AlthoughtheAnzacartillerywasof critical
importanceto D Company’ssurvival,inaccurate
smallarmsfirefromtheVietCongwasalso
significant,“Theyhada largenumberof tracer
roundsin theirammunition.Onethingabout
theenemythatwasalwaysgoodforuswas
thattheyfiredhighforsomeunknownreason.
Thetracerroundsusedto gooverourheadin
themainandasduskcameonit lookedlike
firefliesgoingpast.”
Nevertheless,D Companyweretaking
casualtiesandin thefinalcompanyposition
thewoundedweregatheredverycloseto the
fighting,“Wehadabout 22 woundedandthey
hadto betakenbackto thecompanyaidpost,
whichwasbehindmyheadquarters.It wasjust
a holein thegroundthatwasn’tverydeepand
themedicalorderlieswereusuallybandsmen.
However,oneof them,Corporal[Phil]Dobson,
wasbetterthana doctor.Hewentaround
andtendedthewoundedandnotoneof them
waslost.I waslaterableto geta Mentionin
Dispatchesforhim.”“Youwilllosethelotof us!”
Despitethedangersposedbytheenemy,
Smithhassincewritten,“I oftenthinkI had
moretroublebackat basethanwiththe
enemy.”Althoughhewasgivenartillerysupport
fromNuiDat,Smithhadparticulardifficultyreceiving full support from his senior officers
away from the battlefield, “The problem was
with the base headquarters. There were a
number of requests I made for artillery and it
was very difficult for them to agree to it. I was a
young major and I think the lieutenant colonels
etc thought ‘What does Harry Smith think he’s
trying to do? Run the battle?’. I just had to tell
them I wanted it and I wanted it now.”
His efforts were additionally hampered
because the troops at Nui Dat were distracted
by a music concert put on by the famous
Australian singers Little Pattie and Col Joye,
“The majority of people were more interested
in the concert than they were in all the noise
that was 4,000 metres away! It was a bit hard
for them to come to terms with ‘Here we are
watching a concert and D Company is out there
fighting a regiment of North Vietnamese’.”
The most visceral disagreement between
Smith and his superiors came when he believed
that D Company would be overwhelmed, “I
eventually wanted the whole regiment of
artillery i.e. all three batteries firing plus the
American 155mm guns but they said ‘No, you
can’t have them’. I said ‘Fire the bloody guns or
you will lose the lot of us!’”
Smith received the full regiment of artillery
fire after that exchange but his superiors’
intransigence also extended to flight units.Fortunately for D Company, airmen of the
Royal Australian Air Force disobeyed orders
to deliver much-needed supplies, “Luckily
we got ammunition because there were two
helicopters that had flown the concert party
to Nui Dat. They were initially told that they
weren’t allowed to fly out because it was
contrary to Canberra regulations. However, one
of the pilots said ‘I’m the captain of my aircraft,
I’m going. Harry Smith wants ammunition and
I’m going to take it out’.”Victory and devastation
D Company had now been fighting enemy forces
for hours with the North Vietnamese launching
repeated and dogged assaults, “Tactically,
they were in-depth like us and they would pull
back, reorganise and come up again. They
were certainly very brave and didn’t take cover
behind trees. Some of our soldiers said ‘We
reckon they were drugged because they just
kept on coming’. It was suicidal.”
Nevertheless, the tenacity of Smith’s men
and the increased bombardment eventually
took its toll. At 7.10pm APCs from Nui Dat,
along with soldiers from other companies,
finally arrived to relieve D Company but as
Smith explains, “The enemy had already
withdrawn and the battle had actually finished
in our position before the APCs arrived. There’sAustralian troops make
their way back to Bien
Hoa Airbase north of
Saigon in South Vietnam“THE BATTLEFIELD LOOKED LIKE A CYCLONE
HAD HIT IT. ALL THE TREES WERE BLOWN
APART AND THERE WERE SHELL CRATERS,
BLOOD TRAILS AND BODIES EVERYWHERE”
ANZACS AT LONG TAN