Australia and the VIETNAM WAR

Australia and the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was the longest conflict in which Australians have been involved; it lasted ten years, from 1962 to 1972, and involved some 60,000 personnel. A limited initial commitment of just 30 military advisers grew to include a battalion in 1965 and finally, in 1966, a task force. Each of the three services was involved, but the dominant role was played by the Army. more…

Battle of Long Tan

18 August 1966
42nd anniversary commemoration

Three months after the Australians established their Task Force base at Nui Dat, in the heart of South Vietnam’s Phuoc Tuy Province, the Viet Cong determined to rid the area of this unwelcome incursion. Having brought the base under fire on the night of 16–17 August 1966, a large Viet Cong force remained undetected in the area. Australian patrols found some evidence of their presence, radio traffic indicated enemy movement in the vicinity, but of Viet Cong troops, there was no sign.

Then, on 18 August, as a concert party was setting up for a show at the Australian base, men of D Company of the 6^th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, walked out through the wire to continue the search. That afternoon, as they approached a nearby rubber plantation there were fleeting contacts with Viet Cong who appeared, and disappeared just as quickly into the scrub. Then as a tropical storm gathered, the Australians came under fire more intense than anything yet experienced by the Task Force. Over the next few hours the survivors of D Company fought for their lives in rain-swept darkness of Long Tan. more…

Coral/Balmoral

12 May — 6 June 1968
40th anniversary commemoration

In war there are moments when instinct and training come together to warn soldiers of impending danger. So it was for a group of Australians in a nondescript corner of South Vietnam’s Bien Hoa province on the evening of 12 May 1968. There, at Fire Support Base Coral, established just hours before, as infantry moved into ambush positions, artillerymen prepared their guns and mortar men dug their pits, more than one soldier felt that ‘something funny was going on’, that there was ‘an atmosphere in the air’.

After darkness fell occasional bursts of tracer lit the sky, some Australians could hear Vietnamese voices beyond their positions and men, who no one could identify, were seen moving through the shadows. Then, in the hours before dawn, North Vietnamese troops launched a massive assault against the new base, initiating a series of actions more violent and protracted than anything yet experienced by the Australians in Vietnam. more…

This website, honouring the service of Australians in Vietnam between 1962 – 1972, is a work in progress. Over the coming months further material will be added.

Pictures of War

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