Long Sơn Island is an estuary

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

near

Vũng Tàu Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is an important port city in southern Vietnam. It serves as the maritime port of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. Vũng Tàu covers of area and consists of 16 urban wards and on ...

, Vietnam. The Grand House of Long Son, home of the Ong Tran religion, is situated on the island. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, the

Viet Cong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, and ...

(C41 Company ''Chau Duc District Company'') used the island as a rest and training centre. In November 1966, Operations ''Yass'' and ''Hayman'' were undertaken by 3rd Squadron SAS and the

5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR) was a regular motorised infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally established in 1965 it would serve two tours of South Vietnam before it was linked with the 7th Battalion, Royal A ...

upon the island. It has taken countless attacks before being taken over by the 3rd Squadron SAS. For the month of May 1970, under the command of

1st Australian Task Force The 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) was a brigade-sized formation which commanded Australian Army, Australian and New Zealand Army units deployed to South Vietnam between 1966 and 1972. 1 ATF was based in a rubber plantation at Nui Dat, north ...

, Whisky Company from

Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment The Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment is the parent administrative regiment and corps of regular and reserve infantry battalions in the New Zealand Army. It was originally formed in 1947 with a singular Regular regiment and multiple reserve ...

were deployed to Long Son Island to destroy Viet Cong locations on the island while protecting the engineers from 17th Construction Squadron who were building water sources for the village of Xa Long Son.MAY 1970 - W3 COMPANY ACTIVITIES, URL: https://www.w3vietnam.org.nz/ (W3 Company RNZIR Vietnam 1969 - 1970)

Citations

References

*Rowe, John. Vietnam: the Australian experience (Sydney: Time–Life Books Australia and John Ferguson, 1987) Islands of Vietnam Landforms of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province {{Vietnam-geo-stub