Battle of Long Tan

For the footballer, see Long Tan. Long Tân , is a village in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province, Vietnam, at 10°31′N... 107°16′E / 10.517°N 107.267°E / 10.517; 107.267. When it was part of South Vietnam, it was in Phước Tuy province. It is renowned for its rubber plantations and hosts a very small population of roughly 1,200 people. It is particularly famous for the historic Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1966, a much smaller Australian unit recorded a decisive victory over the Vietnamese communist force. During this battle, 2,500 Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese attacked 108 Australian troops. It is unclear how many Vietnamese were killed but records suggest 240-1,000 Vietnamese were killed, while Australian forces lost only 18. The newly arrived 1st Australian Task Force established its Phước Tuy operations base in 1966 at Núi Đất, a piece of high ground surrounded by rubber plantations. The Viet Cong had achieved dominion in the province and decided to inflict a politically unacceptable defeat on the Australians. Their plan was to lure the Australians from their base by firing recoilless rifle and mortar shells into it.
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The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30... April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. The Viet Cong , a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government and Viet Cong viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S.
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