Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962–72

These statistics were sourced from the appendix of On the offensive: the Australian Army in the Vietnam War 1967–1968. For details of the total number of Australians who died during the Vietnam War, 1962- 1975, please refer to Deaths as a result of service with Australian units.

Statistics: Total Australian service casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962–72

Service Died Wounded/injured/ill Total
Army 478 3,025 3,505
RAN 8 48 56
RAAF 14 56 70
TOTAL 500 3,129 3,629

 

Note: The total of 500 deaths comprises 426 battle casualties and 74 non-battle casualties.

Australian Army casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962-1972

Battle casualties

  Australian Regular Army National servicemen Citizen's Military Forces Total
Killed in action 172 143 1 316
Killed accidentally 15 10 0 25
Died of wounds 40 28 0 68
Died of injury/illness 0

3

 

0 3
Missing presumed dead 0 1 0 1
Drowned 1 0 0 1
Wounded in action 1,140 880 6 2,026
Wounded accidentally 92 87 1 180
Injured/ill in battle 79 63 0 142

Totals by category

414 killed in battle, 2,348 wounded in battle

Non-battle casualties

  Australian Regular Army National servicemen Citizen's Military Forces Total
Killed/died 49 15 0 64
Injured/ill 426 249 2 677

Australian Army casualties in Vietnam by year, 1962–72

BC = Battle casualty
NBC = Non-battle casualty

Deaths

Year BC NBC Total
1962 0 0 0
1963 0 1 1
1964 1 0 1
1965 11 5 16
1966 56 7 63
1967 70 11 81
1968 102 5 107
1969 95 9 104
1970 54 11 65
1971 28 12 40
1972 0 0 0
Total 417 61 478

Wounded/injured/ill

Year BC NBC Total
1962 0 2 2
1963 0 1 1
1964 8 1 9
1965 83 17 100
1966 226 62 288
1967 276 131 407
1968 529 170 699
1969 648 145 793
1970 422 69 491
1971 166 60 226
1972 4 5 9
Total 2,362 663 3,025

Sources

    • Ian McNeil and Ashley Ekins, On the offensive: the Australian Army in the Vietnam War 1967–1968, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2003, appendix F, "Statistics"

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