The Mây Tào Mountains are a set of tortoise shaped mountains 45 kilometres north east of

Nui Dat Nui Dat (Núi Đất) is a former 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) base now part of Ba Ria city in Ba Ria–Vung Tau province, Vietnam. It is not the name of an official ward, it just means "dirt hill" ( núi đất). History 1966–1972 In ...

and was primarily located in Bình Tuy Province and partly with the Phước Tuy Province and

Long Khánh Province Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

. Nui Mây Tào was the topographical junction point for the Long Khánh, Bình Tuy and Phước Tuy provinces. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

the mountains were used as a headquarters for the

Vietcong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

(VC) 5th Division and 275th Regiment, known as May Tao Secret Zone and Base Area 300, and was a well-developed, heavily dug-in, tunnelled and fortified base area. It had been a VC HQ and logistics base, training area and hospital zone for many years. As part of Operation Marsden between 1–28 December 1969, the

6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR) is a mechanised infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was originally raised in Brisbane, Queensland, on 6 June 1965 and has since then served in a number of overseas deployments and conf ...

and two companies of

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 r ...

assaulted the complex, capturing huge quantities of weapons, equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals and destroyed the hospital complex. A

fire support base A fire support base (FSB, firebase or FB) is a temporary military encampment to provide artillery fire support to infantry operating in areas beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps. FSBs follow a number of plans, their ...

(FSB Castle) was established on one of the summits. Four Australians were killed with nine wounded during the operation. VC killed numbered 22 with 5 wounded and 21 prisoners taken, 14 of whom had been patients of the hospital. Approximately 1.5 tonnes of pharmaceuticals were captured, thought to be the largest amount ever seized in the war by allied forces. The discovery and destruction of the hospital would prove to be a major defeat for the VC forces in the area.Rowe, p.133.

Citations

References

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