Long Tan: VC fire from a Japanese 70mm Howitzer

ED: This article by Ernie Chamberlain was copied over from our comments page. 

The Australian Army Official History relates that on 17 August 1966 the 1 ATF base at Núi Đất was shelled by VC forces – “the barrage began at 2.43 a.m. and continued for 22 minutes. … “. After the attack, sixty-seven 82 mm mortar bomb craters were counted, and even five [sic] craters for an artillery piece which on inspection turned out to be a 70 mm Japanese howitzer. It was also later discovered that 75 mm recoilless rifles had also been firing (ie 23 RCL rounds).” The Task Force artillery intelligence officer – Captain Jim Townley, related that the 70mm Japanese howitzer “was identified from an unexploded projectile found on the road outside the 1 Field Regiment Adjutant’s tent. The shell had gouged a rubber tree to which his tent was tied. The shell had failed to explode because the fuse had not been screwed completely in.” The 70mm shells fell in the southern section of the unit areas of the 103rd Artillery Battery (RAA) and the 161st Artillery Battery (RNZA).

The 70mm Type 92 howitzer had entered Japanese military service in 1932. Việt Cộng weaponry included a number of these obsolescent 70mm Japanese howitzers – some acquired in Vietnam after WWII and others provided by the Chinese during the Việt Minh war against the French. The Chinese continued to manufacture rounds suitable for the 70mm howitzer. COSVN – the Việt Cộng Headquarters, had produced a 74-page manual for the howitzer (“Hướng Xử Dựng Bộ Binh Pháo 70mm Nhật” .

While Vietnamese accounts relate the shelling of Núi Đất by 82mm mortars and 75mm RCLs on 17 August 1966 – by the VC D445 Battalion and/or by elements of the 275 VC Main Force Regiment, they do not mention the 70mm howitzer – which would have been allocated to the force from a higher echelon. The five 70mm shells were fired by an attached element – most likely from the Z-39 Artillery Battalion of Group 89 which had been noted earlier in the Xuyên Mộc area to the east of the Task Force in March 1966. At 1430hrs on 17 August – several hours after the shelling, HQ 1 ATF received an agent report from the Vietnamese Sector Headquarters in Bà Rịa Town that a “possible VC battalion having two guns with wheels” was located five kilometres east of Núi Đất and moving to the south-east.”

The 70mm howitzer’s firing location was deduced by the artillery headquarters staff at 1 ATF – but not confirmed, as being 2.4 km east of the impact area which was on the southern edge of the Task Force area. The effective range of the Type 92 70mm Japanese Howitzer was 2,785 metres. The 70mm howitzer was later phased out of the Việt Cộng artillery inventory in preference to the far lighter – and more effective, 82mm mortar.

A complimentary 13-page Research Note 6A on the shelling – with photographs and map, is available by email from [email protected]