After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. 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. Our area from the
He replied that I would have to wait. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day.
Summary - October 1966 Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Service Battery 6/27th
Besides the fireworks, ARVN soldiers had linked tracer bullets together and were stitching the darkness with weaving streams of machine gun fire. (Vietnam War period). 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. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. The churches were cleared in short order. 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. 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. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien
. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. 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, 47th Infantry. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Somehow the foam trucks from
Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. on the water tower". License Agreement |
probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the
went off and all hell broke lose. 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. 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. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then charged in shooting. recoil of my M14. Of course you never
History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. I almost did
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. 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. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. Website Terms & Conditions |
[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. As you know there were no officers
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. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe
In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. danger and the probable best course of action. 1 comment. 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. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. 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. The first explosion was 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. Bien Hoa Air Base was the largest air base in the country, home to over 500 United States Air Force (USAF) and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) aircraft, while Long Binh Post was the US Army's largest logistics base, headquarters of II Field Force, Vietnam, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (199th LIB) and the 12th Aviation Group and home to over 20,000 US personnel. bunker. [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. 0.04 Attacking Long
Then things started falling out of the sky. Then things started falling
. Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. and the gunner replied "VC
was out of the bldgs. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. and still no answer.
Long Binh Ammo Dump Explosion, Tet, 1968 - YouTube He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. The progress was slow and ammo was becoming scarce, particularly grenades, which get consumed at an enormous rate in city fighting. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. On January 23, during a battalion sweep of a heavily jungled area south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a well-camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled, losing four men killed and more than 20 wounded, including almost all of the officers. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. I told him that I wanted to command a company. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West
[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 we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. 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. At that moment, a burst of VC machine gun fire erupted, 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. The 2nd Platoon led the way under Lieutenant Fred Casper, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. 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. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. 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. At dawn on 2 February the US counted approximately 50 VC/PAVN dead in the area and captured 3 VC. The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general, had his command post in a Catholic church about 1 kilometer east of III Corps. 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. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. 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) (Long Binh) ammunition dump. Riflemen staying close behind. 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. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, and we arrived with many times the ammo and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis milling about with boarding passes in hand. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. 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. him in. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire, based on the mistaken assumption that the VC would attack from the jungle. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Dressed as travelers returning to ancestral homes for the Tet holiday, the guerrillas had quietly drifted into their urban assembly areas and put together their weapons. The acting commander of the 199th LIB, Col. Frederic E. Davison, ordered three of his infantry companies operating north of Long Binh to attack the rocket launch site, while LG Weyand ordered the 9th Infantry Division to send the 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base. 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.
Tet airstrike Long Binh Ammo Dump - YouTube We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield.