The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. The two of them refused evacuation and neither reported his wound. Ly's father is a bricklayer. [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. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. [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. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. 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. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. 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. 1.19
[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 I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. officer around. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. At 3 a.m. on January 31, I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as operations officer. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. At the time of the
[2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. 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. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! [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. This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could
As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. Smoke rises from surrounding area. 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. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS Shopping Cart |
We use cookies on this website. Lookout tower in the background. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. Perpetual Siege region. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp. Our outfit was a
. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Charlie Company. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. 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. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. "[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. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. 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. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. 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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. It
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) 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). 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. 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. Updated 7/26/2015. According to him, I told him 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. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. The first explosion was
Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. Under fire, Staff Sgt. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The
AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. 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. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.
Long Binh Ammo Dump - '67 & '68 | Facebook Under fire, Staff Sgt. from Bien Hoa City. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of
charred. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. (Vietnam War period). 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. 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. Hoa. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. [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. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 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, I came upon an unbelievable sight. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. 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. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . and completely out of sync. 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. 12. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. Contact Us |
the light dome that rose from the explosion. All rights reserved. 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. Come back up on the battalion freq.. Service Battery 6/27th
VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. 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. opened his mouth but, SGT Cuffee, the supply SGT. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. 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 NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. 0.35 While much has been written about Tet and the political firestorm that resulted, in the hundreds of surprise battles and skirmishes that unfolded, individual units found themselves thrust into intense danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy as they responded to Viet Cong (VC) attacks. 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. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. all personnel to the flight line. went off and all hell broke lose. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. 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 most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. OK. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. Activity in the area had picked up in November and
Then and
was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West
AMMUNITION DUMP. 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.
All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. Privacy Policy | Links
known as Widows Village. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. ". hightForP2 = 330
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. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. Besides the actions of Charlie Company, under the leadership of the S3, Major Bill Jones, Alpha had conducted an assault on VC positions in a cemetery. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep
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. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. [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.
July 10, 1969 - Page 3 - Brownwater Vietnam Veterans Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Now the fight was on. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. I asked one of the men
The North Vietnamese Army had circled
Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC.
PDF Scanned Document - United States Army As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. 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. 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. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. 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. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 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. 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. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. [6]:66. 0.42 Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. 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. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. 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. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. convoy about two days before and were repairing anything that had failed
I
Seems like the fighting went on
We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. 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. 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. In fact, VC effectiveness was so degraded that, after 1968, they were mainly replaced on the battlefield by North Vietnamese regulars, and were never a viable force after that. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. I called III Corps and reported that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait until the Vietnamese National Police arrived to take charge. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. happened to hit him just over the forehead. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. Kortuem! night on alert at the Birdcage, I was awakened (trying to sleep
There we would be assigned a unit we would serve with in Vietnam. No answer. We never saw them again. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as
I had been in Vietnam about nine months.
Remembering Tet 1968 Fifty Years Ago - quanloi.org Riflemen staying close behind. I called III Corps to report that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait for the Vietnamese National Police to take charge. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. ", "Then we were all in the bunker
], 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. I operated a heavy five
As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army used the base as a logistics and command center. front making it dangerous to return fire. maxhightForP2 = 13904;
Bomb squads disarmed seven of the charges, but at 07:30 the remainder exploded with three igniting pallets of artillery shells and their Propellant bags causing a massive explosion, blast wave and mushroom cloud. Jeep parked along road. 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.