Vietnam Veterans Day is celebrated in Australia on August 18 and 2023, marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. August 18 was chosen as the day to remember Vietnam Veterans, as it marks the Battle of Long Tan, a battle in which 108 young, inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought for their lives against 2500 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communist or VC) soldiers in the jungle of Vietnam. This story is well told in the movie, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, available in the Town of Cambridge Library.
While the Battle of Long Tan is commemorated, there were other battles that are largely forgotten, except in the minds of the soldiers who remember them.
The set-up of Fire Support Patrol Bases Coral, Coogee and Balmoral, was a 26-day operation. Australian soldiers were told ‘to interdict NVA personnel coming out of Saigon, travelling in small groups, low on morale and on food, returning to that area, intending to regroup’.
What really happened was Australian soldiers were dropped into the middle of a strategy by the NVA and Viet Congs to overtake the Biên Hòa Airport. If the NVA and VCs had succeeded, the war would have been over. This explains why the fight was so ferocious.
Image courtesy of Brian Cleaver.
The Battles of Coral and Balmoral were similar in numbers to the Battle of Long Tan.
On the night of May 28, Fire Support Patrol Base Balmoral received relentless fire for 3 hours from about 2500 of the NVA and VCs. One Australian was killed in action and between 700 – 800 NVA and Viet Cong Army soldiers lost their lives.
Brian Cleaver, who grew up in Wembley and surfed at City Beach with the City Beach Surf Riders Club, has shared his story of conscription, training, service in Vietnam, and his memories of the Battles of Coral and Balmoral with Local Studies at the Town of Cambridge Library. This story is available from the Town of Cambridge Library.
Image courtesy of City Beach Surf Riders.
Over the last 20 years, Brian and a group of other Vietnam Veterans, have been back to Vietnam numerous times in a quest to find a mass grave, in which Australian soldiers buried 42 NVA and Viet Cong soldiers. The grave has never been found and the relatives of the loved ones have not been able to give them a proper burial. Brian has travelled back 19 times and has reasonable hopes of locating the bodies using ground penetrating radar. A documentary by David Bradbury has been made of his quest, called The Crater: a True Vietnam War Story. This is also available for loan from the Town of Cambridge Library.
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