Battle of Long Tan remembered on 47th anniversary (Vietnam Veterans' Day - Australia)

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ^ | 18th August 2013 | Catherine Clifford

[naturalman1975]

More than 50,000 Australians who served in the Vietnam War will be honoured today on Vietnam Veterans Day, which also marks the 47th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

The battle was one of the bloodiest of the Vietnam War, and saw eighteen Australians killed and two dozen wounded during fire fight with the Viet Cong.

On August 18, 1966, Patricia Amphlett - or Little Pattie as she is better known - was on stage with Col Joye and the Joy Boys performing for the Australian troops just before the battle broke out.

A teenage girl at the time, Little Pattie stood before a cheering open-air audience when the crowd began to scatter.

"It was at the beginning, I think, of show three, or thereabouts, that I could see officers leaving," she said.

"And I thought, 'Wow, I think this is pretty serious now,' and close to 4 o'clock we were given the sign - the index finger across someone's throat, which means, 'Get off!'

"So we finished the song and we got off stage.

"But at the end of that song a lot of action took place within the audience; the word spread that something bad was going on and, indeed, that was the beginning of the Battle of Long Tan."

[naturalman1975]

I was only nineteen at YouTube.

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal,
(It was a long march from cadets).
The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card...
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.

And Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean
And there's me in my slouch hat, with my SLR and greens…
God help me, I was only nineteen.

From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat,
I'd been in and out of choppers now for months.
But we made our tents a home, VB and pin-ups on the lockers,
and an Asian orange sunset through the scrub.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And night time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only nineteen.

A four week operation, when each step could mean your last one on two legs
It was a war within yourself.
But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off,
So you closed your eyes and thought about something else.

Then someone yelled out "Contact"', and the bloke behind me swore.
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar;
Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon -
God help me, he was going home in June.

I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau.
And I can still hear Frankie lying screaming in the jungle.
'Till the morphine came and killed the bloody row

And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears,
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel...
God help me, I was only nineteen.

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me,
I was only nineteen.

[tumblindice]

Australia rocks.

[Gay State Conservative]

I recall having seen a documentary on Long Tan some time ago.I clearly recall that it was made obvious that the Aussies fought damn bravely...and damn skillfully.I think I'll check youtube to see if I can find something there on the battle.

Having seen in your profile that your Dad died in Vietnam I'll bet that Vietnam Veterans Day has a powerful meaning to you,naturalman.I think it's very fitting indeed that your veterans of Vietnam should be honored in that way.

[elcid1970]

Never knew until now about the battle of Long Tan. I didn’t arrive in Vietnam until 1971. Saw a few 3/4 T trucks with the white circle & kangaroo but soon they were gone. That September they closed Sidney as an R&R site.

Will have to learn more about our brave Aussie allies.

[Zhang Fei]

Pretty epic engagement. A single RAR company (staffed by regulars) backed by artillery kills or wounds half of a Communist force consisting of a regiment of NVA regulars and an attached VC battalion. Despite Australian firepower superiority, the numbers disparity, which favored the Communists, and the short distances at which they fought, meant that the company was in constant danger of being overrun and only narrowly escaped being destroyed because a relief force consisting of two companies came to the rescue.

[Gay State Conservative]

That September they closed Sidney as an R&R site.

Hmmm,strange that they should do that.I wonder if that was our decision or Australia's.

[elcid1970]

For some reason I now recall from 1972 articles in the Pacific Stars & Stripes about guys who got out & moved to Australia to find pretty Aussie wives & then settled down there.

[Stonewall Jackson]

The Long Tan Cross was a memorial established at the battle site in 1969 (third anniversary of the battle), but was removed in 1975, following the communist victory. In 1984 it was put on display at the Dong Nai Province Museum, just a few miles from the battle site.

In the late 1980's the Long Dat District People's Committee established a replica of the memorial at the site of the original marker. It is one of only two memorials to foreign troops (the other being a French memorial at Dien Bien Phu) allowed in Vietnam. The memorial is a common visitation site for Australian Vietnam Veterans.

[Zhang Fei]

Will have to learn more about our brave Aussie allies.

I think all who fought were brave. What differentiated this Australian unit was that it was composed of regulars some of whom might have seen service in Malaya during the Emergency against Chicom-funded, -equipped and -trained communist guerrillas. Ultimately, the British counter-insurgency effort there prevailed mainly because Malaya (unlike Vietnam) lacked a common border with China, making resupply difficult. However, it's likely that Australian forces gained experience there that would prove to be valuable in Vietnam, in terms of not making rookie mistakes.

[familyop]

Thanks to the brave soldiers of Australia.

[Buffalo Head]

"Will have to learn more about our brave Aussie allies."

We had some Chu Hois (Spelling??) come around and evaluate our base perimeter. They were either captured VC or VC that had turned themselves into the SVN government and were working their way back into good graces.

They couldn't speak English but the ARVN's served as interpreters for us. After they completed their official business we had sort of a BS session with them.

One of the questions asked was to rate the SEATO members that they fought against.

1. They preferred to fight Americans because we didn't fight too hard and they could expect to be treated well if captured.

2. Next on the list was the ARVNs. They fought even less well than the Americans but there was Hell to pay if captured.

3. They did not deliberately engage with the Australians. They fought much harder than the Americans but were even worse than the ARVNs if captured.

4. If they knew South Koreans were in the area, they abandoned the area as quickly as possible.

Having worked with both the Australians and South Koreans, it was easy to understand the VC's fear of them.

Please don't shoot the messenger. I'm just reporting what the former VC told us.

[naturalman1975]

Hmmm,strange that they should do that.I wonder if that was our decision or Australia's.

Australia's but it wasn't for any 'nefarious' reason. Over 300,000 US servicemen did R&R in Sydney between 1967 and 1971, and a lot of it relied on volunteers from non-government organisations (notably the CWA - Australian's Country Women's Association) arranging accommodation and hospitality with Australian families and they felt the stress more and more as time went on. By 1971, both Australia and the US were gradually withdrawing forces from Vietnam, and the need for as wide a range of R&R facilities than had previously been necessary was reduced.

[Gay State Conservative]

If they knew South Koreans were in the area, they abandoned the area as quickly as possible.

It's not difficult for me to see why this might might have been true.They were fighting in their own "neighborhood" and very probably had at least an historic,if not an actual,memory of the Korean War.

They did not deliberately engage with the Australians. They fought much harder than the Americans but were even worse than the ARVNs if captured.

Strange that they'd see the Aussies as less "accommodating" captors than us.Maybe there was more than a little bit of truth in "Breaker Morant" (an *outstanding* film for anyone who hasn't seen it).

[Gay State Conservative]

The Battle of Long Tan

[Zhang Fei]

If they knew South Koreans were in the area, they abandoned the area as quickly as possible.

A fair number of Koreans were drafted into the Imperial Japanese military units. It wouldn't surprise me if the ROK attitude towards captured enemy fell a little short of the Geneva Conventions.