heavy casualties on both sides, the Australians—although not eschewing conventional operations—emphasised deliberate patrolling using dispersed companies supported by artillery, armored personnel carriers and helicopters to separate the Vietcong (VC) from the population in the villages, while slowly extending government control. Consequently, 1 ATF which would be allocated its own Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) in Phuoc Tuy Province, thereby allowing the Australians to pursue operations more independently using their own methods. The southernmost province in III Corps, Phuoc Tuy had been selected by the Australians because it was an area of significant VC activity, was located away from the Cambodian border, could be resupplied and, if necessary, evacuated by sea, and enabled them to concentrate their efforts in a single area to achieve greater national recognition. Rather than being attached to a US division, negotiations between senior Australian and US commanders—including Lieutenant General John Wilton and General William Westmoreland—ensured 1 ATF would be an independent command under the operational control of US II Field Force, Vietnam (II FFV), a corps-level headquarters in Bien Hoa which reported directly to Commander US MACV. This would allow the force greater freedom of action and the chance to demonstrate the Australian Army's evolving concept for counterinsurgency warfare, developed in part from its operations during the Malayan Emergency. The task force would be commanded by Brigadier David Jackson, an experienced infantry officer who had served in the Middle East and New Guinea during the Second World War, and later in the Korean War and commanded the AATTV and Australian Army Force Vietnam prior to taking up the appointment. With the new force given less than two months to deploy, hasty preparations began in Australia to ready it. Meanwhile, the headquarters of the 1st Brigade was subsequently used to raise 1 ATF. Following US and Australian negotiations, the New Zealand government was given the choice of continuing the attachment of the 161st Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade based at Biên Hòa or joining 1 ATF in Phuoc Tuy. As with 1 RAR, the New Zealand battery had served under US command since June 1965 and was New Zealand's only military contribution to operations in Vietnam at that time. The decision was subsequently made to integrate the New Zealand battery into 1 ATF in June 1966, and from 1967 New Zealand infantry and NZSAS. Operations 1 ATF was tasked with dominating