The Battle of Long Tan took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tan, in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Rubber Plantation
The action was fought between Australian forces and Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units after 108 men from D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR) clashed with a force of 1,500 to 2,500 from the Viet Cong 275th Regiment, possibly reinforced by at least one North Vietnamese battalion, and D445 Provincial Mobile Battalion.
Australian Army
In the late afternoon of 18 August 1966, D Company, 6 RAR, fought for their lives for three hours in pouring rain, amid the mud and shattered trees of the Long Tan rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. Facing an enemy force of some 2500 North Vietnam Army regulars and Vietcong guerrillas, this company of mostly young national servicemen, led by a few regulars, called upon all facets of battlefield support for survival. Above all it called heavily on the determination, professionalism and courage of the soldiers on the ground.
Commemoration Ceremony
The Battle of Long Tan was costly for Australia. Eighteen young Australians, in which the youngest was nineteen and the oldest was twenty two, lost their lives as a result of this battle. Twenty one soldiers were wounded. Decades after the war in Vietnam ceased, Australians are returning there. As well as a tourist destination, Vietnam is a country where Australians, young and old, can examine and come face-to-face with one of our most tumultuous periods of history.
Long Tan Cross
Today, due to the process of normalization the relation between Vietnam and Australia, a number of veterans have come to Vietnam every year to memorize their old friends who died in the battle.
Lots of People Visiting Long Tan Cross
Other than a memorial to the French forces at Dien Bien Phu, it is the only place in Vietnam where a foreign memorial has been permitted. Contained within the circle suspended above are the names of those Australians who died in the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1973.
Long Tan Cross Filled with Foreigners
Vietnam veterans did not have an easy time on their return from the War. The dedication of the Vietnam Memorial in 1992 was the beginning of a healing process for Vietnam veterans and the Australian nation. Some people wore their service medals as well as peace badges.
Foreign Minister, The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, places a wreath during an early morning visit to the Long Tan Cross.
Australian veterans have revisited and helped to renew places devastated by the war and isolation from the west, including building schools and conducting education and health programs.
Road leading to Long Tan Battle
However, unlike other places where Australians have fought, Vietnam does not have many places where an Australian presence is evident in the way of cemeteries or museums, other than the memorial at Long Tan.
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