Every Garage edition ends with a wander through the calendar, but this week Jeremy Cordeaux opened with it as well, because 18 August is a date that carries real weight for Australians: the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, and the day the nation honours all who served in the Vietnam War.
The Battle Of Long Tan
Jeremy set the scene carefully. On this day, the engagement unfolded on a rubber plantation near Long Tan, in Phuoc Tuy province. One hundred and eight Anzac soldiers from Delta Company, 6 RAR, faced an estimated 2,500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regular troops. The Australians were hopelessly outnumbered.
The battle lasted about three and a half hours in heavy monsoonal rain. It must have been hell, Jeremy said. Eighteen soldiers were killed and twenty-four wounded, while at least 245 enemy soldiers died. He noted the irony that Vietnam is now a favourite destination for Australian tourists and, by every account, a beautiful place to visit. War, he reflected quietly, when will they ever learn.
The Hardest Day
The date holds other battles too. On 18 August 1940, the air fighting known as “the Hardest Day” took place during the Battle of Britain. In one of the largest and most bitter air battles in history, Jeremy noted, the Luftwaffe lost around 69 aircraft and the RAF 68, a day of extraordinary loss on both sides.
The Names And The Inventions
From there the parade widened. In 1949, Adi Dassler formally founded Adidas after falling out with his brother Rudolf, who went on to create the rival firm Puma. In 1926, the first televised weather map was broadcast in Washington. And back in 1872, Montgomery Ward issued a single-sheet catalogue of just 163 items, kick-starting the mail-order industry, an age, Jeremy and the panel joked, when the catalogues seemed to promise almost anything by stagecoach.
The day also belongs to some famous names. Robert Redford, star of The Sting, All the President’s Men and The Way We Were, was born on this day in 1936. The horror icon Bela Lugosi was buried, at his family’s wish, in his authentic Dracula cape. And Patrick Swayze, of Dirty Dancing, was born on 18 August 1952.
Champions And Pioneers
Sport and industry featured as well. On this day in 2018, the great Australian mare Winx won her 26th consecutive race, the contest since renamed the Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick, taking her nineteenth Group One win. Jeremy and the panel recalled how prized her foals became.
The ledger closed with pioneers and politics: Walter Chrysler, the automotive pioneer whose name still crowns the Chrysler Building, died in 1940; and in 1904, Australia’s first Labor prime minister, Chris Watson, resigned, succeeded by George Reid. From a rubber plantation in Vietnam to a mare at Randwick, it was another of Jeremy’s reminders that one date can hold both the gravest sacrifice and the small pleasures of history alike.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
