Roger King was heading to a memorial cross last Thursday when Vietnamese police began delaying buses full of veterans hoping to pay their respects at the site of the Battle of Long Tan.

Long Tan is a sensitive topic for the Vietnamese, who abruptly cancelled a commemoration service at the site days before the battle’s 50th anniversary last week.

It left Australian authorities scrambling to “register concerns” with Vietnamese counterparts on the eve of Thursday’s service, with as many as 1000 veterans and their families already in the country.

The Vietnamese government relented and allowed groups of 100 people to lay wreaths at the site.

However Mr King said police slowed traffic to one bus at a time, leaving some frustrated they were not able to reach the site.

“As soon as the buses arrived it became another story ... it went to go-slow union tactics and it became a political talk show between governments,” he said.

“(It) left old soldiers returning to see the site with much pain, sorrow and bloody bewilderment (as to why there was a) last minute decision to play funny games.”

The Battle of Long Tan began on 18 August 1966 after the Vietcong launched a major attack on soldiers patrolling a rubber plantation.

By some estimates Australian, New Zealand and US soldiers were outnumbered by at least 10 to one, though they held out to win the battle.

In the half-a-century since the battle many veterans have come to see the the 18th of August as a day to commemorate the contributions of all Australian Vietnam War servicemen.