Battle of Long Tan

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Battle of Long Tân
Part of the Vietnam War

Soldiers from D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, during the Battle of Long Tan. (An official portrait, painted by Bruce Fletcher in 1970; events that occurred at different times during the battle are shown here as happening simultaneously)
Date August 18 – August 19, 1966
Location Long Tân, Phuoc Thuy Province, Republic of Vietnam
Result Decisive ANZUS victory.
Combatants
Australia
New Zealand
United States		 Viet Cong
North Vietnam
Commanders
Major Harry Smith Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hong
Strength
108 (original force, not including reinforcements) 1,000-2,500 (disputed)
Casualties
18 killed,
24 wounded		 245 killed (about 150 killed and wounded according to Vietnamese sources)
Vietnam War
Ap Bac – Binh Gia – Song Be – Dong Xoai – Ia Drang – Long Tan – Dak To – Tra Binh Dong –Ong Thanh – 1st Tet – Khe Sanh – 1st Saigon – Lang Vei – Hills 881 & 861 – 2nd Tet – Hamburger Hill – Binh Ba – Ripcord – Lam Son 719 – FSB Mary Ann – Easter '72 – An Loc – Kontum – Phuoc Long – Ho Chi Minh – Buon Me Thuot – Xuan Loc – 2nd Saigon – Barrell Roll – Rolling Thunder – Pony Express – Steel Tiger – Commando Hunt – Linebacker I – Linebacker II – Chenla I – Tiger Hound – Lima Site 85 – Tailwind – Chenla II – Cambodia

The Battle of Long Tần is arguably the most famous battle fought by the Australian Army during the Vietnam War. It was fought in a rubber plantation near the village of Long Tần, about 40 km north-east of Vung Tau, South Vietnam on August 18–19, 1966.

The action occurred when D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR), part of the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF), encountered the Viet Cong (VC) 275 Regiment and elements of the D445 Local Forces Battalion. D Company was supported by other Australian units, as well as New Zealand and United States personnel.

The battle is often used in Australian officer training as an example of the importance of combining and coordinating infantry, artillery, armour and military aviation.

Contents

[edit] Background

1ATF arrived in Vietnam in May 1966 and was based at the Nui Dat base, in Phuoc Tuy Province. (As of 2005, Nui Dat and Long Tan are both in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.) 6RAR was composed mainly of conscripts. The Australians faced formidable enemy forces, which were operating on home soil:

Within Phouc Tuy and the neighbouring provinces of Bien Hoa, Long Khanh and Binh Tuy, the principle [sic] main force formation… was the 5th NLF Division, which usually had its headquarters in the Mây Tào Mountains. It consisted of 274th Regiment and the 275th Regiment plus supporting units. North Vietnamese regulars were used to boost and reinforce this South Vietnamese Viet Cong formation…[1]

[edit] Events leading up to the battle

Australian field intelligence had tracked a radio transmitter moving south for several weeks but were unsure about what unit it belonged to. Aggressive patrolling failed to find this unit.

On the night of 17-18 August, the Viet Cong 275th Regiment fired over 100 mortar rounds into the 103 Battery area and 22 Australian soldiers were wounded, one later dying from his wounds. B Company 6RAR was sent out early on the morning of the 18th to find the VC heavy weapons. D Company (to which was attached three New Zealand Army personnel) relieved B Company at midday. The commander of B Company, Major Noel Ford, briefed the D Company commander, Major Harry Smith, and B Company returned to base. After discussing the situation with the 6 RAR battalion commander, Lt Col. Colin Townsend, D Company moved to the east towards the limit of their covering artillery range.

Members of D Company found new VC tracks and spread out into a wide formation, to maximise the chances of contact. Two platoons led the way, with company headquarters behind them and a third platoon in the rear.

[edit] First contact

At 15:40, a small group of VC soldiers walked into the middle of 11 Platoon on the right flank of D Company. One was killed in the action, the area was cleared and 11 Platoon moved forward again.

Several light mortar rounds were fired towards the company position landing to the east, most likely the same mortars that had fired at the base on the night of 16 August. The accompanying Forward Observation Officer (FO), New Zealand Captain Morrie Stanley, organised counter battery fire, probably destroying them, as the mortars were not fired again. This diversion separated the main company slightly from 11 Platoon, putting the main body behind a slight rise.

[edit] The action

As 11 Platoon continued to advance they were attacked by heavy machine gun fire and sustained casualties. Following normal contact procedures, the platoon went into a defensive position. The VC formed an assault and attacked 11 Platoon around 20 minutes after initial contact with support from their heavy machine guns.

