Morrie was one of the heroes of the bloody Battle of Long Tan – the most intense ANZAC encounter of the Vietnam War. The New Zealand Artillery Captain was attached to Delta Company 6RAR Australian Army and is widely acknowledged as having played a huge role, along with Bombardiers Willie Walker and Murray Broomhall, in saving most of the 108 besieged Australian and New Zealand soldiers during the three-hour battle on August 18, 1966.

Morrie was the forward artillery observer officer (FO) with Delta Company when they were attacked in a rubber plantation by a force of over 2000 Main Force Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers who outnumbered them at least 20 to one.

He stayed by the side of the company commander, Major Harry Smith, calling in artillery fire from New Zealand, Australian and American howitzers at the Australian base at Nui Dat five kilometres away. The enemy force attacked in waves during a torrential downpour, almost overrunning the Australians.

Maintaining his calm amid the mayhem – ”I had to overcome my dread that I would make a mistake,” he recalled – and with mud and rain at times obscuring his map from which he calculated critical co-ordinates for the gunners, Stanley was in constant radio contact with the gunners at Nui Dat as the Australian soldiers fought against overwhelming odds with limited ammunition.

At times he ordered salvos from the 18 x New Zealand and Australian 105-millimetre howitzers and the 6 x 155-millimetre US Army howitzers to within 30 metres of the Delta Company lines. For most of the three and a half hours of the battle, the Artillery guns were firing 8 rounds per minute per gun, 2 rounds above the intense rate.

Morrie also disregarded requests from Sergeant Bob Buick, who took command of 11 Platoon after his 21 year old Platton commander Gordon Sharp was killed, to bring down fire on his own position. The platoon had only 10 men left out of 28 and Buick was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice because he thought he was about to be overrun.

By the time the enemy disengaged and slipped away, they left 245 dead in the plantation. The Australians lost 18 dead, and 23 were wounded. The NZ, Australian and US Army artillery guns fired more than 4000 artillery rounds in support of Delta Company.

Maurice David Stanley was born on March 22, 1931, in Christchurch and grew up in Napier. His father was a drillmaster and Morrie became a prefect and regimental sergeant major in the school cadets. In 1949 he joined a special cadet unit in Wellington to complete his final two years at school, and while there won a place at the Royal Military Academy, Duntroon. He was 19 when he sailed for Sydney for the four-year cadetship. Morrie’s biography.

In May 2010, we learned Morrie had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. So we organised a surprise visit in New Zealand of Producer Martin Walsh, Lt Col Harry Smith, 2LT Dave Sabben, Sergeant Bob Buick, and Willie Walker. 6RAR had recently been awarded the Australian Unit Citation for Gallantry but as Morrie, Willie and Murray were not Australian citizens, we had to scramble to get it approved by both the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers within 48 hours. To their credit they did and the NZ Prime Minister signed off on it the morning of our surprise visit.

Morrie thought he was just having lunch with Producer Martin Walsh, his wife Alva, and his two sons Peter and Andrew. Little did he know we had the CO of 16 Field Regiment RNZA, the Deputy Chief of NZ Army, many veterans, and the media waiting for him. Harry, Dave, and Bob had a special framed Australian Unit Citation for Gallantry award and a special message from Delta Company 6RAR for Morrie.

Sadly Morrie passed away four months later in September 2010. We helped his family organise a fitting military funeral for Morrie which included a Haka send off.

We also arranged for the following special messages from both the Australian Prime Minister and New Zealand Prime Minister to be read at Morrie’s funeral by the then New Zealand Minister for Defence: