia) or Duntroon (UK).

However V4 would be the first NZ Defence call for other Corps to serve in Vietnam
owing to the heavy ​commitment of Infantry troops overseas.

V4 was a mix of career soldiers and those on a short term army contract of 3 years. 
This was usually 6 months in NZ, 2 years overseas and 6 months on RTNZ.

TRAINING

After Infantry Corps Training at 1^st Battalion Depot Burnham, the bulk of V4 began training
in all facets of Open and Close Country Warfare in the surrounding areas of Little Malaya,
West Coast and Tekapo.

An overseas deployment to Australia on Exercise Tasman 7 was an opportunity
to work as a company group alongside our Aussie counterparts.

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DEPLOYMENT TO MALAYSIA

​After one week of final leave, the Company regrouped at Burnham then flew
to Auckland by National Airways Corporation (NAC).

The last night was spent at Papakura and despite being confined to camp,
many had one last “fling”. Some were caught, others were not.

In November 1968 we flew out by C130 RNZAF Hercules from Whenuapai to
Papua New Guinea and after an overnight stay ​continued to the RAF base at Changi,
Singapore, then by bus to ​Terendak Garrison, Malacca, Malaysia.

NEW ZEALAND