who was australia fighting against in the vietnam war
Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War From May 1969 the main effort of the task force returned to Phuoc Tuy Province.[55] Later in June 1969, 5 RAR fought one of the last large-scale actions of the Australian war, during the Battle of Binh Ba, 5 kilometres (3.1Â mi) north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province. The battle was unusual in the Australian experience, involving infantry and armour in close-quarter house-to-house fighting through the village of Binh Ba against a combined force of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. For the loss of one Australian killed at the communists lost 107 killed, six wounded and eight captured in a hard fought but one-sided engagement.[56]
Vietnam War Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina.[63][A 3] Most of the funding for the French war effort was provided by the U.S.[64] U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962.[65] U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a U.S. destroyer clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft, which was followed by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the U.S. president authorization to increase U.S. military presence. Regular U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations crossed international borders: bordering areas of Laos and Cambodia were used by North Vietnam as supply routes and were heavily bombed by U.S. forces as American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, the same year that the communist side launched the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive failed in its goal of overthrowing the South Vietnamese government, but became the turning point in the war, as it persuaded a large segment of the U.S. population that its government's claims of progress toward winning the war were illusory despite many years of massive U.S. military aid to South Vietnam.
1965 in the Vietnam War U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam now totaled 184,314, compared to 23,310 a year earlier.[117] U.S. casualties in 1965 totaled 1,928 dead, compared to 216 in the 1964.[118] South Vietnamese military forces totaled 514,000, including the Army and the Popular Force and Regional Force militias.[119] The South Vietnamese armed forces suffered 11,242 killed in action, a five-fold increase in battle deaths since 1960.[120] 93,000 persons deserted from the South Vietnam's armed forces in 1965.[121]
Battle of Singapore During the weeks preceding the invasion, the Allied force suffered a number of both subdued and openly disruptive disagreements amongst its senior commanders,[38] as well as pressure from the Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin.[39] Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, commander of the garrison, had 85,000 soldiers, the equivalent, on paper at least, of just over four divisions.[Note 5][41] Of this figure, 15,000 men were employed in logistical, administrative, or other non-combatant roles. The remaining force was a mix of front-line and second-line troops. There were 45 infantry battalions—21 Indian, 13 British, six Australian, four Indian States Forces assigned to airfield defence, 3 Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, and 2 Malayan. In addition, there were two British machine-gun battalions, one Australian, and a British reconnaissance battalion.[42] The newly arrived British 18th Infantry Division—under Major-General Merton Beckwith-Smith[43][44]—was at full strength, but lacked experience and appropriate training.[45] The rest of the force was of mixed quality, condition, training, equipment, and morale. Lionel Wigmore, the Australian official historian of the Malayan Campaign, wrote "Only one of the Indian battalions was up to numerical strength, three (in the 44th Brigade) had recently arrived in a semi-trained condition, nine had been hastily reorganised with a large intake of raw recruits, and four were being re-formed but were far from being fit for action. Six of the United Kingdom battalions (in the 54th and 55th Brigades of the 18th Division) had only just landed in Malaya, and the other seven battalions were under-manned. Of the Australian battalions, three had drawn heavily upon recently-arrived, practically-untrained recruits. The Malay battalions had not been in action, and the Straits Settlements Volunteers were only sketchily trained . Further, losses on the mainland had resulted in a general shortage of equipment."[44]