Hell On A Hill Top: America's Last Major Battle In Vietnam

278 Pages·2004·5.72 MB·English

by  Benjamin L. Harrison

Hell On A Hill Top
Hell On A Hill Top
America’s Last Major Battle In Vietnam
On The East Flank Of The A Shau Valley
March–July 1970
The 324B Division Surrounds The 101st
Airborne’s Currahee Battalion
Major General
Benjamin L. Harrison
US Army, Retired
iUniverse, Inc.
New York Lincoln Shanghai
Hell On A Hill Top
America’s Last Major Battle In Vietnam
All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Ben L. Harrison
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by
any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the
publisher.
iUniverse, Inc.
For information address:
iUniverse, Inc.
2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100
Lincoln, NE 68512
www.iuniverse.com
ISBN: 0-595-77536-5
Printed in the United States of America
For the soldiers who fought at Ripcord. For my beautiful, loving and incredibly
supportive wife, Carolyn. For our children, Ben and Laura, our grandchildren
Sean,Mark,Michelle,Katie,MadelaineandChristian,andourgreatgrandchil-
dren Hayden, Dylanand Madison.
Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Map: 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division Area of Operations . . . . . . . . .x
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
PartI The Vietnam War in 1970
CHAPTER 1 Strategic Setting of Fire Support Base Ripcord
In 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
CHAPTER 2 Strategic Setting of PAVN Forces in the Ripcord
Area in 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
PartII The NVA Defend Their Base Area
CHAPTER 3 Operation TEXAS STAR Is Slow To Rise . . . . . . . . .47
CHAPTER 4 The Fighting Spreads And Intensifies. . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
PartIII The North Vietnamese Attack
CHAPTER 5 Ripcord Comes Under Siege. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
CHAPTER 6 Workman’s D Co Gets Battered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
PartIV Time to Leave Fire Support Base Ripcord?
CHAPTER 7 Intelligence from the Battlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
v
Contents vi
CHAPTER 8 Time to go!!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
CHAPTER 9 The Siege of FSB O’Reilly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
PartV Hanoi’s View of the Battlefield
CHAPTER 10 Hanoi’s Military Forces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
CHAPTER 11 Interviewing North Vietnamese Army Officers. . . . . .149
CHAPTER 12 Hanoi’s Strategy Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168
CHAPTER 13 Hanoi’s Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174
CHAPTER 14 Hanoi’s Distortions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186
CHAPTER 15 Operations of the 308 and 325 Divisions . . . . . . . . . .198
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214
APPENDIX A The Ripcord Association Reunion in October
2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
APPENDIX B Proposed Itinerary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
APPENDIX C Vietnam Visit 1–11 June 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
APPENDIX D Vietnam Visit 17 May-6 June 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
APPENDIX E Cubans In Vietnam During The Vietnam War . . . . .242
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262
Preface
Ripcord: THE LAST OFFENSIVE
“Istillhadonebattalionleft.Ihadusedonlytwobattalionsfrommy3rdReg-
iment. One battalion had been operating east of the Bo River,” responded
MajorGeneralChuPhuongDoi,whoseentire324BDivisionhadbeencom-
mittedsince19May1970to“concentrateitsmainforcestoattackanddestroy
OperatingBase935.”Afterthreehoursofquestioning,GeneralDoihadbeen
asked by the author while visiting Doi in Cao Bang, Vietnam 26 May 2004,
“What would you have done if we had not evacuated Firebase Ripcord on 23
July?” His response seemed like a most uncharacteristic admission that his
division, which had once consisted of nine infantry battalions, had been
ground down to only one fully combat capable battalion.
In the Vietnamese spring of 1970 the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Divi-
sion—the “Screaming Eagles”—prepared for America’s last offensive of the
