Published on Aug 26, 2012 Australian singer and songwriter John Schumann talks about his personal connection to the Australian War Memorial. Schumann performed I was only 19 at the unveiling of the Long Tan cross. The battle of Long Tan was Australias most costly single engagement of the Vietnam War. During the nations ten-year-long involvement in Vietnam, there were bigger and more sustained battles, involving larger formations. But few were so intense and dramatic. On 18 August 1966, 108 soldiers of D Company, 6RAR, fought a fierce battle in the Long Tan rubber plantation against a large Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army force. Outnumbered by at least ten to one, but with artillery support from the Australian base five kilometres away, they fought off determined attacks. Three years later soldiers of the 6th Battalion, 6RAR/NZ (ANZAC), returned to the site of the battle to erect and dedicate a commemorative cross. Soldiers who fought at Long Tan were present at the ceremony. The Long Tan cross has been generously loaned to the Australian War Memorial by the Dong Nai Museum in Bien Hoa, with the support and approval of the Ministry of Culture, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Long Tan cross will be on display at the Australian War Memorial until April 2013.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:35:50 +0000
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