Australia’s Greatest Battle?

 Australia’s Greatest Battle?

A little known fact of the Vietnam War was that it was not only the American and South Vietnamese Militaries that fought the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces. The Armed forces of Australia and New Zealand also partook in the conflict, due to the potential danger communism could pose to their lands if it succeeded in South East Asia, with South East Asia not being too far, geographically speaking, from Australia. Australian involvement began in 1962 in the form of 30 military advisors being sent to Vietnam, but in 1965 full fighting troops were deployed and at the height of the War there was 7,672 Military personnel deployed.

Perhaps the most well-known battle of the war in which the Australians fought in was the Battle of Long Tan. Long Tan was a Village in South Vietnam in the Phuoc Tuy province when on the 18^th August 1966, 108 men of D company of the 6^th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment encountered and fought a combined force of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military, with their strength numbering between 1500-2500 men. D company was lightly equipped and had only a small amount of ammunition available to them, but also had the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and 4 batteries of artillery in support back at headquarters in Nui Dat, whereas the enemy had a huge arsenal of weapons ranging from small arms to rocket launchers but lacked any air or artillery support.

 

 

(Map of Phuoc Tuy Province, Long Tan is located relatively central to the map, [Credit: http://premierstrategics.com/prem1bizimages/phuoctuy.gif])

D company was tracking Viet Cong movement after taking fire from mortars and old Japanese artillery at their Headquarters at Nui Dat. At 15:40 a skirmish on the left flank of the patrol signalled the start of the battle and D company soon realised that they had patrolled into the centre of a Main Force Unit, therefore making it easy for platoons to be cut off and encircled, D company was heavily outnumbered and unequipped to fight a lengthy battle. Conditions on the battlefield also disadvantaged the Australian’s further due to monsoon rains beginning. But luckily the gunfire could be heard from headquarters who quickly ordered all artillery units in the area to aid D company, despite artillery support it still wasn’t enough to repel the Vietnamese forces, and after engaging the enemy for a while D company was quickly running out of ammunition. This problem was solved by the RAAF dropping supplies from the air. 

 

D company was engaged with the Viet Cong until 22:45 that evening, when 10 M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers from 3 Troop (3^rd Cavalry Regiment) and 100 members of A company (6^th Bat, RAR) had arrived after fighting their way through the encirclement and escorting D company from the battlefield and back to Headquarters in Nui Dat.

 

D company managed to estimate that 245 Viet Cong were killed, 350 wounded and 3 captured, estimates of deaths could be higher as it is believed that the Viet Cong could have taken some of their dead with them. D company suffered 18 deaths and 24 wounded, given that they only had 108 men at the start was a considerably high number, however 8 members of the company received commendations for their actions and a further 7 were mentioned in dispatches (See Table 1). Recently a further 11 men have been awarded commendations for their actions of courage and bravery (See Table 2). The unit was given battle honours and a US Presidential Unit Citation (See Picture 1) by Lyndon Johnson on the 28^th May 1968. The Battle of Long Tan has assumed a similar significance as battles such as Gallipoli, Kokoda and Kapyong, securing its place in Australian military history and can perhaps be considered as Australia’s greatest battle?

 

Name	Commendation Awarded
Brigadier David Jackson	Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
Lieutenant Colonel Colin Townsend	Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
Captain Maurice ‘Morrie’ Stanley	Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
Major Harry Smith	Military Cross (MC)
Warrant Officer 2 Jack Kirby	Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
Corporal J. Carter	Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)
Sergeant Bob Buick	Military Medal (MM)
Private Ron Eglington	Military Medal (MM)
Lieutenant Adrian Roberts	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Second Lieutenant Geoff Kendall	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Second Lieutenant Dave Sabben	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Warrant Officer 2 Jack Roughley	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Corporal Phil Dobson	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Corporal W.R. Moore	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)
Private Bill Akell	Mentioned in Dispatches (MID)

(Table 1: The list below sets out the original decorations and awards bestowed under the Commonwealth system. Credit:http://battleoflongtan.com/medals-decorations-awards/)

Recipient	Birthplace and DOB	What had been Awarded for service at Long Tan	DHAAT Review recommendation
Sergeant Francis Xavier ALCORTA OAM	Born in the Basque region of Spain in 1936	Nil	That Sergeant Alcorta be recommended for the Medal of Gallantry
Private Neil Raymond BEXTRUM	Born in Carlton, Victoria on 21 May, 1945	Nil	That Private Bextrum be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Private Ronald Howard BRETT (deceased)	Born in Gulargambone, New South Wales on 15 February, 1947	Nil	That Private Brett be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Private Ian Martin CAMPBELL	Born in Brisbane on 9 June, 1945	Nil	That Private Campbell be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Private Noel John GRIMES	Born in Brisbane 4 February, 1945	Nil	That Private Grimes be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Warrant Officer Class 2 John William KIRBY DCM (deceased)	Born in Sydney on 11 February, 1935	Distinguished Conduct Medal	That the Chief of Army’s decision be affirmed
Lance Corporal Barry Eugene MAGNUSSEN (deceased)	Born in Brisbane on 15 May, 1945	Nil	That Lance Corporal Magnussen be recommended of the Medal of Gallantry
Private Allen James MAY	Born in Home Hill, Queensland on 26 March, 1945	Nil	That the Chief of Army’s decision be affirmed
Corporal William Richard MOORE (deceased)	Born in St George, Queensland on 2 June, 1941	Mention in Despatches	That the Chief of Army’s decision be affirmed
Private Geoffrey Michael PETERS	Born in Sydney on 25 June, 1946	Nil	That Private Peters be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Colonel Francis Adrian ROBERTS OAM	Born in Midland Junction, Western Australia on 11 October, 1939	Mention in Despatches	That Colonel Roberts return his Mention in Dispatches and be recommended for the Medal of Gallantry
Private Willian Alfred ROCHE	Born in Nerrandera, New South Wales on 5 May, 1941	Nil	That Private Roche be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry
Second Lieutenant Gordon Cameron SHARP (deceased)	Born in Tamworth, New South Wales on 17 March, 1945	Nil	That Second Lieutenant Sharp be recommended for the Commendation for Gallantry

(Table 2: Table of soldiers whose actions at the battle where reviewed to see if they were deserving of a medal, review took place in 2016. Credit: http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2016/08/10/military-awards-for-long-tan-veterans)

 

(Picture 1: The Presidential Unit Citation that was presented to D Company for their heroism in the Battle of Long Tan. Credit: [http://www.6rarassociation.com/images/Presidential%20Unit%20Citation.jpg])