Vietnam War. While the dwindling number of the remaining American
forces deployed in Vietnam withdrew from the battlefield and stood down
awaiting formal movement orders to return to their home shores, the 101st
Airborne Division made war plans to mount a major offensive in the enemy’s
bastionofstrength,theinfamousAShauValleyandtheruggedmountainsof
the Annamite Chain in Northern I Corps of Vietnam which formed the
wedge between the countries of South Vietnam, Laos and North Vietnam.
Only the US Army’s 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in
Quang Tri and the 1st Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN) stood with the 101st in this large, hotly contested battle area. Just
within the past 12-months American forces in northern I Corps plummeted
in numbers: two Marine Corps divisions, the 3rd Marine Division which had
long held the bloody Demilitarized Zone on the 17th Parallel and the 1st
vii
Preface viii
MarineDivisioninsouthernICorpswithdrew,leavingavacuumofvastpro-
portions.
Simultaneously, as the American forces withdrew, the North Vietnamese
reinforced their two crack infantry divisions and regional Communist\Viet
Cong forces in this strategically critical area with two additional regular Peo-
ple’sArmyofVietnam(PAVN)divisions.Chargedwithdestroyingallenemy
forces that sought to enter their sanctuaries of the Annamite Mountains and
disrupttheirbuild-up,theNVAwerereadytofightanyoneandpayanyprice
in the lives of its soldiers in the fulfillment of this vital mission.
General Creighton Abrams, Commander U.S. Military Assistance Com-
mand (COMUSMACV), charged the 101st Airborne Division with under-
taking offensive operations in this hornet’s nest of the enemy as a means to
buy time to allow the military forces of South Vietnam to develop into more
effective fighting units, as well as to shield the overall process of Vietnamiza-
tion. Richard M. Nixon campaigning in 1968, and as President in 1969,
promised to strengthen the South Vietnamese military and weaken the forces
of North Vietnam. The 101st Airborne Division’s mission called for the
Screaming Eagles to enter NVA sanctuaries, conduct spoiling attacks, and to
disrupt enemy lines of communication and supply.
The 101st Airborne Division, already spread perilously thin by tripling the
size of their Area of Operations (AO), made plans to send the Division’s 3rd
Brigade into the northern highlands. The 3rd Brigade planned to combat air
assault into a series of locations, establish fire support bases, and seek out and
destroy an enemy whose strength intelligence estimates at the time, had
grossly underestimated.
In sharp contrast to Korea, “The Forgotten War,” the war in Vietnam
seems destined never to be forgotten. Thousands of books have been written
abouttheten-yearVietnamWar;actually,morebookswrittenthanthenum-
ber of major battles fought during the entire war. Only one book, Keith
Nolan’s superb RIPCORD Screaming Eagles Under Siege Vietnam, 1970, has
been written about the last major battle fought by US ground forces in Viet-
nam; and it published thirty years after the battle. Until now, no English lan-
guage book addressed North Vietnamese Army accounts of its last major
battle with American ground forces. Drawn from books and documents pub-
lished in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in the Vietnamese language, and
interviews conducted by the author with officers of the North Vietnamese
Army/People’sArmyofVietnam(NVA/PAVN),the“othersideofthestory”
can now be included.
Preface ix
This is the story of the brave and courageous American infantrymen, air-
men, and artillerymen who invaded the enemy’s rear areas along the Ho Chi
Minh Trail in March-July 1970 against a vastly larger, determined, dedicated
and disciplined enemy force, engaged in some of the bloodiest combat of the
entire war. The battle for Ripcord involved twenty-six different US Army
unitsineitherdirectcombatorsupportingroles,butalwaystheprincipalcom-
batantunitremainedthe2ndBattalion,506thInfantry—the“Currahees.”Cur-
rahee is a Cherokee Indian word for “Stand Alone.” The 506th Infantry
Currahees of World War II became well known in books and film as the
“BandofBrothers.”ThisstorytellsoftheVietnamgenerationCurraheeBand
ofBrothersandtheenemyopposingthemduringAmerica’slastmajorground
offensive of the Vietnam War.