Siege of Dak To

See also: Dak To

The battle for Hill 875 took place in the Vietnamese Central Highlands during the Vietnam War. It was fought between 2nd and 4th Battalions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, U.S. Army and the North Vietnamese Army(NVA)from November 19 to November 23, 1967. It was one of the costliest engagements of the war. Of the 570 U.S. troops involved in the attack on the hill, 340 became casualties.

Background

By 1967, the United States Army had been fighting for months over control over Vietnam's Central Highlands. The war had escalated over the previous decade; by then, the U.S. had committed over 500,000 troops to the Vietnam War. The 173rd Airborne had seen fighting before; 2nd Battalion was down to about 300 troopers.

Since November 3rd, 1967, American and ARVN forces had been fighting in the Battle of Dak To as part of Operation MacArthur in the difficult terrain of the central Vietnamese highlands. U.S. forces, consisting of two brigades of the 4th Infantry Division, one brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, three battalions of the 173rd Airborne, and six ARVN battalions, totalling a little over 16,000 troops, were engaged with the 24th, 32nd, 66th, and 174th NVA infantry regiments under the 1st NVA division. Despite high casualties, the American and ARVN forces had pushed through the dense, well-defended jungle terrain.

Hill 875 (so named because it was 875 meters high) was a strategic hilltop because it overlooked one of the main routes from the Ho Chi Mihn Trail into South Vietnam. Intelligence had spotted large numbers of NVA troops on Hill 875. Hill 875 ran along a small ridge-line near the Cambodian border. The 173rd Airborne was ordered in to slow or stop the flow of enemy troops in the area.

The Plan

On November 18th, the U.S. ordered 2nd Battalion of the 173rd in first. The plan was that the battalion was to advance up the north slope of Hill 875 in a triangle formation: Delta Company, under Lieutenant Bart O'Leary, on the left of the ridgeline, Charlie Company, under Captain Harold Kaufman, on the right of the ridgeline, and Alpha Company, under Captain Mike O. Kiley, in the rear. Airstrikes were called in on the hilltop in an effort to dislodge the NVA. Unfortunately, the triangle formation was often catastrophic when used against well-entrenched NVA troops in the Highlands.

Bad Omens

About a mile from the hill, the U.S. troopers stumble upon an abandoned NVA basecamp which looked like it could have held a large number of NVA. There was smoke coming out of the fire pits; the fires were fresh. There was wire laid down for communication, which was rare. There was also what looked like an aid station where NVA wounded had been treated. It was a chilling sight for the U.S. soldiers; many became very apprehensive about the mission.

The morning of the attack, November 19, 1967, Major Charles Watters, one of the 173rd Airborne's Catholic chaplins, held a communion service at the base of the hill. Many troopers, even those who were not Catholic, attended. Father Watters, who was 40 years old, was never required to be at the front line; but Watters always stayed with the battalion as it moved out. After Mass, the time came for the assault, and 2nd Battalion moved out.

The Assault

The 300 troopers of 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne moved out; in the background, artillery and airstrikes smashed the hilltop. An advance reconnaissance squad had taken their dog up the hill. The dog went to an alert; the enemy was up there. As the troopers passed the recon squad, the members of the recon squad told 2nd Battalion: "watch your asses boys, they'll be after you."

Sergeant Steve Welsh's squad was the first to advance. As they neared a clearing, Welsh, thinking he was seeing bunkers, called back to Captain Kaufman and asked if the squad could recon by fire, so as to avoid an ambush. Kaufman, however, thought that recon by fire would only give away the troops' positions and denied the request. Welsh asked again; Kaufman replied "no, move your men out." Welsh ordered his men to move out. Private Quinn of Welsh's squad was the first man to enter the clearing; he would not get far.

Ray Zaccone, of Welsh's squad, remembered:"We'd been in combat before, but we'd never seen anything like this. I dropped down to one knee, and I'm trying to see something, and next thing I saw to my left was the brush was just being mowed down."