Stanley called in all available artillery support from the 1ATF artillery units, and 10 Platoon moved up to the left of 11 Platoon to relieve pressure on them and allow them to withdraw to the company defensive position out of the heavy machine gun fire. The commander of 11 Platoon, an ex-conscript 2nd Lt named Gordon Sharp, was killed and Sergeant Bob Buick assumed command of the platoon.

Heavy monsoon rain began falling on the battlefield.

10 Platoon, under 2nd Lt Geoff Kendall, also came under fire and went into a defensive position. 12 Platoon, commanded by 2nd Lt Dave Sabben, had been the reserve platoon, and it was ordered to the right to support 11 Platoon. 12 Platoon left one section behind to support Company HQ.

Stanley called for close air support but when it arrived it was unable to identify targets due to the weather and rubber plantation. The US aircraft dropped their bombs to the east causing disruption to the VC rear areas.

The Australian soldiers were carrying a light load, approximately five magazines, and quickly ran low on ammunition. At 5:00pm Smith called for an ammunition resupply. By coincidence, two Iroquois helicopters of the Royal Australian Air Force were available at the Nui Dat base, having just been used as transport for a Col Joye and Little Pattie concert. The helicopters flew low in monsoon rain and dropped the ammunition right into the company perimeter.

The survivors of 11 Platoon withdrew to the company position.

Smith requested reinforcements. B Company HQ with its one platoon had not yet got back to base and was ordered back to D Company’s position. Back at Nui Dat base A Company were ordered to ready themselves and the M-113 armoured personnel carriers of 3 Troop 1 APC Squadron to transport them. There is some controversy as there was a long delay in this force departing. It seems they were ordered to be ready to move but not ordered to move.

The VC continually formed assault waves and moved forward but were broken up by artillery fire. Fortunately for the attackers, the soft boggy ground reduced the effect of the shell bursts, but there were a large number of wounded. The soldiers of D Company showed excellent discipline, holding their line and repulsing any VC that got through the artillery barrage. D Company were supported by 24 105 mm and 155 mm guns from Australian, New Zealand's 161 Battery and the US 2/35 Battalion, which fired deeper into VC positions. Over 3,000 rounds of artillery were fired throughout the remainder of the battle and likely forming up VC positions during the night. The Australian A Battery fired rounds every 15 seconds for three hours. The 2/35 Battalion was in the same base as the A Battery and US gunners assisted the exhausted Australian gunners by carrying artillery rounds to the guns.

The reverse slope that D Company used for defense meant that the VC found it difficult to use their heavy calibre weapons effectively; the VC could only engage the Australians at close range. The VC tried to find the Australian flanks but the wide dispersal and excellent defensive position meant the VC thought they were up against a larger enemy.

At last light two APC-mounted rifle companies on board ten APCs arrived under command of Lt-Col Cohn Townsend and smashed into the flank of the VC. In teeming monsoon rain 3 Troop A Company under Lt Adrian Roberts and 2 Troop A Company under Lt Peter Dinham, dismounted and attacked the forward elements of D445 Battalion, taking them by surprise. B Company personnel also dismounted and attacked the fleeing enemy, withdrawing to the east. An Australian soldier of one of the rifle companies was killed as they attacked the D445 Battalion position.

The fresh reinforcements formed a perimeter around D Company allowing them to treat the wounded and rest. During the night the Artillery fired on likely forming-up points of the VC and some wounded were evacuated by helicopter. This was a strong force and should have been able to repulse any night attack. As it was there was no further contact.

The next day the dead and wounded from 11 Platoon’s position were recovered and the enemy dead buried. US forces later claimed to have captured documents indicating 500 killed and 750 wounded. Private Terry Burstall recorded his impressions of the battlefield the next day.

When I returned to the battlefield the day after the battle, there were bodies lying all through the area ... Would a shell-shocked digger count an arm, a trunk and a leg scattered over several metres as one body or three bodies? Nobody knew or cared at the time, and certainly not the people doing the counting. ...Looking back I don't really think that I would have seen more than 50 bodies and I spent three days in the area.[2]

The Australian losses were 18 killed and 24 wounded.

[edit] Controversies and conclusions

Both the Vietnamese and Australian militaries have disputed each other’s version. The first North Vietnamese communique crowed that the "Liberation Fighters ... wiped out almost completely one Battalion of the Australian Mercenaries in an ambush in the Long Tan Village." There have also been accusations that the Australians and Americans greatly exaggerated VC casualties. For example, the information recieved by Terry Burstall, a private soldier in D Company has Vietcong dead at around 50.

Many Vietnamese participants are adamant that D Company had walked into an ambush. The VC had planned to draw the Australian force into the bush area to the north of the rubber plantation where they had several heavy weapons set up on the feature known as Nui Dat 2 GR4868. One-hundred men of the local D445 Battalion were on the south near the depleted village of Long Tan. One platoon of D445 had been placed on the south western edge of the plantation with several rocket launchers hoping to slow down any APC-mounted reinforcements and cut off any Autstralian retreat. In 2006, Sau Thu, a former major in D445 Battalion, was quoted as saying that he had been ordered to lure the Australians out of Nui Dat, kill as many of them as possible, capture their weapons and then take the base. "We didn't know how many you had in Nui Dat. We tried to draw them out… We thought they would go one way but the Australian soldiers went the wrong way and came behind us."[3]

In 2006, Sabben and Buick visited the site of the battle. They met Nguyen Minh Ninh, former vice-commander of D445 Battalion, and were shocked to hear him admit that "You [the Australians] won… tactically and militarily, you won,". It was the first time that a Vietnamese commander has admitted such a thing to Australians.[4]

Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hong (nicknamed Hai) was amazed that the Australians could look on the battle as a victory:

How can you claim a victory when you allowed yourselves to walk into a trap that we had set? Admittedly we did not finish the job, but that was only because time beat us and your reinforcements arrived. I mean you did not even attempt to follow us up. How can you claim a significant victory from that sort of behaviour? [5]

Australian commanders have been accused of being foolhardy sending lightly armed and small units into an area where an entire Vietnamese regiment was known to be operating. Smith maintains he was never told about this large force. It seems army intelligence knew that VC forces were moving south towards Nui Dat but there was no indication that it was a full regiment.

Why the reinforcements took so long to get moving has never been fully explained. 1ATF HQ thought that they were moving but it was by accident that a staff officer noticed they had not moved. They were then ordered to move immediately. Most likely the order was vague or misunderstood.

A driver of one of the 1 APC Squadron vehicles was injured as they approached the D Company position. The APC returned to base. There was a dispute who was in command as it had not been made clear who was in command at this point, the commander of the APCs or the commander of the A Company mounted in the APCs. In response to the conflict over the APC that returned to base the command structure of combined units was more clearly defined.

The Australian ammunition resupply, when it arrived, was still inside its packing crates. The tired soldiers had to break open these crates and load their magazines from boxes of ammunition. Magazines were considered part of soldiers’ weapons and issuing was strictly controlled. Afterwards this ammunition was resupplied in magazines and control of magazines relaxed. Soldiers started to carry more supplies, including more ammunition and food, to enable prolonged operations.

[edit] Commemoration and reconciliation

A US Presidential Unit Citation (PUC) was awarded to D Company 6RAR, by President Lyndon B. Johnson on May 28, 1968, for the unit's actions at Long Tan. (Soldiers posted to D Company 6RAR still wear the PUC on their uniforms.)

Townsend was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Smith was recommended for a Distinguished Service Order, but received the lower award of a Military Cross. Each of the three platoon commanders were recommended for Military Crosses but none were awarded. Two Distinguished Conduct Medals, and two Military Medals were also awarded. The lack of recognition paid to Australian veterans by the Australian government has been the subject of intense criticism on their part. It was only in November 2006 that John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia had acknowledged the poor treatment the veterans received. He personally visited Long Tan to pay his respects and is the first Australian Prime Minister to do so.

A total of 22 members of D Company were awarded South Vietnamese medals. However it had long been the policy of the Australian military that its members could not accept awards from foreign powers, including allies. It was only in June 2004 that the awards were finally accepted by the Minister of Defence.

6RAR erected a concrete cross to commemorate those that died. This was removed by the government of Vietnam following the communist victory in 1975, but has now been replaced by a larger monument of similar design. The original is on display at Dong Nai province museum in Bien Hoa.

In more recent times former officers from D Company have visited Vietnam and met former adversaries.

The date the battle began, August 18, is commemorated in Australia as Long Tan Day, also known as Vietnam Veterans' Remembrance Day.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.5rar.asn.au/tactics.htm
  2. ^ Terry Burstall, A Soldier Returns, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1990, pp 77-79
  3. ^ Steve Pennells, "We lost battle, says VC officer", The West Australian (print edition), 14/8/2006
  4. ^ http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20023504-31477,00.html
  5. ^ Terry Burstall, Long Tan: The Other Side of the Hill, 1991

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/a/t/Battle_of_Long_Tan_5874.html"