Long tan cross

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The original long tan cross in the Australian War Memorial, August 2012

The Long Tan Cross is a monument, on August 18, 1969 by members of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment) at the site of three years earlier defeated Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War built has been. The original cross was removed after the communist victory in the war and used to commemorate a priest. In 1984 it was rediscovered by the Dong Nai Provincial Museum and exhibited there. A replica of the cross was erected on the battlefield in the 1980s and is regularly visited by Australian Vietnam War veterans.

history

On the afternoon and evening of August 18, 1966, a company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment near Long Tan , South Vietnam, was involved in heavy fighting with outnumbered forces of the Viet Cong . The 108-man company was able to repel around 2,000 enemy fighters using artillery and air support, with 18 dead and 24 wounded being mourned by them and the supporting units. This made the fighting the Australians' most costly combat mission in the entire war. At least 245 Vietnamese were killed in the battle.

On the third anniversary of the battle, members of the company erected the cross as a memorial. According to an article in The Canberra Times newspaper , the cross originated from an idea of ​​officers David Butler and James Cruickshank and was made of concrete by sergeant Alan McLean. The cross weighs about 100 kg and is just under two meters high.

On August 17, 1969, the regiment's A and D company landed with helicopters near the former battlefield and secured the area. The following day, infantrymen and engineers cleared the area where a train had holed up during the battle. A Royal Australian Air Force helicopter then brought the cross to this point. The rest of the battalion arrived later in the morning and the regimental priest held a service. Ten men who were involved in the battle stood around the cross during the ceremony. It was completed before the afternoon began, after which the battalion withdrew to a nearby Australian base at Nui Dat . The D Company involved in the battle was the last to leave the site of the monument.

In the aftermath of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the Long Tan Cross was removed from its place of origin. It served to commemorate a deceased Catholic priest until 1984, when employees of the Dong Nai Provincial Museum in Bien Hoa discovered it. The museum hid the cross and added it to its collection. It was exhibited with other relics of the war. In 1986 or 1989, a Long Tan District Citizens Committee erected a replica of the cross. The replica is frequently visited by Australian war veterans and, along with a French memorial to commemorate the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, is the only memorial commemorating foreign forces that is tolerated by the Vietnamese authorities.

The original Long Tan Cross was loaned to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in mid-2012, where it was on display from August 17th. It was sent back to Vietnam in April 2013.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ashley Ekins: A very close thing indeed. 2011.
  2. ^ David Ellery: Long Tan Cross displayed in Canberra. The Canberra Times, July 26, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  3. ^ Brendan Nicholson: The Long Tan Cross comes "home". The Australian, July 27, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ashley Ekins and Ian McNeill: Fighting to the Finish: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War, 1968-1975. 2012, p. 286.
  5. ↑ a b Ashley Ekins and Ian McNeill: Fighting to the Finish: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War, 1968-1975. 2012, p. 287.
  6. ^ A b Lauren Beckman: Long Tan cross. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved March 9, 2014.