Skip to main content
  • dva.gov.au
  • anzaccentenary.gov.au

The Anzac Portal

Home
Home
  • Home
  • History
    • Conflicts
      • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
      • Australians on the Western Front
      • Australia and the Second World War
      • The Thai–Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass
      • The Kokoda Track
      • Australian involvement in South-East Asian conflicts
      • The Korean War
      • Australia and the Vietnam War
    • Special features
      • Veterans' stories
      • Great War memories
      • Victoria Cross recipients
  • Education
    • Education
      • Year 9 History resources
      • Year 10 History resources
      • Anzac Day resources for primary schools
      • All education resources
    • Competitions
      • Anzac Day Schools' Awards
    • Curriculum units
    • Online activities
      • Coming Home: An investigation of the Armistice and Repatriation
      • Keeping the Peace: Investigating Australia's contribution to peacekeeping
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Documents
    • Images
    • Publications
      • 1916—Fromelles and the Somme
      • 1917—Bapaume and Bullecourt
      • 1917—Ypres
      • 1918—Amiens to Hindenburg Line
      • 1918—Villers-Bretonneux to Le Hamel
      • A Bitter Fate—Australians In Malaya & Singapore
      • Ancestry—Stories of multicultural Anzacs
      • Audacity—Stories of heroic Australians in wartime
      • Australian Flying Corps
      • Australian Light Horse—Palestine 1916–1918
      • Bomber Command
      • Candour: Stories in the words of those who served 1914—18
      • Chinese Anzacs
      • Comradeship—Stories of friendship and recreation in wartime
      • Curiosity—Stories of those who report during wartime
      • Decision—Stories of Leadership in the Services
      • Devotion—Stories of Australia's Wartime Nurses
      • Forever Yours
      • Gallipoli
      • Greece and Crete
      • Home Front
      • Laden, Fevered, Starved—the POWs of Sandakan
      • Memories and Memorabilia
      • North Africa and Syria
      • North Beach Gallipoli 1915
      • Operation Jaywick
      • Resource—Stories of innovation in wartime
      • Royal Australian Navy
      • Royal Australian Navy in the Atlantic and Mediterranean
      • The sinking of the Centaur
      • United Kingdom
      • Valuing our veterans
      • World Wide Effort: Australia's Peacekeepers
    • Videos
  • Conduct an event
    • Multimedia
    • Resources
    • Sample Speeches
  • Resources
    • #1MS (1 Minute's Silence)
    • 60th Anniversary of the Korean War
    • 70th Anniversary Tobruk 1941
    • 70th Anniversary of the battles for Greece and Crete
    • 70th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign
    • 70th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin
    • 95th Anniversary of the landings on Gallipoli
    • ADSA 2019 Poster
    • Anzac Centenary School Link Program
    • Anzac Day poster
    • Anzac Day poster
    • Australia and the Vietnam War
    • Australian Prisoners of War
    • Australian Women in War
    • Australians at War Film Archive
    • Australians on the Western Front
    • Centenary of the Flanders Offensive
    • Centenary of the Royal Australian Navy
    • Centenary of the Sinai–Palestine campaign
    • Centenary of the Somme
    • Commemorating Australian Forces in the Vietnam War
    • Commemorating Australian forces in the Korean War
    • Commemorating Australian forces in the Vietnam War 1962–1975
    • Commemorating Australian prisoners of war on the Burma–Thailand Railway
    • Commemorating the Centenary of the Gallipoli Landings
    • Commemorating the Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation
    • Commemorating the first convoy of Australian troops to the First World War
    • Commemorating the return of Australian forces from Afghanistan
    • Discovering Anzacs Exhibition Tips and Tools (Learn Area)
    • Discovering Anzacs School and Community Toolkit (Learn Area)
    • Discovering Anzacs Video Tutorials and Timeline (Learn Area)
    • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
    • Great Debates: The Anzac Legend
    • Great Debates—Conscription
    • Here they come—A day to remember
    • INTERFET—International Forces for East Timor
    • Indigenous Service
    • Investigating Gallipoli
    • Kokoda: Exploring the Second World War campaign in Papua New Guinea
    • Korea—A Cold War conflict (1950–1953)
    • M is for Mates—Animals in Wartime from Ajax to Zep
    • Remembering Them app—Education Activities
    • Remembrance Day Posters 2018
    • Remembrance day
    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Primary Resource)
    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Secondary Resource)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube Education Activities (Secondary)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube—Education Activities (Primary school resource)
    • The Flanders Poppy—A symbol of remembrance
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Korean War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Vietnam War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian World War 2 Veterans
    • The Sinking of HMAS Sydney
    • The War that Changed Us Education Activities
    • Their Spirit, Our History
    • Wartime Snapshots No. 24: Commemorating the centenary of the Armistice
    • Wartime snapshot #23—1918-2018: Centenary of the Final Campaigns
    • We Remember Anzac (Primary Resource)
    • We Remember Anzac (Secondary Resource)
    • We'll Meet Again
  • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
  • Australians on the Western Front
  • Australia and the Second World War
  • The Thai–Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass
  • The Kokoda Track
  • Australian involvement in South-East Asian conflicts
  • The Korean War
  • Australia and the Vietnam War
  • Australia and the Vietnam War
  • Events
  • Locations
  • Resources
  • Australia and the Vietnam War
    • The Vietnam War
      • Background
        • Australia, communism and Southeast Asia after Dien Bien Phu
        • Ngo Dinh Diem visits Australia
        • Ho Chi Minh
      • Australia enters - 1962
      • The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
        • Three members of the team
      • Bien Hoa Province
    • All the way with LBJ
      • The Americans' war - At home and overseas
      • Rest and recreation in Sydney - 'R and R'
    • Armour
      • Conditions
      • Supporting armour - engineers
    • Artillery
    • Royal Australian Navy
      • Vung Tau Ferry
      • On the gunline - destroyers
      • Clearance divers
      • Helicopter flight
      • 9 Squadron RAAF detachment
    • Royal Australian Air Force
      • 35 Squadron
        • Crash landing at A Ro
      • 9 Squadron
      • 2 Squadron
      • Other RAAF Personnel
      • RAAF 1975
        • Operation Babylift
        • Life in a dangerous city
        • The end in Vietnam
  • Events
    • Phuoc Tuy Province
      • Nui Dat
        • Settling in
        • A minefield
        • Entertaining the troops
      • Vung Tau
        • Settling in
      • Civilian aid
    • Combat
      • The other side
      • Patrolling
        • Fire support bases
      • Viet Cong tunnels
      • Battle of Long Tan
        • The battle
        • The other side
      • Operation Bribie
      • Battle of Coral/Balmoral
        • Coral attack 1
        • Patrolling
        • Coral attack 2
        • Balmoral attack 1
        • The bunkers
        • Balmoral attack 2
        • The final actions
      • Battle of Binh Ba
        • The battle begins
        • The second assault
        • The battle winds down
        • Aftermath
    • The Tet Offensive
      • Baria
      • Long Dien
      • Other task force actions
    • Conscription
      • The Birthday Ballot - National Service
      • Moratoriums and opposition
        • The draft resisters union
        • The case of John Zarb
      • 'Save Our Sons'
        • The Fairlea Five
    • Public opinion
    • Vietnamisation - pulling out
    • Aftermath
      • Veterans
        • 'My Vietnam'
      • Australian Vietnam Veterans Reconstruction Group
      • Agent Orange
        • Vietnamese victims
  • Locations
    • Commemoration
  • Resources
    • Vietnam war myths
    • Roll of Honour image gallery
      • Profiles
    • Vietnam War stories

You are here

  • Home
  • History
  • Conflicts
  • Australia and the Vietnam War
  • Events
  • Combat

Battle of Long Tan

Bruce Fletcher painting of Long Tan Action, Vietnam, 18 August 1966

Long Tan Action, Vietnam, 18 August 1966. Bruce Fletcher, 1970. Fletcher's painting is a reconstruction of several different events that occurred during the Battle of Long Tan fought on 18 August 1966 between 'D' Company, 6RAR and Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces. [Oil on canvas 152 x 175cm. AWM ART40758]

In May 1966 the first soldiers of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) arrived in South Vietnam; the rest followed in June. Within two months elements of the battalion found themselves engaged in one of the largest battles fought by Australians in the Vietnam War.

By August 1966 the Australian task force base at Nui Dat was only three months old. Concerned at the establishment of such a strong presence in their midst, the Viet Cong determined to inflict an early defeat on the Australians. In the days before the battle, radio signals indicated the presence of strong Viet Cong forces within 5 kilometres of the base but patrols found nothing. On the night of 16–17 August Nui Dat came under fire from mortars and recoilless rifles. The defenders stood to, expecting the barrage to be followed by an assault. None came. Searches of the area the next day located some of the sites from which mortars had been fired, but nothing else.

Patrols continued the following day, 18 August. D Company left the base at 11.15 that morning bound for the Long Tan rubber plantation. As they departed Nui Dat the sounds of a concert by Little Pattie, the Australian entertainer, reached their ears. They entered the Long Tan plantation at 3.15 that afternoon. Less than an hour later the Viet Cong attacked in force, putting the Australians under mortar, machine gun and small arms fire. Only the quick response of a New Zealand artillery battery to desperate calls for support saved D Company from annihilation.

