Battle of Binh Ba

Battle of Binh Ba
Part of the Vietnam War
Australian troops and armour during Operation Hammer.
Date 6–8 June 1969 Location Binh Ba, Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam Result Australian victory
Belligerents
Viet Cong  North Vietnam	Australia
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Colin Khan
Units involved
D440 Bn 33 NVA Regt	5 RAR
Strength
Two companies	Two infantry companies armour and artillery
Casualties and losses
107 killed 6 wounded 8 captured	1 killed 10 wounded

The Battle of Binh Ba (6–8 June 1969), also known as Operation Hammer, was a hard fought, but one-sided, battle during the Vietnam War. The action occurred when Australian Army troops from the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR) fought a combined communist force of North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong, including a company from the 33 NVA Regiment and elements of the Viet Cong D440 Provincial Mobile Battalion, in the village of Binh Ba, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province. The battle was unusual in Australian combat experience in Vietnam as it involved fierce close-quarter house-to-house fighting. In response to communist attempts to capture Binh Ba the Australians assaulted the village with infantry, armour and helicopter gunships, routing the Viet Cong and largely destroying the village itself. Such battles were not the norm in Phuoc Tuy, however, and the heavy losses suffered by the communists forced them to temporarily leave the province. Although the Australians did encounter communist Main Force units in the years to come, the battle marked the end of such large-scale clashes, and ranks as one of the major Australian victories of the war.

Situated north of the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) base at Nui Dat on the western side of Route 2, the village of Binh Ba had a population of around 3,000 people—mainly farmers and rubber plantation workers. Tidy and rectangular in shape, and mainly constructed of solid brick and tile, Binh Ba was well known to the Australians. Indeed, during 5 RAR's first tour in Vietnam a rifle company and a mortar section had been briefly stationed within the village itself. This strategy proved to be a deterrent to the Viet Cong tax collectors and assassination squads taking control of the village. The drain on the finite resources of the small Australian force proved to be too much however, and the village was later left to the protection of South Vietnamese Regional Forces.

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