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[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 we arrived, we filed off the busses . As I walked around the front of a track, the .50-caliber gunner accidentally hit the trigger and pumped five rounds into the ground about three feet in front of me. Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, Tet Offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, United States Army Center of Military History, "Tet Offensive: The Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh", Video of helicopter gunships and F-100s in action at Bien Hoa AB, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tet_offensive_attacks_on_Bien_Hoa_and_Long_Binh&oldid=1086914863, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968, Battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Attacks on military installations in the 1960s, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Army Center of Military History, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 May 2022, at 04:36. Ive just been told you work for me again. Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. As a result long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment were positioned north of Long Binh to detect PAVN/VC approaching the base. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls what the fighting near III Corps was like: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen. (Casper, one of the bravest of the brave, died during the May offensive in Saigon, leading from the front.). The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly guessed that a major attack was going to come during Tet, and his anticipation of the attacks no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Tom Allaback. The VC concentrated their attack on Bunker 10 an old French concrete bunker on the eastern perimeter, hitting it with Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortar fire, however the Security Police in Bunker 10 and adjacent bunkers fought back keeping the VC from penetrating far into the base. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. After all had left for the known as Widows Village. bunker. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. and no one was injured. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Set. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the Bucks County Pennsylvania United States USA, Del Rio Texas Laughlin Air Force Base USA, Roxborough Pennsylvania United States USA, U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Force Base Thailand. Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander that any fool could see that the VC did not have M-113s, and that we had 22 .50-calibers and a 106mm recoilless rifle and they, for sure, did not want us to return fire. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. Updated 7/26/2015. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. The churches were cleared in short order. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.He said: Forget that. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for [3]:2501, On the evening of 1 February 3 platoons from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and 2 platoons from Company D, 17th Cavalry Regiment were ordered 2km north of Ho Nai to establish an outer defense against any renewed VC/PAVN attack. 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. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted minimal damage on the bases. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. At 07:30 the VC/PAVN force stopped and made a stand in a cemetery where they continued to be hit by the gunships and the ACAVs of Company C. At 08:00 Company C was joined by a force from 2/47th Infantry and they proceeded to methodically kill all the VC/PAVN in the cemetery. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. Then things started falling out of the sky. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. [3]:20, At 00:30 on 31 January, a patrol from Company E, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment detected a company-size PAVN/VC force approximately 10km north of Bien Hoa, moving in the direction of Bien Hoa AB. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was further shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion, rather than be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. Click Here. He waved me off. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. [6]:66. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. The attacks by Vietcong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces were one of several major attacks around Saigon in the first days of the Tet offensive. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. 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. Hide. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. on the water tower". to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). 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. But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. Jan. 31. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. I had inherited the job After commanding 180 paratroopers, taking on four APCs and 40 troops seemed like a dreamexcept that now I was responsible for troops in combat, not training. The first explosion was Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. Besides the fireworks, ARVN soldiers had linked tracer bullets together and were stitching the darkness with weaving streams of machine gun fire. GV DUMP was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 14. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. [2]:3523, General Weyand later noted that in their attacks on the Saigon area "Despite the large number of Communist troops committed, insufficient force was applied in any one area to take and hold the objectiveThe assault had been launched piecemeal and it was repulsed piecemeal in a series of relatively small battles. Summary - October 1966. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. No answer. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the tracks, forming the base of the T, gave fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammo. Ive just been told you work for me again. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. [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. When the shooting started it At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. This article incorporates public domain material from the .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Air Force Historical Research Agency. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered to move back the way it had come, to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. We were in a cloud of disarray Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. They bowed and looked confused. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. He started Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. - The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company, and in a fight, the company had 22 .50-caliber machine guns, a 106mm and several 90mm recoilless rifles, and more radios and M-60 machine guns than a walking company could ever carry. 0.13 Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. 8. 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. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry. Which date was it? We never saw them again. The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general (the enemy equivalent of General William Westmoreland), had his command post in a Catholic church about a kilometer east of III Corps. [3]:23950, In the late afternoon of 31 January after clearing the Widow's Village 2/47th Infantry advanced into Ho Nai from the south, the town appeared deserted. from Bien Hoa City. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE It was Some were complete projectiles weighing Painting outside. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 0.54 Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. 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. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, .
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