Battle of Long Tan 1966: The ANZAC’s Greatest Victory of the Modern Age
On this day in 1966 the Battle of Long Tan was fought in Vietnam between elements of 6 th Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR), D company, and NVA/Viet Cong forces during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The more than three and half hour battle was fought in the ruins of an old French rubber plantation between ANZAC (Australian-New Zealand, mostly Australian) forces and Viet Cong and regular North Vietnamese Army forces. Australian soldiers prepare for evacuation in a Iroquois chopper The forces engaged that day at Long Tan consisted of 105 Australians, plus a 3 man New Zealand artillery team, of the 161 Field Battery who fought in a vicious skirmish in the rain and mud, against a 2,500 or more strong force of Viet Cong irregulars and regular NVA forces from the North. RAR soldier with a US M60 machinegun While on a routine patrol in the province members of D company clashed with a VC platoon purely by chance, stumbling into one another on the trails of a rundown rubber plantation, a late 19...