Three Zodiac boats full of Australian and Filipino soldiers landed on a rocky outcrop down the coast from a fortified enemy beach near Ivisan in Capiz, Philippines.

They moved quietly along the coastline until they saw the enemy in a defensive position and the first shots rang out.

As part of Exercise Kasangga, small boat instructor Lance Corporal Samuel Bond, of 5th/7th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, trained soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division on small boats and coastal defence. 

Lance Corporal Bond yelled to his Filipino counterparts to keep going as they pushed along the beach and stormed the enemy pits.

“Assaulting with a rubber boat is not ideal, so we taught them to land out of sight, then come through and do a flank attack,” he said.

But before both nations’ soldiers could launch coastal assaults, the Australian soldiers helped get their Filipino counterparts confident in the water and learn to swim with their equipment on.

Afterwards, they learned various skills such as capsize drills, boat handling, moving in arrow and echelon formations, and driving straight.

“We got them to understand that just because you hold it straight, doesn’t mean the boat is going to go straight,” Lance Corporal Bond said.

The Filipino soldiers observed closely, particularly when Australian soldiers stood up slightly in the boat to not be thrown around by waves. Though, the Australian soldiers realised they needed to explain further when the Filipino soldiers started standing up at the wrong time and almost capsizing the boat.

“Everything that we would show them that was correct, they would replicate and then we’d build the understanding about why we do those things,” Lance Corporal Bond said.

'We tend to get everything given to us, whereas these guys are out here making do with what they’ve got and then improvising.'

Once the Filipinos were confident, they moved into tactical applications, including beach landings and how far boats must be from the shoreline to find landing sites without being seen.

They also showed the Filipino soldiers different styles of fighting pits for beach defence.

Lacking the corrugated iron that the Australian Army usually use for revetments, the Filipinos found local bamboo and sheet metal off-cuts to reinforce positions.

“We learned that just because we don’t have something, doesn’t mean we can’t make something,” Lance Corporal Bond said.

“That was awesome for us to see. We tend to get everything given to us, whereas these guys are out here making do with what they’ve got and then improvising.”

Lance Corporal Bond was also struck by the combat-experienced Filipinos’ methods of patrolling. 

Where Australians patrol in structured formations, always staying in each other’s sight, Filipino soldiers adopt looser structures, sometimes losing sight of section members but still operating effectively. 

“At first I thought it was disorganised, but I realised it’s confidence in their team members. They don’t always need a visual with each other. They’re very confident with what the person next to them is able to do,” he said.

By the end of the courses, Lance Corporal Bond said the Filipino soldiers were at a higher standard of boat handling than some licensed Australian operators, thanks to an eagerness to learn and put ego aside.

“It was fantastic to see,” Lance Corporal Bond said.