The churches were cleared in short order. 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. STOCKPILES OF BOMBS AND ARTILLERY SHELLS AT THE U.S. ARMY AMMUNITION DUMP AT LONG BINH, IN SOUTH VIETNAM, ERUPTED YESTERDAY (SATURDAY) WHEN TIME CHARGES, PLACED BY VIET CONG RAIDERS, DETONATED AMID TONS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with then- Pfc (and current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army used the base as a logistics and command center. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. M-113 APCs of the 9th Infantry Division storm VC positions 200 meters outside II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh on February 1, 1968. [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. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! 1.04 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. CRITICALPAST.COM: unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. The fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. yelling Kortuem! on the water tower". Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. At 4 a.m., Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move, and told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. A spokesman for the South Vietnamese command said that, according to unconfirmed re ports, satchel charges, of the type used by Vietcong sabotage squads were found near the dump. To get to the church, we had to run a gantlet of fire, through the VC 238th Regiment and into the flank of the 275th, which was fighting the 2-47s scout platoon in Widows Village. 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. "[3]:205, The Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa AB and Tan Son Nhut Air Base slowly led to an improvement in air base defense across South Vietnam, with improved bunkers and heavier defensive armament including 0.50 cal machine guns, M67 recoilless rifles and M29 mortars. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. (Vietnam War period). from Bien Hoa City. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. When the G3 adviser told me to lend the rangers a track, I told the sergeant that the M-113 was not a tank and to be extremely careful with it. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. bunker. 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. I Then things started falling The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. We never saw them again. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. Sappers had placed satchel charges on pallets of artillery ammunition, and the resulting mushroom cloud caused all its witnesses to think the VC had employed a tactical nuclear weapon. 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. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. License Agreement | Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. [2]:347 Within Bien Hoa AB, the USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron was responsible for security manning bunkers and operating mobile patrols within the base perimeter. for days and days. 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. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. Summary - October 1966. Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. At the end of the previous day, Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Service Battery 6/27th Love was so startled, he didnt fire. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 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. At the time of the and still no answer. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. 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. Waking Dead. But no one would be leaving the country that day. As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. 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. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Then things started falling out of the sky. Then, for the last week in January, the 2-47 was sent south of the 9th Divisions base camp to patrol the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. 2. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Tower had called and told me that Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for (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. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented 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) We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. Bravo Company was sent to protect the Long Binh ammunition dump, and Charlie Company was ordered into downtown Bien Hoa, where the ARVN III Corps headquarters was in danger of being overrun. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track, as we called it. 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. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. 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. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. 5. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. and no one was injured. 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. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. 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. 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. 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. Set. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Get under! . front making it dangerous to return fire. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 0.13 . An MP full colonel, along with a deputy sheriff from Los Angeles (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of Vietnamese National Police, drove up to my track. The VC who had fired the RPG slipped away, but Pfc Jim Love, who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers killing the jeep with his M-16. The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Ripped apart barbed wire. But no one would be leaving the country that day. 1.19 the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. Ammo Dump Explosion 18 Feb 1968 where 8 pads detonated with a total ammo value of $2,774,348: f. On 18 February 1968 at approximately 0300 an attempted penetration of the depot was. 6. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. 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. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. Hoa. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. LV DITTO AIR V..EXPLOSION Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. The colonel explained that since we were infantry soldiers and did not know the proper method of searching a house, he and his crew had come to teach us. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. I almost did As you know there were no officers Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. They bowed and looked confused. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. The helmet had stopped 0.35 Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. - After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. [3]:210 Instead at approximately 03:30 the VC began firing across the road at the Plantation Compound being met by return fire from the perimeter bunkers. We packed up all of our gear, rolled up our concertina wire and waited. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as all personnel to the flight line. SP4 Lawrence Korteum door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in 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. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. I jumped down and ran from track to track, pounding on the sides and yelling, Check your handsets! As I ran back through the weapons platoon in the pre-dawn gloom, with small-arms fire cracking overhead, I was amazed to see young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola, trying to sell them to the troops. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched 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. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white Our outfit was a Flames consuming huts. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. Early on January 30, we were told the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and our unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. GV DUMP [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. ], The Laotian representative said six members of the Meo special forces were also cap tured with the American on May 7 in Xieng Khouang Province near the North Vietnamese bor der. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. Somehow the foam trucks from Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. In Bin Ha itself the 3rd Ranger Task Force, consisting of the 35th and 36th Ranger Battalions, provided a rapid reaction force supported by 2 155-mm howitzer battalions located on the southeast of the city. Our area from the USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. It As we cleared the ambush, the column suddenly came to a halt because of some kind of block in the road; simultaneously, someone keyed the company net. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 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. Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Refine Your Search Long Binh Vietnam 1968 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5537 results Sort by: All All Search Results Decade 1890 - 1899 (3) 1900 - 1909 (18) 1910 - 1919 (136) 1920 - 1929 (83) more Location Aalen Germany (1) Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland USA (1) Afghanistan (2) Africa (3) more Akron Ohio USA (3) Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. 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. Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. License Agreement | 15. [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. Now the fight was on.
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