Going Back Read online

  Dr Ted Heffernan conducted Medcaps at Xuyen Moc, and when he returned in 2005 he was absolutely thrilled to see the town and the people again. When the group alighted from their bus near a large Catholic school at Binh Gia they were mobbed by young children in bright blue school uniforms. Chaos reigned as the school kids gathered around, and some were rather bemused when staring at the heavily scarred, one-legged and black-eye-patched Peter Isaacs, who replied rather earnestly to an enquiry from an inquisitive child that he was in fact a pirate. Show and tell would have been something to eavesdrop on the next day.

  Wendy Greenhalgh participated in a romp with several tour members and dozens of school kids and said later, ‘Everybody was so happy—and I thought, God, why couldn’t it always have been like that?’43

  Chapter 6

  LONG TAN: THE CROSS

  The Long Tan Memorial Cross was first erected on the site of the massive battle in the Long Tan rubber plantation not far from the Nui Dat base during 6 RAR’s second tour of duty, with serving battle survivors of Delta Company—the rifle company involved in that bitter encounter—in attendance. The Cross has become the focal point of Australian pilgrimages to Viet Nam for one simple reason. While battlefield pilgrimages have traditionally focused on visits to the cemeteries of war dead, in Viet Nam no Australians are buried in war cemeteries—it was the first overseas conflict in which most Australian dead were brought home for burial. A small number (24) of Australian dead from Viet Nam lie in the Australian section of the British War Cemetery in Terendak, Malaysia, and one serviceman in the Kranji Military Cemetery in Singapore, but that vital link with the past is not present in Viet Nam itself. The Long Tan Cross has come to represent the men killed in South Viet Nam, and is one of only two foreign monuments to the dead allowed in Viet Nam (the other is to the French at Dien Bien Phu). Veterans are permitted to visit the area in small numbers to pay tribute not only to the Long Tan dead, but to all veterans killed and injured during the war.

  An escort by police and special permits are required to enter the Long Tan rubber plantation and Long Tan Memorial Cross area. Visitors need to travel up Route 764 towards Binh Ba and turn off onto Route 766, or if coming from the west turn off the Dat Do–Long Phuoc road and head north-east to the battle site past The Horseshoe to the rebuilt Long Tan village. Turn north near the signpost reading ‘Long Khanh 59 km’, then turn north into the battle site. Groups will have to stop at the police post in Long Tan village, where the bronze plaque that adorns the Cross is kept in safekeeping for placing. A small bus can take you almost right into the area, then it’s a short 200-metre walk to the Cross.

  As historian Elizabeth Stewart notes, ‘The area has become sacred ground, and many comment on the eerie nature of the place. Few words are spoken in the simple ceremonies held there, but few visitors leave the area dry-eyed.’1 The site has not always been in its present condition; it was previously a cornfield and tapioca patch. A decade ago, rubber was planted and the area is now almost as it was when Delta Company began patrolling through the area on that fateful, stormy afternoon of 18 August 1966.

  While a visit to the Long Tan Cross provides a cathartic and emotional highlight for many pilgrims, another highlight involves meeting former enemy. In informal meetings— often with former members of the Viet Cong D 445 Battalion—veterans from both sides drink a toast and recognise in each other a common struggle with a difficult war legacy. Realising that their former enemies were simply soldiers doing a job, just as they were, is an important step for Australian veterans coming to terms with their past actions. They are often heartened, as well, by former South Vietnamese who thank the Australians for their efforts on their behalf, and for the public works they carried out, which helped improve lives during and after the war.

  Tour leader Garry Adams believes the Long Tan battlefield is the main point of pilgrimage for most Australian veterans. Interestingly, however, it took until November 2006 for an Australian Prime Minister (John Howard) to visit what has become almost hallowed ground for Australian and New Zealand veterans of the war.

  The visit to Long Tan is always an emotional experience, especially for veterans or next of kin. Private Steve Campling was a National Serviceman who served with 6 RAR between September 1969 and May 1970 on its second tour of duty. He reflected on why the Long Tan Cross has such a special significance for him:

  The trip back to the Long Tan Memorial was one of the most moving experiences of my life. Being back in the rubber just brought back so many memories. To think how those fellows went through what they did is just totally unbelievable. And probably more moving for me also, because the 18th of August is my birthday and when the Cross was dedicated on 18 August 1969, I was here, and had my 21st birthday.2

  Corporal Bob Hansford was 22 years old and a RAEME mechanic when he toured with 161 Independent Recce Flight in 1968–69. He visited Long Tan in 2002.

  It was really eerie: . . . it just had a feeling about the place. It was very quiet. It must be hard for some of these other guys [in the tour group] too because they are mainly infantry, so they would have a much closer tie to it than myself.3

  In 2002, Gail Campling visited the battlefield site with her husband Steve, in a tour group of which I was also a member. Afterwards, she confessed: ‘I was extremely moved. I would have liked to have just sat there and meditated and tried to absorb all the feelings that I knew were there; all the pain and the suffering.’4 Several years later I asked Gail to recount the most emotional experience from that trip and she said, ‘The most moving highlight for me was at Long Tan hearing your version of those events. I almost felt I was there seeing it all unfold before my eyes.’5

  For veterans who were in South Viet Nam when the battle took place, returning to the site is charged with memories and emotions. Paul Greenhalgh was commanding Delta Company 5 RAR and recalled the morning of the battle and subsequent events:

  We were called back from Operation Holsworthy earlier because the Task Force had been mortared the night before. We were sitting up on [Nui Dat] hill and I must say we were starting to have our ‘let down’ beers, and the urgency of the mortaring of the base hadn’t really got through to us—and [then] the guns started firing and of course that was the beginning of Long Tan or Operation Smithfield. The guns were firing from just down the bottom, all hell was going on, and then we finally twigged to what was happening. We closed the boozer and then I got a warning order to be ready at about 9 or 10 o’clock, as a company from 5 RAR under command 6 RAR, to go and supplement 6 RAR. Anyway we got cleaned up and stood by and just waited, and then we finally got marching orders to move at first light the next morning. We actually went out under command 6 RAR. We landed at the battle site, got orders from the CO 6 RAR, and we were the first company that went through the left-hand side of the battlefield in a clearing operation.6

  On his visit in 2005, Paul was able to relate his experiences on that dreadful morning of moving through what battle veteran Bob Buick described as a ‘charnel house’.7 Paul recalled ‘the smell and the cordite and the sheer destruction of the trees and the bodies that lay everywhere’. When asked what he most remembered about the battle site, Paul replied, ‘It was total awe at the extent of the whole thing. I was talking to Harry Smith as we arrived and he just rolled his eyes and said, “I am lucky to be here, Paul.” ’8

  Ron Shambrook was working as quartermaster of 5 RAR when the battle erupted. He vividly remembers the night before and then the day of the battle:

  We had been mortared the night before and that took our attention, and also showed some inadequacies, because we had arrived there in May about three days before the wet season had cut in and so none of our overhead protection was in place and most of the holes [fighting pits] had a couple of feet of water in them. So when we were mortared that night it was a damp activity [chuckles]. During the battle, one could hear the enormous amount of artillery that was being fired. So I listened on the radio the whole time to 6 RAR and it was a very in
teresting day.9

  Back at the Nui Dat base, Dr Ted Heffernan was kept busy treating soldiers who had been wounded during the battle and evacuated during the night. Ted reflected on that incredible battle from the perspective of one charged with putting soldiers back together again: ‘That was the biggest thing that happened while we were here. We thought at the time that it was incredibly lucky the way it panned out. And looking back on it, it was.’10

  Another doctor, John Taske, was serving with 1 Field Regiment, RAA. Returning to the battle site was significant for him because:

  I was with the guns at the time and saw that side of it. I never saw the battlefield at all, and although I would have liked to have gone out there the next day and seen it, we weren’t allowed to. So I had never ever been to the place of the battle.11

  During the battle, when a tropical thunderstorm unleashed its fury and heavy rain pelted down over the Nui Dat base, the steam from overheated cannons, and cordite gas and smoke emanating from the artillery rounds being fired were hanging heavily around the gun lines. The smoke was so thick that several men had to be treated for smoke inhalation, as John explained:

  I was trying to look after the fellows that were being overcome by the smoke and helping out a bit. And we’d also been mortared. A lot of the mortar and recoilless rifle rounds that came in on the night of the 17th [August] came into our area. And we took about five or six casualties.12

  John appreciated being able to ‘walk the ground’ at Long Tan: ‘To actually stand—I walked off a little while and looked down the road where that whole section was found dead the next morning. And, yeah, it was good going back.’13

  However, veteran Ben Morris had a different reaction when he returned to Long Tan. ‘I just find the place depressing in the fact that so many young people lost their lives on both sides.’ Ben agreed that Long Tan is a commemorative site, adding, ‘It represents the enemy and our blokes.’14

  Fred Pfitzner was in South Viet Nam when the battle raged, and he reflected on what returning to the battle site meant for him:

  You couldn’t have been involved in that without being in some way affected by it. We were almost spot on—when we visited there—for the time when the action happened, and it had been raining. I mean, it was much better than going there in the middle of the dry and kicking up dust. So we were probably lucky to see Long Tan under those conditions. But you still don’t get the sense of just how close to the Task Force base it was and what a potential bloody catastrophe the whole thing could have been. If we’d failed there, it could have completely changed the Australian national attitude to the war to the degree that the government probably would have had to do something about it. If we’d gone in there and lost some five or six hundred blokes, it would have been serious stuff. And that was a possibility had it not been [for] a great series of fortuitous events. Apart from the poor buggers who got knocked in it.15

  Fred agreed the battle site had commemorative significance, adding:

  Long after Nui Dat is developed and you’re not allowed in there because there are people’s houses and things, hopefully that Long Tan patch will remain. And you can’t ask for better than that.16

  A concert on the evening of 18 August starring entertainers Little Pattie and Col Joye was abandoned when the battle had been seriously joined. Little Pattie was whisked away by chopper back to Vung Tau, but Col Joye was not. Ron Shambrook revealed where Col Joye had gone:

  I popped down there [to the concert] for about ten minutes and got some photographs of Little Pattie up on stage, and then I found out later that evening that they were still looking for Col Joye. Col hadn’t gone back to Vung Tau and they didn’t quite know where he was. The next morning I found out that Col Joye had spent the night in my company, Admin Company 5 RAR, boozing with some of my fellows and I thought, ‘Well that is the end of a nice career Ron, you’re gone now.’ But it wasn’t [laughs].17

  Ron also believes Long Tan is an important commemorative site: ‘I think it’s very significant that the Cross is there and that it is maintained. It was a significant battle.’18

  Peter Rogers served in South Viet Nam two years after the Long Tan battle, but still saw his visit to the site as being significant.

  I think I now realise how much it means to all of the veterans. We had a small service there. But I thought it was a bit superficial because we had to pick up the plaque before we went and then hang it on the Cross.19

  The bronze plaque that Peter is referring to would normally be attached to the centre of the Cross, but as explained previously, it is held for safekeeping at the local police station in the village of Long Tan. It has to be collected—along with a policeman—before entering the site. Previous plaques have been souvenired and the Vietnamese officials are determined it will not happen again.

