start date of the upcoming Operation New Life. Ultimately it was never conducted. Aftermath Casualties The Battle of Gang Toi was the first set-piece action between Australian and Viet Cong forces in the Vietnam War. Australian casualties included two missing (presumed killed) and six wounded, and despite the efforts of their comrades, the bodies of the Australian dead were unable to be recovered. Against these losses the Viet Cong had suffered at least six killed, one wounded and five captured. Confronted by an equal sized force, dug-in in well-prepared defences, the Australians had performed creditably enough even if they had been forced to withdraw, leaving the battlefield to the Viet Cong. Despite inflicting heavier casualties on the communists than they had suffered themselves, many of the Australians were depressed at having left two soldiers behind, and they longed for the opportunity to return to Gang Toi. In 2007, more than 40 years after the fighting, an Australian Vietnam veteran—Jim Bourke, MG—and a team of volunteers successfully located the remains of both Parker and Gillson. They had been hastily buried together in a weapon pit the day after the battle by Viet Cong soldiers, and with the assistance of the Australian and Vietnamese governments they were subsequently returned to Australia for burial. Assessment Although A Company, 1 RAR had been mauled, the experience of the Australians at Gang Toi was relatively minor when compared to that of the Americans. During fierce fighting the 1/503rd had suffered 49 killed and 83 wounded, while more than 400 Viet Cong were believed killed. American claims were later raised to over 700 killed when captured documents revealed the losses caused by artillery and air strikes. Yet it was questionable as to whether such battles of attrition would be viable, while equally the American battalion had taken casualties far beyond what would have been politically acceptable for 1 RAR. Indeed, their losses had been significant, and although claimed as a victory, the Americans had failed to secure the area even if the Viet Cong had temporarily surrendered control of the battlefield. Ultimately, the communists continued to use War Zone D as a major base area for the rest of the war. Brumfield considered Operation Hump to be the least successful operation in which the Australian battalion had participated, and he criticised it as being badly conceived from the start, and mounted with too little intelligence or