On the afternoon of 18 August 1966, just five kilometres from the main Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, a group of Viet Cong soldiers walked into the right flank of Delta Company, 6 RAR. Under a blanket of mist and heavy monsoon rain, amid the mud and shattered rubber trees, a dispersed Company of 108 men held its ground with courage and grim determination against a three-sided attack from a force of 2,500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army troops. When the battle subsided, 18 Australian soldiers lay dead and 24 had been wounded. Battlefield clearance revealed 245 enemy bodies with captured documents later confirming the count at over 500 enemy killed and 800 wounded. These men were led by a gruff and gutsy perfectionist, Major Harry Smith. #0521/250122 336 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm
Smith, Harry A. | Australia. Army. Royal Australian Regiment. Battalion, 6th. D Company — History. | Military history. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975 — Personal narratives, Australian. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975 — Veterans — Australia. | Veterans — Australia — Biography. | Long Tan, Battle of, Vietnam, 1966. | Soldiers — Australia — Biography. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975 — Participation Australian. | Authors, Australian — Queensland — Sunshine Coast. | Australia — Armed Forces — History. | Australia — Armed Forces — History — Vietnam War, 1961-1975 . | Australian