  The Cross is a very simple, cast-concrete replica of the one that was erected on the third anniversary of the battle in 1969. The original Cross sits in a museum in Bien Hoa City. When asked if it mattered not having the names of the Australian fallen on the Cross, Ron Shambrook replied:

  I have been to—in many parts of the world—Anzac Day ceremonies and cemeteries. You don’t remember the few names that are on the cenotaph; you remember so many, many more. And that [Long Tan] Cross for me did exactly the same thing. It remembered. Had their names been there, it may have been fine. But, you know, we still remember anyway.20

  Roger Wainwright saw his return to Long Tan as including ‘paying your respects’. He had patrolled through the area before and after the battle during 5 RAR’s first tour of duty. He concurs with many of his comrades on the significance of the site:

  It is the only Australian memorial in Viet Nam, and I think from that perspective it has become a focal point. It is very special. But to me on this particular trip there are a couple of things—visiting my platoon position in Nui Dat, and probably An Nhut—I’d put ahead of that on this particular trip. But Long Tan’s always special because of that reason—having been the duty officer for a three-day period when we were mortared during the actual battle, and working in the 5 RAR command post . . . But being back in that position again is quite moving.21

  Tony White expressed similar sentiments on the emotional tug of the Long Tan battlefield site.

  I think if we’re going to have any one thing to summarise the Aussie involvement [in the war], then Long Tan is a reasonable one within the province. It is very tasteful and it’s in the right location, and if we can keep the locals on side so they don’t bulldoze it, then that’s going to be wonderful. Because I’m sure for Aussies, it’ll be like a sort of mini-Kokoda or Gallipoli.22

  Peter Isaacs was more circumspect:

  I think that it’s just a Cross to those who died at Long Tan. I think it would not be appropriate to put up a memorial anywhere else to Australian and indeed New Zealand soldiers who died here. I think that it is appropriate, but I don’t see it as any sort of centrepiece to Australia’s sacrifice here. There were other battles—not quite the same significance as Long Tan like Coral and Balmoral which were much more bitter fights. So, no, to me it just represents Delta Company 6 RAR, and indeed the APC troop.23

  Another version of events

  Since the Cross was first erected in 1969, the former enemy have recognised its importance to Australian veterans who visit the site. When I first returned there in 1993, there was a small fence erected around the Cross and cement pillars holding plastic link-chain around the site, presumably to keep wandering cattle out. On the front right-hand pillar was a tablet inscribed in Vietnamese that roughly stated, inter alia: ‘This was the site of a famous National Liberation Front victory wherein scores of Imperialist puppets were killed, several dozen armoured cars and tanks destroyed and several jet aircraft shot down.’ Unfortunately I did not note down the exact wording, probably because I was so incensed.

  On a return trip in 1994, where I was distributing 500 kilograms of donated school supplies in the Long Dien District, I asked th
e chairman of the People’s District Committee if he would consider removing the tablet as I thought it insulted the memory of all those soldiers who fought. As a former Viet Cong soldier, his mood instantly darkened; he was obviously not happy with my suggestion and nothing further eventuated. On the eve of a following visit in August 1996, in the presence of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer (himself a Viet Nam veteran, wounded in the Battle of Coral) I told Mr Fischer about the tablet. To my delight and surprise, the offending tablet was gone. It has never been replaced to my knowledge and was not there in subsequent visits I made in 2002 and 2005.

  However, while the tablet has been physically removed from sight, the underlying view of history has not changed in the eyes of the government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, which is responsible for all tourist activities and publications. In late 2006 Garry Adams came across the current edition of the Ba Ria–Vung Tau Guidebook, which gives the official version of the battle of Long Tan and the significance of the Cross (referred to as a ‘stele’, which is defined in The Macquarie Dictionary as ‘an upright slab or pillar of stone bearing an inscription, sculptural design, or the like’). The entry in the guidebook reads:

  The stele is a hard mix of concrete and steel. Although it is quite simple, it carries with itself a meaningful sense. It was built by Australian Royal Force on August 18, 1969 in memory of fallen Australian soldiers on Southeast battlefields, particularly in a strike led by Australia and New Zealand on August 18, 1966. With an intention of occupying Ba Ria–Long Khanh, they were completely destroyed. The fallen left a great trace of sorrow for their wives and mothers, and countries. There have been thousands of Australian veterans who came back, wrote many articles on this stele, not to mention the fact that a complete book on this particular cross stele was published. On November 16, 1988, the Ministry of Culture and information voted it a historical heritage, following the Decision No. 1288 VH/QD.24