When the NVA opened up, they were concealed in well-camouflaged bunkers that could only be destroyed by a direct bomb or artillery hit. The men of 2nd Battalion were firing blind; the NVA had clear shots.

Three separate times, Charlie and Delta Companies struggled forward; three separate times, they were beaten back. They were in serious trouble; many troopers were already dead or wounded, including Charlie Company's medic. Just when it seemed like it could not be worse, Specialist Ray Zaccone heard a sound that sent chills up his spine: a blair of bugle. The NVA used bugles to tell their troops where to rally and attack. But worst of all, the bugle sounded off "behind" the Americans. Said Zaccone: "It reinforced the thought that we're into it big time." This was not what battalion commanders had expected: Charlie and Delta Companies were pinned down by fire; it was clear that the NVA was moving to surround the Americans.

By noon, Alpha Company was swarmed by wounded. The NVA had started with machine guns; soon the NVA started lobbing mortars, B40 rockets, and RPGs at the Americans. By early afternoon, Captain Mike O. Calley was alarmed at the amount of wounded swarming Alpha Company. The forest was too dense for helicopters to land; Calley took a platoon and gave them chainsaws, axes, and machetes, and ordered them to start clearing a landing zone. Soon, Calley began to fear that the NVA could attack the men working on the landing zone, and ordered a squad to come down and provide an early warning if the enemy were to come.

James Kelly, John Steer who assisted the M60 machine gun, Carlos Lozada who manned the M60, and another man went down the trail a few yards to set up the observation post. But when they reached the position, the other guy panicked. He screamed that the position was suicidal and ran back up the hill. Just a few seconds later, Lozada yelled out: "Kelly, here they come!"

John Steer recalled: "Well, we opened up on them and they opened up on us with grenades, RPGs and weapons, and Carlos and I were just screaming at each other though we were only inches from each other because I was feeding the belt into the gun. And we were just screaming at each other and shooting these guys who just kept coming."

James Kelly added:"First thing I did was flip out a couple hand grenades at them just to kinda get their attention or stop them, and then of course I started firing my M-16."

James Kelly, Carlos Lozada, and John Steer were the only men guarding this trail; they needed help. Steer and Lozada started to fall back towards Kelly's position when they were both hit. The same burst hit Steer in the neck and shoulder and Lozada in the head. Kelly said that when this happened:"All of a sudden, I heard the machine gun stop firing. At first I thought 'Well, they're just reloading; this is not a problem', but then the gun didn't start again. Well, Steer was screaming, and so I left my position to see what had happened, and once I got over there it was obvious to me that Lozada was dead.I remember, grabbing a couple hand grenades, throwing a couple more at them, and grabbing Steer and basically pushing him up the hill towards A Company."

As Steer and Kelly run for their lives, Calley called Lieutenant Tom Remington, one of his platoon commanders, on the radio and said "Bring as many men as you can down here to help us; we're about to be overrun!" Remington grabbed ten men and started down towards the LZ that Calley was working on. But halfway to the LZ, Remington ran into the NVA who were pouring up the hill. His men never even got to Captain Calley.

Completely outnumbered, Calley and five of his men fought to stave off the inevitable, but they were overrun and shot at point-blank range. Nearby, all the wounded waiting to be evacuated were also killed. Several hundred yards away, Remington, who had already lost 5 of his 10 men, and who had sustained a shrapnel wound in his leg and a serious shoulder wound, ordered his men to fall back and form a defensive perimeter. If what was left of Alpha Company could link up with Charlie and Delta Companies, then perhaps they may be able to survive.

urrounded

Second Battalion managed to form a small perimeter and dug in. Remington recalled: "the men-for once, they didn't hesitate to dig. They would get out their bayonets, their steel helmets, anything they could find and dig." Despite 2nd Battalion being battered, the NVA did not press their advantage and attack throughout the day.

