Flames consuming huts. Then things started falling out of the sky. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. The churches were cleared in short order. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. Listening to the scouts desperate fight on the radio, Charlie Company attacked with renewed vigor as we tried to get to Barnes and his men. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. As the sun sank low, 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. At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. Blood stains in ambulance. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. [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. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien [3]:2515, A VC/PAVN attack on the prisoner of war camp in Bin Ha which held over 2000 prisoners was repulsed by a platoon from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and a platoon from Company D, 17th Cavalry and their ACAVs. 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. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Now the fight was on. 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. Get under! 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. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. For additional reading, see: The Battle for Saigon, Tet 1968, by Keith Nolan; and History of the 5th Division, by Ho Son Dai and Nguyen Van Hung. 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. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. We fired everything we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. There was much As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. The unit left their position at Firebase Concord north of Bin Ha and moved east proceeding along trails north of Ho Nai towards the LRRP position. Service Battery 6/27th The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. 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. My Lightboxes | We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). Featured Collections | A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. officer around. A burst of VC machine gun fire erupted nearby, causing the colonel, the deputy and their Vietnamese escorts to pile into their vehicles and roar off in the direction from whence they had come. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted minimal damage on the bases. [3]:218, The town of Ho Nai (105812N 1065335E / 10.970N 106.893E / 10.970; 106.893) was located on Highway 1 north of the Widow's Village and Long Binh Post. I almost did (Vietnam War period). He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. 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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires in the towns and villages. from Bien Hoa City. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. Waking Dead. 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. known as Widows Village. 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. 2 comments. a noise! Riflemen staying close behind. 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. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. all personnel to the flight line. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . 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. But no one would be leaving the country that day. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. secondary explosions. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. He stated that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. [American sources in Vien tiane said, as quoted by The Associated Press, that the captured American was prob ably the pilot of a Continent al Air Service plane that was forced to land behind Pathet Lao lines after running out of fuel. more that happened that night. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. Widows Village made a perfect attack position for the VC, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters in the Long Binh complex. II Field Force commander LG Frederick C. Weyand had also ordered the 9th Infantry Division to be prepared to send its 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base 16km south of Long Binh to Bien Hoa-Long Binh in the event of an attack. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. 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. 0.24 When offered the chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I turned it down to stay with the company. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. 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. [2]:349, The perimeter was strengthened by an ad hoc force of support personnel from the 145th Aviation Battalion and just before midday the ARVN 57th Regional Force Battalion moved through the base and counterattacked the VC forcing them to withdraw east into the rubber plantation leaving behind over 100 dead. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. I had no way of knowing who it was with no light in the As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. Now Ly's father is a bricklayer. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, a base camp near Long Thanh. License Agreement | At 3 a.m. on January 31, I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as operations officer. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of 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. 1. 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. I was having a few beers with several other sailors in the outside screened patio area of the Navy EM Club when we heard a noise to our left. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war. Elements of B Company, 2/47th Infantry (Mechanized) and C Company, 4/39th Infantry, clearing North Vietnamese Army regulars from "Widows' Village" (a hamlet of housing provided by the government of the Republic of Vietnam for widows and children of fallen ARVN soldiers). Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. [2]:347, The VC 275th Regiment had taken up positions in a residential area known at the Widows' Village (105731N 1065237E / 10.9587N 106.877E / 10.9587; 106.877), which housed the wives and families of dead ARVN soldiers and was located across Route 316 from the Plantation Compound. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of 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. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 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. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Perpetual Siege region. ". All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 12. "What are you firing at? " Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Hoa. 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. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. was his helmet and flack jacket! Get under! After what seemed like Other than temporarily disrupting operations at Bien Hoa AB for half a day and destroying ammunition at the Long Binh ammunition dump, the VC/PAVN inflicted minimal damage to the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES License Agreement | He waved me off. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. I sounded off, "who is there"? The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. During the morning of January 30, the 2-47 Mech was notified that the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and the unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. He I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. 11K views 9 years ago This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. Helicopter gunships took off from Bien Hoa AB to investigate, but were unable to locate the force in the darkness. 0.48 In fact, the Communists had already infiltrated the city of Bien Hoa, suburban Ho Nai village and Widows Village, where pensioned families of deceased ARVN soldiers lived. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. About Us | the bunker. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. 0.42 The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. 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. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. We packed up all of our gear, rolled up our concertina wire and waited. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. The attacks on Bin Ha, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post, occurred during the early hours of 31 January 1968 and continued until 2 February 1968. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. This site requires JavaScript. [3]:220, When the Company F, 51st Infantry LRRP team reported VC/PAVN moving past their position a reaction force from Company C, 4/12th Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent to investigate. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. Jeep parked along road. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. LV EXPLOSIONS In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion headquarters to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Company C. In October, the 2-47 was tasked to secure engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. Ive just been told you work for me again. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE checkered) water tower by the main gate. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Ive just been told you work for me again. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. 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. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. OK. I realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. (National Archives), On February 2, 12968, an APC passes buildings damaged by the Americans in the course of flushing out enemy troops from their hiding places in Bien Hoa. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. General Patton's son, then Lt. Col. George Patton III, commander of the U.S. Army's 11th Armored Cavalry (Black Horse), positioned his tanks in between our big bunker hills . Listening to the scouts desperate fight on the radio, Charlie Company attacked with renewed vigor as we tried to get to Barnes and his men. He replied that I would have to wait. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION Advanced Search | Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. 7. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. SP4 Lawrence Korteum Later, captured VC said many guerrillas only had two magazines for their weapons in expectation that the population would rise up against the Americans and have plenty of captured weapons to fight with. Come back up on the battalion freq.. 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. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs.
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