They came to show their respect and gratitude to the many current and ex-servicemen and women who sacrificed so much to safeguard the many freedoms we enjoy on a daily basis.

Due to the conditions, the ceremony moved inside the Crescent Head Country Club which was filled beyond capacity with a considerable number of people left to pay tribute from outside the building.

Among those inside was Crescent Head resident for the last 17 years, Steve Clark.

Mr Clark served our country as a machine gunner in the Vietnam War.

After joining the army in 1968 as a 20 year-old and completing his basic training, he was shipped off to face the Viet Cong.

Mr Clark spent a year abroad, during which he would mark his 21^st birthday and see plenty of action, including the Battle of the Coral (see below).

A visibly emotional Mr Clark told the Argus ANZAC day is extremely important.

“It means a hell of a lot,” he said.

“Because I lost a lot of mates.”

The Battles of Coral and Balmoral were a series of actions fought during the Vietnam War between the first Australian Task Force and the North Vietnamese 7^th Division and Viet Cong Main Force units, 40 kilometres north-east of Saigon in what was known at the time as Bien Hoa province.

The battles were arguably the largest, most sustained and most hazardous of the Vietnam War.

Units of the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) faced regimental-sized formations of the North Vietnamese regular army in ferocious actions around Fire Support Patrol Bases (FSPB) Coral and Balmoral.

The first of the battles took place at FSPB Coral when massed enemy units attacked the base in the early hours of May 13, 1968. Australian units withstood heavy enemy attacks during which a mortar platoon and two gun positions were partly over-run. The Australians fought off the enemy after savage close-quarter actions. The battle lasted more than two hours. The task force suffered 11 killed in action and 28 wounded. In one mortar platoon five soldiers were killed and eight were wounded from a total of 18 men. One howitzer and two mortars were damaged. The enemy left 52 dead scattered throughout and around the base.

A history of Australian artillery records shows the attack on Coral was "the most sustained ground attack on an Australian field gun position since the Pacific war. Yet the gunners recovered their guns and were in action, supporting the infantry, the following morning."

Over the next four weeks, in additional actions around FSPB Coral and Balmoral, Australian soldiers killed over 300 enemy soldiers and captured hundreds of enemy weapons. In return, 26 Australian soldiers lost their lives: two from 12 Field Regiment; one from 104 Signals Squadron; 16 from 1 RAR; 6 from 3 RAR and one from 161 Independent Reconnaisance Squadron. More than 100 Australians were wounded. Australian Army regiments to take part in the series of battles were later awarded one of the five battle honours approved for the Vietnam War.

Information sourced form Australian War Memorial at https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/the-battles-of-coral-balmoral-may-june-1968

The Crescent Head service was one of many held across the Macleay today:

Kempsey morning service

Kempsey dawn service

South West Rocks’ dawn service

South West Rocks’ morning service