On This Day | Just after 4pm on 18 August 1966, in a rubber plantation in Vietnam’s Phuoc Tuy Province, three platoons of Delta Company, 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) engaged a mass concentration of enemy Viet Cong



On This Day | Just after 4pm on 18 August 1966, in a rubber plantation in Vietnam’s Phuoc Tuy Province, three platoons of Delta Company, 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) engaged a mass concentration of enemy Viet Cong. The ensuing battle — known today as the Battle of Long Tan — was desperate and relentless. 
 
Commanding one of these platoons was 21-year-old National Serviceman Lieutenant Dave Sabben, an advertising layout artist from Sydney. Under torrential downpour and an unremitting deluge of enemy fire, numbers 10, 11 and Sabben’s own 12 Platoon held out in what would become the army’s costliest engagement during the Vietnam War. Outnumbered by at least 10 to one, Delta Company suffered one-third of its men dead or wounded. 
 
These boots (pictured below), known amongst soldiers as ‘GP’ or ‘General Purpose’ Boots, were worn by Sabben during the ferocious battle. He generously donated them to the Anzac Memorial in 2006, where they are now on display in the Memorial’s permanent gallery. 
 
For his leadership in battle, Sabben was mentioned in Despatches. Today, on #VietnamVeteransDay, we remember all those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War. 
 
📷: Amid the dead bodies of Viet Cong, Lieutenant David Sabben advances cautiously through the Long Tan rubber plantation on the day after battle, 19 August 1966. AWM FOR 66/0658/VN.
 
📷: Sabben’s boots on display in the Anzac Memorial’s permanent Gallery. Photography by @RobTuckwellPhotography

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