The
Battle of Binh Ba (6–8 June 1969), also known as Operation Hammer, was a hard fought, but one-sided, battle during the
Vietnam War. The action occurred when
Australian Army troops from the
5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR) fought a combined communist force of
North Vietnamese Army and
Viet Cong, including a company from the
33 NVA Regiment and elements of the Viet Cong
D440 Provincial Mobile Battalion, in the village of
Binh Ba, north of
Nui Dat in
Phuoc Tuy Province. The battle was unusual in Australian combat experience in Vietnam as it involved fierce close-quarter house-to-house fighting. In response to communist attempts to capture Binh Ba the Australians assaulted the village with infantry, armour and helicopter gunships, routing the Viet Cong and largely destroying the village itself. Such battles were not the norm in Phuoc Tuy, however, and the heavy losses suffered by the communists forced them to temporarily leave the province. Although the Australians did encounter communist Main Force units in the years to come, the battle marked the end of such large-scale clashes, and ranks as one of the major Australian victories of the war.