Battle of Ong Thanh

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Ong Thanh
partof=the Vietnam War
date=October 17, 1967
place=coord|11|21|40.2|N|106|30|57.7|E|type:landmark|display=inline,title
Ong Thanh, South Vietnam
result=Viet Cong victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr.KIA
commander2=Vo Minh Triet
strength1=142
strength2=1,400+
casualties1=58 KIA,
2 MIA,
75 WIA
casualties2=163 killed and wounded
notes=

The Battle of Ong Thanh was a battle of the Vietnam War that occurred on October 17, 1967.

During this little known battle, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry (the "Black Lions"), were ambushed and subsequently decimated by a well-entrenched and prepared National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) regiment outnumbering the Americans almost 10-to-1.

Background

In 1967 U.S. commanders in the battlefield were under pressure to engage the NLF and destroy them in decisive battles. Under such pressure, many U.S. officers were dismissed as a result of their failure to engage the NLF in large operations. The 2/28th Infantry was no different; in 1967 Lieutenant Colonel Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr. took command of the battalion after many of the units' officers were dismissed from their post.

The lack of contact had much to do with the NLF's reluctance to fighting large-scale battles, where superior American firepower would prove decisive. Instead NLF units often conducted hit-and-run operations against U.S troops. After taking over as commander of the 2/28th, Terry Allen, Jr.'s immediate objective was to find elements of the NLF 9th Division as part of Operation Shenandoah II.

On October 15, 1967, the NLF 271st Regiment, part of the 9th NLF Division and one of the most experienced NLF regiments in the country, arrived in Lai Khe within the 2nd Battalion's area of operation. The main objective of the regiment was to find food supplies instead of engaging American troops. The 271st Regiment went for days without food, and there were no supplies to be found. When local NLF units could not assist the 271st Regiment, Colonel Vo Minh Triet decided to dig in and wait.Fact|date=November 2007

On October 16, elements of the 271st Regiment battled with two companies from the 2/28th with both sides suffering relatively light casualties. Confident of destroying the NLF, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen Jr. ordered a frontal assault the next morning. Meanwhile preliminary B-52 strikes were ordered against NLF positions dug deep inside the forest. But if the order for B-52 strikes was placed, they didn't happen. According to an affidavit signed and certified by an Air Force captain afterward, "no B-52 strikes were placed in the area" until five days later.Fact|date=November 2007

Battle

Shortly after breakfast at 08:00 on October 17, Lt. Col. Allen personally lead two companies from his unit and headed out for the jungle. While out pursuing the NLF in the jungle near Ong Thanh, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Saigon, the soldiers of the 2/28th were ambushed by the NLF 271st Regiment, one of three regiments belonging to the NLF 9th Division.

The 2/28th were ambushed by an enemy they had pursued: first appeared a small group of NLF troops and then there were waves of enemy troops surged to attack. The Alpha and Delta Companies were pinned down as NLF snipers opened fire from all directions; the two companies took cover and returned fire. As part of their tactic the NLF ran parallel to the American column to "hug the enemy," and closed up on U.S soldiers to make artillery and air strikes difficult to accomplish without massive American casualties. As a result air support could not be requested although artillery fire was called in which killed U.S soldiers along with the NLF. During the battle the Black Lions were virtually wiped out by the entrenched NLF units, Alpha Company was wiped out in 20 minutes while Delta Company took heavy casualties. 2nd Battalion commander Allen was killed while Lt. Clark Welch (Commanding Officer of Delta Company) was wounded during the firefight. By the time the sun went down, 59 soldiers were dead and 75 wounded—this from two half-strength companies and a headquarters section, totaling fewer than 200 men. The battalion, which was no larger than a typical rifle company, had been destroyed while the brigade Operations Officer, James Shelton, was in Brigade Headquarters during the worst of the fighting, trying to coordinate artillery, medivac wounded and even giving advice to a soldier on how to use cigarette-pack cellophane to close a sucking chest wound.

After a couple of hours, the NLF had withdrawn their forces and the American survivors were evacuated by helicopter. On October 18 the 271st Regiment withdrew from the area and moved north for refit and rearm, allowing American units to return and collect bodies that could not be retrieved the previous day.

During the war the U.S. Army's news services and some American newspapers reported the battle as an American victory. See Viet Cong and PAVN strategy and tactics for more information on NLF and PAVN fighting methods.

Aftermath

Books on the battle

The Battle of Ong Thanh is featured in David Maraniss's award-winning book, "They Marched Into Sunlight" (Simon & Schuster, 2003). A 2005 documentary film, part of the PBS "American Experience" series was based on this book and titled "Two days in October". The book and film also feature a parallel story which was taking place at the same time back in the U.S. This was the student protest against Dow Chemical at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which resulted in violence and perhaps triggered similar troubles on a much wider scale in the U.S. from then onwards.

Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General James Shelton, a former operations officer with the 2/28th Infantry has also written a limited-release book, "The Beast Was Out There," about the defeat of the Black Lion Battalion at the Battle of Ong Thanh.

Reconciliation

In March 2005 retired Lieutenant Clark Welch returned to Vietnam with David Maraniss. While in Vietnam, Welch met retired Colonel Vo Minh Triet, former commander of the NLF 271st Regiment. Triet expressed his view on the Battle of Ong Thanh: “On that day, no one won”. [ [http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2005/oct/17/we_did_best_we_could/ We Did Best We Could] ]

Notes

References

*Shelton, Brig. Gen. James E., "The Beast Was Out There": Cantigny First Division Foundation, 2002.
*Maraniss, David, "They Marched into Sunlight":Simon & Schuster, 2004.

External links

* [http://www.coachwyatt.com/blhistory.htm 28th Infantry Regiment]
* [http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~realmccoy/afteract.html 1st Infantry Division after action report for the Battle of Ong Thanh]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/index.html "Two days in October" (PBS documentary film)]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06EED6143DF936A35753C1A9659C8B63 New York Times Article, "One Morning in October"]
* [http://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?f=4276&mtch=58&q=ong+thanh&cat=WR28&dt=1806&tf=F&bc=sl,sd Names of the fallen U.S. soldiers]
* [http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~realmccoy/map1.html Annotated Map of Operation Sheandoah II]