Battle of Long Tan
Long Tân rubber plantation, Phước Tuy Province (now Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu), Vietnam
What happened
An Australian company, D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, under Major Harry Smith, fought much larger Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. During the Vietnam War, an Australian company went out to find the forces that had shelled their base at Nui Dat. In a rubber plantation they met a far larger force and were pinned down. Artillery support, ammunition dropped by helicopter, and a relief force in armoured vehicles arriving at night saved the company, and the Viet Cong withdrew.
Why it matters
Why it matters: At first the Australians saw it as a defeat, but it was later seen as a strategic victory because it stopped an attack on Nui Dat. The Viet Cong also regarded it as a victory, and historians still debate its effect.
What came next
In 1969 Australian and New Zealand soldiers put up a cross on the battlefield. In 2017 Vietnam gave the original cross to Australia.
Did you know?
The Long Tan Cross was displayed in a Vietnamese provincial museum for years before Vietnam gifted it to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Timeline
- 18 August 1966The Battle of Long Tan is fought.
- 21 August 1966The Australian operation ends.
- 18 August 1969The Long Tan Cross is put up on the battlefield.
- 1984The Đồng Nai Province Museum puts the cross on display.
- 6 December 2017The cross goes on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial.