DIGGERS AT WORK**
Australian Assault vs. NVA,VC Defend* 
Phouc Tuy Province, South Vietnam*
August 14, 1966*
Turns: 18**

Scenario Size: Medium*
Estimated Play Time: 2 Hours+**

Design: Wild Bill Wilder*
bwilder@bellsouth.net**

Testers: Andrew "Weeble" Weaver, Sgt Walrus, Massimo "Mad Italian" Rocca, Tom DeShelter**

Player Notes:** 

This battle is suitable for a 2 player game. If played solitaire, take the Australian side.**
The deployment largely follows the historical one. After the battle begins, all of that can quickly change.**

Your Orders:**

Major Smith, take D Company forward and patrol the plantation. Clear the enemy of any opposition. Enemy presence has been detected there. A and B Companies are returning to camp. If trouble brews, advise me at once.**

Historical Background:**

When the village of Nui Dat and the Australian Headquarters were fired upon by enemy artillery in the vecinity, the 6th RAR was sent to the east to see just what was brewing.**

On the afternoon of August 14th, 1966, most of the battalion was returning to the base camp after a sweep of the area. Company D was ordered to continue their reconnoiter of the rubber plantations north of Long Tan.**

Major Harry Smith spread his 3 platoons from north to south. It would be 11 Platoon that would take the center. As Lieutenant Gordon Sharpe moved ahead with his men into a clearing on the plantation, they were hit hard by heavy enemy fire. Units of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were ahead and one soldier described the woods as a thousand tiny lights flashing at once.**

Lt. Sharpe was killed almost at once and Sgt. Bill Buick took command of the platoon. As the situation turned more serious 10 Platoon from the north and 12 Platoon from the southwest were ordered to converge on the area and relieve the pressure.**

Fire support for the Aussies came from New Zealand artillery in support of the advance. The artillery observer credited with calling in unbelievably accurate fire was New Zealander Major Morrie Stanley. In this fight both countries from the "down under" showed incredible courage and skill under severe combat conditions.**

The fighting was unbelievably fierce. Accurate artillery fire from Nui Dat wreaked havoc among the enemy. Soon waves of attackers charged at 11 Platoon. The arrival of 12 Platoon eased the pressure.**

Major Smith pulled his platoons back to an area west of the plantations.** Resupply from Huey helicopters that could not land but lowered themselves as much as possible and rolled out boxes of ammunition and medical supplies.**

It was going to be a long night but relief was on the way. Company A, mounted in M-113s of the 1st APC Squadron, rolled into the melee, catching the communist forces by total surprise. The enemy broke under this latest counterattack and withdrew.**

The next day Australian forces went back to the battlefield and were amazed at what they found. 17 Austalians were frozen in death, in various fighting positions. Around them were over 150 enemy dead There was evidence that other enemy bodies had been dragged away and dozens of weapons, from automatic rifles to recoilless weapons.**

It was a hard victory for the Aussies, but the VC would great care in this area until the Australians were withdrawn in late 1971.**

Good Reading:**

Vietnam, the Decisive Battles, Pimlott*
Surprise Attack, Darman*
The Rise and Fall of an American Army, Stanton*
Nam, The Vietnam Experience, Page and Pimlott*
Varous web sites on the RAR in Vietnam**
