Raw's role in the Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1966 was controversial. During this engagement, D Company of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment was nearly surrounded by a much larger force. It requested an urgent resupply of ammunition after running low during heavy fighting. Jackson asked Raw to dispatch two helicopters to transport this ammunition, but Raw initially demurred, concerned that the combination of heavy rain at the time and the intense fighting in the area would make the helicopters easy targets while they hovered to drop ammunition. Sending the helicopters into intense combat would also violate the Department of Air directive that governed how they could be used. Jackson was angered by Raw's response, and argued that the risk of losing a few helicopters was unimportant compared to the possibility of having an infantry company destroyed due to a lack of ammunition and other supplies. He asked his United States Army aviation liaison officer for assistance, who advised that American helicopters could be at Nui Dat within 20 minutes. At around the same time, Raw consulted the four No. 9 Squadron aircrew present at 1 ATF's base on whether the mission was feasible; historian Chris Clark has written that he did so due to his lack of qualifications in helicopter operations. Two of the pilots were in favour of attempting the mission and the others opposed. Raw authorised the resupply flight after the most experienced of the helicopter pilots stated that the mission needed to be flown regardless of risk. The two helicopters successfully dropped supplies to D Company. Five other No. 9 Squadron Iroquois arrived at Nui Dat shortly before the resupply flight began. All seven helicopters conducted a mission later that night to evacuate wounded soldiers, with Raw personally briefing the crews before they departed. Clark has noted that "while Raw may not have been particularly astute" during the Battle of Long Tan, his experiences in the Warsaw airlift meant that he understood the dangers facing the pilots who were being asked to undertake a dangerous transport flight and that he acted correctly in seeking their views before approving the resupply mission. The volume of The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975 covering the Army's role in this period of the Vietnam War and historian David W. Cameron have suggested that Raw authorised the resupply flight after being embarrassed by