Major Harry Smith, Officer Commanding (OC) Delta Company 6RAR, holds a briefing in the field shortly before his company returned to Long Tan the day after the battle
Exhausted members of 6RAR push through the scrub
Three soldiers take a break from gathering weapons left on the battlefield
Armoured Personnel Carrier Commander, Lance Corporal Rex Warren, watches for Viet Cong as he moves through the rubber plantation searching for the enemy
Private David Collins, 6RAR, guards a captured Viet Cong soldier found hiding on the battlefield the next day
Troops of 6RAR fire an Armoured Personnel Carrier mounted mortar
An Australian treats a wounded Viet Cong soldier, found on the battlefield the day after the battle
Private Jim Richmond, wounded, found 12 hours after the battle by members of his platoon. He had been shot twice through the chest and lay all night, face down, at his section post
A small, jagged and rusty shell splinter salvaged from the battlefield at Long Tan
Private Ken Meredith and a group of signallers wait for the order to return to base after the Long Tan battle

Almost as soon as the battle began a torrential downpour added to the gloom in the rubber plantation. The Australians, surrounded, short of ammunition and fighting an enemy whose strength they could only guess at, called for helicopters to drop ammunition to them. Flying at tree-top height, braving the terrible weather and heavy Viet Cong fire, two RAAF helicopters located the beleaguered Australians and dropped boxes of ammunition and blankets for the wounded.

The survivors of D Company along with accurate artillery fire from New Zealand's 161 Field Battery as well as the Australian 103 and 105 Field batteries and a United States battery inflicted heavy losses on the Viet Cong. As the fighting continued Australian reinforcements were committed to the battle. B Company was on the way and A Company, loaded into Armoured Personnel Carriers of 3 Troop, 1 Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron, which fought its way into D Company just before 7 pm as daylight was fading. The Viet Cong had been massing for another assault but were forced to retreat into the plantation. They had suffered terrible casualties, but only when the Australians returned to the scene of battle the following morning did they realise the extent of the defeat that they had inflicted on the enemy. The Australians counted 245 enemy dead still in the plantation and surrounding jungle with evidence that others had already been removed from the battlefield. Captured documents and information from prisoners suggested that D Company had faced some 2,500 Viet Cong. Eighteen Australians were killed in the Battle of Long Tan and 24 wounded, all but one of the dead were from D Company.

Related content

Map showing the route of relief force at long tan. 5.45-7:15pm, 18 Aug 1966

Map showing the relief of Long Tan.

Phuoc Tuy Province map indicating province boundary, district boundary, minefield and rubber plantations

Map of Phuoc Tuy Province.

PDF icon Sketches of battle stages (pdf 975.73 KB) (975.73 KB)

Sketches detailing the movements of Australian and enemy troops during the Battle of Long Tan. [To Long Tan, Ian McNeill, Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial, 1993]

PDF icon The Canberra Times headlines (pdf 283.5 KB) (283.5 KB)

Headlines from The Canberra Times, August 20, 1966.

PDF icon After action reports (pdf 4.02 MB) (4.02 MB)

The Australian War Memorial holds vast collections of after action reports and unit diaries from the war in Vietnam. Pages 21-41 of this report on Operation Smithfield (Long Tan) contain Delta Company Commander Major Harry Smith's detailed account of his Company's action at Long Tan. [Commanding Officer After Action Report (COAAR) Operation Smithfield, 1-31 January 1967, AWM 95, 1/4/26]

PDF icon Long Tan battle record (pdf 2.18 MB) (2.18 MB)

A record of the battle of Long Tan from Task Force HQ Log – Citation for a Rifle Company, Royal Australian Infantry Corps, Ingleburn, NSW. January 1970 pp 20-28.

Interview 4 Sergeant Bob Buick

Australians at War Film Archive. Interview No.2181

Sergeant Bob Buick, 6RAR, served with 11 Platoon D Company during the Battle of Long Tan. In this section of his interview he recalls his memories of being under enemy fire and, at the same time, explains the difficulty of conveying the personal reality of battle to anyone who wasn't involved.

Interview 1 Second Lieutenant David Sabben, 12 Platoon, D Company, 6RAR

Australians at War Film Archive Interview No.2585

The realities of battlefield casualties.

  • Home
  • History
  • Education
  • Multimedia
  • Conduct an event
  • Resources
  • Site info
  • Research tips
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Events
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • Links
  • Bibliography

Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to us on YouTube