Teenage Aussie entertainer was whisked off stage as Battle of Long Tan broke out

Chart-topping teenager Little Pattie was singing for Aussie troops in Vietnam the day a bloody battle broke out in 1966. The iconic singer recounts how she was whisked off stage mid-performance.

Chart-topping teenager Little Pattie was on stage singing for Australian troops when one of the fiercest engagements of the Vietnam War broke out at a nearby rubber plantation and forced her emergency evacuation.

It was August 18, 1966 and the Battle of Long Tan erupted just three kilometres from the base at Nui Dat where a tiny 17-year-old – standing just 147cm – was entertaining the soldiers.

One hundred and five Australians that day from D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment encountered and were surrounded by a force of more than 2000 Vietcong.

Little Pattie after returning from entertaining troops in Vietnam as a 17-year-old. Picture: Supplied.

Eighteen Aussies, all aged 19 to 22, were killed and 24 wounded, the most Australian casualties incurred during any single battle of the Vietnam conflict.

Around 250 Vietcong died and 350 were wounded.

Fifty-nine years on, Patricia Amphlett OAM, aka Little Pattie, is preparing to perform at the Anzac Day eve sunset service in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. As Thursday draws near, she tells of the chilling memories that still trigger an emotional response.

“A day I’ll never forget,” she says. “We had been brought in that day to do three concerts. Towards the end of the second show you could hear gunfire and bombs nearby.

“But during the third concert the explosions were extremely loud and we were whisked off stage, taken away in two jeeps to Iroquois helicopters.

“The rain was blinding and sirens were blasting and as the choppers were taking us back to (another base in) Vung Tau we flew directly over the battle.

Little Pattie at the Sydney Opera House ahead of the sunset service this Thursday. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“We could see lots of explosions, lots of smoke, and thousands of orange lights … tracer bullets.

“That flight was very sombre, very quiet. I didn’t sleep that night.”

Little Pattie spent three weeks in Vietnam entertaining the troops alongside another 1960s pop icon Col Joye. The day after the Battle of Long Tan, the pair visited wounded Australians in a field hospital.

“Col was ashen faced,” she said. “But he told me ‘when we go in we start singing’, and that’s what we did.”

Little Pattie remembers introducing herself to a young Indigenous soldier in the first bed of the dormitory-style hospital.

“I went over to him, took his hand and said ‘my name’s Pattie’,” she recalled. “He had a big smile on his face despite being seriously injured and he said ‘I know, and my name’s Dave’.

“We became mates forever that day. He died less than two years ago but we were friends all that time, as I have been with many Vietnam veterans and their families.”

Little Pattie also entertained allied troops in Iraq and the Middle East in 2005 and 2006.

Little Pattie during a trip to Iraq in 2005 to perform with the Royal Australian Navy Band. Picture: Supplied

It’s why the sunset service carries so much meaning for the former Sydney Girls High School student who was only knocked off the No. 1 spot by the Beatles when her first hit single soared towards the top of the charts at age 14 in 1963.

“I can’t wait for the eve of Anzac Day,” she smiled. “It should be really beautiful.

“Anzac Day itself is a day of love, a day of misery, but at the end of it all an uplifting day. It’s mates together, and people being able to respect, look back, and love the veteran members of their families and remember that they went through hell.”

Originally published as Teenage Aussie entertainer was whisked off stage as Battle of Long Tan broke out