"We answered the call": Vietnam veteran reflects on the memories and legacy of the Battle of Long Tan, 60 years on
- jessdempster
- 28 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Sixty years on from the battle that marked Australia's fiercest engagement in the Vietnam War, former national serviceman and platoon commander Dave Sabben says Vietnam Veterans Day presents an opportunity to recognise and appreciate the difficult job a generation of Australians was called upon to do.
Sabben was 20, living and working in Sydney, when his number was called under Australia's second national service scheme in 1965.
He was among the first intake of national servicemen, beginning recruit training in July that year before volunteering for officer training.
“We all hoped of course that we'd not be used,” Sabben said.
“At the time … the idea of conscripting people to be serving overseas was a new concept.”
Sabben said those called up had mixed feelings about their obligation.
“Some of them were relieved not to be called up and therefore go back to their civilian jobs and forget about the whole military experience,” he said.
“Many of the ones that were called up were keen and enthusiastic to become trained for defensive purposes, not for aggressive purposes.”
After 22 weeks of intensive officer training at Scheyville, NSW, Sabben graduated as a second lieutenant and was posted to 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.
He marched into the battalion on his 21st birthday in January 1966 and was appointed platoon commander of 12 Platoon.
A few months later, 6RAR was sent to Vietnam.
By August, the battalion was operating from the Nui Dat base in Phuoc Tuy Province, and on August 17, the base came under heavy enemy fire.
The next morning, Delta Company was sent out to investigate.
Sabben said his group of 108 men “took over the job” around midday, following tracks left by the previous day's attackers into a rubber plantation near Long Tan at about 3pm. They soon encountered a small group of enemy soldiers.
“We had a fight with about six enemy,” Sabben said. “We took care of that and followed the remainder of that group further eastwards.”
It was then that the group ran into a much larger force.
The 108 soldiers - 105 Australians and three New Zealand artillerymen - were soon surrounded and heavily outnumbered, facing a Viet Cong force estimated to be more than 10 times their size (comrpised of over 1000 North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong soldiers).
In torrential rain, the group hunkered down, holding their position as their ammunition supply dwindled.
Sabben said the battle differed vastly from the “counter-revolutionary warfare” they had trained for.
“We would find them in very small numbers and they wouldn't want to fight us. If we shot at them, they would run away.”
"(Instead) we became aware that this wasn't a counter-revolutionary engagement, it was what I call a conventional battle.”
The battle went on to last about three and a half hours, with the Australians holding their position - assisted by the arrivial of the artillery - until darkness brought the fighting to an end.
“It was going to be a moonless night even under the monsoon, so once it got dark, the enemy couldn't pursue the attack,” Sabben said.
After the Battle of Long Tan - weary men of Delta Company, 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) gather on a landing zone to eat a quick meal of rations before returning to the battlefield.
Ultimately, the Australians suffered 18 deaths and 24 wounded - the heaviest Australian casualties in a single engagement during the Vietnam War.
However, while the primary battle was over, the aftermath brought another difficult task: Delta Company remained on the battlefield for several days, collecting weapons and documents and dealing with the bodies of those killed.
“These are mostly 20, 21-year-old men who'd probably in their lives never seen a corpse, never mind handled one,” Sabben said.
“The fact that a lot of the bodies weren't intact ... it was a very sickening and emotionally draining job for the soldiers involved.”
The men were also tasked with searching the bodies for intelligence and finding personal belongings among the weapons and documents.
“It was a reminder as they stripped out the body of all the pockets, and they came across diaries and pressed flowers and photos from home and so on,” Sabben said.
“And that was emotionally very hard hitting for the soldiers involved.”
In the end, more than 240 enemy bodies were found and handled in the aftermath.
Sabben said the task was repeated throughout Australia's engagement in Vietnam, although never on the same scale.
“It was replicated throughout our engagement. But on a smaller scale,” he said, “at Long Tan, there were hundreds of bodies to process.”
The experience stayed with Sabben and the other soldiers throughout the remainder of their deployment.
“We had another three months or nine months or so of operations, all the time expecting that there'd be another one, another Long Tan,” he said.
For Sabben, that experience is part of what Vietnam Veterans Day is intended to recognise.
Originally known as Long Tan Day, August 18 was later broadened to honour all Australians who served in Vietnam.
Sabben said the day provided an opportunity to recognise the circumstances in which a generation of young Australians was sent overseas.
“They were civilians, they were called at random into a job that was, I mean, let's not say it was popular, but it was necessary,” he said.
He said veterans did not want the day to become a debate over whether the war itself was right or wrong.
“What we would like to do is to have the public appreciate that even though they mightn't agree with us, we were given a difficult job to do and we did it well,” Sabben said.
“We don't need medals and awards. What we need is appreciation.”
Sixty years after Long Tan, Sabben said that acknowledgement remained an important part of Vietnam Veterans Day.
“Let's just thank you for responding to a necessary call,” he said.
To hear Dave's full interview with FlowFM in honour of Vietnam Veterans Day 2026 - and the 60th anniversay of the Battle of Long Tan - visit FlowFM.com.au.
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