Lieutenant Dinham recalled: ‘I had the platoon out, forming an extended line, and while we were doing it . . . dozens of the enemy – some dressed in pith helmets, some in floppy hats, a lot with a form of netting hanging over the back as a type of camouflage – started standing up in front of us.’9 The young officer stood slightly behind and to the left of one of his section commanders, Corporal Stephens, so he could observe and direct his platoon. He was standing beside a rubber tree, and opened fire on some enemy troops who appeared from nowhere. He watched with relief as they dropped, then noticed that ‘something flicked at my face, sufficient to distract me. I looked up to see two fresh bullet holes [in the tree trunk] at about eye level. I immediately adopted a lower profile. In this brief exchange I fired 16 shots, the only shots I fired in anger throughout my time in Vietnam.’10 Stephens also recalled how his men immediately joined in combat with the enemy, including Brett, Bodey, Max Vickers, Tom Burke, David Harwood and Bruce McLay. They could hear some firing from behind, and Stephens looked back to see his platoon commander, Dinham, firing from a standing position against a tree.11
Alcorta was surprised by the response of the enemy to their sudden appearance, which seemed to rattle them. He reckoned that given their numbers, if they had pressed an attack the Australians would have been overwhelmed. At this point, the APC force consisted of a depleted infantry company with just one Australian platoon engaged, and there were only seven carriers – and the Viet Cong had RPGs, which they ‘abandoned, and with which they could have taken the APCs almost at will. There were hundreds, literally hundreds of them around us. Yet they broke and ran. We were grateful anyway, and exhilarated, as we were out of immediate danger.’12
Roberts also recalled that ‘the right-hand infantry got out of the tracks and went forward. I yelled at the infantry commander [Mollison], and we got’em back in again.’13 He was concerned that these men might become casualties from the APC fire, even though the infantry had veered to the right of the carrier troop. They were needed at D Company’s position, not conducting a firefight south of it. Indeed, his orders from Major Brian Passey were that he was to take A Company to relieve the hard-pressed D Company.14 Mollison had not ordered the platoon to directly engage the enemy and radioed that they were to immediately get back into the carrier.
Private Tom Burke recalled: ‘When we got the order to remount, I adopted the tactic of fire and movement to withdraw back to the APC. But when I looked around, I was the only one left. I think I collapsed out of sheer fright but Corporal Stephens picked me up.’ Stephens vividly recalled the incident: ‘Burke was the last one in, and about 2 metres from the APC he went down. My heart sank, but looking up, he gave a silly grin. He had just slipped on the wet ground – gave me a bit of a fright, though.’15 Within minutes the infantry were back in the APCs and Roberts’ small force advanced north through the shattered enemy formation with their machine guns tearing into the survivors and in some cases running them over and grinding them to pulp beneath the tracks of the APCs. These Viet Cong retreated towards Long Tan village.16
Roberts and others noticed how some enemy troops had cane-loops tied to their calves; they would use these to help drag their wounded away while a fellow soldier offered covering fire. The Viet Cong suffered a number of casualties but the Australians suffered only one wounded who received a bullet graze to an eyebrow. By all accounts Alcorta’s assessment that the Viet Cong had been totally surprised by their sudden appearance and were rattled is the only reason that can explain the lack of Australian casualties.17
Still in assault formation, 3 Troop pressed on, following the track into the heart of the plantation towards D Company’s last reported position. The scrub and small trees had now turned into mature rubber trees, some 10 metres high, which allowed increased visibility and enabled the carriers to increase their speed. On advancing another 200 metres they came into contact with another, even larger enemy force streaming across their front, completely oblivious to their presence. These were likely the lead elements of D445 VC Battalion, who were south of D Company and moving west to cut off any line of retreat by that company. With no hesitation, the carriers opened up with a ‘broadside’ of .50-calibre machine-gun fire. A number of enemy troops fell to the ground, and the survivors