Throughout the day, Father Watters comforted the men and helped them however he could. One moment he was carrying a wounded man to safety under heavy fire; the next, he was giving Last Rites to a dying trooper. O'Leary remembered: "At one point when water was getting short, Father Watters came up to me and he had two little plastic bottles-one was filled with Holy Water and the other one was filled with wine, and he said 'Bart, can you use this?' And I told him 'Father, please give it to the medics-they'll be able to use it most. Even the wine, that will be welcome to some of the guys.'"

Meanwhile, all 2nd Battalion could do was to call in repeated air and artillery strikes on the NVA. Unfortunatetly, the repeated strikes did little against the NVA's bunkers;. They were made up of large logs and a thick covering of earth, making them all but impervious to anything except a direct bomb or artillery hit. When the strikes ended, the NVA would respond with heavy machine gun and mortar/rocket fire. This process was repeated time and again until darkness crept in on 2nd Battalion and Hill 875. Then, in the waning light, the men of 2nd Battalion learned that one more air strike was coming in.

In the gathering darkness, a Marine pilot steered his plane towards Hill 875. He planned to use his last 500 pound bomb to aid the men of 2nd Battalion. The men on the ground hoped that it would be a successful strike and would give them some breathing room. They had no idea that their day was about to get a whole lot worse.

The Bomb

As the pilot steered his plane toward Hill 875, he received word from the Forward Air Controller that he should drop his bomb where he could see napalm burning. Perhaps confused by a friendly illumination flare, he approached on the wrong course. Ray Zaccone was returning to his foxhole when he heard the jet: "All day long, jets were making their runs east to west-across the ridge. But this one was coming with the ridge-north to south." Bart O'Leary said "I was in my foxhole when the jet passed right overhead, and I looked up at it and I said 'What is he doing?'" The pilot was making his bombing run from behind the men of 2nd Battalion-on a course headed "right at them". Steve Welsh recalled that: "I was looking up at this plane, when I saw the bomb leave the jet! I could see the jet, I could see the bomb leaving the jet, and the bomb looked like it was coming right at me, and I just said 'Oh, shit.'"

Welsh continued: "There was a guy with me there, so I grabbed him and threw him in my foxhole and then I piled in on top of him and made sure I got my head below ground, and then the bomb exploded."

Private Manuel Orona was digging a foxhole with another soldier: "I remember I went down into this hole for another scoop of dirt, and then that's when the bomb hit."

That bomb landed right in the center of 2nd Battalion's perimeter. Captain Harold Kaufman was obliterated. Father Charles Watters, and all the wounded he was tending, vanished in an instant. Orona continued: "I looked up at the man I was digging this hole with; half of his body was gone. And I looked up at the trees and I could see the body parts on the limbs on the trees, and I shook myself out of it and I stood up, and it was so quiet." Welsh commented: "It was really eerie quiet for about eight to ten seconds, and then all the guys behind me who were above ground started screaming and calling for their mothers... It was bad; it was bad." John Steer was badly injured: "I got up and I noticed that my right arm was gone because it was just hanging there by some sinews and tissue, and I remember I screamed 'God, don't let me go to Hell,' because I knew I was dying." Bart O'Leary was knocked unconscious. When he came to, no one around him was recognizable.

The 500 pound bomb landed right in the center of 2nd Battalion's position. Flame and steel ripped across the perimeter, killing 42 men and wounding 45. It was the worst friendly fire incident of the Vietnam War. Tom Remington feared that more bombs were on their way: "All I could think was 'if they drop another bomb in here, there's going to be nobody left,' so I began to search for a radio. I finally found a radio, and I called back to Fire Support Base 16, and I talked to a lieutenant there, and I told him 'Stop those f***ing airplanes! Don't let them drop another bomb; they're killing "us" up here!'"

References

"Combat Zone" "Hill 875", Military Channel

External links

* http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA195360&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf