Australian Embassy
Vietnam
Embassy address: 8 Dao Tan Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi - Telephone: 3831 7755 - Fax: 3831 7711

ANZAC Day Dawn Service
Speech by
Australian Ambassador, H.E Bill Tweddell
25 April 2007 - Vung Tau

 

As we gather here today at Long Tan Cross, we are part of a large and growing community of people meeting in similar ANZAC Day ceremonies in over 60 countries around the world. From the War Memorial in Canberra; to the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea; at Hellfire Pass in Thailand; at the Australian War Memorial, Hyde Park Corner in London; and, of course, ANZAC Cove at Gallipoli, where the ANZAC legend was born 92 years ago today.

It is appropriate that many of these commemorative services are held at dawn, as this was the time of the original landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 that troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The story is now known well known, particularly among Australians and New Zealanders. These troops immediately fell under fire. They fought courageously, side by side with their allies, against a brave and determined enemy. What had been planned as a bold stroke quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardship.

ANZAC Day does not commemorate a military triumph. It commemorates brave and loyal service personnel who fought and died in the service of their country.

A wonderful feature of Australians’ and New Zealanders’ observance of ANZAC Day over recent times has seen the significant increase in levels of participation and involvement in commemorative events.

Increasing numbers of Australians and New Zealanders, particularly our young people, make pilgrimages to war cemeteries in foreign fields - on the Gallipoli Peninsula and throughout the world – and attend services such as this, at home or abroad.

It is a credit to the generations born well after the Gallipoli campaign that they continue to commemorate this day and to show such respect, not only for the ANZACs, but also for people who have fought and died in other battles and wars. The graves of so many are unknown. They lie in unknown places on every continent and in every ocean. But they are not forgotten.

Here at Long Tan Cross, we remember especially those who served in this country and, in particular, in the Battle of Long Tan. This battle wasn’t the biggest or most protracted battle Australian and New Zealand troops experienced in that War. But it was so significant that its anniversary, 18 August, is now recognised by Australians as Vietnam Veterans’ Day.

On that day in 1966, soldiers from D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, encountered and engaged the enemy. In a battle that lasted some four hours, much of it in pelting rain, 18 young Australians lost their lives and a further 21 were wounded.

Of those from D Company who lost their lives in the Battle of Long Tan, the oldest was 22, the youngest was just 19. Eleven of the dead were National Servicemen – conscripts. In fact, ‘nashos’, as they were known, comprised some 80 per cent of D Company.

Those involved in artillery support (in the best traditions of Australian-New Zealand cooperation), in the risky resupply of ammunition by helicopter, and with the APCs which arrived on the scene at around nightfall, all played their part as well.

Long Tan was perhaps Australia’s defining engagement of the Vietnam War. The professionalism, bravery, resolution and resourcefulness with which these soldiers fought has written the Battle of Long Tan into the annals of Australian military history.

Today we honour the memory of those who paid with their lives or their health - at Gallipoli and in many fields of conflict since. We also honour their loved ones who have borne enduring pain of a kind few of us can expect to comprehend.

We do this by remembering and mourning.

We do it by celebrating our good fortune to be citizens of countries which they helped ensure are free and prosperous.

And we do it by committing ourselves anew to a determined effort to work for peace wherever it is threatened.

It is the duty of all of us to ensure that those who lost their lives in service to our countries did not do so in vain.

Lest we forget.

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