The claim that 100s of VC were killed is highly questionable with 6 RAR's CO, Lt-Col Colin Townsend, reporting on 19/08/1966 that "Enemy casualties [were] 188 and 3 Viet Cong captured". (6th RAR War Diary, available online) The term "casualties" in military parlance means killed and wounded. The platoon under 2nd Lt. Eric Andrews reported a body count of about 50 killed on 20/08/1966: "50 enemy bodies buried in [D] company location." (6th RAR War Diary, available online) The official Australian body count of enemy dead is 245, but Private Terry Burstall questions it: "Looking back I don't really think that I would have seen more than 50 bodies and I spent three days in the area". (Being a historian: Investigating the Battle of Long Tan, [ Ссылка ]) Journalist Mark Dodd reports that Vietnamese military sources claim that 47 Vietnamese soldiers were killed and about 100 wounded. (Helicopter pilot Cliff Dohle cited for gallantry in mission to resupply Long Tan diggers, [ Ссылка ]) In 2013, Phan Chien, chairman of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Veterans' Association, reported that the 275th VC Regiment lost 171 killed from 1966 until 1971 in what was then Phouc Tuy province in South Vietnam.

Note: I have chosen doco about the Battle of Ong Thanh because both battles have similarities, except Australian historians and veterans refuse to revise their exaggerated body-count.

свернуть