Almost 50 years after it was first erected in enemy territory, the Long Tan Cross’ final resting place has been unveiled at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Inscribed on the 100kg, three meter high concrete cross are the names of 18 Australian soldiers who died in the 1966 battle at a rubber plantation near Long Tan.
“I do believe it's in its rightful, permanent home,” veteran Dave Sabben MG told SBS News.
Mr Sabben was a platoon commander in the battle, in which a company of Australian soldiers, with attached New Zealand troops, fought against an estimated 2,000 enemy during a monsoonal storm.
The Long Tan Cross, which celebrates one of Australia's bloodies involvements in the Vietnam War, has found a permanent home. Source: AAP
Fighting off human wave attacks and calling in artillery within 100 metres of their positions, the Australians successfully repelled the larger force, marking a significant victory.
“No other battle we experienced in Vietnam has the same strategic value, although many were tactical successes,” Mr Sabben said.
Three years after the battle, the men of Six Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) returned for another tour of Vietnam and erected the cross at the site of the battle.
Battle of Long Tan veteran and commander of 12 Platoon, D Company David Sabben with the Long Tan Cross at the Australian War Memorial. Source: AAP
“This was an historical moment: a sudden mass movement of more than 1,000 Australian and NZ soldiers united in their intent to honour the memory of 18 soldiers killed in action,” Lieutenant Colonel Len Johnson, the Operations Officer of 6RAR/NZ during that tour said in Canberra.
“It was a living expression of the Anzac spirit.”
The Long Tan Cross was one of only two foreign war memorials allowed in Vietnam.
It was removed after the conflict for a variety of uses in Vietnam, including a memorial to a local priest, before the Vietnamese erected a replica in 1989.
The original memorial was loaned to the Australian government in 2012 before being returned to Australia in secret last year.
Troops from 6RAR with the Long Tan Cross in Vietnam. Source: AAP
It now has a permanent display at the Australian War Memorial.
“It has come to reflect not just the Battle of Long Tan, and the gallant men who fought there, but to recall to us all that entire war,” Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove told the veterans at the opening on Friday.
“[It is] a constant and perpetual reminder of those who gave their lives for our nation.”
