Long Tan was the bloodiest, most significant, most publicised battle for Australians in the long undeclared Vietnam war.
Little wonder then that there have been at least six books (and the recent film Danger Close) on the subject since 1987, the last one being in 2016 on its 50th anniversary. A seventh book has now just appeared on the market, but is it sufficiently different to justify its presence? The answer is an unqualified yes.
Told in exhaustive detail from personal research and drawing on accumulated past knowledge, this new book now seems likely to be regarded as the definitive word on the much-debated subject. The newest tome, by prolific Australian author Peter FitzSimons, is simply called The Battle of Long Tan and in the writer's own words, "It's been a long time coming". He has said that until now he felt he couldn't give the subject the proper justice it deserved.
In the past, the author has copped flak from some critics for his breathless prose, his rat-a-tat style of delivery and re-created historic dialogue. Forget all that, this latest book is superb storytelling and deserves to be a classic best-seller. The battle in the title refers to a major encounter which occurred one humid afternoon under monsoonal skies in a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, on August 18, 1966. While on patrol there, Delta Company of 6RAR, comprising 105 Australians and three New Zealanders, suddenly collided with an enemy force of about 2500 troops. The furious firefight which followed became the deadliest battle for Australian forces in Vietnam. For the small Delta group, vastly outnumbered and surrounded, it was a catastrophe, a terrifying nightmare.
The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces had intended to surprise the Australians and attack their task force HQ only four kilometres away which would have had devastating consequences. Instead, the enemy struck D Company and four hours of hell followed as withering enemy fire pinned down the Aussies, who expected annihilation, but held their ground. The expected defeat turned into a major victory. Some 18 soldiers died in the encounter while the enemy lost a huge, but unknown number, probably hundreds, of men.
But for the Aussie survivors, the Battle of Long Tan, in the words of author FitzSimons, remains a constant shadow, a wound on their soul for the remainder of their duty in Vietnam and beyond.
It is an extraordinary story, of horror and uncommon valour (on both sides) all played out in pounding rain, smoke, whizzing bullets and the sickening thud of artillery shells. The besieged Australians, hugging the muddy ground, avoiding snipers amid shredded trees bleeding latex, fire back, desperately fighting to live, but the situation is hopeless. Low cloud and thunderstorms also meant possible air support stalled. Instead, in a daring, almost suicidal, helicopter mission much-needed ammo was dropped to the isolated D Company at tree-top level.
Wounded soldiers shrieking in agony are given morphine by a D company medic to calm them. But if already unconscious, the battlefield drill is to pin their tongues to their bottom lips with a safety pin, so that if they have a fit, they can't swallow their tongues and choke. And then, in the dying afternoon light, the cavalry arrives in the form of seven Armoured Personnel Carriers (or APCs) shooting their way through hordes of encircling enemy to relieve the trapped soldiers.
But did the APCs, roaring and clanking to the rescue, need help themselves? Surprisingly, the lifesaving APCs were totally worn out from constant use with dodgy engines and creaky tracks. A lack of new parts from Australia meant cannibalising some APCs to keep the others going.
Three Novocastrians were involved and survived the Long Tan battle, including 2nd Lieutenant Ian Roberts whose own APC was loaded with dead Diggers in the battle's aftermath. A real hero of the day was the inspirational Sgt Major Jack Kirby who many veterans felt should have received the Victoria Cross for helping the wounded under enemy fire and distributing ammunition during the battle. Tragically, less than six months later, he was killed along with three other Australians (with 13 wounded) by "friendly" artillery fire.
Meanwhile, the background as to why Australians were in Vietnam to aid the South Vietnam government and the American troops is long and complex. Suffice to say that well before US President John F. Kennedy first sent the first military advisers overseas in May 1961 he was twice warned not to get involved in a land war in Asia. The first warning came from French president Charles de Gaulle and the second came from American World War 2 hero, General Douglas MacArthur.
By the time all Australian infantry finally departed Vietnam in December 1971, our nation had suffered 423 fatalities with 2398 troops wounded. The last American soldiers left in 1973 and the South Vietnamese Army collapsed in 1975.
Railway days of old
Another year has almost gone and Hunter author and railway buff Ed Tonks has produced a special calendar for 2023. However, rather than feature a mighty locomotive workhorse each month, he's gone one better this time with a cavalcade of rare photographs of railway stations of old in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. The pictures tell their own stories with a few insights along the way. I didn't know, for example, that a bushfire swept through and totally destroyed Fassifern station back in 1933. Or that the former, grand 1878 Newcastle station terminus on Watt Street has a virtual twin in inland Goulburn, both being designed by the same person. Or that the original site name of Morisset station (from 1887) was 'Coorumbung'.
