Battle of Long Tan (1966): Australia at War in Vietnam

The Battle of Long Tan was fought on 18 August 1966 in a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy province, South Vietnam. A company of 108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers held off an attack by a Viet Cong force many times its size in torrential rain. It became the best-known Australian action of the Vietnam War and the focus of how Australians remember the conflict.

Background

Australia sent military advisers to South Vietnam from 1962 and combat troops from 1965, as an ally of the United States under its policy of containing communism in Asia. In 1966 it formed the 1st Australian Task Force and set up a base at Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy province, east of Saigon, to control an area long dominated by the Viet Cong.

In the early hours of 17 August 1966 the Nui Dat base came under mortar and recoilless rifle fire. Companies were sent out to find the firing positions. On 18 August D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR), commanded by Major Harry Smith, took over the search east of the base, near the abandoned village of Long Tan.

The battle

Shortly before 4 pm D Company’s leading platoon made contact in the rubber plantation. What seemed at first a small skirmish quickly became a full assault. The Australians faced elements of the Viet Cong 275th Regiment and the D445 Provincial Mobile Battalion, estimated at between 1,500 and 2,500 men.

11 Platoon was soon pinned down and cut off, suffering heavy casualties. Heavy monsoon rain reduced visibility and turned the ground to mud. Smith’s men formed a defensive position and relied on artillery from Nui Dat: Australian, New Zealand and US guns fired more than 3,000 rounds, often very close to the company, directed by New Zealand forward observers attached to it.

As ammunition ran low, two RAAF Iroquois helicopters of No. 9 Squadron flew through the storm and dropped boxes of ammunition to the company. At dusk, after about three and a half hours of fighting, A Company of 6RAR arrived in armoured personnel carriers of the 1st APC Squadron, with B Company on foot. The Viet Cong withdrew.

Casualties

The Australian dead were 17 men of D Company and one APC crewman. The Viet Cong losses were probably higher than the bodies found, as many dead and wounded were carried away during the night.

Why the company survived

Historians point to several factors. The artillery fire from Nui Dat, adjusted with great precision under difficult conditions, broke up repeated attacks before they reached the Australian lines. The ammunition drop arrived just as the platoons were running short. Training and discipline kept the scattered platoons fighting, and the arrival of the armoured personnel carriers at dusk, which met Viet Cong troops forming up for a further assault, ended the battle.

Key people

Major Harry Smith commanded D Company. His leadership kept the company together, and he later campaigned for decades for better recognition of his soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Colin Townsend commanded 6RAR, and Brigadier David Jackson commanded the task force at Nui Dat.

The company was mostly made up of young men, about half of them national servicemen called up under Australia’s conscription scheme.

Aftermath and recognition

The battle secured the task force’s area of operations, and Viet Cong main-force units avoided large attacks near Nui Dat for some time. In 1968 D Company received the US Presidential Unit Citation.

Australian honours were more controversial. Many veterans felt the awards given at the time were too few and too low. After long reviews, Harry Smith received the Star of Gallantry in 2008, and in 2016 D Company and its attached personnel were awarded the Unit Citation for Gallantry.

Timeline

• 1966, June: The 1st Australian Task Force establishes its base at Nui Dat.
• 1966, 17 August: Viet Cong mortars shell the Nui Dat base.
• 1966, 18 August, afternoon: D Company, 6RAR, makes contact in the Long Tan rubber plantation.
• 1966, 18 August, evening: Ammunition is dropped by helicopter and APCs arrive with A Company.
• 1966, 19 August: Australian troops sweep the battlefield and recover their dead.
• 1969, 18 August: 6RAR erects a memorial cross on the battlefield.
• 1987: Long Tan Day is renamed Vietnam Veterans Day.
• 2017: Vietnam gives the original Long Tan Cross to Australia.

Legacy

Long Tan holds a central place in Australian memory of the war, similar to Gallipoli for an earlier generation. Each 18 August, Vietnam Veterans Day services are held across Australia. The battle was dramatised in the 2019 film Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan. Commemorations at the site in Vietnam have at times been restricted, reflecting differing views of the war in the two countries.

Why it matters

Long Tan was Australia’s most famous engagement of the Vietnam War, fought only months after the Americans’ first big battle at Ia Drang. It shows how a small allied contribution to a large war produced its own national story of courage, sacrifice and later debate.