turned to open fire on the advancing enemy vehicles. It was then that an explosion occurred in front of Corporal John Carter’s carrier, 39M, just across the road from Roberts’ APC. Carter’s vehicle had been fitted out as an ambulance but did not have the huge Red Cross markings signifying it as such.18 A 57mm RCL just missed the carrier, but its round slammed into a tall rubber tree, which fell onto the vehicle. This weapon was later recovered by the Australians after the battle, and luckily for Carter, the aiming apparatus for the weapon was found to be internally fogged over, making it impossible to use. The operator had to sight the target using the barrel alone – a far from accurate method.19
With his .50-calibre jammed, Carter took a 9mm Owen submachine gun from his driver, Trooper Paul McNamara, and, standing fully exposed on top of his APC, saw the two-man RCL team just 15 metres away preparing for another shot. He immediately fired into them, just as they launched another round. There was another explosion but they only managed to hit the same tree that had fallen on top of the APC. Remarkably, Carter was unhurt and his driver passed up more magazines to him. Once the smoke cleared, the corporal saw that the RCL crew had been killed by his original burst of fire. He emptied another three magazines into the enemy troops around him before he scrambled into the APC. The only damage to his carrier was that his aerial had been shot away – he was now without radio contact.20
Roberts, still sitting on his wooden plank exposed above the .50-calibre/command hatch, saw the initial explosion and believed that ‘they’d had it. I couldn’t get them on the radio but could see them, just across the road. There was an RCL team with it on their shoulders, and the fellow firing it was down, and the one loading it was kneeling at the back just like in a military textbook. They fired a second round, and it hit the branches of the tree they’d just shot down.’21 Roberts also saw Carter on his carrier with the Owen, killing ‘the crew and a few people around. He was standing on top of the vehicle, and the driver was throwing up magazines.’22
Roberts knew that the Vietnamese RCL teams tended to operate in groups of two. He had to identify and destroy the second weapon before pushing on – the APCs were easy targets for these weapons and he did not want to advance into an ambush until he had destroyed the second team or was sure they had retreated with the rest of the enemy lead element. Any shot hitting an APC would kill all inside. However, Mollison was adamant that they push on and shouted so to Roberts. The lieutenant ignored him – as far as he was concerned he was in charge while the infantry were in his carriers. Mollison began to argue the point, but it was Roberts’ decision. It was 6.53 p.m., and Roberts radioed through to 6 RAR headquarters: ‘One APC hit – will keep moving’.23
At this point, back in D Company’s shrinking perimeter, the enemy could be seen re-forming north-east and east of their position for another attack. Major Smith radioed 6 RAR headquarters: ‘Enemy to East and NE – reforming to attack again’ and warned that the APCs, when they arrived, should come in from the north-west.24 Smith’s men were doggedly holding their position, with the Anzac artillery barrage exploding close by. Sergeant Major Kirby was, at great risk to himself, continually running the gauntlet to resupply his men with the last of their ammunition. Coming across Private Harry Esler, whom he still insisted on calling Ralph, he asked, ‘You all right, Private Ralph? Doing the job?’ and dropped 12 rounds by Esler’s side. Esler was to make each one count.25
Meanwhile, just after renewing their advance, the three APCs of 3 Troop, covering the left flank, were hit with heavy machine-gun fire. These were the three carriers that had no gun shields on their .50-calibre machine guns. With this fire, Corporal Peter Clements, a 21-year-old regular-army soldier from Cunderdin in Western Australia, who was
exposed above the hatch with the .50-calibre and no gun shield, fell back into his carrier mortally wounded with a shot to the stomach; he would die from his wounds on 28 August. The carrier immediately turned and drove right over the top of the machine gun. Another two infantrymen in the carrier were also wounded.26
The vehicle soon stopped, as did the other two carriers of the section. The commander of this section, Sergeant John O’Reilly from 2 Troop, had received a bullet-graze to the forehead, which knocked him unconscious momentarily. Roberts, aware of the attack against his left flank, had come to a stop and ordered his troop sergeant, Noel Lowes, to get out and race across the bullet-swept space to Clements’ carrier to take command. Mollison was ‘urging me to get on, but he was down inside, and here am I sitting up on the board, taking in the whole scene’.27
