unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack
That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. The VC/PAVN attacked the position that night in a 6 hour long assault which was met initially by US mortar and artillery fire, then helicopter gunships and then napalm strikes. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. At the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry (2-47), nicknamed the Panthers, the commander, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, asked me what job I wanted. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army used the base as a logistics and command center. But no one would be leaving the country that day. At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. border. HANOI, North Vietnam, June 1 (Agence FrancePresse)An American major was captured last month in a Communistcon trolled area of northern Laos by Pathet Lao forces, a Laotian representative said here today. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. This is the airstrike on snipers at the 195th AHC perimeter and the Long Binh ammo dump explosion set off by sappers the morning of the 1968 Tet offensive with sound effects added. out of the sky. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. Seems like the fighting went on
At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. As we fought our way toward the scout platoon, we were blocked by two large churches that were directly across Highway 1 from each other, both occupied by the VC. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could
was out of the bldgs. In October, the 2-47 was given the mission of securing engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered back to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. front making it dangerous to return fire. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. Long Binh Vietnam 1969 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5540 results Sort by: All Decade 1890 - 1899 Location (1) Norfolk Virginia USA (2) Normandy France (12) Norman Oklahoma USA (1) (1) (1) North Carolina United States USA (2) North Chicago Illinois USA (1) North Dakota United States USA (1) North Haven Maine USA (1) North Korea (1) Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. He waved me off. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. I dismounted the platoons and placed them on line on each side of the road: the second on the left, or north, and the first on the right, or south. while we were gone. They all blew up! recoil of my M14. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, travel great distances in a short amount of time, and arrive with many times the ammunition and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and less than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong.. I almost did
They had been told that the population would rise up against the Americans and that there would be plenty of captured U.S. weapons to fight with. 0.08 and completely out of sync. The view is from the compound of the 20th. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. SP4 Lawrence Korteum
Perpetual Siege region. Flames consuming huts. We never saw them again. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. I had inherited the job
The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 1600 hours, it was ordered to move to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, and to attack westward through the village of Ho Nai toward Charlie Company, in the hope of pinning the VC between us. 200 pounds. AMMUNITION DUMP. It
Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. 15.
https://www.historynet.com/tet-offensive-the-battles-of-bien-hoa-and-long-binh/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. Unfortunately for them, the hapless VC had no weapons other than the RPG launcher, and Dames dispatched them with a burst from his M-16. Company B, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment had arrived by helicopter from Bearcat and joined up with 2/47th Infantry to sweep the Widows Village. We closed within a few hundred meters of the scout platoon and watched as helicopter gunships destroyed a large yellow house from which the VC were pinning down Barnes troops. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was a prime target given the number of radio antennas jutting from it. and no one was injured. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. [6]:12, Several dozen of the PAVN rockets exploded near the II Field Force and 199th LIB headquarters in the Plantation Compound (105728N 1065241E / 10.9577N 106.878E / 10.9577; 106.878) causing minimal damage. The churches were cleared in short order. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor
This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. Flames illuminated the clouds, forming an eerie glow; flares hung in the sky and helicopter gunships crossed back and forth firing red streams of tracers into the city. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job.
The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . [2]:352[3]:2067, At approximately 05:30, the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, mounted on M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAVs) coming from Bearcat approached the Plantation from the southwest and formed a skirmish line to engage the VC, while helicopter gunships from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment swept in to rocket and machine gun the VC positions. When I arrived at the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry, nicknamed the Panthers, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, the commander, asked me what job I wanted. LONG BINH, South Viet Nam (UPII A thunderous explosion that shook the heart of Saigon 11 miles away ripped through a U.S. ammunition depot tonight and wounded a handful of Americans. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next
A force from Company C, 2/3rd Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent north from Ho Nai and pinned the VC/PAVN in a crossfire. 4. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only
While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. on the water tower". At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. night on alert at the Birdcage, I was awakened (trying to sleep
Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. [2]:348, As the rockets hit Bien Hoa AB, 2 battalions of the VC 274th Regiment emerged from a rubber plantation 500m east of the eastern perimeter of Bien Hoa AB. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. hightForP2 = 330
They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. 5. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. He read a memorandum charging that 100 days after the signing of the Vientiane ceasefire accords, the seven men had been planning to take command of groups of saboteurs recently infiltrated into the area., See the article in its original context from. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe
Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. As the C-23 track in the lead, Stormy, turned into a side street, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. [6]:66. happened to hit him just over the forehead. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015.