Qualla: Battle of Binh Ba

Battle of Binh Ba: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Private Wayne Teeling was approaching the first line of houses when a bullet struck him through the neck. He died in the village of Binh Ba on 6 June 1969, one Australian killed in an engagement that would leave the village itself nearly destroyed. Operation Hammer, as the battle came to be known, was unlike anything the Australians had experienced in their years of jungle patrolling in Phuoc Tuy Province. This was not a firefight in dense undergrowth or an ambush along a jungle trail. This was house-to-house combat, room by room, with Centurion tanks punching holes through brick walls so that infantry could storm in behind them. By the time it ended three days later, at least 107 enemy fighters were dead, and the village that 3,000 people had called home was in ruins.

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Battle of Binh Ba: A Village the Australians Knew

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Binh Ba sat just five kilometers north of the Australian base at Nui Dat, on the western side of Route 2. It was a tidy, rectangular settlement of solid brick and tile houses, home to about 3,000 farmers and rubber plantation workers. The Australians knew it well. During the 5th ...

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Battle of Binh Ba: The Morning the Tank Was Hit

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Initial intelligence suggested only a platoon-sized force had infiltrated the village. That assessment was catastrophically wrong. At 08:00 on 6 June, an Australian Centurion tank and an armored recovery vehicle moving through Binh Ba to assist another battalion operating to the ...

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Battle of Binh Ba: Assault Through Brick and Smoke

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After helicopter gunships from No. 9 Squadron RAAF prepared the ground and civilians were evacuated, D Company approached from the south at 10:30, four Centurion tanks leading with infantry in APCs behind. They reached the village edge at 11:20 under light fire, but by the time t...

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Battle of Binh Ba: Among the Civilians

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What made Binh Ba agonizing was the presence of the people who lived there. Despite evacuation efforts, pockets of civilians remained trapped throughout the fighting. Some hid in the small air-raid bunkers attached to every house. Others tried to flee through streets swept by cro...

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Battle of Binh Ba: The Cost of Victory

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Operation Hammer ended on the morning of 8 June after one final sweep. One Australian had been killed and ten wounded. At least 107 enemy fighters were dead, six wounded, and eight captured. But Binh Ba was devastated, so many homes destroyed that the 1st Australian Civil Affairs...

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