Sergeant Lowes grabbed his gear and without hesitation left the APC via the rear hatch and charged through the area. He came up to a carrier among the exploding shells – but it was the wrong APC. He yelled at the commander: ‘I was told you were wounded.’ ‘No, not me. That one over there,’ said the commander, pointing to Clements’ carrier. ‘Aaargh, shit!’ yelled the sergeant as he jumped off the vehicle and headed towards Clements’ carrier, APC 23B.28 Roberts recalled how Lowes demonstrated extreme bravery with his run between the carriers across the battlefield while under fire, and said he deserved to be remembered.29
Lowes radioed back to Roberts that Clements was badly wounded and they had sustained other casualties; Roberts said, ‘Right, take the carrier back.’30 Mollison argued against sending the carrier back, and to make matters worse, Clements’ carrier, unbeknown to Roberts, was carrying Mollison’s 1 Platoon headquarters element, including its radio. Roberts later admitted that the carrier should have remained.31 However, as stated by Major Brian McFarlane, ‘Everyone makes mistakes, particularly under circumstances such as these, and during a year in very serious action in Vietnam, if this was the worst mistake made by the gallant young Lieutenant Roberts, then he was doing better than many I can think of.’32
Now believing he was relatively close to D Company, Roberts was concerned that their own machine-gun fire might result in friendly fire against the stranded Australians. He would have been doubly concerned if he had known that B Company was also approaching D Company’s position.
Just moments before, one of the .50-calibre machine guns from O’Reilly’s section covering the left flank had become jammed with a round in the barrel. The unnamed driver of the APC, a national serviceman, brought it to a halt, stood up out of the driver’s hatch and, completely exposed to enemy fire, ‘calmly’ replaced the barrel; the unnamed commander of the APC, another national serviceman, assisted.33 Within seconds of this, the APC was again advancing, with its .50-calibre firing into the enemy troops. When later asked about the incident and how he had been so cool under pressure, the driver said, ‘It was all right. If I didn’t look at them, they wouldn’t bother me.’34
Meanwhile, the APC section on the right, commanded by Sergeant Ron Richards, was unaware that Roberts and the left section had come to a halt, and they continued their advance. The troop commander ordered the headlights of all carriers be turned on to help blind the enemy.35 Carrying 2 Platoon, Richards swept on through Anzac artillery fire that had been ordered by Major Smith against an unknown enemy force south of D Company’s position. This was the same enemy formation – D445 VC Battalion – that 3 Troop was doing battle with. Corporal Ross Smith, a section commander of 3 Platoon, A Company, recalled as they passed through the Anzac barrage that the ‘ground [was] being pulled to the sky by some evil force, with no reason, and I realised we were in the midst of the artillery. Everyone got inside, the driver went blind over trees and outside we could hear the RPGs and small arms firing.’36
Lieutenant Dinham also remembered that the noise was ‘tremendous: the Task Force guns, enemy mortar fire, constant small-arms fire, and the roar of the tracks. The only way I could communicate with the vehicle commander – we didn’t have intercom – was by standing up, putting my mouth to his ear and yelling. You could almost feel the concussion pressing in around you.’37 Next to Dinham, Alcorta remembered the overpowering smell of explosive from the exploding artillery as he reloaded his empty magazines, while Korean War veteran Corporal Max Vickers was busy emptying his magazines into the enemy from an open hatch in the M113.38
Not far away, Major Smith was waiting for the Viet Cong human-wave avalanche to fall upon them when he turned around and distinctly saw, through the fading light, another mass of enemy troops forming up. He yelled out to Esler: ‘Righto, Private Esler and you others had better turn around and look behind you.’ ‘What, sir?’ asked Esler. ‘Can’t you see them?’ yelled Smith, but Esler and those around him could not. Smith yelled impatiently, ‘They’re forming up to hit us from behind!’ This was their weak spot and the enemy had finally found it.
The Australians saw the movement of the Viet Cong formation – individuals moving between the trees, then taking up positions in a patch of thick scrub – and, chillingly, heard above the sound of the exploding ordnance a bugle being blown. Then they saw the enemy troops, camouflaged with tree branches, moving towards them. ‘Christ!’ yelled Esler. Major Smith opened fire, but for no apparent reason the troops suddenly turned and headed away from them. Smith heard a dull rev of engines ‘like a couple of bulldozers . . . and then all of a sudden it struck me. It was the nicest sound I’d heard in my life!’39 Corporal Kevin Miller recalled: ‘We could see these lights coming through the rubber trees and they were firing, and it was the armoured personnel carriers coming in with another company – A Company.’40 It was then that the cheering started.
Sergeant Richards’ section, with headlights beaming, was thundering just south of D Company’s position into the enemy formations to the west. Men from D Company ‘stood and cheered. The appearance of the “tracks” truly signified both their relief and their deliverance.’41 New Zealand bombardier Murray Broomhall recalled: ‘You could hear the roar of the engines and they would fade away again and you would hear another engine roar up . . . Suddenly they came roaring up towards us and spinning on the wet laterite mud under the rubber – they really slewed, weaving from side to side.’42
The carriers charged through the mass of enemy troops that had been forming up, and many Viet Cong were crushed to a pulp by the M113s as they fell under the tracks. One attempted to throw a grenade at an M113: the commander tried to fire his .50-calibre but it would not depress sufficiently. Esler and Private Doug Mitchell from 10 Platoon saw it just in time and both fired, and the enemy solder was hit and collapsed with the grenade exploding next to him as he dropped it.43 Private Len Vine vividly recalled that at this point ‘three VC had a recoilless rifle set up and they were going to hit one of the ACs and I thought, I’ve gotta get this fella. I shot the bloke that was going to fire, another bloke went over to take his place and I shot him, and another went and I got him . . . I’m still shaking now when I think about it.’44
Sergeant Bob Buick, on seeing the APCs pushing through, jumped up, yelling and waving to ‘identify our position, just like in the movies. I felt like one of those Yankees saved from the Indians.’45 Private John Heslewood used a similar analogy: ‘Ah yeah, it was great – [just] like the cavalry coming in, as they say.’46 Lieutenant David Sabben recalled that the APCs finally arrived with their headlights on and guns blazing; it was great to see the tracers from the carriers bouncing off the trees, and he appreciated being behind them.47 Lieutenant Geoff Kendall also recalled the APCs coming in. They approached to his right with a ‘roaring sound and three APCs charged through the rubber firing their machine guns’.48
Close by were Sergeant Neil Rankin and Private Bill Akell, who just moments before had resigned themselves to the fact that they were about to be overrun by the Viet Cong human wave. Now they saw the APCs charging through the enemy lines. Akell recalled that ‘they were a wonderful sight, pushing through us with their mac
hine guns firing and so forth, straight towards the enemy, and at that particular stage, our internal feelings just completely changed. It went from one that we were going to die in the next few minutes, to one of complete relief, excitement – it [now] looked that we just might get out of this.’49
Just east of them, Major Noel Ford and his men from B Company, representing a composite platoon of just 31 men, had been moving towards D Company’s position. They pushed on, expecting at any moment to encounter a major enemy force or to be trapped in an ambush. It was around 6.50 p.m. when they began to come up to D Company’s position within the rubber. Corporal Robin Jones and the rest of the platoon were proceeding at a fast steady pace until they came under fire with a lot of tracer. These enemy troops soon disappeared and minutes later they came up against another, larger enemy formation about 200 metres west of D Company. These enemy troops at first didn’t fire on B Company, probably thinking in the dark and rain that they were part of their D445 VC Battalion. Jones remembered that at this point he and his machine gunner were just about among them when suddenly the enemy opened fire on the Australians; somehow both managed to escape.50 However, Private Tom Burke was wounded in the arm and as they moved over the crest of a hill they ran into a fence; just then the APCs roared past them and looked like going straight into the Viet Cong group they had just passed.51 Private Bernie Wesiak of A Company, on board one of the APCs, was standing ‘up at the top hatch of the APC and saw what I thought were VC. I aimed my SLR and was just squeezing the trigger when someone called out, “Cease fire!” The person I nearly shot turned out to be Lieutenant John O’Halloran . . . I didn’t know Bravo Company was there.’52
The Battle of Long Tan Page 25
